COOKBOOKS GALORE

We had some friends for a few days and it was G's birthday, so I wanted to make a nice dessert instead of a cake. He loves ginger, and I had a large jar of ginger confit bought on our last French trip. This could give the cheesecake a good ginger flavour, and be the decoration on the top. I read somewhere recently that ricotta makes a good cheesecake, so decided to use half ricotta and half my usual Philly. I used digestive biscuits, but could have used something with chocolate in them. 180g biscuits 250g ricotta 250g Philadelphia cheese 200g dark chocolate 2 eggs and 1 yolk 80g caster sugar 80g candied ginger and 50g for the decoration 60g butter Icing sugar for top Preheat oven 150C/gas2 You need a 23cm springform tin. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor or bash them with a rolling pin. Melt the butter and mix with the biscuits crumbs. Use your fingers to press it into the base of the tin, then put in the fridge. Melt the broken up chocolat...

We love tea breads and loaf cakes, or anything with fruit in really. I found this recipe in my cuttings folder, and I think it originally came from 'Woman's Weekly' magazine a few years ago. I adapted it to suit our tastes, as the original recipe used prunes, apple and pecans. It also used wholemeal flour, but I'd run out, so used white. I added some cinnamon, which is always good with apples, imho, and I didn't toast the pecans, as suggested. So here's my adapted recipe: 1 apple [about 175g - I used a granny Smith with its skin on] 175g dried apricots 175g pecans 11/2 tspns baking powder 220g plain flour 110g butter or margarine 175g light demerara sugar 2 beaten eggs 3 tbspn milk Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease and bottom line a 900g loaf tin. Add the baking powder and cinnamon to the flour and sieve into a bowl. Then add the other ingredients, except the fruit and nuts, and beat together with an electric hand mixer. If the mixture seems to thic...

These came about because I had a sort out in my baking cupboard and found some marzipan that needed using up.  I remembered eating some biscuits in France that had a layer of marzipan in the middle, and they were delicious, so thought I'd have a try and make something similar. I used my usual cookie recipe, rolled out the dough and added a chunk of marzipan to the circles I'd cut out. To give an extra flavour I added a few bits of broken dark chocolate before putting another circle on top and sealing them together. I piped some white chocolate over when they were cold. I made 12 complete cookies. 150g butter 150g light brown sugar 1 egg 250g flour 100g marzipan 100g dark chocolate, broken in small pieces 100g white chocolate Preheat oven 190C/gas5 Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper. Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer, then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1/2 c...

I'm on a quest to find the perfect scone. I've tried recipes from various people - Delia, Mary Berry, Nigella etc but still haven't found one that really makes me feel - yes, that's it! Trying out yet another recipe today, one I've made before, I decided to try using some mascarpone as well as milk to make it more moist. I also used soft light brown sugar instead of my usual caster sugar. Would this be my perfect scone? Here's my adapted recipe: 340g sr flour 1 tspn baking powder 80g butter in pieces 2 tbpsn soft light brown sugar 80g mascarpone 90ml milk 1 beaten egg to glaze the tops Preheat oven 190C/gas 6-7 I used a silicone mat on my baking sheet, but a dusting of flour on a sheet would be fine. Put the flour, baking powder, butter and sugar in a food processor and blitz till breadcrumbs. Add the mascarpone and blitz for a couple of seconds. If you don't want to use a processor just rub the fat into the flour and sugar then rub in the mas...

At long last our rhubarb plants in the garden have got their act together and produced a decent amount of fruit. I made a crumble and a cake, both of which I put in the freezer, and wanted to use up the last pieces. This is my dil's favourite muffin recipe - not with rhubarb and chocolate, but she loves blueberries and raspberries. I found the addition of Greek yoghurt rather unusual, as I usually use milk. I was going to just make rhubarb muffins, then found I had some white chocolate to use up; it's a good combination. 80g butter 150g sugar 1 tspn vanilla extract 2 large eggs, beaten 100ml Greek yoghurt 225g flour + 1 tspn baking powder 400g rhubarb chopped into small pieces 150g white chocolate, chopped Preheat oven 200C/gas6 Filla 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases Beat butter and sugar together. Add the beaten eggs, vanilla extract and yoghurt and gently combine. Fold in the flour and then add the rhubarb and chocolate. Blend together thoroughly, but do...

The title is not quite correct because I couldn't find any Key limes! I've made this cake before using oranges, which were the fruit used in the original recipe.It's  from Woman's Weekly magazine, but when I don't know, as it's in my recipe folder. I thought I'd try it with limes, and it turned out well. It's a thick layer of mousse, and it's definitely a dessert cake, rather than a cake to have with a cuppa. I haven't used the original cake recipe either this time, as I wanted to make a Victoria sandwich. 175g butter 400g caster sugar- 175g for the cake 3 eggs 175g sr flour 1 tspn baking powder 400ml double cream 250g mascarpone cheese juice and rind of 5 limes juice of a small orange 1 tbspn gelatine powder icing sugar to dust if you want the filling really green, you can use a few drops of green colouring, which I did. Preheat oven 160C/gas 3 Grease and line a 23cm springform tin. Beat the butter and 175g of the sugar togethe...

On Sunday May 19th it's World Baking Day and there's some great baking recipes to try. Just found it by chance. http://worldbakingday.com/#/en-gb/recipes I've mentioned before, that from time to time I bake with one of my grandsons. For some reason he really loves apricots, and he wanted to bake something using them. In a very old 'Blue Peter' activity book, from when my children were young, we found a recipe for these biscuits. They're quirky and T. loved making them, as they had apricots on them. We made 12 biscuits, and T went home with the recipe [and most of the biscuits!] to make them with his Mum. 150g plain flour 7g [about 21/2 tspns] vanilla sugar or 1 packet [or you could use caster sugar and some vanilla extract] pinch salt 150g cornflour 150g butter - cold and cut into pieces 250g tin of apricots in syrup 75g icing sugar 1 tspn or so of lemon juice Preheat oven 200C/gas6 Grease a baking tray. Mix the 2 flours, vanilla sugar and sal...