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...

Something to cheer us up in these miserable days. Was given a bottle of local cider, and had several apples needing using up, so found this recipe from an old Woman's weekly magazine. You need:  330ml cider, 150g melted butter, 4 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated, 2 large eggs, 150g soft brown sugar, 300g plain flour, 2 tspn bicarb, 1 tspn mixed spice, 1 tspn cinnamon, 1/2 tspn grated nutmeg, 200g raisins or sultanas and 100g roughly chopped pecans. Preheat oven 180C/gas4         Grease and line a 20cm spring form cake tin. Pour cider into a pan and bring to boil. Lower the heat to simmer and let the cider reduce. You need about 100ml. Melt the butter in another pan and pour the cider over to cool a bit until just warm. Mix the sugar and  eggs into the apples and pour in the butter and cider. Mix together. Sift the flour and spices together then fold into the mixture. Finally add the fruit and nuts and stir together. Pour into the ca...

I love loaf cakes. They’re easy to make, easy to cut and so useful. A few very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl was my inspiration for this loaf cake. I added some pecans, and used the buttermilk left over in the fridge from making scones. Cake : 3 ripe bananas, 100g pecan nuts broken into small pieces, 100g soft butter, 175g soft brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 250g plain flour, 1 tspn bicarb, 1 tspn mixed spice, 100 ml buttermilk Topping: 1 small banana, sliced, Preheat oven 180C/gas4.        Grease and line base of 200g loaf tin Beat the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, a bit at a time. Mash the bananas and add to the batter then add  flour, bicarbonate and mixed spice and fold in. Stir in the buttermilk then most of the nuts, saving a few bits for the top. Pour into the loaf tin, then put the sliced bananas on top and sprinkle over the rest of the nuts. Bake for about 45-50 mins. If...

Until recently, I thought that a Hummingbird Cake was the same thing as a Carrot Cake! On one of my afternoon tea visits [I'm trying to find all the little tea shops in Northants!] I saw this cake and decided to try it, liked it so much that I had to make one. I need to take a cake for a retirement party tomorrow, so decided this was the time to make it. It's based on a recipe from an old 'Living' cookbook. preheat oven 180C/gas4                  Grease a 3x23cm sandwich tins and line bases. In a bowl sift together 250g plain flour, 250g caster sugar, 1 tspn cinnamon and 1 tspn bicarb. To this add 3 beaten eggs, 200ml sunflower oil, 100g chopped pecan nuts [you need a few more to decorate the top], 3 ripe and mashed bananas and 85g tinned pineapple, chopped, and 4 tbspn of its juice from the tin. Beat this all together with a wooden spoon till its mixed well. Divide the batter between the 3 tins then bake for 25-30 mins till golden and ...

Another recipe for a loaf cake, my favourite type of cake. This time it has maple syrup, pecans and lemon zest in it. Easy to make using the rubbing in method. Preheat oven 170C/gas3   Grease and line the bottom of a 900g loaf tin. Sift 350g plain flour and 1 tspn baking powder together, then rub in 175g butter or margarine. Stir in 75g caster sugar and 125g chopped pecan nuts. In another bowl, beat 3 eggs with 1 tbspn milk and add zest of a lemon. Stir in 5 tbspn maple syrup and mix well. Add the flour mixture to the egg one and mix well, but don't over mix. Should be a nice dropping consistency. Spoon into the tin and bake for about 50 mins. till golden and risen. Leave to cool in tin for about 10 mins then turn onto a wire rack. Make some lemon icing by beating 1 tbspn lemon juice into 75g icing sugar. Drizzle the icing over the cooled cake. The texture was quite dense, but I suppose the rubbing in method doesn't make for a fine crumb. The maple taste ...

