COOKBOOKS GALORE

 Thought I’d try and make up for not posting for a few months and post another recipe. These are one of my favourite things to eat. My Mum was a great baker and made them regularly. You can buy ready made short crust pastry or make your own. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 You need a 12 hole bun tin. Grease the holes in the tin. Pastry : 225g plain flour, 110g butter, 1 egg beaten, 50g caster sugar Rub the fat into the flour till breadcrumbs. Add the egg to the sugar and add to the bowl and mix together. Add the flour then mix into a dough. Wrap in film and put in the fridge for 30 mins. Custard: 40g caster sugar, 4 medium egg yolks, 1/2 tspn vanilla extract, 300 ml warm milk and 1/2 tspn grated nutmeg.  Mi the caster sugar, egg yolks and vanilla extract together then stir in the warm milk. Keep stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Take pastry out of the fridge and roll out on lightly floured surface to 2mm. Use a cutter slightly bigger than the holes in the bun tin and cut out 12 ro...

  Sorry, missed out on May! I had some soft tomatoes to use up and a pack of puff pastry lurking in the freezer. I remembered this recipe my friend gave me. It uses a few store cupboard ingredients and a few extras. It’s really good with salad and is very easy to make. 250g puff pastry 3 tbspn tomato paste, 150g cherry tomatoes halved, 250g ripe sliced vine tomatoes, 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, 2 tbspn olive oil, 1 tbspn balsamic vinegar, 1 egg yolk, S&P and a few thyme sprigs.  Preheat oven 190C/gas5  Baking sheet Roll pastry out to a rectangle 35x25 cm and lift onto the baking sheet. Spread the tomato paste over the pastry leaving a 3cm border round the edge. Put the vine tomato slices carefully over the paste, then sprinkle the halved cherry tomatoes over them. Top with the rosemary and drizzle with 1 tbspn of the olive oil and the balsamic vinegar. Brush the edge with the beaten egg yolk then bake for 15-20 mins till golden. Take out of the oven and season with S...

  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 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...

I love Autumn and its flavours, and one of my favourite is nuts. I know I've mentioned it before, but every Autumn in France we got given a bag of walnuts from my neighbour's tree. She used to make this tart with some of them. I bought a large bag of shelled walnuts on offer at a local deli, so decided to make her tart. I know the taste won't be quite the same, not using fresh nuts, but it will be a lovely memory of Reneé. Preheat oven 200C/gas6.            23cm tart tin Pastry: 125g flour, 75g butter, 25g caster sugar, pinch salt, 1 egg and 25ml water. Mix all the ingredients together into a firm ball of dough. Pop in fridge till needed. Filling: 500g shelled walnuts, 150ml crème fraîche, 60g caster sugar, 1 beaten egg, 1 tspn vanilla extract and icing sugar for the top. Keep enough walnuts back to have enough to cover the top. Put these on a baking tray and put into the oven for a few minutes till they have some colour. Put the rest in a blen...

And now for something completely different! I fancied something a bit exotic and fresh, so found this recipe in an old cookery book I picked up in a jumble sale years ago. It has lots of recipes for using fruit, so as I had a grapefruit and some lemons, decided to try this tart. It's fairly easy to make, but does need time chilling before you eat it. You need:  150g caster sugar, 70g soft butter, 4 eggs, 2 lemons, 1/2 grapefruit, a pack of shortcrust pastry [or make your own] and 1 tspn cornflour Preheat oven 200C.   You need a 23cm Tart tin Roll out the pastry to fit the tart tin. Line base with piece parchment paper or foil and cover with baking beans or rice. Bake for 15 mins, remove beans and paper or foil and bake for another 19 mins. Cool. Wash and dry the fruit then grate the zests. Put a pan of water on to simmer and in a bowl put the zests, the juice of the fruits, the beaten eggs, sugar and cornflour. Beat this over the pan of water till it thickens. Once ...

