COOKBOOKS GALORE

  One of my favourite French desserts is a Charlotte, and I had a tin of pears which needed using and a recipe from a French neighbour for making a chocolate and pear one. It doesn't need cooking, just chilling. I bought a Charlotte mould when living there, but you can use any deep cake tin. It's simple to make and delicious. Charlottes can also be made with bread. You need: a large packet of boudoir biscuits [sponge fingers] or make your own  200ml whipping cream a sachet of vanilla sugar [about 1 tbspn] large tin of pears in syrup 150g dark chocolate 4 egg yolks Open can of pears and pour syrup into a small bowl and slice the pears. Dip the boudoir biscuits into the syrup and line a Charlotte mould with them, keeping some back for the top. Using an electric hand beater, beat the cream and vanilla sugar together till it's thick. Melt the chocolate over a low heat. Turn the heat off and add the egg yolks, beating together till the mixture cools. Add the cream and mix togeth...

 One of my favourite French desserts is a Clafoutis. It's usually made with cherries, and the question is whether to leave the stones in or take them out! I've read that leaving them in adds flavour, but I don't like finding stones in my dessert so I always take them out. I like to add some vanilla extract too. So for the Clafoutis you need: 500g cherries [stoned] 300ml milk 125g flour 100g caster sugar 3 eggs 20g butter [to butter dish] pinch salt icing sugar to dust Preheat oven 180C/gas5                         Grease a 23cm flan dish In a bowl sprinkle 50g of the sugar over the cherries and leave aside. Break the eggs and beat them together. Add the flour, rest of the sugar, a tspn of vanilla extract and the milk. Beat well to make a batter. Add a pinch of salt. Put the cherries in a layer in the base of the dish and pour over the batter. Bake for 35-40 mins till set. When cool, sift some icing sugar over the top....

My family came yesterday and they love desserts, especially anything with lemon. I wanted to make something different from my usual lemon meringue or tart, so as I had a large packet of boudoir biscuits in the cupboard, decided to try and make a lemon tiramisu. I found a recipe online, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I used both fresh lemons [from my tree in the greenhouse ] and lemon curd to give a good lemony flavour, as well as the small amount of Limoncello that was left in the bottle! I used: 250g boudoir biscuits, 250g mascarpone, 2 lemons, 3 eggs, 100g caster sugar, 20cl whipping cream, 3 tbspn lemon curd and 4 tbspn Limoncello. Cut one lemon in half and squeeze out the juice; mix this with 50g of the sugar and the Limoncello. Zest the other lemon finely. Whip the cream till it gets thick.  Separate the eggs and beat the whites till firm peaks, then beat the yolks with the other 50g of sugar till the mixture is white. Add the mascarpone, lemon curd ...

What is a Bavarois? Well, according to the internet it's   the French name for Bavarian cream, it is a delicate cream dessert with a crème Anglaise base made from either milk, cream or a fruit puree and then aerated with whipped cream and whipped egg whites before being set in the refrigerator with gelatine. It may be a straight vanilla or combined with additional flavourings; such as chocolate, coffee or liqueurs, served on its own as an individual dessert or as a filling for a variety of charlottes, tortes, cakes etc.   So now you know! I wanted a dessert for my son and family's visit this week, and I found this in an old French magazine cutting. It's unusual in that instead of having a pastry case and filling it with the Bavarois cream, you use dessicated coconut, flour, milk, egg whites and sugar to make a sort of nest. Preheat oven 150C/gas2                         Grease and base line a 23cm cake tin. In...

Having got back from our Lake District break on Saturday, my friend J asked if I'd make something a bit special for her sister's birthday. I know her sister loves anything with lemon in it, and I'd recently seen this recipe in an old French magazine. Also I had just enough Limoncello in the bottle. and it needed using. I seemed to have used an awful lot of bowls! I've never been a great fan of tiramisu, but I like the idea of a lemon one.  I used a small square loose-bottomed tin with deep sides to put the dessert together. Juice and zest a lemon and in a bowl mix the juice with 50g of caster sugar and 4 tbspns of Limoncello. Keep the zest for later. Separate 3 eggs and beat the whites into stiff peaks. In another bowl whip 20cl of whipping  cream till thick - the cream needs to be very cold to do this. In yet another bowl mix together 50g caster sugar, 250g mascarpone cheese, the 3 egg yolks, and most of the lemon zest. Add the whipped cream and ...

One of my favourite French desserts is a Charlotte, and I had a tin of pears which needed using and a recipe from a French neighbour for making a chocolate and pear one. It doesn't need cooking, just chilling. I bought a Charlotte mould when living there, but you can use any deep cake tin. It's simple to make and delicious. Charlottes can also be made with bread. You need: a large packet of boudoir biscuits [sponge fingers] or make your own  200ml cream a sachet of vanilla sugar [about 1 tbspn] large tin of pears in syrup 150g dark chocolate 4 egg yolks Open can of pears and pour syrup into a small bowl and slice the pears. Dip the boudoir biscuits into the syrup and line a Charlotte mould with them, keeping some back for the top. Using an electric hand beater, beat the cream and vanilla sugar together till it's thick. Melt the chocolate over a low heat. Turn the heat off and add the egg yolks, beating together till the mixture cools. Add the ...

 Am having a clear out of last year's fruit from the freezer, and found a bag of blackcurrants lurking in the depths. I have to say that they're not my favourite fruit - not sweet enough for me, but OH loves them. What to do with them? Didn't want another crumble or tart, so had a look in one of my cookbooks and found a recipe for an apple clafoutis - I was sure that blackcurrants would work just as well. What is a clafoutis? A batter pudding/flan with fruit, usually cherries. I 've seen many recipes for the batter, including one using yeast; I read through this one, then did it the wrong way round - beating the melted butter and sugar together instead of the sugar and eggs, but it didn't seem to have made any difference. I was a bit worried that the blackcurrants would be too tart, but in the sweet batter they were fine. Preheat oven 220C/gas7 and grease a gratin dish with a little butter. Put 500g of fresh or frozen blackcurrants [or cherries...

I'm always looking for new ways to use apples, and I found this recipe on Mary Berry's site. She calls it 'The very best Apple Dessert Cake'.  It's a sponge cake mixture with an added tspn of almond extract, and you put half of the mixture in the bottom of a 20cm springform or loose bottomed cake tin, lined, then you put a layer of thickly sliced apples then the rest of the cake mixture. You sprinkle the top with flaked almonds and bake for about 45 mins. You'll find the recipe  here  . It's got a great almond flavour and a lovely moist sponge; I like the contrast between the cake and the apple layer, then the crunch of the almonds on top. We ate ours with some creme fraiche. I liked it cold, but my OH preferred it warm.