Sweet dreams? Healthy ways to put pudding back on the menu | Kitchen aide

I eat healthily, but my meals are never really complete without pudding. Yoghurt and stewed fruit aside, do you have any suggestions for what will hit the spot without verging too far into the unhealthy? Wendy, by emailThe truth is, you can’t often have your cake and eat it – or not a big piece, anyway. “My main piece of advice, which maybe isn’t all that welcome, is to keep to small portions,” says Brian Levy, author of Good & Sweet, in which his recipes contain no added sugar. “My grandma would keep mini chocolate bars and have just one, but that’s never really worked for me.”’Tis the season for stewed fruit, but have you tried Melissa Hemsley’s banana slices sandwiched together with peanut butter, half-dipped in melted chocolate and put in the freezer? (FYI the same tactic also works like a dream with dates

José Pizarro’s recipe for pumpkin and spinach with pimenton

I grew up with the taste of pimentón de la vera, the smoky, fiery spice Spain embraced from the New World and made its own. Pimentón gives our food its soul. One of the dishes everyone loves back home is espinacas con garbanzos (spinach and chickpeas), which is it’s simple, nourishing and full of comfort. At this time of year, however, when the markets are overflowing with sweet pumpkins, I love adding them to the mix, too. Their gentle, autumnal sweetness lifts the spinach and chickpeas beautifully, and they combine to create a dish that we’ve been serving all month at my restaurant Lolo in south-east London

The £1 oyster: cut-price shellfish is all the rage – but is eating it advisable?

Name: Oysters.Age: Triassic – so about 250m years old.Appearance: Grey and snotty.Oysters, eh? What pearls of wisdom (see what I did there) do you have for me on the noxious bivalve? You’re not a fan, then?Absolutely not. What desperation drove early humans to think, “Time to smash open this forbidding, rock-like blob and eat whatever godforsaken, gelatinous mess it disgorges”? Well, younger diners don’t agree – they’ve gone mad for oysters

Double, heavy, pure cream? Helen Goh’s guide to baking across borders – plus a finger bun recipe

When Sweet, the baking book I co-authored with Yotam Ottolenghi, came out in the United States in 2017, my excitement at seeing so many people bake from it was matched only by my horror at what I saw them pulling from their ovens on Instagram: pale cakes with thick, dark exteriors.Posts from Australian and British readers showed no alarming results and I quickly realised something had gone awry in the American translation. As it turned out, the recipes had been converted in-house by the publisher, using a straightforward formula to change celsius to fahrenheit. What no one had noticed was that the conversion also needed to take into account the oven setting: fan-forced versus conventional heat. Many American ovens, it seems, still don’t have a fan function

Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for beetroot, apple and feta fritters | Quick and easy

These are autumn in a fritter. Not only were they an unexpected hit with my 18-month-old, but, after trying one myself, I instantly crossed out the saffron arancini at the top of my list for an upcoming lunch party and replaced it with a delirious, “OMG make these fritters!” Not bad for a five-ingredient dish, and a lot less faff than arancini.Serve with a green salad and the dip alongside for a filling dinner on a cold evening.Prep 15 min Cook 20 min Serves 2-42 apples (I used Discovery) 2 medium beetroot, peeled and grated1 egg 200g feta, crumbled60g self-raising flour (gluten-free if you have it)Olive oil, for fryingFor the dip 3 heaped tbsp Greek yoghurt 3 heaped tbsp mayonnaise ½ lemon, juice and zestA pinch of sea saltGrate the apples skin and all into a clean tea towel, then twist and squeeze the towel over the sink to remove as much moisture as you can. Tip the grated apple into a large bowl, then add the grated beetroot, egg and crumbled feta, and mix well

From harissa baked hake to chicken schnitzel: Ravinder Bhogal’s recipes for cooking with nuts

I always keep a stash of nuts in my kitchen cupboard. I scatter them, roughly chopped, over my morning yoghurt and fruit bowl, and when I feel an attack of the munchies coming on, I try (although I often fail) to reach for a handful of them in place of something sugary. These nutrient-dense superstars are high on the list of nutritionists’ favourite anti-inflammatory foods, and while all their health benefits are obviously terrific, I love them simply because they bring rich, buttery flavour, interest, and delightful texture to my cooking.Traditionally, schnitzels are coated in crisp breadcrumbs, but this delicious version using almonds and cornflour makes this nuttily delicious and suitable for anyone avoiding gluten.Prep 5 min Cook 45 min Serves 44 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts 50g parmesan, roughly chopped250g blanched almondsZest of 1 lemon50g cornflour Sea salt and black pepper2 eggs, lightly beaten1 tbsp dijon mustard Lemon wedges, to servePut a chicken breast between two sheets of baking paper, then use a rolling pin to beat the chicken until it’s about 1