Lovely Autumnal look to the trees around here, so thought of making something with apples. I love apple cakes, but having just made 2 for a leaving lunch, thought I'd make a tart. Having yet another sort out in a cupboard, I found a bottle of Calvados with just enough left to put in my tart! Got to be a Normandy Tart with Calvados! This is yet another recipe I got from my lovely neighbour in France, and I've made it many times for friends and family. You need: 1 pack of butter puff pastry, 4 medium apples, 160g caster sugar, 50g butter, 1/2 tspn cinnamon, 2 eggs,100ml crème fraîche, 1 tbspn Calvados and some flaked almonds Preheat oven 210C/gas7                       Grease a tart tin lightly Peel and core the apples and cut into thick slices. Melt the butter in a pan and add the apples, 30g of the sugar and the cinnamon. Cook gently for a few minutes, but be careful they don't stick to the bottom and burn! Roll the ...

This is a nice easy tart to make, but gives the impression it's luxurious. It's one of my family's favourite desserts. Here I go reminiscing again, but in France my neighbour over the road had a walnut tree, and gave me carrier bags full of them. Ahhh!  No carrier bags full, but a special offer on walnuts in a supermarket was the incentive for making this tart. For the shortcrust pastry - 250g flour, 130g butter, 2 tspn sugar, pinch salt and water. Am not going to tell you how to make pastry! Preheat oven 180C/gas4                Line a tart tin with the pastry. For the filling - 250g chopped walnuts, 2 eggs, 400ml crème fraîche, 2 tbspn salted caramel and 2 tbspn soft brown sugar Beat the eggs with the cream and the caramel. Sprinkle the nuts over the pastry, keeping a few back to decorate afterwards. Pour over the cream mixture and sprinkle on the soft brown sugar. Bake for 35 mins. Decorate with some walnuts before serving. ...

My lovely French friend sent me some some French cookery magazines, and this tart was in one of them. The gingerbread isn't like our Parkin, it's a 'Pain d'épices', a spice cake. There's a recipe for one here https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/10695184/Pain-depices-recipe.html I love trying out new recipes with apples, and this tart was very different from the usual apple pie. You could buy a gingerbread loaf and crumble it. 2 packs puff pastry, 6-8 apples [I used Gala], 8 slices gingerbread, 50g butter, 50g sugar, 1 egg yolk, cinnamon Preheat oven 200C/gas6          you need a tart tin Roll out with of the packs of pastry and line the tin. Prick all over with a fork. Crumble the gingerbread and sprinkle over the pastry. Peel the apples and cut into quarters. Put these onto the gingerbread. Cut the butter into pieces and put these in between the apple quarters. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and cover with the second puff pastry. Make s...

I needed a quick tart as a dessert to take to a get together. This is one of Mum's recipes so I've added metric in brackets. It's just a variation on a treacle tart. 8oz (225g) shortcrust pastry 4oz (100g) golden syrup 1oz (25g) unsalted butter grated rind of 1 lemon 3 tablespoons of double cream 1 egg Preheat oven 200C/gas6                      7" or 17.5cm flan tin Roll the pastry out and line the tin. Prick the base and bake blind for 15 mins. Reduce oven to 180C/gas4 Warm the syrup till it's runny, then take off the heat and add the butter and lemon rind and stir together. Beat the cream and egg together and mix into the syrup. Pour into the pastry case and bake for about 30 mins. Serve warm with some cream or vanilla ice cream. It hasn't got the breadcrumbs like the usual treacle tart. Supposed to have been a favourite of Charles Dickens! Nice crumbly pastry and a soft filling with a hint of lem...

I made this recently as my contribution to a 'get together' lunch. It used up a bar of chocolate I would probably have eaten! It's a recipe I've made many times and is adapted from an old American baking book I picked up on one of my visits. Have mentioned it on here before - 'Favorite Cakes and Tarts my Mom made'. For the dough you need - 114g cold butter cut into pieces, 150g caster sugar, 1 large egg and 1 egg white, 300g plain flour, 40g cocoa and 1 tspn baking powder For the filling - 250g dark chocolate, chopped [not more than 60%], 90g cubed butter, 2 large beaten eggs, 85ml double cream, 50g caster sugar and 1 tspn vanilla extract Preheat oven 190C/Gas5                         20cm tart tin Cream butter and sugar together till soft. Beat in the egg and egg white. Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder together then add to the mixture and fold in. Bring together into a disc, wrap in cling film and put in f...

