Guest chef: Ross Dobson’s apple and cherry pie

This easy, no-base pie uses morello cherries from a jar — they’re soft, sweet and ready to go any time of the year.

Apple and cherry pie.

Yes, you can have cherries in winter. This easy, no-base pie uses morello cherries from a jar — they’re soft, sweet and ready to go any time of the year. Rhubarb is in season only for a short time and is great in pies, cakes, muffins and crumbles. Cooking or stewing it with sugar combats its tartness and turns it a lovely rose pink.

Apple & cherry pie

330g (1½ cups) caster sugar | 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon | 4 small Granny Smith apples, peeled and roughly chopped | 200g (1 cup) pitted cherries | 3 eggs | 375ml (1½ cups) vegetable oil | 1 teaspoon vanilla extract | 225g (1½ cups) plain flour | ½ teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a 1.5-litre round baking dish or deep pie tin. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Put apples and cherries in another bowl with 2 tablespoons of cinnamon sugar. Toss fruit to coat, then tumble into the baking dish. Beat eggs and oil until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and stir until combined, then add flour, baking powder and remaining cinnamon sugar and stir until smooth. Pour over fruit. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until risen and aromatic. Allow to cool a little before serving with cream or ice cream. Serves 8

Tip: for a really fragrant, spiced pie, use pears instead of apples and add 1 teaspoon ground cardamom to the cinnamon sugar mix.

Ross Dobson’s spiced rhubarb cobbler.

Spiced rhubarb cobbler

700g (about 1 bunch) rhubarb | 110g (½ cup) caster sugar | 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest | 3 cloves | 1 cinnamon stick, crumbled
Topping: 250g (1 2/3 cups) self-raising flour | 1 tablespoon caster sugar | 20g butter | 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg | 1 egg, lightly whisked | 250ml (1 cup) milk

Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a 1.5-litre baking dish with butter. To prepare rhubarb, cut off green leaves and discard. Cut stems into 2.5cm lengths; measure out 4 cups of chopped rhubarb into a bowl. Add sugar, lemon zest, cloves and cinnamon and stir to combine. Tumble mixture into prepared dish. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until tender. Remove from oven and leave to cool a little, then pick out cloves and cinnamon and discard. To make topping, combine flour and sugar in a bowl. Add butter and nutmeg and use your fingertips to rub in. Add egg and milk and stir to make a thick batter. Dollop spoonfuls of batter randomly over rhubarb. Return dish to oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden. Serve hot with ice cream or thick cream. Serves 6

Guest Chef Ross Dobson

Ross Dobson is a Sydney-based chef, food writer and author of 15 cookbooks. Edited extract from Tuck In: Good Hearty Food Any Time , by Ross Dobson (Murdoch Books, $39.99), out July 1.