COOKBOOKS GALORE

After watching GBBO last week, I thought I'd try my hand at making caramel. My first few attempts burnt or just didn't work, but finally I got the result I wanted. I didn't want a very dark caramel, just a sort of blonde colour. This is my friend's recipe, and it's not one that would win prizes for looks, but it tastes delicious.  So you need: 150g caster sugar and 3 tbspn water for the caramel, 75 g caster sugar, 100g flour, 2 tspn baking powder, 1kg pears, 3 eggs, 125g soft butter, 3 tbspn milk and 1 tspn vanilla extract Preheat oven 180C/gas 4                           grease and flour a 23cm cake tin For the caramel: put the 150g sugar in a pan and add the water. Leave till it's become a light blonde colour,* then pour into the cake tin and leave to cool. Beat the eggs with the 75g caster sugar till white and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder, butter and beat together, then add the milk and vanilla and sti...

 I love the little madeleines you can buy in bags in France, so I bought a mould from a vide grenier for 1 euro, and it's been well used. This cake is a large version of these little cakes. you need: 110g caster sugar, 1 tspn baking powder,120g flour, 140g butter and 3 eggs. Grease and flour a 20cm round cake tin Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Melt the butter over a gentle heat and leave to cool.  Whisk the eggs with the sugar till white and fluffy' Mix the flour and baking powder, then add this alternatively with the butter to the egg mixture using a rubber spatula to mix. Spoon into the cake tin, and bake for 9 mins at the 180C/gas4 temperature then turn oven down to 160C/gas3 for another 18 mins. Cool in the tin. When cool, leave plain or ice with some glacé icing. I decorated mine with orange slices, and tried out a bit of drip icing, but you can also add chopped zest to the cake, or cinnamon or vanilla extract. It's a cake that is 'moelleux', soft and moist. You can ma...

 I was given a medium sized cauliflower and as it's not my favourite vegetable, struggled to know what to do with it. Have kept a few French cookery magazines, and I found this recipe in a very old one from 1998!  It adds potatoes, lardons [bacon pieces], crème fraîche and cheese to the cauli, which makes it much more interesting You need: 1 medium cauliflower, 100g lardons [bacon bits], 500ml crème fraîche, 3 medium potatoes, 50 g of grated Conté,  a good strong Cheddar or Beaufort cheese, 1 egg and some salt and pepper Preheat oven 200C?Gas 6                 Grease a gratin dish [this amount feeds about 4 people] Break the cauliflower up into florets and peel the potatoes. Cook them in boiling water for 15mins. Beat the cream and egg together and add a little salt and pepper. Spoon the cauliflower into the greased dish, slice the potatoes and add with the bacon pieces. Pour over the cream mixture and sprinkle over the cheese....

 I love apricots, but usually in the supermarket they are in little punnets. I went to a market in another town at the weekend, and to my delight, they were selling them on a stall.  This recipe comes from a free recipe card from one of the French supermarkets. It's a popular recipe with my family. You need: 80g caster sugar and 80g soft brown sugar, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 50g ground almonds, 40g soft butter, 1kg apricots, 125g brioche [slices cut from a loaf], 200ml crème fraîche, 3 eggs, icing sugar to sprinkle Preheat oven 180C/gas4                                Grease a large ovenproof dish. Lay the slices of brioche in the bottom of the dish.  Cut the apricots in half and remove stone. Arrange the halves over the brioche, packing together well.  Sprinkle over the ground almonds and the brown sugar. In a bowl, beat together the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla extract, butter and crème f...

 Summer at last, or at least for a few days! Raspberries are my favourite summer fruit, so decided to make a cheesecake. I bought a jar of raspberry coulis in Waitrose. This is a baked cheesecake.  I adore the speculoos flavour of the Biscoff biscuits you get with coffee [and now in a jar], so used these biscuits as the base.  225g Biscoff biscuits, 3 eggs, 175g caster sugar, a jar of raspberry coulis [or you can make your own by sieving raspberries],75g butter, 675g cream cheese and 1 tspn vanilla extract, a few raspberries to decorate Preheat oven 180C/gas4            Line a shallow 23cm cake tin with baking paper. Put the biscuits in a large plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Melt the butter and mix with the biscuits. Spoon into the cake tin and flatten with the back of a spoon. Put in the fridge to set. Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the cheese and beat together with the sugar and vanilla extract. Spoon it over the biscuit base an...

