COOKBOOKS GALORE

My family love Brownies and I usually make this recipe  from Suelle's great blog 'Mainly Baking', but have a look there and you'll be spoilt for choice for Brownie recipes. I wanted to try something different and, as often happens, I had a couple of pieces of fruit in the bowl that needed using - this time pears. So I decided to make a brownie base, then a layer of chopped pears and finally a crumble topping. I didn't use Suelle's basic recipe this time, but one a friend gave me. For the brownie part  you need - 200g dark chocolate, 50g flour plus 1 tspn baking powder, 150g butter [melted], 3 eggs and 125g caster sugar  For the crumble - 75g flour, 80g caster sugar and 120g soft butter You also need 2 pears, peeled, cored and cut into cubes. Preheat oven 180C/gas4                 Grease a brownie tin - mine is about 25 x 20 cm [ or 10" x 8"] Brownies - melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave or over simmering wa...

Over the years I've gathered quite a lot of recipes for apple cakes, but I found this one recently in an old magazine cutting. I've made crumble cakes before, but this one has 2 layers of apple, so a bit different. It also has some elderflower cordial in it, which sounded like an interesting addition. The recipe used a 27x25 cake tin, but I only had my Wilton's brownie tin which is 27x17.8 so I made 3/4 of this mixture. Even so, it made a large cake; there was plenty for 6 people and some left over for us. This is the original recipe. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 27x25xm baking tin. Cream together 200g butter or margarine and 200g caster sugar. Add 4 eggs one at a time and beat together. Add 350g sr flour, 2 tspn mixed spice and 1 tbspn elderflower cordial and fold in. Put half of this batter in the tin. Peel and thinly slice 500g cooking apples [about 2 large ones] and put half over the mixture in the tin. Spoon over the rest of the mixture making ...

I try and buy things in season, but the punnets of shiny blackberries caught my eye this week, so I bought some. I know they have air miles, but nobody's perfect! I love tray bakes,and I got the idea for this one from this Good Food site recipe. It seems to be fashionable at the moment to add crumble tops to cakes and muffins, and I think it gives a great contrast of textures to a cake.I like my crumble a bit clumpy, not too much like breadcrumbs. 115g butter, softened 175g caster sugar 1 egg 280g sr flour 125ml milk 200g blackberries Crumble topping: 115g caster sugar 85g pl flour finely grated rind of 1 lemon 50g butter Preheat oven 180C/gas4.  Butter an oblong cake tin. Beat sugar and butter together till pale and fluffy.Beat in the egg, then fold in flour and milk and mix well. Spoon into tin and sprinkle the blackberries over the top. The crumble - mix sugar,flour and lemon rind together then rub in butter till you have large crumbs,then sprinkle...

I love crumbles of any kind, but this one has become my new love. Pears are one of my favourite fruit, so this recipe was a must try. It came from my French friend, as 'les crumbles' are very fashionable in France too. She likes trying out new flavour combinations and the ones she uses here are very different. When cooked, pears always seem to go mushy, but cooked in this way, they seem to hold their texture. It's also a new way of making a crumble - sprinkling it onto pear halves, instead of onto sliced or quartered pears. You need: for the crumble: 100g flour 80g soft brown sugar 1/2 tspn ginger 80g butter + about 20g to grease the dish 1 tspn soluble coffee for the rest: 4 pears 50g sultanas or raisins 30g butter Preheat oven 180C/gas 4 Put the sultanas or raisins in a bowl of warm water and leave them to soak for about 2 hours. To make the crumble - put the flour in a bowl, add the ginger, sugar, coffee and the butter cut into pieces. Rub the butter...

I've posted muffin recipes several times, adapting my favourite recipe. I made a rhubarb tart yesterday, and had enough rhubarb left to make some muffins. I wanted to make something different, but having looked online and not been inspired, I decided to adapt my old faithful recipe  We love rhubarb crumble, so muffins with rhubarb and crumble sound ideal. I usually make the crumble with half oats and half flour, and I use oil instead of butter in the muffins. A healthier option! I used soft light brown sugar instead of my usual caster. For the crumble topping: 50g butter, 50g plain flour 25g porridge oats 50g demerara sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon For the muffins: 225g self-raising flour 100g soft light brown sugar 1 medium egg, beaten 250ml milk 120ml sunflower or rapeseed oil 200g rhubarb, sliced lengthways and chopped 2 tbspn cold water 50g caster sugar icing sugar [opt] Preheat oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Line a 12-hole muffin tin wi...

One of out favourite desserts is a crumble, so thought I'd try out this recipe as it's a crumble pie. 175g oats 150g plain flour 125g brown sugar 1/2tspn bicarbonate of soda 175g butter or margarine, melted 2 large cooking apples, peeles, cored and sliced 75g dried cranberries 1 tspn cinnamon 1 tbspn lemon juice Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas5 Grease a 20cm springform cake tin or metal pie dish. Mix together the oats, flour, sugar and bicarb. in a bowl then stir in the melted fat. Mix together well. Press 2/3 of this mix into the bottom and sides of the tin or dish. Mix the rest of the ingredients together - the apples, cranberries lemon juice and cinnamon. Spoon this into the crumble base keeping away from the sides of the tin or dish. Starting at the edge and working into the middle, cover with the rest of the crumble. Then firm around the edges to seal the top to the sides. Bake for 30 mins till golden. What a great idea this is! I love a crumble topp...