COOKBOOKS GALORE

I've been tagged by Suelle of Mainly Baking  to join in 'Food Bloggers Unplugged'. This was the idea of Susan at A little bit of heaven on a plate  to get to know something about other food bloggers. Here goes: 1. What, or who inspired you to start a blog ? I was living in France, a bit homesick, and started my blog for my family and friends to read about some of the things I was cooking and baking. It made me feel closer to them. 2. Who is your foodie inspiration? My inspiration was my mother; she was a superb cook and her speciality was baking. I helped her from a small child, filling tarts, rolling pastry, weighing ingredients. I especially remember my birthday parties, as my friends always talked about the great bakes Mum made - chocolate eclairs, iced slices, fondant cakes etc. 3. Your greasiest batter-splattered food/drink book is? It's Marguerite Patten's 'Every Day Cookbook'. I was given this as a present [together with her 'Book ...

One of out favourite desserts is a crumble, so thought I'd try out this recipe as it's a crumble pie. 175g oats 150g plain flour 125g brown sugar 1/2tspn bicarbonate of soda 175g butter or margarine, melted 2 large cooking apples, peeles, cored and sliced 75g dried cranberries 1 tspn cinnamon 1 tbspn lemon juice Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas5 Grease a 20cm springform cake tin or metal pie dish. Mix together the oats, flour, sugar and bicarb. in a bowl then stir in the melted fat. Mix together well. Press 2/3 of this mix into the bottom and sides of the tin or dish. Mix the rest of the ingredients together - the apples, cranberries lemon juice and cinnamon. Spoon this into the crumble base keeping away from the sides of the tin or dish. Starting at the edge and working into the middle, cover with the rest of the crumble. Then firm around the edges to seal the top to the sides. Bake for 30 mins till golden. What a great idea this is! I love a crumble topp...

My favourite spice is cinnamon, so when I found this recipe I had to try it. It comes from a very old copy of 'Home and Freezer Digest' magazine, which is sadly no more. 250g caster sugar + 2 tbspns 1tbspn + 21/2 tspns cinnamon 11/2 tspns instant coffee 175g plain flour 2 tspns baking powder 175ml milk 2 large eggs 1/2 tspn vanilla extract 140g butter, melted Bag chocolate chips Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 Grease and line a 20cm square tin. Put the 2 tbspns of sugar, the 21/2 tspns cinnamon  and the coffee in a bowl and mix together. In another bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and the cinnamon. In a third bowl beat together the milk, eggs and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and beat them together.Fold in the cooled, melted butter. Put half of the batter into the tin, smooth then sprinkle over the chocolate chips and the cinnamon sugar. Put the rest of the batter on top. Bake for about 35 mins...

100g soft margarine or softened butter 50g caster sugar 2 tbspns thick honey 225g sr flour 1 tspn baking powder 100g sultanas [or currants or raisins] 1 tspn cinnamon 150ml milk Preheat oven 160C/325F/gas3 Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. Beat all the ingredients together in a bowl then put the mixture into the cake tin. Bake for 50 mins to an hour. Leave in the tin for about 20 mins then turn onto a wire rack. A nice simple cake which has a good flavour. You can really taste the honey. It's quite a moist cake, but as it's not rich, it needs to be eaten in a couple of days. That's not a problem in this house! I'd use more cinnamon next time and try a flavoured honey.

I haven't made a teabread for a while, so as I had a butternut squash to use up, I hunted for a recipe in my folders and found this one from 'Good Food' magazine; it's also online and the recipe is here  . The recipe is for pumpkin or butternut squash. I liked the moist texture of the teabread and the flavour of the squash. It's delicious buttered - the slice in the corner of the photo is for my husband who loves butter!

I have some apples to use up, so decided to hunt through my collection of apple recipes to find something different. This recipe is from a booklet I had many years ago in a magazine called 'Home and freezer Digest' which sadly no longer exists. I thought I'd also use this as my offering to Ruth's [of 'Pink Whisk'] October challenge -  to use apples in a recipe - which you'll find here Pastry: 75g butter 175g plain flour 25g ground almonds 1 egg yolk 15ml cold water 1/4 tspn almond essence Topping: 115g plain flour 1/2 tspn mixed spice 50g butter in cubes 50g light demerara sugar 50g flaked almonds Filling: 675g cooking apples 25g sultanas Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas5 I used a food processor to blend the flour and butter for the pastry, then stirred in the sugar and ground almonds. Whisk the egg yolk, water and almond essence together, then add them to the mixture and make into a nice soft dough. Put into the...

An easy, quick recipe to take over to my grandsons. It makes 16 fingers. Grease and line an 18cm square tin Melt 60g butter, 1 tspn cinnamon, 3 tbspn golden syrup and 200g dark chocolate in a large saucepan.  Then add 250g crushed biscuits - Nice, malted milk, digestive etc. I used just Nice biscuits and crushed them so some were left in pieces.  Mix it all together and spread into the tin.  Leave to cool then put into fridge to chill. Cut into fingers. The boys loved them, but we found them too sweet even tho' I'd used dark chocolate.