It's always good to have a new apple recipe to try, and this one was given to me recently by a friend. It was given to her by her American mil and has been changed from cups. It's a nice easy cake which doesn't need a mixer. You mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another, add the fruit and nuts and mix. It's made in a tube pan, one of the reasons I decided to make it, as I've just bought one. The cake has a lovely brown-sugar glaze, the same idea as the topping on a lemon drizzle. Preheat oven 160C/gas3 Grease a 25cm tube tin. Put 420g plain flour, 1 tspn  bicarbonate of soda and 1 tspn salt in a bowl and mix together. In another bowl put 350g granulated sugar and 320ml vegetable oil and beat together. Then add 3 large eggs and 2 tspns vanilla extract and beat together till well mixed. Add the flour mixture and mix together carefully until just combined, as you do with muffins.Stir in 250g chopped pecan nuts and 3 medium apples which have b...

In keeping with last week's GBBO 'Bread' theme, I decided to make a loaf ; I didn't want a traditional bread loaf, so decided to make this chocolate and pecan one, which I'd made ages ago on a bread-making course. It's not difficult to make - after the dough has risen its rolled out into a square, sprinkled with chocolate, nuts and sugar then rolled up like a Swiss roll. You need a big loaf tin, 1.8l  twice the size of a normal one [or you could divide the dough, chocolate and nuts in two before you roll it into the square and then use 2 x 900g tins.] Preheat oven 200C/gas6        Grease a 1.8l loaf tin or 2 x 900g tins In a big bowl put 500g of strong white bread flour and 3 tbspn butter and rub in till it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in 1/2 tspn salt, 50g caster sugar and 11/2 tspns fast action yeast. Add 2 beaten eggs and gradually add 175ml of warm milk to make a soft dough ball. Lightly flour a surface or board and knead the dough well  till i...

Needed to make something for a Bake Stall, so decided something with chocolate, as they're always popular. My friend had been raving about these brownies, so I persuaded her to part with the recipe! Have to admit that I'm not a great brownie fan. I think it's because I've eaten a lot of overcooked ones which were disappointing. There's a fine line between their being squidgy and overcooked - as I know too well! I made a recipe not long ago that was so awful even the birds wouldn't eat it! What a waste of chocolate! 180g 70% dark chocolate 175g butter 150g light brown sugar 3 eggs and 1 yolk 85g plain flour and 1 level tspn of baking powder 100g pecans - keep 25g for the topping Preheat oven 180C/gas4/fan165C Grease a 18x32cm tin . Break the pecans into pieces. In a bowl beat the eggs and yolk lightly with a fork. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over simmering water. Take off heat when melted. Add the sugar and mix together. A...

This is one of those cake that uses up the leftover Christmas bits and pieces. I had some cranberries, half a bag of pecans and some pears that needed using up. It's based on a recipe I picked up from one of the supermarkets - Sainsbury's I think. It has quite a thick topping, but it's delicious. It does take a bit of effort to make, but I think it's worth it. Pears and cranberries are 2 of our 5 a day! It's an upside down cake, so you need a heavy bottomed pan about 26cms, as it has to go on the hob and in the oven. I used a Le Creuset saute pan, which worked well. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Make the topping - melt 75g butter and sugar in the pan over a low heat. Peel and core 900g of pears [about 6] and cut them into about 1cm slices then put them in the pan on top of the butter and sugar. Cook over a gentle heat till the pears are just soft; turn the heat up to caramelize them. Sprinkle 140g of cranberries and 75g of pecans over the mixture and gently mi...

My grandsons came for the weekend, and as the weather wasn't very kind, I wanted to find something to do with them. They enjoy cooking, so we made some cookies. The original recipe had walnuts in it, but I needed to use up the last of my pecans. We found the recipe in an old Blue Peter book, which had belonged to the boys' Dad. They were then called biscuits, but cookies sounded more modern. They all took a turn beating the mixture, adding ingredients and making the cookies into balls. I have to own up that I drizzled the chocolate over the ones in the photo - their efforts had the chocolate mainly over the worktop! They proudly took the finished cookies [well most of them!] home for their Mum, and wanted to take some in their lunch boxes. We made 15 cookies. Preheat oven 190C/gas5 and grease 2 baking trays. Put 125g butter, 70g soft brown sugar and 70g caster sugar in a bowl and beat together till nice and creamy. Add 1 beaten egg and beat into the mixture. Fold in 200g...

