COOKBOOKS GALORE

Usually I stay well away from recipes for a chocolate fondant, having seen so many failures on Masterchef! My friend made these as dessert recently and I just had to make them. The family came for lunch on Sunday, so this was a good opportunity to try them. 100g white chocolate  + 4 extra squares 1 rounded tbspn flour 50g butter 30g caster sugar 2 eggs preheat oven 200C                   Grease and flour 4 ramekins Melt the 100g chocolate and butter over simmering water. Beat the eggs with the sugar in a bowl, then add the melted chocolate and flour and mix together. Fill each ramekin half full then drop in a square of white chocolate and add more mixture to fill. Bake for 8-10 mins. Carefully remove the fondants from the ramekins. Guess who took the photo? Not me! My daughter decided to add the finishing touches, some cream and blueberries, oh, not forgetting the sprig of mint! The chocolate doesn't make the f...

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...

An easy traybake to make for tea or a coffee morning. Preheat oven 180C/gas4                  Grease and line a 24x33m tin 1 tbspn cocoa plus extra to dust over top 2 tbspn instant coffee granules 2 tbspn warm water 225g each of butter, soft brown sugar and sr flour 1 tspn baking powder 4 eggs cinnamon for dusting top Icing - 100g white chocolate broken in pieces, 50g butter, 3 tbspn milk, 175g icing sugar Mix the cocoa and coffee with the water. Put the rest of the ingredients in a food processor or mixer and blitz together. Add the coffee/cocoa and mix again. Pour into the tin and bake for 30-35 mins. Cool in the tin. For the icing - Melt the chocolate, butter and milk together over simmering water. Sieve the icing sugar and stir into the chocolate mix. Spread the icing over the cake and dust the top with a little cocoa then cinnamon. Cut the cake into bars and if you want, put the bars into paper cases. I just dec...

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 to make one of these traditional French galettes, but wanted to make it a bit different so added some apples. You need: 2 packs of puff pastry, 3 eating apples, 200g crème fraîche, 200g ground almonds, 100g caster sugar + 40g, 3eggs and 1 egg yolk Preheat oven 220C/gas7                 A baking tray Cut the apples up into small cubes and put into a pan with the 40g of sugar. Caramelise for about 10 mins. Add 1 tbspn of the cream and mix together. In a bowl mix together the rest of the cream and the 100g of sugar, the ground almonds and eggs. Put this in the fridge for 10 mins. Roll out the pastry sheets. Cut out 2 large circles [I used a large dinner plate]. Put one of the circles on the baking tray and cover with the apples. If you have one, put a bean or little fêve in then spoon over the almond mixture. Cover with the second circle of pastry and pres the edges together. Dilute the egg yolk with 1 tbspn water then brush ove...

Although my mother was a great baker, she occasionally brought home one of McVitie's Tunis cakes near Christmas time. Do you remember these cakes? Well I was feeling all nostalgic and thought I'd try and make one. Not as elaborate as the original, as that looks too tricky for my icing skills! Mary Berry has a recipe, but I found another one, which was apparently sent by McVitie to a fan of the cake, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's in ounces. 3oz ground almonds 6oz butter 6oz caster sugar 3 medium eggs rind of 1 lemon 8oz plain flour 11/2 tspn baking powder 2 tbspn milk For the topping: 10oz plain chocolate Marzipan fruits [banana, orange, pear, apple] Preheat oven 160C/gas3                                        8" cake tin brushed with melted fat and lined with                            ...

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...