Resistance is futile: Mark Hix picks four irresistible sweet recipes from his new book This is one recipe that you could clip and keep in your scrapbook for next summer when you have a glut of peaches or nectarines that you need to put to good use. You will also find that this recipe works well with unripe fruit. Baking the fruit imparts a different flavour, rather like when you roast vegetables. 6 peaches or nectarines, halved and with the stones removed 80g butter, melted 100-150ml amaretto liqueur 120g amaretti biscuits that have been coarsely crushed 2tbsp clear honey Lay the peaches cut-side up on a baking tray. Spoon over two-thirds of the butter and the amaretto. Bake the peaches or nectarines in the oven for 15-20 minutes (you may need a little longer if the peaches aren't that ripe), covering them with foil if they are colouring a bit too rapidly. Mix the remaining butter with the amaretti biscuits in a bowl. Remove the peaches from the oven, spoon over the biscuit mixture and then carry on baking for a further 8-10 minutes, or until the topping is golden. To finish, transfer the peaches to serving plates, and then add the honey and a few tablespoons of water to the cooking tray and simmer for 30 seconds or so, stirring, until mixed. Spoon the sauce around the peaches and then serve with custard, ice-cream or mascarpone. Baklava Makes 25-30 Cherry Yorkshire pudding Remove the tins from the oven, divide the cherries f between them and add enough batter to half fill each tin. Galette au fenouil This may sound a bit wacky, but it really is delicious. A pastry chef at The Ivy introduced me to it years ago and it stayed on the menu for ages. 200g ready-made, all-butter puff pastry Plain flour, for dusting 1kg fennel 300g caster sugar 2tsp fennel seeds 2tsp finely chopped dill (if there is no fern on the fennel) Icing sugar, for dusting 200g crème fraîche Roll out the pastry on a floured table to about 3mm thick. Cut the pastry into four 13cm discs and prick them all over with a fork. Leave to rest in the fridge for 1 hour. Meantime, prepare the topping. Trim the fennel bulbs if necessary. If there is any fern on the fennel, chop it finely and put it to one side. Put the bulbs whole into a saucepan with the sugar and fennel seeds. Cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 1 hour, until the fennel is soft to the point of a knife. Remove the bulbs from the cooking syrup, setting both aside. Place the pastry discs on a baking tray and cover with a wire cooling rack to stop them rising while cooking. Bake for 7 minutes, then turn the discs over and cook for a further 4 minutes with the rack in place. Remove from the oven and set aside. Strain 500ml of the cooking syrup f through a fine-meshed sieve into a clean pan. Bring to the boil, lower to a simmer and cook until it has reduced to around 4 or 5 spoonfuls in volume. Remove from the heat and leave to cool a little before adding the chopped fennel fern or dill. Cut the fennel bulbs lengthways into 5mm slices. To assemble the tarts, arrange the fennel slices on the puff pastry discs in a circular pattern, ensuring the fennel goes to the edges of the pastry. Dust with icing sugar and bake for 7-8 minutes until golden (cover the tarts with foil if they begin to colour too rapidly). To serve, spoon the syrup around the tarts and top with a dollop of crème fraîche. 'Mark Hix on Baking', with photographs by Jason Lowe, is published by Quadrille, £20.