COOKBOOKS GALORE

 I’m a great muffin fan and have adapted my basic recipe, given to me by an American friend, many times. This is my latest idea. I made the muffins and was asked by a friend if I could make some for a party with the icing you usually get on a carrot cake.  280g plain flour, 1 tbsps baking powder, 1 tspn mixed spice, pinch salt, 115g soft dark brown sugar, 200g grated carrot, 50g chopped pecans or walnuts, 50g sultanas, 2 eggs, 175ml milk, 6 tbsps sunflower oil Optional: icing - 75g soft cream cheese, 49g butter and 35g icing sugar, sprigs of orange zest Preheat oven 200C/gas6. Grease a muffin tin or use muffin cases. Sift together the flour, baking powder and spice. Add carrots, sugar walnuts and sultanas and stir together. In a jug add the milk, oil and beaten eggs. Mix well. Make a well in flour mix and add milk mixture. Stir gently till just mixed. Don’t over mix or muffins will be heavy. Soon into the muffin tin - I use an ice cream scoop. Bake for 20 mins till risen. Cool...

I love Autumn and its flavours, and one of my favourite is nuts. I know I've mentioned it before, but every Autumn in France we got given a bag of walnuts from my neighbour's tree. She used to make this tart with some of them. I bought a large bag of shelled walnuts on offer at a local deli, so decided to make her tart. I know the taste won't be quite the same, not using fresh nuts, but it will be a lovely memory of Reneé. Preheat oven 200C/gas6.            23cm tart tin Pastry: 125g flour, 75g butter, 25g caster sugar, pinch salt, 1 egg and 25ml water. Mix all the ingredients together into a firm ball of dough. Pop in fridge till needed. Filling: 500g shelled walnuts, 150ml crème fraîche, 60g caster sugar, 1 beaten egg, 1 tspn vanilla extract and icing sugar for the top. Keep enough walnuts back to have enough to cover the top. Put these on a baking tray and put into the oven for a few minutes till they have some colour. Put the rest in a blen...

This is a nice easy tart to make, but gives the impression it's luxurious. It's one of my family's favourite desserts. Here I go reminiscing again, but in France my neighbour over the road had a walnut tree, and gave me carrier bags full of them. Ahhh!  No carrier bags full, but a special offer on walnuts in a supermarket was the incentive for making this tart. For the shortcrust pastry - 250g flour, 130g butter, 2 tspn sugar, pinch salt and water. Am not going to tell you how to make pastry! Preheat oven 180C/gas4                Line a tart tin with the pastry. For the filling - 250g chopped walnuts, 2 eggs, 400ml crème fraîche, 2 tbspn salted caramel and 2 tbspn soft brown sugar Beat the eggs with the cream and the caramel. Sprinkle the nuts over the pastry, keeping a few back to decorate afterwards. Pour over the cream mixture and sprinkle on the soft brown sugar. Bake for 35 mins. Decorate with some walnuts before serving. ...

I love caramel and found this recipe in my magazine cuttings. It's not a difficult caramel to make, as I've had many disasters with it in the past!  You need:  Pack of shortcrust pastry, 2 eggs, 100g caster sugar, 60g butter, 100g walnuts chopped finely and 100g walnut halves For the Caramel: 20g butter, 100ml crème fraîche, 150g caster sugar Preheat oven 180C/gas4                 22cm tart tin For the tart: Cut the butter into pieces and melt for 1 min in a microwave. Leave to cool. Beat the eggs and caster sugar using an electric mixer or hand mixer till white and fluffy.  Add the chopped walnuts and melted butter and gently mix together. Roll out pastry to fit a tart tin which is at least 2.5cm high. Grease the tin then line with the pastry. Add the nut mixture gently. Bake for about 30 mins till golden. Caramel: Put the sugar in a pan and melt till brown. Heat the cream till boiling and pour over the su...

