COOKBOOKS GALORE

My son and family were coming at last, and I wanted to make a cake. My daughter in law loves ginger, so I found this great recipe on the BBC Good Food site. ://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search/recipes?query=Squidgy+Lemon+Ginger+Cake It's a lovely cake, easy to make, and the fresh ginger cuts through the sticky sweetness of the sugar and dates. It's a dense and sticky cake with great flavours. I didn't use the suggested candied lemon peel or the coffee crystals to decorate the top. I just used the white chocolate. It's great as a cake, but would also make a great dessert with cream or ice cream [minus the chocolate topping maybe?]

Usually I stay well away from recipes for a chocolate fondant, having seen so many failures on Masterchef! My friend made these as dessert recently and I just had to make them. The family came for lunch on Sunday, so this was a good opportunity to try them. 100g white chocolate  + 4 extra squares 1 rounded tbspn flour 50g butter 30g caster sugar 2 eggs preheat oven 200C                   Grease and flour 4 ramekins Melt the 100g chocolate and butter over simmering water. Beat the eggs with the sugar in a bowl, then add the melted chocolate and flour and mix together. Fill each ramekin half full then drop in a square of white chocolate and add more mixture to fill. Bake for 8-10 mins. Carefully remove the fondants from the ramekins. Guess who took the photo? Not me! My daughter decided to add the finishing touches, some cream and blueberries, oh, not forgetting the sprig of mint! The chocolate doesn't make the f...

My daughter's favourite chocolate is white, so having recently made my son's favourite dessert, and as she was coming to stay for a week - a very rare occurrence - I decided to make her something using her favourite ingredient. I tried one of these crunchies at a coffee morning, and asked for the recipe. The only cooking involved is melting the chocolate, butter and crème fraîche. You need an 18cm square tin which you line with baking parchment. Break up 300g white chocolate and put in a bowl. Add 150g butter and 1 tbspn crème fraîche and melt together gently over a simmering pan of water. Crumble 100g Amaretti biscuits and chop up 100g candied fruit [I got mine in Waitrose]. When the mixture is melted, take the bowl and add the biscuits, fruit 25g dessicated coconut and 50g toasted flaked almonds. Mix it all together carefully. Spoon into the tin and leave to set in the fridge for 4 hours. Cut into 20 squares when set, using a knife dipped in hot water. It...

I think I've mentioned before that I much prefer muffins to cupcakes - I find the icing on cupcakes just too much. We have a lovely shop in town which sells a great range of herbs and spices, particularly difficult to find ones. In France I did a day's cookery course in a local restaurant, and one of the ingredients we used was Tonka beans. If you want to find out more about them: http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/how-to-cook/how-to-cook-with-tonka-beans I'd never heard of them, so was interested to taste their flavour. It's hard to describe - a bit similar to vanilla, but with fruity and spicy elements! You only use a little, as they can be harmful in large quantities, so it's claimed. I bought 3 beans from my local shop. I'm explaining all this, because my lovely friend who owns the tea shop, gave me her recipe for chocolate muffins with Tonka bean. The recipe! 200g sr flour, 1 tspn baking powder, 150g white chocolate, 12 small squares of dark choco...

This is something for visiting children over Christmas. but I'm sure adults would like them too! I've made peppermint bark for several years, but recently, looking on Pinterest, I saw that you could make cookies with a bark topping. I had to try these, as I wanted to take something for my grandchildren when we visited them yesterday. I decided to make a shortbread type dough. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease a Swiss roll tin and line with a strip of parchment paper down the middle, leaving the ends overhanging to get the cookie out of the tin. Beat 220g butter till creamy and white, then gradually beat in 200g of caster sugar. Keep beating till it's nice and fluffy. Add 1 tspn vanilla extract and a large egg yolk and beat in. Add 240g plain flour plus a pinch of salt and slowly add to the batter till blended. I found it easier to drop spoonfuls of this into the tin as it's a stiff mixture, then using my fingertips I pressed the dough into the tin to make a ...

