COOKBOOKS GALORE

I always try and make a galette in January. You can find them in all the pastry shops and supermarkets in France, as they're made to celebrate the arrival of the Kings on January 6th. Have sadly lost all my little fèves that I collected [the little china figures that go into the galette des rois]. Whoever finds the fève is king or queen for the day and gets a crown! Decided to make it a bit different this year and added chocolate to the frangipane. It's so useful to have the puff pastry ready cut out into a circle, as in France, but a large dinner plate used to cut round to make the circle is fine. You need: 2 packs of butter puff pastry, 200g dark chocolate, 125g ground almonds, 125g caster sugar, 125g soft butter, 25g plain flour, 3 eggs and 1 yolk, and 1/2 tspn almond extract Preheat oven 200C                             A baking sheet Beat the eggs and sugar together till light and fluffy. Add the alm...

                                                            Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy,                                           Happy New Year.

I was given a bag of apples and wanted to make something different. Browsing through my recipe folder I found this recipe. It's an egg custard over apples, but the custard is made with cream. Lovely to have as a pudding in this miserable weather. For the apples:  50g butter, 1 kg cooking apples, 50g sugar and the zest of 2 lemons For the custard topping: 825ml double cream, 50g sugar, 4 eggs plus 2 yolks, 50g demerara sugar and 1/2 tspn cinnamon Heat a frying pan and add the butter and apples, peeled cored and sliced.  Cook for 6-7 mins till soft but still keeping shape. Add the sugar and zest and cook for a further 2-3 mins. Pour into an ovenproof dish. Beat the eggs, yolks and sugar together; warm the cream over a gentle heat then add to the eggs and gently mix in. Pour over the apples. Mix the brown sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle over the top. Bake in preheated oven, 180C/gas 4 for about an hour, till set but still a bit wobbly. It feeds about 8 people, ...

I love Scandinavian baking and have several Scandi baking books, but to honest, I've never baked from them. Reading an article recently on this type of baking, I thought I must use my books, so decided to make a caramel almond cake. I've adapted it from 'Scandilicious Baking'. For the cake you need; 20ml milk, 1 tspn lemon juice [or 75ml buttermilk] 75g butter, 3 eggs, 150g caster sugar, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 150g plain flour, 1 tspn baking powder and a pinch of salt. For the topping:  150g flaked almonds, 125g butter, 125g light brown sugar, 50ml milk and 1/2 tspn sea salt  Preheat oven 160C/gas3                     Grease and base line a 23cm springform cake tin Stir the lemon juice into the milk to sour it, or use 75ml buttermilk instead. Toast the almonds till they're a light golden colour [takes about 6 mins]. Melt the butter over a low heat then pour into a bowl and allow to cool. Beat the eggs, sugar an...

I love Autumn and its flavours, and one of my favourite is nuts. I know I've mentioned it before, but every Autumn in France we got given a bag of walnuts from my neighbour's tree. She used to make this tart with some of them. I bought a large bag of shelled walnuts on offer at a local deli, so decided to make her tart. I know the taste won't be quite the same, not using fresh nuts, but it will be a lovely memory of Reneé. Preheat oven 200C/gas6.            23cm tart tin Pastry: 125g flour, 75g butter, 25g caster sugar, pinch salt, 1 egg and 25ml water. Mix all the ingredients together into a firm ball of dough. Pop in fridge till needed. Filling: 500g shelled walnuts, 150ml crème fraîche, 60g caster sugar, 1 beaten egg, 1 tspn vanilla extract and icing sugar for the top. Keep enough walnuts back to have enough to cover the top. Put these on a baking tray and put into the oven for a few minutes till they have some colour. Put the rest in a blen...

I love pears and I wanted to make something different with them. Happily my French friend came to my aid again and gave me this recipe. It's a dessert not a cake, but is easy to make. 4 medium pears [firmish but not too hard] 150g plain flour 100g caster sugar 2 eggs 100ml milk 3 tbspn vegetable oil 2 tspn baking powder For the topping: 80g melted butter 3tbspn caster sugar 1 egg Flaked almonds Oven 180C.                             Grease and flour  23cm cake tin Put the sugar and eggs in a bowl and beat till light and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder and oil and mix in. Pour half of this batter into the cake tin. Peel the pears and cut into strips. Put on top of the batter in the tin and spoon the rest of the batter on top. Bake for 30 mins. Topping- Beat the egg and sugar together then add the butter and mix together. After the fondant has baked for 30 mins, take out of the oven a...

The small 'fondants au chocolat' were the puddings which caused the most problem when I used to watch Masterchef! My French friends recently came to visit, and knowing how I love to try new things, she brought me her recipe for a large cake version. The biggest problem was choosing the right tin, as G had used a French one and I wasn't sure which one of mine to use. In the end, I used a tin I use to make quiches, 22cm. It has a loose base which was very useful. The recipe:  100g chocolate [my friend used cooking chocolate in her recipe. but I used supermarket's own dark]  75g softish butter  3 eggs  100g caster sugar  40g plain flour  1 tspn baking powder Oven 180C                        Grease and flour a 20/22cm tin Break up chocolate and cut butter into pieces. Melt over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave. Mix together. In another bowl beat eggs and sugar till white and...