Thought I'd post something different this time. When we lived in France we had a large potager, and courgettes grew everywhere they could find a space! Look away for a minute and you had a marrow! This is my friend G's Tante Marie's recipe to use up some of them. It's useful as an a accompaniment to lots of meals, and is very easy to make. You need for 6: 2 courgettes, 4 potatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tbspn crème fraîche, 100g grated gruyère cheese, 3 sprigs of thyme, salt and pepper Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease a gratin dish. Peel the potatoes and cut into rounds, not too thick,  then do the same with the courgettes. Spoon into the dish, strip the thyme off the sprigs and sprinkle over the thyme, together with the crushed and chopped garlic, pepper and salt. In a bowl mix together the cheese and crème fraîche and spoon over the courgette mixture. Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins. A very simple, tasty dish. It goes well with pork chops or as an accompaniment to a bbq. ...

 Now that the English strawberries are good value, I thought I'd make a cheesecake. I had a pot of mascarpone to use, so used it with some cream cheese [such as Philly]. This is very easy to make when you don't feel like cooking! You need: 60g icing sugar, 200g digestive biscuits [or other biscuits of your choice], 50g butter [melted], 1 lemon, 250g mascarpone, 100g soft cheese [Philly] and 1tspn vanilla extract, few mint leaves Blitz the biscuits in a food processor or blender. Add the melted butter and mix together. Press into the base of a 23cm flan tin, pushing the crumbs slightly up the sides. Beat the mascarpone with the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest. Spoon into the tin on top of the crumb base. Smooth with a spatula. Cut the washed strawberries into 2 [or 4 if large] and put the on top of the cream mixture, cut side down. Cut the washed strawberries into 2 and put the on top of the cream mixture, cut side  Top with a few mint leaves and put i...

 Last year I was given a rhubarb plant from a local group which shares excess plants. I didn't cut it even though I desperately wanted to, as I love rhubarb! I was told it would make it stronger for this year! It's doing well again, so this is the first recipe I've made using it, and it's a very simple one.You use a yoghurt pot as a measure. Yoghurt pot recipes are very popular in France. You need: 250g rhubarb cut into chunks, 1 pot of yoghurt, 3 pots of caster sugar, 3 pots of sr flour, 1 tspn baking powder, 3/4 pot vegetable oil, 2 eggs, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 1/4 pot of milk Preheat oven 200C/gas 6 Grease and base line a 20cm cake tin. In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients except the rhubarb. Beat together. Add the rhubarb and mix in with a spatula. Spoon into the cake tin. Bake for 30 mins till golden. A lovely, simple cake. It has a moist crumb and is very tasty. You could add a mix of 2tbspn sugar and 1/2 tspn cinnamon  as a topping. A great way to use up ...

 I've written the title in French because moelleux is a difficult word to translate. It means soft or tender or moist. This cake is soft and moist and simple to make.  It's another recipe passed on by my French friend [who is my school penfriend from when we were 11!] and is a useful recipe to have, as it can easily be adapted. You need; 150g flour and 1 tspn baking powder, 50ml vegetable oil [I use rapeseed], 150g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 125g mascarpone cheese, and either the zest of a lemon or a few drops of lemon oil, icing sugar to dust Preheat oven 180C/gas4                         You need a ring mould, greased Beat the eggs and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the mascarpone, oil, flour and baking powder and lastly the lemon zest or lemon oil. Mix well. Spoon into the tin and bake for 30 mins. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins before turning our onto a wire rack. A dusting of icing sugar is all it needs. ...

