COOKBOOKS GALORE

Off on holiday to France tomorrow, so thought I'd post a French recipe. Will be back posting in 2 weeks. At the weekend I picked just enough rhubarb to make some kind of dessert. Wanted something different, and browsing through some old French cookery magazines, I found a recipe for a meringue tart with a difference, as it has a custard layer on the rhubarb before you add the meringue topping. Sounded like a great idea. I love rhubarb, but we haven't a very big garden so I have to make good use of what we can grow! It uses a 27cm tart tin, which is quite big. So, you need: 350g of shortcrust pastry 1 kg rhubarb 1 egg and 2 yolks 20cl of cream 1 tbspn vanilla sugar 150 g of caster sugar (50g for marinating the rhubarb and about 100g or a bit less in the custard] 1 tbspn cornflour For the  meringue :  2 egg whites 50g caster sugar per egg Preheat oven 220C/gas 8 Make the pastry and chill. Cut the rhubarb stems into 2cm pieces, taking the strin...

This recipe is for a 'pain d'épice' [spice bread]  type of gingerbread - a French classic. Each country has its own version of gingerbread, but I love the French one best. I wanted to do something a bit different for a special tea, as I'd invited the French conversation group I belong to. I decided to push the boat out, so instead of making just a normal cake looking gingerbread, I made it into a sort of millefeuille version, and added chocolate to it. The basic recipe came from my French friend's mother, and unlike our English gingerbread, it uses several spices. It's not difficult to make, but making it into a millefeuille was a bit of a faff! You need: 100g of dark chocolate 100g of honey *200ml cold double cream 130g flour [my friend's Mum used rye flour but I didn't] 11/2tspns baking powder 2 tspns vanilla sugar 20g icing sugar for the spices: 1 tspn of cinnamon, 1/2 tspn ground ginger, 1 tpsn freshly grated nutmeg and 1 star anise [...

Part of my husband's Christmas present to me was a 2 day Cookery course, which included making and decorating cakes. I went to the first day last Saturday and brought home this Moka cake. We made tuiles and langues de chats too, but they were eaten before I had a chance to take a photo! I asked, and got, permission from the tutor to put this recipe on my blog, so it's legal, but I've written it in my own words anyway. It's quite a complicated cake, and it pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it's worthwhile making for an occasion. As it was Mothering Sunday last w/e, it was the perfect special cake for tea. It's a Genoese sponge cake which is cut in half and sprinkled with some coffee syrup. Then you make some crème au beurre [it's much posher than a buttercream, hence the French term!] and use this to fill the sponge, to cover the cake and to pipe around the top of the finished cake. It's a luxurious 'treat yourself' kind of cake. ...

Our computer has had gremlins, so haven't been able to post. Hopefully this is now sorted! I'm always happy to find a new recipe for an apple cake, and this one comes from a French friend. It's nice and easy to make, is different from the usual apple cake, and is a nice change from the heavy Christmas pudds and cakes. I've translated it from French, hence the odd looking recipe with tbpns and grams! 200g of plain flour 10 tbspns of caster sugar + 100 g 2 eggs + 1 extra 6 tbspns of milk 2 tspns of baking powder 4 tbspns of sunflower or rapeseed oil 4 apples [I used Braeburns] 100g of butter 1 tbspn of vanilla sugar [or 1 packet] Icing sugar for the top Preheat oven 190C/gas5 Grease and bottom line a 23cm springform tin. Beat the 2 eggs with the 10 tbspns of sugar; add the flour, baking powder, milk and oil. Peel and slice the apples thinly, then add to the mixture and mix in. Pour into the tin and bake for about 30 mins. Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat t...

I was inspired by a recent post on the excellent Strong as Soup blog           http://asstrongassoup.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/black-sticky-gingerbread-random-recipe.html    to look for a recipe my neighbour gave me for a gingerbread made with honey. This is a very different gingerbread from the dark moist one on Phil's blog. The method is unusual in that you put the dry ingredients into a bowl, then heat the honey and pour it over. It's got a good spicy flavour and as Phil said in his post, gingerbread is great for taking on an Autumn walk, or with your afternoon cuppa, or even as a dessert with some custard. The original French recipe used 'quatre epices' but I don't think there's much difference between that and our mixed spice, and I found some ground aniseed in a local deli, but you could leave it out if you don't like it. 250g runny honey 250g plain flour 100g caster sugar 1 tspn baking powder 1 tbspn vanilla sugar 1 tspn ground anis...

I haven't been well, so not posted on here for a while, but I have been baking. My dil is German and gave me the recipes for her Christmas biscuits and I made a selection of them. This is the recipe for the melt-in-the-mouth vanilla crescents which are on the top layer of the cake stand. Preheat oven 175C and grease 2 baking sheets. 200g flour 80g caster sugar 175g butter 2 egg yolks 100g ground almonds 1 tspn vanilla essence 6 tbspn vanilla sugar Mix the flour, sugar, butter and egg yolks together then add the ground almonds and the vanilla esence. Bring the mixture together with your hands and cut in into 4. Roll out each quarter and put in the fridge for 1/2 and hour. Cut the dough into small strips then loop each strip into a crescent. Bake for 10 mins till light brown then roll in the vanilla sugar. Cool on a wire rack. Christmas stars Preheat oven 100C then 75C. Grease a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 3 egg whites 250...