COOKBOOKS GALORE

 I love apricots, but you don't see them often, and sadly, our town market is no more. so saw some on offer in the supermarket and bought them to make this tart, another French recipe from my friend. I used ready made shortcrust pastry, as it's too hot to make my own. You need: a block of shortcrust pastry, 75g caster sugar, 75g ground almonds, 600g apricots, 75g soft butter, 1 egg, and a handful of flaked almonds to sprinkle on top. Preheat oven 200C/gas6                   Tart tin 24 - 26 cms Roll pastry out and fit into tin. Put in fridge while you make the filling. Wash and stone the apricots. Mix together the sugar, butter, ground almonds and the beaten egg - make sure it's well mixed. Spread over the pastry and top with the apricots.  Bake for about 35mins then sprinkle the almonds over the top.  You can add the flaked almonds partway through cooking, but I prefer them like this. I like the crunchy pastry, the soft f...

 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...

A quick and easy recipe to use up a large tin of apricots I found in the back of my store cupboard. In season you could use fresh apricots. You need: a pack of shortcrust pastry [or of course, make your own] a large tin of apricots [or 500g of fresh] 75g soft butter 75g caster sugar 75g ground almonds 1 egg flaked almonds to decorate Preheat oven 200C/gas6                      A 24cm tart tin Roll the pastry out to fit the tin then put into the fridge. Take apricots out of tin and pour off the liquid. If using fresh, wash them, remove the stones and cut in half. Mix the butter, sugar, ground almonds and egg together to make a batter. Pour this into the tart tin. Arrange the apricots on top and bake for 30 mins. Take out of the oven and sprinkle flaked almonds on top then put back in oven for 5 mins. The tart can be eaten warm or cold. It was good eaten with some vanilla ice cream. You could use other fruits in...

This cake came about because I was in the right place at the right time, namely when they were reducing the fruit which was out of date that day. So I got several punnets of apricots for 50 pence each. The whole lot only came to 500 grams! I do miss being able to buy them in the market, as we did in France - the smell was so good! Anyway, you need 500g apricots, 50g flaked almonds, 3 eggs, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 180g each of plain flour, caster sugar and melted butter, pinch salt and 2 tspns baking powder, a little icing sugar for sprinkling Preheat oven 180C/gas4                 Sprinkle some icing sugar around the bottom of a tart tin. Cut the apricots in half and spread into the tin at the bottom and up the sides, cut side down. Put the almonds on top. In a bowl beat the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla together using an electric mixer or hand beater till tripled in volume. Carefully fold in the flour with the baking powder added, th...

I wanted to make something quick and easy for my grandsons' visit this afternoon. This slice must come under the 'easy to make and good for you' banner, as it has oats, muesli, honey, apricots, nuts ...  and surprisingly, all three boys will eat it!. I guess it's a posh flapjack! It's one of my friend Ann's family recipes, and we love it. 30g oats 80g dried apricots 60g muesli 40g dessicated coconut 30g almonds chopped into pieces 70g plain flour 70g demerara sugar 2 tbspn honey 2 medium eggs 140g butter Grease a deep 20cm square cake tin. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Cut the apricots into smallish pieces. In a bowl beat 140g of the softened butter with the sugar and honey. Add the eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour, oats, muesli, almonds, apricot pieces and the coconut. Mix it all together and spoon into the tin; smooth the surface and cook for 30 mins. Leave it to go cold in the tin then cut into squares. It's very filling, so I cut it int...

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...

I haven't made a loaf cake for a while, but having a sort out of my baking cupboard, I found some wholemeal flour, stem ginger and a bag of dried apricots that needed using. Thought they'd make a good combination in a loaf cake. I find using just wholemeal flour make cakes too heavy for my taste, so I always do half wholemeal and half white. It's a quick loaf to make - preheat your oven to 180C/gas 4 and grease a 900g loaf tin. Put 115g wholemeal flour and 115g plain flour in a bowl with 11/2 tspns of baking powder. Add 150g soft light brown sugar, 115g butter, 2 eggs, zest of a lemon and 2 tbspn of milk. Beat together using an electric mixer for about 2 mins then fold in 175g of dried apricots [not the ones you have to soak] which have been chopped. Finely chop 3 pieces of stem ginger and you need 4 tbspns of the syrup from the jar, Add these to the cake mixture. Thinly slice 1 more piece of stem ginger. Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin and level the top, then arra...

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...

