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Showing posts from July, 2014

Banana flapjacks

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Seem to have had a lot of very ripe bananas lately. Am a bit fed up with banana loaves and cakes, but was given a recipe booklet recently about Fairtrade bananas, made up with recipes given by some of our church members. We love flapjacks, so banana ones seemed a great idea. I made them in a swiss roll tin, as we like them thin, but if you prefer thicker ones, use a square cake tin instead. 125g butter 85g light brown sugar 2 tbspn syrup 350g oats 1/2tspn baking powder 1 tspn cinnamon 2 medium ripe bananas Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease a Swiss roll tin  23 x 33cm or a 20cm square cake tin Melt butter, sugar and syrup in microwave or on hob. Add oats, baking powder and cinnamon then add mashed bananas. Spoon in tin and smooth top with back of a spoon. Bake 20-25 mins till golden and firm. Cut into bars while hot then cool in tin. I made 15 bars. We really liked the added texture of the banana, but they are a soft flapjack, not a crisp one. I'll certainly ma

Lime, Walnut and Date Tray Bake.

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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

Chocolate and Orange Cake

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I wanted to make a sandwich cake for OH's birthday, but also wanted it to look a bit different. Had a large orange to use up, so decided to use it in the cake and to decorate it.  Recently I saw a tv chef add a flake bar to a chocolate cake, so thought I'd try the same, instead of using cocoa or melted chocolate. Cake: 225sr flour 175g soft butter 175g caster sugar grated rind of a large orange 3 eggs 2 crushed Flake bars 4 tbspn milk Icing: 100g soft butter 225g icing sugar juice of 1/2 the orange For the top: 1 orange divided into segments a little crushed Flake bar Preheat oven 170C/gas3 Grease and line a deep 20cm cake tin [or use 2 x 20cm sandwich tins] Cream butter, sugar and orange rind together till light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the crushed Flake bars and fold in the flour alternately with the milk. Spoon into the tin or tins, smooth top and bake for about 1-1/4 hrs till golden. Leave in tin for 10 mins then turn onto a

Ginger and Apricot Loaf

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Another one of my favourite loaf cake recipes. This one uses stem ginger to give a better flavour than ground ginger. I've found a similar shop to the much missed [by me anyway] Julian Graves stores, so I stocked up on walnuts and dried fruit, including apricots. This such a quick loaf to make, and you can chose whether to ice it or not. I think the recipe is a WI one, as my mil gave it to me, and she usually used their recipes. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 900g loaf tin. In a large bowl put 115g wholemeal flour, 115g plain flour, 11/2tspns baking powder, 150g soft brown sugar, 115g soft butter, pinch salt, 2 beaten eggs, zest of a lemon and 2 tbspns of milk - beat it all together with an electric hand mixer. Stir in 175g chopped dried apricots [the no soak ones] and add 3 pieces of stem ginger chopped finely together with 4 tbspns of the ginger syrup. Finely slice a 4th piece of ginger and keep for the top. Spoon mixture into the tin, level, then arrange the 4

Pear and Chocolate Charlotte

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One of my favourite French desserts is a Charlotte, and I had a tin of pears which needed using and a recipe from a French neighbour for making a chocolate and pear one. It doesn't need cooking, just chilling. I bought a Charlotte mould when living there, but you can use any deep cake tin. It's simple to make and delicious. Charlottes can also be made with bread. You need: a large packet of boudoir biscuits [sponge fingers] or make your own  200ml cream a sachet of vanilla sugar [about 1 tbspn] large tin of pears in syrup 150g dark chocolate 4 egg yolks Open can of pears and pour syrup into a small bowl and slice the pears. Dip the boudoir biscuits into the syrup and line a Charlotte mould with them, keeping some back for the top. Using an electric hand beater, beat the cream and vanilla sugar together till it's thick. Melt the chocolate over a low heat. Turn the heat off and add the egg yolks, beating together till the mixture cools. Add the

Rhubarb and Cinnamon Muffins

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A quick post as I'm off to my daughter in London till Sunday. I made these muffins to use up the last sticks of rhubarb in the garden. I usually use oil instead of butter, but thought I'd give these a try. The recipe is from a tatty book I picked up in a charity shop, called '100 Muffins' , but it doesn't have the writer's name in it.  150g caster sugar 280g plain flour 21/2 tspns baking powder 1 tspn cinnamon 1/2 tspn bicarb. 1/2 tpsn salt 250ml creme fraiche  110g melted butter 2 eggs 1 tspn vanilla 150g diced rhubarb Topping: 3 tbspn caster sugar 1/2 tspn cinnamon Preheat oven 200C/gas6             Grease a 12 hole muffin tin. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, salt and bicarb together in a bowl. In another bowl whisk together the creme fraiche, eggs, butter and vanilla to a smooth batter. Stir the wet mixture into the dry one, but don't over mix. Stir in the rhubarb.  Spoon the batter into the muffin tin.  Mix the cinn