Serves 4

You can use a mixture of autumn fruits for this dessert, such as plums and pears, as well as other fruits like pineapple and banana. Don’t be tempted to coat the fruit in too much batter – the lighter the coating, the better.

2-3 dessert apples, such as Cox’s, Royal Gala or Early Windsor
Juice of 1 lemon
140g plain flour
2tsp ground cinnamon
1 large egg yolk
250ml ice-cold water
Oil, for deep-frying
Icing sugar, for dusting
Vanilla ice-cream, to serve

For the toffee sauce

300ml double cream
170g dark muscovado sugar
70g unsalted butter

1 For the toffee sauce, put the cream, sugar and butter in a saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then boil for about ten minutes to a deep toffee colour. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

2 Remove the apple cores using an apple corer. Slice the apples into ½cm-thick rings, then toss the rings in lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown.

3 Sift the flour and cinnamon into a large bowl. Make a well in the flour and drop the yolk into the middle. Gradually whisk in the ice-cold water, working the batter as little as possible. Don’t worry if it is a little lumpy.

4 When you are ready to serve, heat a deep saucepan one third full with oil to a temperature of 180C. (You can check the oil is hot enough by dropping a piece of bread into it – the bread should turn crisp and golden in 20-30 seconds.)

5 Dust an apple ring lightly in icing sugar, then draw it quickly through the batter to coat lightly. Gently lower it into the oil, then repeat with two more apple rings. Fry for about two minutes until golden and crisp.

6 Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Keep them warm and uncovered on a baking tray in a low oven, while you finish frying the remaining rings in batches of three. Serve the tempura as soon as possible with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a light drizzle of toffee sauce.