 We all need a treat in these strange times, and these brownies fit the bill. No guessing that the recipe's from the US originally, handed to me by a neighbour when we were living in Chicago. They are very calorific, so no good if you're watching you weight! For the brownie mixture you need: 170g butter, 330g caster sugar, 3 eggs, good pinch of salt, 110g dark chocolate, 45g cocoa and 125g flour For the peanut mixture you need: 50g butter, 60g caster sugar and 250g smooth peanut butter Preheat oven 180C/gas4                           Grease and line a brownie tin [one I used is 28 x 18 cm] Brownie mixture - melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave or over simmering water in a bowl. Add the sugar, salt, beaten eggs and beat together till well mixed. Peanut mixture - melt the butter. Using an electric hand beater, beat the melted butter, peanut butter and sugar together till smooth. Spoon alternate tbspn of b...

Having a sort out of my herbs and spices jars, I came across a jar of dried lemon balm that is almost past its sell by date. Not sure why I bought it, but it needed using up. I hunted through my recipe folders, and found one that a school friend gave me ages ago. It used lemon balm with pink grapefruit! I'd give it a try. You need:  200g ground almonds, 2 tbspn dried lemon balm, 1 pink grapefruit, 150g caster sugar, 2 large eggs and 22ml of olive oil [or 20g!], flaked almonds and icing sugar to decorate top Preheat oven 160C/gas3                               Grease a 20cm springform cake tin and sprinkle inside with sugar Wash and dry the grapefruit, then zest about 1/4 of it and put this aside. Peel the grapefruit, cut in half and scoop out the pulp. Put sugar and lemon balm in a bowl, add the eggs and beat with an electric beater till mixture is white. Add the pulp and zest of the grapefruit and mix ...

 Feeling a bit down lately, with the freezing weather and not getting out, I thought I'd make one of my favourite cakes as a treat. I bought a bag of Conference pears on offer at the supermarket, and this is a great way to use them. The most famous fondant cake is the chocolate fondant, a cake with a lovely oozy chocolate centre. In this cake, the lovely centre is made of pears. For the cake you need:  100g caster sugar, 100 ml milk, pinch salt, 2 tspn baking powder, 150g plain flour, 2 eggs and 3 tbspn sunflower or vegetable oil, 4 medium pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced For the topping you need: 80g butter, 3 tbspn caster sugar and 1 egg Preheat oven 180C/gas4                     grease a flour a 24cm tart tin Put the sugar, 2 eggs and salt in a bowl and whisk till light and fluffy. Gently fold in the flour and baking powder, then the milk and oil. Pour half of the mixture into the tart tin and then layer on the pe...

  For some reason, I seem to have an awful lot of onions. With this wintry weather I thought I'd use some up and make an onion and bacon tart. Nothing fussy, just pastry, onions and lardons.  I knows chopping onions can be a tearful job, so I admit to using the slicer on my food processor. I used the grater for small slices, but they can be hand chopped!   You need 200g short crust pastry, 2 big onions [or more if you really like them!], 400ml crème fraîche, 150g lardons and some grated Gruyère or other flavourful cheese Preheat oven 180C/gas4                   You need a baking sheet Peel and chop the onions. Put into a frying pan, add half a glass of water and cook gently for 5-10 mins. leave to cool. Roll out pastry into a circle that will fit the baking sheet. My sheet will take a 28cm circle. prick with a fork. Spread the crème fraîche over the pastry leaving a gap round the edge. Spoon the onions on top and fin...

A Happy New Year! Bonne Année!  I can't let Epiphany pass without a Galette, and I think we all need something sweet to keep us going in these difficult times.  I asked my French friend for ideas for something different and she sent me this recipe. I found the ground hazelnuts in Waitrose, or you could grind your own. So you need: 2 sheets of butter puff pastry, 125g ground hazelnuts, 100g dark chocolate, 100ml single cream, 1 egg, 75g caster sugar, 50g melted butter, 1 tspn vanilla extract and 1 egg yolk Preheat oven 200C/gas6                       Baking sheet Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in the microwave or over a pan of simmering water. Beat the egg with the sugar till fluffy. Add the melted chocolate and mix well. Add the hazelnuts and vanilla extract and stir together. Roll out the first sheet of puff pastry and cut out a circle using a large dinner plate or something similar. Place on the baking she...