COOKBOOKS GALORE

I found some buttermilk hidden in the back of the fridge, so decided this was the time to try the buttermilk scones from Nigella's 'Kitchen'. They're quite generous, like the lady herself! You can find the recipe here . They taste really good; a keeper I think. Next time I'll add some dried fruit - cranberries, sour cherries, chopped dried apples or pears. Wonder what they'd taste like with chocolate pieces?!

Thought I'd make some cookies for a change and found this recipe in my folder. They're part of my new 'healthy eating' - well oats are healthy aren't they? Forget about the butter and syrup! It makes about 18 cookies. 115g butter 115g caster sugar 2 tbspn golden syrup 1egg 115g plain flour 1 tspn baking powder 1 tspn each of cinnamon and mixed spice 115g oats Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas4 Cream the butter and sugar together till it's nice and fluffy. Add the syrup and the egg and beat together. Fold in the flour, baking powder and spices and then the oats. Grease a couple of baking sheets and put spoonfuls of the mixture on the sheets; make sure you leave a space between each one as they spread. Bake for about 15 mins till golden and just firm when you touch them. Leave them to cool on a wire tray.

A very Happy New Year. I wanted to make a different sort of cake, so searched through my books till I found this recipe in an old book of world cookery belonging to my Mum. It's of German origin. Preheat oven 160C/gas3 Grease and line a 20cm square tin. 115g butter 115g caster sugar 2 eggs 175g sr flour 4 tbspn milk 1 tbspn instant coffee dissolved in a tbspn boiling water Streusel: 85g walnut pieces 1 level tspn coffee granules 115g soft brown sugar 2 tbspn plain flour 30g butter [melted] Beat the butter and sugar together till nice and creamy. Add the eggs and beat again. Fold in the flour, milk and coffee. Spread half of this mixture into the tin. Put the streusel ingredients into a blender [ except butter] and make into a fine powder. Add the butter and give it all a quick whizz. Sprinkle half of this on top of the cake mixture and top with the rest of the cake mixture, Then sprinkle the remaining streusel on top. Bake for about an hour in the middl...

We don't like Christmas pudding, so I try a new Christmas dessert recipe every year. Last year it was sticky toffee pudd. and this year I wanted to do something lighter. The recipe said that this amount would serve 8, but it served 3 people who had seconds! I made it in advance and froze it. The recipe comes from this year's 'Woman's Weekly Christmas special'. 100g white chocolate broken up into pieces 250ml ready made vanilla custard 3 tbspns Baileys liqueur 142ml pot double cream 2 tbspns grated dark chocolate a few raspberries small loaf tin lined with cling film Melt the chocolate and stir in the custard. Leave to cool then stir in the Baileys. Whip the cream then add it to the mixture. Spoon it into the lined loaf tin and feeze overnight. When it's solid, cover and wrap and label it. Take it out and put it in the fridge 20 mins before you want to use it. Put onto a plate, sprinkle the top with grated dark chocolate and decorate with a few...

Hope you had a great Christmas. I shan't forget ours in a hurry, as I nearly burnt the house down! I put some part-baked rolls in the oven to bake, ready to eat with our starter in the evening. Then we went out Christmas morning to visit our son and family and I forgot they were still in the oven! Luckily we came back earlier than we'd intended, as I wanted to make sure that the duck would be cooked  ready for our early evening meal. When we opened the lounge door, smoke was seeping under the door from the kitchen, and the kitchen was full of smoke! I quickly turned off the oven, and we had to open doors and windows to get rid of the smoke! My nicely-heated house turned into an ice block! But it could have been an inferno! Here are the rolls - blocks of solid charcoal! Since then, I make sure everything is off before we go out!

                                          Wishing you a very Happy Christmas. Decided to start a new tradition and have muffins for breakfast on Christmas day. The idea is Nigella's, as is the recipe for Christmas morning muffins. You'll find the recipe on Nigella's site here  .

I made an apple pie yesterday and had some pastry left over. What should I do with it? Then I remembered a childhood favourite - Welsh cheese cakes. There's no cheese in them nowadays, but they're tasty and quick and easy to make. you need: a bun tin leftover shortcrust pastry 1 egg and it's weight in sugar, butter and flour 1/2tspn baking powder jam of choice - I used Mirabelle plum [home made] So, roll out the pastry and then cut out to fill the holes in a bun tin. Beat the butter and sugar together and then add the egg and fold in the flour and baking powder. Put a tspn of jam on the bottom of the pastry shell and then a heaped tspn of the cake mixture on top. I cooked them at gas6/200C for 15 mins, when they were golden.