Another case of using up something at its ' Use By' date; this time some chopped dates. Wanted to make an easy cake, so made my Mum's Date cake with walnuts. It's a cake that keeps very well. Oven 180C/gas4                            Grease and base line a 20cm square cake tin. In a bowl put 210ml boiling water, 175g chopped dates and 3/4 level tspn bicarbonate of soda. Leave it for 5 mins. Cream together 175g soft brown sugar and 50g soft margarine, then beat in 1 beaten egg and the water and dates. Sieve 225g plain flour with 3/4 tspn baking powder and pinch salt, then fold into the date mixture. Add 40g of chopped walnuts and mix together. Spoon into the tin and bake for about 45-50 mins. Cool on a wire rack then remove the paper. This is just part of the cake, as I gave the rest to my lovely Polish neighbour! I sprinkled some sugar on the top  - not really sure why! It has a lovely flavour, alm...

I love making loaf cakes and this is one of my favourites. It's a recipe from my Mum's old notebook, which I haven't looked at for ages. As is often the case, using up some ripe fruit was the reason for making it. It's such an easy one to make - an almost all-in-together type of cake. Preheat oven 180C/gas4                       Grease a 900g loaf tin. For the cake you need; 3 ripe bananas, mashed, 110g butter, 8 tbspn runny honey, 110g brown sugar, 1/2 tspn vanilla essence, 2 eggs, 1/4 tspn bicarb., 1 tspn baking powder, 1/2 tspn cinnamon. pinch salt, 180g plain flour, 45g oats and 150g chopped walnuts. In a large bowl put the bananas, butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs, bicarb, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and mix together till combined thoroughly - you may have a few banana lumps, but that's ok. Add the flour and oats and mix with a wooden spoon, but don't over mix. Add about 3/4 of the walnuts and stir in...

I was shopping in Milton Keynes last week and came across a shop rather like the now sadly defunct Julian Graves. They had a special opening offer on walnuts, so I bought a large bag - nuts are good for you, anti-oxidents, omega 3 etc! I wanted to make something different to use some of them, and came across a recipe for a walnut tart. It's from a tourist brochure I picked up somewhere in France, and this recipe, I was informed, is a speciality of the Périgord region. It brought back memories of when we lived in France, and my neighbour had a prolific walnut tree and would give my a huge carrier bag full. The only problem was you had to shell them all! At least the ones I bought were shell-free. Preheat oven 200C/gas6               A tart dish about 23cm or a flan tin with a loose bottom. For the shortcrust pastry -  125g flour, 75g butter, 25g caster sugar, 1 egg yolk, a pinch of salt and 25ml water Make the pastry and line the tart dish o...

It was my turn to make a cake for coffee morning, so decided to make a chocolate one. It's an American recipe from a neighbour. The caramel isn't made from a tin of Carnation Caramel, which we use nowadays, but is made using golden syrup, and the cake isn't topped with the usual sickly American-style icing, but with a simple chocolate icing, and topped with some chopped walnuts. For the cake you need: 1 large egg 120g unsalted utter, room temperature 200g  caster sugar 1 tspn baking powder 1 tspn bicarb soda 250ml full fat milk, room temperature 1 tbspn golden syrup 1 tbspn cocoa 1 tspn cinnamon pinch salt few walnuts, finely chopped  Icing: Icing sugar  1 tspn butter, softened 1 tbspn cocoa water Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease and base line a 20cm round cake tin. Cream butter and sugar together until mixture is pale and creamy, then beat in the egg. Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt together.  Slowly  add the milk...

My friend went on holiday recently to Canada and brought me back a can of maple syrup. This recipe was on a leaflet attached to the can, so I thought I'd try it. It's a simple cake with a lot of flavour, and I've named it after my friend.  For the Cake: 125g butter, softened 100g white sugar 125cl maple syrup 1 tspn  vanilla extract 2 eggs  200g plain flour pinch of salt 2 1/2 tspn baking powder 60ml milk 100g toasted chopped walnuts For the Maple Icing: 125g butter, softened 200g icing sugar 2 tbspn maple syrup For the Maple drizzle topping: 125cl maple syrup 1 tbspn butter pinch of salt                Preheat oven 180C/gas4  Grease and line a 23cm cake tin Beat together the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time then add the maple syrup and the vanilla. Mix the baking powder, salt and flour together and fold into the mixture with the milk. Spoon ...