We love tea breads and loaf cakes, or anything with fruit in really. I found this recipe in my cuttings folder, and I think it originally came from 'Woman's Weekly' magazine a few years ago. I adapted it to suit our tastes, as the original recipe used prunes, apple and pecans. It also used wholemeal flour, but I'd run out, so used white. I added some cinnamon, which is always good with apples, imho, and I didn't toast the pecans, as suggested. So here's my adapted recipe: 1 apple [about 175g - I used a granny Smith with its skin on] 175g dried apricots 175g pecans 11/2 tspns baking powder 220g plain flour 110g butter or margarine 175g light demerara sugar 2 beaten eggs 3 tbspn milk Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease and bottom line a 900g loaf tin. Add the baking powder and cinnamon to the flour and sieve into a bowl. Then add the other ingredients, except the fruit and nuts, and beat together with an electric hand mixer. If the mixture seems to thic...

This month's challenge from Alpha Bakes is a hard one - baking something beginning with letter I . Lots of recipes begin with 'iced ....... ' but I wanted to find something different. I borrowed a book from the library called 'Cakes, Tortes and Gateaux'  - it has no author, and I found a recipe for an Israeli cake. I love cakes with nuts and I like dates, so had to give it a try. I changed a few things in the recipe, and had to convert it to grams. It worked out really well, and is full of good things. 2 eggs 180ml honey 150ml buttermilk 1 tspn vanilla essence 3 mashed bananas 300g sr flour 1 tspn baking powder 100g soft brown sugar 2 tbspn cocoa 1 tspn cinnamon 1 tspn allspice pinch salt 125g butter 150g chopped dates 125g chopped pecans 2 tbspns honey for top of cake Preheat oven 180C/gas4 grease a 23cm springform tin Beat together the eggs, honey, buttermilk and vanilla essence, then add the bananas. Keep 2 tbspn of the flour, then put th...

I still have some pecans to use up from the bag I bought a while ago from the sadly- no- longer Julian Graves shop. I love making loaf cakes, so this is my variation on a recipe that had walnuts in it. Had a pot of local honey in the cupboard which needed using up, so added 1 tbspn to the cake mixture and also put 1 tbspn in the icing. 190g butter 190g caster sugar 190g plain flour 1 tspn baking powder 3 eggs 1 tspn vanilla essence 1 tbspn runny honey 60g chopped nuts - pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts Icing - icing sugar, lemon juice and 1 tbspn of honey - depends how thick you want your icing to be  as to how much icing sugar and lemon juice you use! Preheat oven 170C/gas 3 Grease a 900g loaf tin. Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer till white and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after each one. Fold in the flour gently, a bit at a time. Add the vanilla and 1 tbspn of honey, then mix in the chopped nuts by hand. ...

Most of the supermarkets seem to have nuts on offer at the moment, so I've stocked up and now need to use some of them. I love pecan pie, but it can be very sweet and rich. These tarts are little versions, but still give you that lovely pecan fix. The recipe comes from a magazine supplement on 'Nuts', from Woman's Weekly, I think. As it's Thanksgiving Day today, pecans seem appropriate. Recipe makes 18 tartlets, so you need 2 x 12 bun tins. I love this pastry as it uses ground almonds as well as flour, which gives it a soft texture. You need: Pastry: 150g plain flour 25g caster sugar [golden's best] 50g ground almonds 85g butter, cubed 1 medium beaten egg 2 tspns lemon juice Filling: 70g melted butter 50g light muscovado sugar 2 medium beaten eggs 2 tbspns golden syrup juice of 1/2 lemon 100g pecan nuts, chopped but not finely The pastry is easy to make as you put the flour, sugar, almonds and butter into a food processor and whizz it ...

One of the presents I got for Christmas was a new sugar thermometer. Ever since I was a child,  I've been interested in making sweets. My Mum used to make them, and I inherited her old thermometer. I also inherited her book 'Toffees, fudges, chocolates and sweets' by Mary Novak, and I have a battered copy of Margaret Powell's ' Sweetmaking for children'. I made sweets with my children and yesterday I made some with one of my grandsons. We made coconut ice and he helped me make yogurt pecan fudge, the latter being an excuse to use my new thermometer! Coconut ice My grandson wanted to make something on his own, so this is a very easy version. 6 tbspns condensed milk 275g icing sugar 175g dessicated coconut pink food colouring Mix together the milk and icing sugar, then stir in the coconut. The mixture will be very stiff. Divide it into 2. Colour one half with the colouring. Grease and line a small cake tin, and put the white mixture in a layer at the ...