I love caramel and found this recipe in my magazine cuttings. It's not a difficult caramel to make, as I've had many disasters with it in the past!  You need:  Pack of shortcrust pastry, 2 eggs, 100g caster sugar, 60g butter, 100g walnuts chopped finely and 100g walnut halves For the Caramel: 20g butter, 100ml crème fraîche, 150g caster sugar Preheat oven 180C/gas4                 22cm tart tin For the tart: Cut the butter into pieces and melt for 1 min in a microwave. Leave to cool. Beat the eggs and caster sugar using an electric mixer or hand mixer till white and fluffy.  Add the chopped walnuts and melted butter and gently mix together. Roll out pastry to fit a tart tin which is at least 2.5cm high. Grease the tin then line with the pastry. Add the nut mixture gently. Bake for about 30 mins till golden. Caramel: Put the sugar in a pan and melt till brown. Heat the cream till boiling and pour over the su...

I don't make many sweet tarts these days, but my son loves treacle tart and especially this version, which is a Norfolk Tart. As he was coming for the weekend, I decided to indulge him with his favourite pudd! Preheat oven 200C/gas6 Roll out 225g shortcrust pastry [bought or home made] and line a 7" or 17.5 cm round tin. Fill with baking beans and bake for 15 mins. Take out the beans and reduce the oven to 180C/gas4. Warm 100g syrup in a pan till runny, then take off the heat and stir in 25g unsalted butter and the grated zest of a lemon. Beat 1 egg and 3 tbspn double cream together gently then stir into the syrup mixture. Pour this into the pastry case and bake for 30 mins. Serve this warm with some cream or ice cream. This is very rich and moreish. It has a lovely creamy filling with a good lemony hint.

The friend I've mentioned before on here, who owns a tea shop, came over at the weekend and brought me some strawberries grown locally. I wanted to make a tart with some of them, so found a French recipe in a folder for this one. The pastry is 'une pâte sablée', a rich sweetened shortcrust, but it's made in a processor or mixer. The filling is just a mixture of mascarpone, ricotta and icing sugar and the whole is topped with sliced strawberries. For the pastry - 1 egg, 200g flour, 125g butter, 75g caster sugar, 50g ground almonds, 1 tspn almond essence [opt], pinch salt. For the cream - 250g each of mascarpone and ricotta and 100g icing sugar Topping - punnet of strawberries, sliced Preheat oven 200c/gas6          You need a 23cm tart tin Put all the ingredients for the pastry in a blender and mix till blended. Bring together into a ball, cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least half an hour. Mix the cheeses and icing sugar together ...

 I first had this tart in a little bistro-style restaurant in France. It's very different from the usual apple tart, using grated apples and including lemons in the filling. As I was in a hurry to get it made, I cheated and bought some shortcrust pastry from Waitrose, but of course you can make your own. The recipe was on a bag of sugar I bought ages ago in France! What I loved about the ready-made pastry in France, was that is came in a round shape ready for the tart tin. Wish ours did! You need:  a block of shortcrust pastry, 3 large eating apples, 150g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 80g melted butter and 2 lemons, washed well. Preheat oven 200C/gas6.                          Grease a fluted tart tin. Zest the 2 lemons and put it in a small bowl then add their juice. Grate the apples into a larger bowl then add the lemon zest and juice to stop the apples turning brown. Mix together. Add the 2 eggs, the ...

