Crustless pumpkin pie

Squash is great for making deserts. It's rich and sweet while being still relatively low on the carbs, and besides richness and sweetness it provides texture and moistness to a cake or pudding. I've used it as a base for all sorts of things, from brownies to Christmas pudding. I've never actually gone the whole hog and made a pumpkin pie with it, though, and with this being squash season, I suddenly thought I'd give it a go.

I decided to go crustless this time. I used butternut squash, cubed and baked covered until soft with a little butter. I mashed this with ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, maple syrup and cream. Couple of egg yolks and then folded in the beaten whites. Dotted the top with caramelised pecans (soaked overnight, then fried for a couple of minutes in butter and sugar). Baked until set.

It might sound like a lot of sweetening, but actually it needed very little - probably no more than a couple of teaspoons of maple syrup and less than a teaspoon of sugar for caramelising the nuts.

Verdict: it tasted wonderful; however, there were certain issues. It was a little on the wet side; next time I think I'd roast the squash rather than baking covered to reduce the moisture a little. I think the egg-white-whipping was a mistake, on the whole; it contributed to the wetness and made the whole thing just a bit too soft - it didn't have that sticky custard-like texture. I might also try crème fraîche or mascarpone, or even ricotta, instead of plain cream.

Date and walnut cheesecake

I'm quite a late convert to cheesecake. I grew up the the 1970s, when cheesecake usually meant an unholy amalgam of Philadelphia and Dream Topping, extruded onto a base of mumbled Rich Tea biscuits, chilled to death and served in sticky, unpleasantly cheesy, oversweetened bricks with the texture of soft bubblegum. It was years before I realised there even was such a thing as baked cheesecake.

Another great thing about cheesecake is that it's very easy to make gluten free, it's generally not too heavy on the sugar (and if you're making it yourself, you can put in as little sugar as you like), and it's high in lovely butterfat.

This version ended up quite a bit higher in total sugar than I'd usually make because of the dates, but even so it compares very favourably to the average dessert. The date and walnut was an experiment; it was a birthday cake for my partner, who's rather keen on old-school date and walnut cake.

Ingredients were 100g walnuts, about 150g dates, about 40g sugar, 250g each mascarpone and ricotta, 25g butter, 3 eggs, vanilla extract, and a dash of rum. (I soaked the walnuts in salt water for several hours to lessen the lectins, then dried them off in a cool oven).

Some time beforehand, put about half the dates to soak in the rum. Blitz the walnuts, the un-rummed half of the dates, butter and half the sugar in the food processor to a fine sticky gravel, press into the base of a 12-inch springform cake tin and give it about half an hour at 150C. Blitz the rum-soaked dates with a couple of dollops of the ricotta and enough water to make a thin paste, and set aside. Mix the remaining ricotta, mascarpone, remaining sugar, vanilla and egg yolks into a smooth cream. Whip the egg whites until relatively stiff, then fold into the cream mixture. Finally, fold in the date liquor - the aim is marbling, rather than blended, which didn't exactly work out for me. Tip the whole lot into the tin over the base, and bake at 150C for about 90 minutes.

Divided into 12, that works out about 230cal, 20g fat, 15g carb per portion.