This was the second cake we made on the Baking Course I went on. It's an easy cake to make. I don't often use white chocolate as I have had some disasters when melting it, but this time it worked well. The addition of yoghurt makes this a nice moist cake, which is also light in texture. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin. In a large bowl beat 125g butter with 110g caster sugar till light and fluffy using an electric hand mixer. Then add 2 beaten eggs and 1 tspn vanilla extract. Melt 100g white chocolate, which has been roughly chopped, over simmering water - careful - and stir till it's melted. Add the chocolate to the cake mixture with 125ml plain or vanilla yoghurt. Mix together gently then fold in 225g sr flour. Pour into tin and bake for 40 mins. Leave cake in tin for 15mins then turn onto a wire rack. For the topping: Beat 125g cream cheese till creamy then add 60g melted white chocolate and 2 tbspn plain yoghurt. Beat togeth...

My friend and I went on a day's Baking Course this week, and this Torte was one of the things we made. In Russian it's called a Bistvitny Torte. It's not difficult to make, but I found mixing the 2 chocolates together to make marbled chocolate quite challenging, especially making the marbling even.  It was an interesting fun day, and we watched demonstrations of bread making and a complicated 4 layer gateau. We weren't expected to make these, but we did get to sample some of each. We brought home the items we'd baked, and I asked if I could put the recipes on here, and was told it was ok if I wrote it in my own words. So that's what I'm doing! What makes the torte different is that it's soaked in a brandy flavoured syrup, otherwise tbh it's a marble cake. Preheat oven 190C/gas5 Grease a 23cm ring pan well . Make the decorations - Melt 25g each of dark and white chocolate. Put a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray and put alternative sp...

Recently my friend asked me to make her a special cake, and inspired by some white chocolate truffles I'd been given, I decided that a creamy truffle type topping over a light sponge cake would be ideal . I wanted to add some body to the truffle topping, so used an idea I saw in a magazine and added fromage frais. It's not a big cake, but is rich, so you only need a small slice. You need a 20cm springform cake tin, base lined. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 For the sponge: Whisk 2 eggs with 50g of caster sugar till light and frothy. Fold in 50g of plain flour and then 50g of white chocolate, which has been melted in a microwave or over a pan of hot water. Pour this batter into the cake tin and bake for 25 mins till the cake is springy to touch. Leave cake to cool for a bit in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack. For the topping : Put 300ml of double cream into a pan and bring to the boil, stirring to stop it sticking and burning. Turn the hea...

                                      Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Healthy New Year. These are a nice treat to have if anyone pops in for a coffee or a hot chocolate over the festive period. The recipe makes about 14 cookies. The biscuits have a chocolate filling with a coffee mascarpone topping. Preheat oven 200C/gas6 and line 2 baking trays with baking paper or silicone sheets. For the biscuits you cream together 60g of softened butter with 90g of caster sugar till nice and fluffy. Add 1 beaten egg and mix in, then fold in 60g of plain flour. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a 1cm plain nozzle and pipe 28 blobs on the baking paper, spacing them a bit apart. Bake for 6-8 mins till firm in the middle and beginning to go brown at the edges. For the filling - put 150g mascarpone cheese in a bowl; stir 1/2 tspn of instant coffee powder into 1 tbspn of dark rum and st...

I made this as my dessert contribution to my OH's family's Christmas get together. I had a couple of bars of white chocolate in my baking cupboard, so these were the basis for the cake. I wanted to make a chocolate sponge base with a light topping, and I'd made a similar topping for a cake before, only using a 50% dark chocolate. It's a bit of a faff to make, as it uses gelatine [not my favourite ingredient], but the results are worth the effort. Hope you think so too! Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper. To make the sponge base, whisk 2 eggs with 60g of caster sugar till thick and creamy. Add 60g plain flour and 1 tbspn cocoa powder into the batter and fold in. Gently add 30g of melted butter and mix together. Spoon or pour into the tin and bake for 20-25mins till firm to touch. For the topping, sprinkle an 11gm sachet of gelatine over 3 tbspns of cold water and leave to sponge. Melt 200g of white chocolate car...

