COOKBOOKS GALORE

I wanted to make something quick and easy for my grandsons' visit this afternoon. This slice must come under the 'easy to make and good for you' banner, as it has oats, muesli, honey, apricots, nuts ...  and surprisingly, all three boys will eat it!. I guess it's a posh flapjack! It's one of my friend Ann's family recipes, and we love it. 30g oats 80g dried apricots 60g muesli 40g dessicated coconut 30g almonds chopped into pieces 70g plain flour 70g demerara sugar 2 tbspn honey 2 medium eggs 140g butter Grease a deep 20cm square cake tin. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Cut the apricots into smallish pieces. In a bowl beat 140g of the softened butter with the sugar and honey. Add the eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour, oats, muesli, almonds, apricot pieces and the coconut. Mix it all together and spoon into the tin; smooth the surface and cook for 30 mins. Leave it to go cold in the tin then cut into squares. It's very filling, so I cut it int

Bought a bundle of cookery magazines from a charity shop the other day, and this recipe was in an Australian one. I like traybakes. The bake has lots of good things in it - dessicated coconut, lime zest, walnuts, dates, and it's easy to make. The biggest problem was changing the Aussie cups into grams. The cake turned out fine, so I must have my conversions fairly accurate! Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease and line a rectangular tin about 28 x 8 cm. For the cake: Put 150g flour, 110g caster sugar, 85g dessicated coconut, finely grated zest of 1 lime [you'll need another lime if you're going to make the candied lime peel, 150g chopped dates and 60g chopped walnuts into a bowl. Stir together. Add 180g melted butter and mix together; then add 1 egg [lightly beaten] and stir together. Press this mixture into your tin and bake for 20 mins till golden. Leave in tin for 5 mins then turn out onto wire rack. For the lime Icing: Put 225g icing sugar in a bowl with 15 melted

I try and buy things in season, but the punnets of shiny blackberries caught my eye this week, so I bought some. I know they have air miles, but nobody's perfect! I love tray bakes,and I got the idea for this one from this Good Food site recipe. It seems to be fashionable at the moment to add crumble tops to cakes and muffins, and I think it gives a great contrast of textures to a cake.I like my crumble a bit clumpy, not too much like breadcrumbs. 115g butter, softened 175g caster sugar 1 egg 280g sr flour 125ml milk 200g blackberries Crumble topping: 115g caster sugar 85g pl flour finely grated rind of 1 lemon 50g butter Preheat oven 180C/gas4.  Butter an oblong cake tin. Beat sugar and butter together till pale and fluffy.Beat in the egg, then fold in flour and milk and mix well. Spoon into tin and sprinkle the blackberries over the top. The crumble - mix sugar,flour and lemon rind together then rub in butter till you have large crumbs,then sprinkle

This isn't a sophisticated chocolate cake; this is for lovers of milk chocolate and peanut butter. My grandsons were coming for tea, so I made the basic cake and they helped me ice it - or at least one of them did, the other 2 got bored! It's a WI recipe that my mil gave me - I've been sorting out my recipe folders and came across some great recipes I must try, and this was one of them. My grandsons love peanut butter, so to have it in a cake AND in the icing, was great. It's almost an all in one mixture, as nearly everything goes in the bowl and you beat it together. Then you add the chocolate drops and some milk. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 28x18cm tin . You put 115g of crunchy peanut butter, 115g of soft margarine or butter, 175g of soft brown sugar, 3 eggs and 1 tspn of vanilla extract in a bowl. Sieve together 175g of sr flour and 11/2 tspns of baking powder and add to the bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer for about 2 mins, making sure yo

Another chance to use my Wilton traybake tin! My dil asked me to make something for her friends to have with a cuppa. I fancied making something decadent, ok then, calorific, and adapted this recipe from an Aussie woman's magazine. Had also bought a jar of local honey from a lovely local garden centre, which has a shop selling all kinds of goodies.  Makes about 20 slices, depending on how big you cut them! Base : 200g butter, diced 310g plain flour 115g caster sugar 2 egg yolks Topping: 2 x 400g tins condensed milk 100g butter, diced 115g honey preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 Lightly grease a baking tin 28x18 cm and line with baking parchment. For the base : Put everything into a food processor except for the egg yolks and blitz till like breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and about 2 tbspns cold water and blitz again to make a pastry ball. Cut the pastry in half and roll out one half to fit in the base of the tin. Bake it for 12-15 mins till golden and firm when you t

I love traybakes, so I've treated myself to a new tin - the Wilton 'Biscuit/Brownie' pan [28x18cm]. Now I'm fired up to try it out! I bought some hazelnuts in Waitrose recently, so thought I'd make something using them. This recipe is adapted from one that was in a magazine some time ago. I like the idea of a crumble base and then the cake mixture on top of it. 300g plain flour 175g butter cut into pieces 350g demerara sugar 200ml creme fraiche 2 eggs 3 tspns baking powder [level] 150g hazelnuts chopped in half preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease and line the tin with baking parchment. Sift flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar. Sprinkle 350g of this mixture into the tin and press it down. Beat the eggs and creme fraiche together and stir in the rest of the crumble mixture and baking powder. Pour this over the crumble mixture. Arrange the hazelnuts on top, pressing gently. Bake in middle of the oven for about 45 mins. I found that the n