I was shopping in Milton Keynes last week and came across a shop rather like the now sadly defunct Julian Graves. They had a special opening offer on walnuts, so I bought a large bag - nuts are good for you, anti-oxidents, omega 3 etc! I wanted to make something different to use some of them, and came across a recipe for a walnut tart. It's from a tourist brochure I picked up somewhere in France, and this recipe, I was informed, is a speciality of the Périgord region. It brought back memories of when we lived in France, and my neighbour had a prolific walnut tree and would give my a huge carrier bag full. The only problem was you had to shell them all! At least the ones I bought were shell-free. Preheat oven 200C/gas6               A tart dish about 23cm or a flan tin with a loose bottom. For the shortcrust pastry -  125g flour, 75g butter, 25g caster sugar, 1 egg yolk, a pinch of salt and 25ml water Make the pastry and line the tart dish o...

I love recipes using apples, and I made this tart for dessert when my children came last weekend. It's unlike the usual French apple tart, as it has cream in the filling with the apples. It comes from a leaflet I picked up somewhere, several years ago, when we were in Alsace, and I've made it many times since. Preheat oven 190C/gas5               You need a large fluted and greased flan tin [preferably with a loose bottom] - 24-26cm. For the pastry : 170g flour, 1 tbspn caster sugar, pinch salt, 125g cold butter cut into cubes and 2 tbspn cold water. Rub the butter into the flour to which the sugar and salt have been added. Add the water and make into a ball. Cover in clingfilm and put into the fridge for about an hour. Roll into a circle, and use the rolling pin to fit the pastry into the flan tin. For the filling: You need 4 apples  - I used Granny Smith, but you could use Golden Delicious or Braeburn, but not Bramleys, as they don't ...

I needed a dessert to take to a family lunch, so decided on a tart. This is one of my stand by recipes, so I know it tastes good; everyone likes chocolate! It's  lovely mixture of chocolate, mascarpone with a hint of coffee, all in a pastry case. Doesn't need much cooking - just the pastry case. You need: a pack of shortcrust pastry [or of course make your own] 200g dark chocolate 250g mascarpone 1 dspn instant Espresso coffee 3 egg whites pinch salt 80g caster sugar chocolate shavings to decorate [opt] Preheat oven 180C/gas4                     Grease a 21cm tart tin Roll pastry out to fit the tin, prick with a fork and bake blind for 10 mins. Break chocolate up and put into a pan; sprinkle a little water over and melt on a low heat. Once it's melted, take off the heat and add half the mascarpone and 1 dspn of instant Espresso coffee powder and mix well. Take the pastry out of the oven, cool then add the choc...

Wanted a quick and easy dessert, so used 3 ripe pears from the fruit bowl and made an easy tart. Chocolate and pears are a marriage made in heaven for me, but if you haven't got a bar of chocolate, you could use Nutella spread over the pastry. You don't have to make the pastry - use a ready made butter puff. Preheat oven 220C/gas7                23cm tart tin In a bowl, mix together 100g soft butter, 100g ground almonds and 125g caster sugar. Mix together then add 2 beaten eggs and beat together. Roll out the puff pastry and line the tart tin. Prick with a fork. Peel, de-pip [is there such a word?] and cut 3 ripe Conference pears each into 4 pieces. Melt 100g chocolate [you can use cooking chocolate if you want] in the microwave or over simmering water, then pour over the pastry in the tin. Spoon in the batter then spread the pears on top. Bake for about 30 mins - keep an eye on the tart at the end so it doesn't burn! Nic...

One of my favourite fruits is a pear, and I love anything with almonds, so decided to put the two together and make a tart. The filling for the tart is an almond cream, a frangipane. I used a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin and made a sweet shortcrust pastry case using 200g plain flour, 150g butter, 2 tbspn icing sugar and 2 - 21/2 tbspn water. Baked it blind at 200C for 5 mins then turned oven down to 170C and baked for further 10 mins. For the filling  85g butter at room temperature, 140 g caster sugar, 90g ground almonds, 2 tspns plain flour, 1 tspn cornflour, 1 large egg, 1 tspn vanilla extract. You also need 6 tinned pear halves or you could use fresh ones. If you do, you'd need to poach them first. Preheat oven 180C. To make the filling - put the butter and sugar in a bowl or a mixer [with whisk attachment] and cream till white. Add the ground almonds and mix togther. Add in the flours then the egg and gently mix together. Finally add in the vanilla extract and mix ...