As I mentioned is a previous post, my grandson has decided he'd like to bake, so I was looking through some old chiIdren's cookery books and found this recipe . I think it's a strange way to make a cake, but decided to try it anyway. It make 12 squares. For the bottom of the squares: 175g butter 75g icing sugar 225g plain flour Topping: 75g butter 2 tbspns golden syrup [or maple syrup] 2 tbspns milk 1 tspn vanilla essence 50g soft brown sugar 2 eggs 100g pecan nuts Grease and line a tin 18x27 cm. Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 To make the base : Put the butter into a bowl, add the sugar and beat till fluffy. Fold in the flour. Bring the mixture into a ball. Flour the worktop and knead the ball a few times to make it smooth. Then press the dough into the tin - using the back of a spoon helps. Bake this for about 15 mins till it's golden. Let the base cool. Put the butter in a pan and melt over a low heat, then stir in the sugar, syrup and vanilla e...

Need to finish up the bag of pecans I bought from Julian Graves, so found this recipe on an Aussie blog. I've changed it a bit. It's supposed to originate in Israel. 2 eggs 180ml honey + 2 tbspns for brushing the cake 150ml buttermilk 1 tspn vanilla essence 3 bananas - mashed 300g sr flour 1 tspn baking powder 100g light brown sugar 2 tbspns cocoa 1 tspn cinnamon 1 tspn allspice 125g butter - softened 150g dates - stoned and chopped 125g pecans - chopped Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas 4 Grease and base line a 22cm springform cake tin. Mix the eggs, the 180ml honey, buttermilk and vanilla essence together till smooth, then add the bananas. Keep back 2 tbspns flour, then put the rest in a bowl with the baking powder, sugar and spices and mix well. Add the egg mixture to the flour, and using a hand beater, mix gently, then add the butter and beat till smooth. Mix the other 2 tbspns of flour with the dates and pecans and fold these into the mixture. Spoon i...

Bought a large bag of pecans recently on offer from Julian Graves. My lovely friend Jackie brought us some maple syrup from her recent trip to Canada, so, a marriage made in heaven. It's such an easy tart to make, and if you have some pastry in the freezer, it's even quicker. Pastry: 250g plain flour 125g salted, cold butter 2 tbspn sugar 3-4 tbspn very cold water I make this in the food processor, make double and keep half, wrapped carefully, in the freezer. I let the half I'm going to use, rest in the fridge for a couple of hours. I don't like sugar in pastry, even in sweet desserts, so I don't add it. Filling: 60g melted butter 100g sugar [I used golden caster] 180ml maple syrup 2 eggs 250g pecans Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas5 Grease a rectangular tart tin. [I bought mine from Lakeland and have had lots of use out of it. It's loose-bottomed!] Roll the pastry out into the tart tin. Beat the butter, sugar and maple syrup together with an ele...

I tend to make large cakes, so today, as my grandsons are coming for tea, thought I'd make them some small cakes. This recipe is from my friend Liz. Recipe makes 12 cakes. 115g soft butter or margarine 115g caster sugar 2 tbspn crunchy peanut butter 2 eggs, beaten 85g sr flour 4 tbspn cocoa powder 100g plain chocolate chips 100g chopped pecans or walnuts [keep 24 to decorate] 200g plain chocolate 24 mini marshmallows Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 Put 12 cake cases into a bun tin. In a bowl, put the butter, sugar and peanut butter and beat till it's light and creamy [with an electric beater]. Beat in the eggs and fold in the flour, cocoa, chocolate chips and nuts. Put the mixture into the cake cases. Bake for 15-20 mins till golden and firm. Leave them to cool on a wire rack. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and leave it to cool a bit. Spread most of the chocolate over the top of each cake with a knife, leaving some to drizzle over the top of the cakes, ...