These came about because I had a sort out in my baking cupboard and found some marzipan that needed using up.  I remembered eating some biscuits in France that had a layer of marzipan in the middle, and they were delicious, so thought I'd have a try and make something similar. I used my usual cookie recipe, rolled out the dough and added a chunk of marzipan to the circles I'd cut out. To give an extra flavour I added a few bits of broken dark chocolate before putting another circle on top and sealing them together. I piped some white chocolate over when they were cold. I made 12 complete cookies. 150g butter 150g light brown sugar 1 egg 250g flour 100g marzipan 100g dark chocolate, broken in small pieces 100g white chocolate Preheat oven 190C/gas5 Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper. Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer, then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1/2 c...

At long last our rhubarb plants in the garden have got their act together and produced a decent amount of fruit. I made a crumble and a cake, both of which I put in the freezer, and wanted to use up the last pieces. This is my dil's favourite muffin recipe - not with rhubarb and chocolate, but she loves blueberries and raspberries. I found the addition of Greek yoghurt rather unusual, as I usually use milk. I was going to just make rhubarb muffins, then found I had some white chocolate to use up; it's a good combination. 80g butter 150g sugar 1 tspn vanilla extract 2 large eggs, beaten 100ml Greek yoghurt 225g flour + 1 tspn baking powder 400g rhubarb chopped into small pieces 150g white chocolate, chopped Preheat oven 200C/gas6 Filla 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases Beat butter and sugar together. Add the beaten eggs, vanilla extract and yoghurt and gently combine. Fold in the flour and then add the rhubarb and chocolate. Blend together thoroughly, but do...

Christmas Baking 5 I didn't get time before Christmas to post this biscuit recipe. It's yet another variation on the basic cookie recipe I posted a while ago. I made up a hamper for my aunt and wanted to make her some special biscuits. There was a box of Matchmaker chocolates and a bar of white chocolate hanging round, good Christmas flavours, so how could I use these? I came up with the idea of a double cookie - 2 cookies with the Matchmakers chopped up in them, sandwiched together with a white chocolate ganache. A real Christmas treat for my aunt. I thought they'd be fiddly to make, but they weren't. I made 15 double cookies from this recipe - 30 cookies Basic recipe: 225g butter [soft] 240g caster sugar 1 egg yolk [beaten] 2 tspn vanilla essence280g plain flour pinch salt Extras: 100g Matchmakers [or any mint chocolate sticks] chopped up finely icing sugar Filling: 2 tbspn double cream 100g white chocolate, broken up Preheat oven 190C/gas5 Line...

I first made this when we lived in France. It's a meringue mixture with an unusual combination of ingredients. 8 egg whites 200g caster sugar 250g white chocolate, chopped up 190g chopped almonds [skinned] 200g dried cranberries 40g sr flour a little flour and fat for the cake tin Preheat the oven 180C/350F/gas4 Lightly grease a 24cm cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment. Flour this and shake out excess. Beat the egg whites into stiff peaks and gradually add the sugar. Keep beating till it's firm and shiny. Put the chocolate, almonds and cranberries in a bowl and mix in the flour. Add the egg whites to the chocolate mixture in two lots. Spoon into the tin and bake in the oven for an hour. Half way through, if the top is getting too brown, cover it with some foil. Turn the oven off, but leave the torte inside until it's completely cold.

We don't like Christmas pudding, so I try a new Christmas dessert recipe every year. Last year it was sticky toffee pudd. and this year I wanted to do something lighter. The recipe said that this amount would serve 8, but it served 3 people who had seconds! I made it in advance and froze it. The recipe comes from this year's 'Woman's Weekly Christmas special'. 100g white chocolate broken up into pieces 250ml ready made vanilla custard 3 tbspns Baileys liqueur 142ml pot double cream 2 tbspns grated dark chocolate a few raspberries small loaf tin lined with cling film Melt the chocolate and stir in the custard. Leave to cool then stir in the Baileys. Whip the cream then add it to the mixture. Spoon it into the lined loaf tin and feeze overnight. When it's solid, cover and wrap and label it. Take it out and put it in the fridge 20 mins before you want to use it. Put onto a plate, sprinkle the top with grated dark chocolate and decorate with a few...