COOKBOOKS GALORE

Since lock down started, I have been baking every week to share with my lovely neighbour who gets some shopping for me. I decided this week I wasn't going to make just a cake, but a cake that can also be a dessert. In the fruit bowl were some ripe pears, so I made my favourite pear recipe, a French one from Creuse, Gargouillau. You need for the cake: 150g butter, 150g caster sugar, grated zest 1/2 lemon, 2 eggs, 350g plain flour, 2 tspn baking powder and 8 tbspn milk You also need: 600g pears, ripe but not soggy and 50g butter, extra sugar and cinnamon/icing sugar Preheat oven 200C/gas6        Grease a 25cm springform tin and line the base with greaseproof                                                            paper,lightly greased Cream the butter and sugar, add the lemon zest and mix in. Add the eg...

325g caster sugar 4 pears, peeled, quartered, cored and sliced 175g self-raising flour 1 tspn baking powder 125g butter, melted 2 eggs 50ml milk 1 tspn vanilla extract You need a 20cm  springform round cake tin Preheat  oven to 180C/gas4, .  Put 150g sugar in a pan and add 3 tablespoons of water. Dissolve the sugar over a gentle heat, then turn up the heat and boil until the sugar turns a rich amber colour. Swirl the pan  but don't stir. Pour the caramel into the base of the prepared tin which you've lined with baking paper which comes up the sides a little. Let it cool, then arrange the pear slices in a circle pattern on top. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Add the rest of the sugar, and stir till mixed.. Add the melted butter, eggs, milk and vanilla, then mix at high speed for 1 minute to make a smooth batter. Pour over the pears and bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour.  Cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn onto a wire rack and serve ...

This is one of those cake that uses up the leftover Christmas bits and pieces. I had some cranberries, half a bag of pecans and some pears that needed using up. It's based on a recipe I picked up from one of the supermarkets - Sainsbury's I think. It has quite a thick topping, but it's delicious. It does take a bit of effort to make, but I think it's worth it. Pears and cranberries are 2 of our 5 a day! It's an upside down cake, so you need a heavy bottomed pan about 26cms, as it has to go on the hob and in the oven. I used a Le Creuset saute pan, which worked well. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Make the topping - melt 75g butter and sugar in the pan over a low heat. Peel and core 900g of pears [about 6] and cut them into about 1cm slices then put them in the pan on top of the butter and sugar. Cook over a gentle heat till the pears are just soft; turn the heat up to caramelize them. Sprinkle 140g of cranberries and 75g of pecans over the mixture and gently mi...

My friend gave me some pears from her tree, so I had to use the ripe ones quickly. Pears are one of my favourite fruit, but there seems to be such a short time between being unripe, ripe and too ripe. Another flavour we love is almond, and pear and almond go well together. When living in France I went on several cookery courses, and the lady who ran them became a friend. Her recipes were family ones, and she's kindly let me use any of her recipes on my blog. This is one of them. It always impresses guests because it looks like something you'd buy in a patisserie [at least I hope mine does too!], but is easy to make. I've used British cake tins and temperatures and translated her recipe. Grease and line a 20cm springform tin and preheat oven 180C/gas4 Cream together 175g butter and 175g caster sugar and 1 tspn vanilla extract till nice and fluffy, then beat in 3 eggs. In a bowl add 175g sr flour, 50g ground almonds and 1/2 tspn baking powder. Mix together then add to ...

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 still had a couple of pears left in the fruit bowl after making the pear cake, so decided to make some muffins. I played around with my basic muffins recipe and came up with this one - pears and walnuts are 2 of my favourite things. I usually make muffins in paper cases, but I've noticed that a lot of crumb gets stuck to these, so this time I decided to make them directly in the muffin tin. Although the tin is non-stick, I greased the holes and dredged over a little flour just to make doubly sure the muffins would pop out easily, which they did. 180ml milk 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 large egg 225g wholewheat flour or white plain flour if you prefer 2 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt ½ tsp ground cinnamon 150g demerara sugar 1 large firm but ripe pear 50g coarsely chopped walnuts 1-2 tbsp demerara sugar for sprinkling Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6, and lightly grease and flour a 12 hole muffin tin. Put the milk, oil and egg in a small mixin...