On Sunday May 19th it's World Baking Day and there's some great baking recipes to try. Just found it by chance. http://worldbakingday.com/#/en-gb/recipes I've mentioned before, that from time to time I bake with one of my grandsons. For some reason he really loves apricots, and he wanted to bake something using them. In a very old 'Blue Peter' activity book, from when my children were young, we found a recipe for these biscuits. They're quirky and T. loved making them, as they had apricots on them. We made 12 biscuits, and T went home with the recipe [and most of the biscuits!] to make them with his Mum. 150g plain flour 7g [about 21/2 tspns] vanilla sugar or 1 packet [or you could use caster sugar and some vanilla extract] pinch salt 150g cornflour 150g butter - cold and cut into pieces 250g tin of apricots in syrup 75g icing sugar 1 tspn or so of lemon juice Preheat oven 200C/gas6 Grease a baking tray. Mix the 2 flours, vanilla sugar and sal...

This addition to my teabread recipe collection comes from a book I bought in a charity shop called 'The complete book of baking'. It really is a very quick bread to make, and is very moist. Another recipe with oil instead of butter must be good! 175g plain flour 11/2 tspn baking powder 1/2tspn grated nutmeg 6-g rolled oats 250g light brown sugar 60g dried cranberries 60g dried apricots 2 eggs 120ml sunflower oil 1 tspn vanilla essence 2 ripe bananas, mashed Preheat oven 180C/gas 4 Grease a 900g loaf tin Put flour, baking powder and nutmeg in a bowl and add the oats, sugar and dried fruit. Mix together till blended. make a well in the middle. In another bowl beat the bananas, eggs, oil and vanilla essence together with an electric mixer. Add this to the flour mixture and combine together. Pour into the tin and bake for 45mins- an hour till well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack. Dust the top with icing sugar if you want. I served this to friends w...

I've been watching the Hairy Bikers "Bakeation' and have enjoyed seeing the interesting breads and pastries which are made in Europe. I decided that I wanted to try one out, and found this recipe for 'Kolaches' in a cookery book about world cooking. They're Czech pastries and are often eaten at festivals such as Easter, so it's an appropriate time to make them. In the book there's a choice of 2 fillings for the buns - apricot or cheese. I decided on apricot, as I'd just bought some last weekend. The recipe uses a breadmaker, but they could, of course, be made by hand. I used my breadmaker the other day to make the dough for Hot Cross Buns, and this recipe has some of the same ingredients. It makes 16 pastries. 1 egg 120ml milk 60g butter 60g sugar 1/2 tspn salt 250g strong white flour packet quick yeast icing sugar to dust Beat the egg and milk together and pour into the breadmaker pan. Add the sugar, butter and salt and then the flou...

I'm going through a 'Cook British' phase, so wanted to make some rock cakes. Had some apricots and sultanas to use up so tried a variation on the original. A big success. Will make double next time, as son arrived, and together with OH ate them! I did manage to salvage one for me! 100g white sr flour 100g wholemeal sr flour 2 tspns baking powder 1 tspn mixed spice 100g soft margarine or butter 50g light brown sugar 50g dried apricots [chopped] 1 egg 2tbspns milk light brown sugar for dusting on top of cakes preheat oven 200C/gas 6 Grease or line a baking sheet [I used the reuseable baking paper I got from Lakeland] Put the flours, baking powder and spice into a bowl and mix together. Add the margarine or butter and rub in till like breadcrumbs. Stir in the fruits and sugar. Beat the egg with the milk and add to the bowl. Mix to a stiff mixture [add a bit more milk if it's too dry]. Put mounds of the mixture on to the baking sheet and sprinkle some ...

Yes, another easy loaf! I'm now trying to use up the contents of my food cupboard. There were a few dried apricots, sultanas and walnuts left, so this was the perfect recipe. 300g plain flour 21/2 tspn baking powder 11/2 tspn mixed spice 90g diced butter 90g soft brown sugar 200g dried apricots 125g sultanas 90g chopped walnuts 210 ml milk 1 beaten egg Preheat ovem 180C/350F/gas4 Grease a 900g [2lb] loaf tin Sift flour, spice and baking powder into a bowl and rub in the butter. Add the sugar, fruit and walnuts and mix together. Add the milk and egg and mix well. Put into tin and bake for 45-50 mins till golden. Cool on a wire rack.                                     I didn't have enough apricots so I also added some dried apple.