My daughter recently changed her job, so when she came to stay last weekend, I made her favourite cake to celebrate. This version of a coffee and walnut cake is slightly different in that the filling isn't the usual sickly buttercream, but is fresh cream and espresso with a little bit of added sugar. The cake is iced with the usual coffee icing and decorated with walnuts. I decided to  make life more difficult for myself and bake it in a 900g loaf tin, then cut the cake into 3 layers. To make the cake : Preheat oven 190C/gas5               Grease and line a 900g loaf tin. Sift 225g sr flour into a bowl with 1/2 tspn salt; add 225g light muscovado sugar, 225ml vegetable oil, 4 egg yolks, 50ml cooled espresso coffee and 50ml milk and beat it all together till smooth. Whisk the 4 egg whites till stiff and fold into the batter. Stir in 75g chopped walnuts. Spoon into the cake tin and bake for about 50 mins. Leave cake to cool in the tin for...

Following on from the Madeira cake from week 1 of the GBBO, I decided to make some biscuits from week 2. I'm not a fan of biscotti, or making fancy biscuit  holders, so decided to have a go at Paul's Artlettes. I cheated  and used ready made butter puff pastry and was pleased with the results. You'll find Paul's recipe  here . The whirls aren't as good as his, but you could taste the cinnamon, and they were nice and crisp, and they had a good snap!! After making these I decided that I hadn't put enough cinnamon and sugar in them so made them again with bought butter puff pastry. My second attempt was much better; they're not as oval, but the spiral filling is better. Honey Biscuits I also made some honey biscuits as I was given a local jar of honey to try. These are orange and walnut flavoured biscuits which are dipped in honey to glaze. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper. In a bowl...

This is a 'healthier' version of my favourite cake! By this I mean that it uses oil instead of butter! I love the combination of coffee and walnuts, and this loaf cake is cut into three layers, which are filled with a cream mixture, and then the top is iced and decorated with walnuts.  Preheat oven 190C/gas5 and grease and line a 900g loaf tin. In a large bowl put 225g light muscovado sugar, 225g sr flour and1/2tpsn salt and mix together. Add 225ml vegetable oil [I used rapeseed], 4 egg yolks, 50ml strong espresso coffee and 50ml milk; beat in until well mixed and smooth. Beat the egg whites till stiff and fold into the batter, half at a time. Stir in 75g of chopped walnuts. Pour the mixture into the tin and tap to level it. Bake for about 50 mins till well risen. leave to cool in the tin for about 10 mins then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. In a bowl pour 300ml of double cream;  add 1 tspn of strong coffee powder and 1 tbspn of caster sugar and beat well...

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...

Another one of my favourite loaf cakes. This one's another quite healthy cake, as it uses wholemeal flour, sunflower oil and nuts. It came about because in France we always had a glut of courgettes and were finding ways to use them up. The recipe came from a neighbour who had the same problem! I suppose this is a bit of nostalgia too, as we don't have room to grow courgettes in our small garden, so the ones I used were lurking in the veg drawer. 3 eggs 90g light muscovado sugar 125ml sunflower oil 250g wholewheat flour 1 tspn baking powder 1 tspn bicarb. of soda 1 tspn cinnamon 1 tspn allspice 150g grated courgettes 125g chopped walnuts 60g sunflower seeds Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas4 Grease and base line a 900g loaf tin. Beat eggs and sugar together and gradually add oil. Sift flour into another bowl and add the baking powder, bicarb, spices and nuts. Add the grated courgettes and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones ...

This is a nice easy, healthy cake made using a food processor. I love Claudia Roden's orange cake with whole cooked oranges, but this recipe uses a whole orange, chopped up and not cooked. We're trying to eat less and lose a bit of weight. I know eating any cake won't help, but at least this one has oil instead of butter and  is a healthier option [or IS it? I'm confused by all the research on butter, oils and fats] You need a thin skinned orange, a navel if possible, as it has little bitter pith and no seeds - I found some in my local supermarket which were fine. They were sold singly, not in a net. preheat oven 180C/gas4 grease and base line a 20cm springform cake tin So, cut 1 orange into quarters and take out any core and pips. Put it in a food processor with 220g of caster sugar, 100 ml olive oil and 2 eggs, then whizz it up till the orange is finely chopped. Add 135g plain wholemeal flour with 2 tspns of baking powder and 100g ground walnuts and...

I’ve made a lot of cakes lately, large and small, and decided I wanted to make a tart. I bought a large bag of walnut halves last week, so decided they were just what I needed. My lovely friend who runs a cake shop gave me a few more of her recipes when we met up recently, and this tart is one of hers. You can use shop bought short crust pastry or make your own – enough for a 25cm tart tin, so it’s quite a good sized tart. I made 12oz /350g of pastry – that is 350g of flour and 175g of fat, and I used a mixture of sunflower margarine and Trex, but you could use all butter for a very short pastry. This was just the right amount for the tin. The tart’s made in 2 stages, the baked part with the eggs, sugar, butter and finely chopped walnuts and the topping with the walnut halves topped with caramel. So if you like walnuts, this is the tart for you! Preheat oven 180C/gas4      You need a 25cm tart tin [with sides at least 2.5 cms] You beat 2 eggs and 10...

These day, I only make puddings when we have friends or family for a meal - they seem to expect it! I wanted to make something tasty, but not stodgy.  Hunting through my cookery books, I found one I'd bought a few years ago from the famous 'Pudding Club' in 'Three Ways House' in Chipping Camden. If you've nor heard of this club, it was founded in 1985 to save our great British puddings. At the time, puddings were looked on with horror - much too fattening. So the club meets, eat their main course and then 7 different puddings are brought out and devoured. At the end of the evening, they vote for the best one. Looking through the book, many of the pudds are very filling ,but I found one that was marked as 'healthy', and it does contain fruit, nuts and honey and very little fat. I suppose with the latest bad press for sugar, 120g would be classed as a lot, so perhaps it wouldn't be classed as 'healthy'! Many of the puddings are steamed, but...

  I still had a couple of pears left in the fruit bowl after making the pear cake, so decided to make some muffins. I played around with my basic muffins recipe and came up with this one - pears and walnuts are 2 of my favourite things. I usually make muffins in paper cases, but I've noticed that a lot of crumb gets stuck to these, so this time I decided to make them directly in the muffin tin. Although the tin is non-stick, I greased the holes and dredged over a little flour just to make doubly sure the muffins would pop out easily, which they did. 180ml milk 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 large egg 225g wholewheat flour or white plain flour if you prefer 2 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt ½ tsp ground cinnamon 150g demerara sugar 1 large firm but ripe pear 50g coarsely chopped walnuts 1-2 tbsp demerara sugar for sprinkling Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6, and lightly grease and flour a 12 hole muffin tin. Put the milk, oil and egg in a small mixin...

I have a friend coming to stay for a few days and have been baking in preparation for her visit. I've made a spice cake, some muffins and wanted something else a bit different to have with a cup of tea. I decided that a savoury teabread would be unusual, and found this recipe in an old cookery book called 'Cakes, breads and gateaux'. 350g sr flour 1/2tspn salt pinch cayenne pepper 1 level tspn dry mustard 75g butter or margarine 90g mature Cheddar, grated finely [keep 15g for the topping] 75g raisins 65g chopped walnuts [keep 15g for the topping] 1 beaten egg 250ml milk Preheat oven 180C/350F.gas4 Grease and line a large loaf tin - 200g. Sieve the flour, salt, cayenne and mustard together into a bowl, then add the fat and rub it in. Stir in 75g of the grated cheese, raisins and 50g of the walnuts. Mix the egg into the milk then add it to the mixture and beat well. Put into the tin and level the top. Mix the rest of the walnuts and cheese together and spr...

Is it just me, or do bananas ripen more quickly nowadays? I always seen to have a few overripe ones in the fruit bowl. Then, what do do with them? Have made banana muffins before, but not with oats and walnuts. They're not as 'cakey' tasting as my normal muffin recipe,but are substantial and great with a cuppa! They'd be good for breakfast too. The recipes makes 12 muffins . 100g oats 200g plain flour 11/2 tspn baking powder cinnamon to taste [opt] 1 tson bicarb. of soda little salt 100g light brown sugar 4 ripe bananas 1 large beaten egg 60g melted butter or oil [I used rapeseed] 75g chopped walnuts Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease a 12 hole muffin tin, or line with paper cases. Put the flour, oats, baking powder, bicarb., salt and sugar in a bowl and mix together. I then mixed in a tbspn of cinnamon as I love it! Mash up the bananas in another bowl and add the egg, butter or oil and the walnuts. Mix this together and add to the dry ingredients. Mix together gently - do...