Just perfect for a Sunday morning bakefest – so simple that my 4yr old does most of this herself.

What you need:

• 450g cooking apples (though I use any from the freezer, cookers or eaters)
• juice of ½ lemon
• 225g butter , softened
• 280g golden caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 350g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Demerara sugar, to sprinkle

How long it will take:

Prep 20 mins
Cook 50 mins

What You Do:

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line a rectangular baking tin (approx 27cm x 20cm) with parchment paper. Peel, core and thinly slice the apples then squeeze the lemon juice over. Set to one side.
2. Place the butter, caster sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and baking powder into a large bowl and mix well until smooth. Spread half the mixture into the prepared tin. Arrange the apples over the top of the mixture, then cover with remaining cake mix. Sprinkle over the demerara sugar.
3. Bake for 45-50 mins until golden and springy to the touch. Leave to cool for 10 mins, then turn out of tin and remove paper. Cut into bars or squares.
4. Will keep for a week in an air tight container, but best eaten whilst still warm with a dollop of clotted cream and a large pot of scalding hot tea. Nom nom nom.

At this time of year, you'll find us doing THIS quite a lot (no children were crushed in the making of this picture)

And we always have a bag or two in our pockets for these little juicies (it's a BUMPER crop this year, have you SEEN them all?). Weird how much small people LOVE berrying, isn't it?

But while we're out we ALWAYS look for this on the roadside. These apples were delicious eaters. And totally free. Yes - you just have to Pick Them Up. There is a glut this year, owners of apple trees are at a loss to store them all. How much would THAT little lot cost you in Sainsbury's?

And even when we go to do this...

There is a tree like THIS in the car park (cookers this time). Just hanging around, for the want of a good picking.

Three hours, one fab walk in the fields, one play in the park, one bag of blackberries (leaking juice all over the car), five bags of apples, and one bag of pears.

What are we going to DO with all those apples?

Ah.

Well…

Obviously some will be for pies/crumble/ Worlds Best Apple Cakes EVER… But most of them will be meeting a far messier end…

With the barbecue season upon us, I’m going to share my staple BBQ-gift food. Again, it’s another of those recipes which isn’t really a recipe, just something that my mother taught me, and which I make as a foolproof “ooh, that’s delicious” dish to share (and keep a large tub on the go in the fridge all summer). It IS the ultimate Barbecue accompaniment, but it’s also fab with salads, obviously, and just delicious in a sandwich too.

Coleslaw is one of those things you really ought to make yourself – I know you could say “why bother when I can just buy a tub?”. Well, honestly – shop-made pappy bland sloppy stuff? Making your own is so easy & so cheap that the question is really Why Wouldn’t You? Once you’ve tasted this, you’ll not eat the shop stuff again, honest. And this is just your base, there are so many variations you can make with it. These measurements are approximate – adjust according to your own taste.

Basic coleslaw of course is this recipe wihtout the raisins, but this is MY recipe, and mine ALWAYS has raisins in. So there.

Standard Coleslaw Recipe with Raisins.

Makes one large tub (2/3 a standard mixing bowl).

What you Need:

1/2 White Cabbage
1 Onion (I like to use red onion)
2 Medium Carrots
Raisins
2 heaped tbs Mayonnaise

What you do:

• In a large mixing bowl slice the cabbage finely (I find my ‘V’ slicer fab for this, or the ‘cheese slicer’ side of my grater, cutting across the layers to end up with fine shreds).
• Grate the carrot on top – I grate at an angle for longer shreds
• Add the onion diced VERY fine (again, I use the ‘V’ slicer)
• Add two large handfuls of raisins
• mix it all together with your hands
• Add the mayonnaise, and mix well with a large spoon – it’s dry at first, but keep mixing until everything is coated.
• You’re done!

Best eaten fresh on the same day while it’s really crunchy, but keeps for a few days in an airtight container.

Suggestions for variations (but use your imagination – it’s very hard to get it wrong):

• Add any/all of the following; celery, apple, cheese, all kinds of nuts, pineapple, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds.
• Halve the mayo and mix with creme fraiche or greek yogurt.

(If you don’t know what I mean by a V slicer, you can see them here – it’s an essential tool in my kitchen)

After the stressful week we’ve had, we felt seriously in need of some comfort baking. And actually, there’s only one recipe I reach for when I’m having one of *those* days weeks. It’s an old classic – a family fruit cake – which I’ve tweaked a bit over the years. Dead simple to throw together, no fancy schmancy ingredients I don’t already have in the cupboard (totally essential for Lazy Sunday Baking), and it’s unfailingly delicious. It’s also a great basis for all sorts of other favourites too – the alternatives are underneath, so don’t miss them.

So if, like us, you’ve had a bit of a stressful one this week, fret no longer. Throw the ingredients in a bowl, mix em up, and let the magic sprinkle through your house as it cooks (does anything actually beat the smell of a fruit cake baking?). And honestly – one slice of this, still warm, with a scalding hot mug of tea, and the world will just seem that bit brighter. I promise.

Laura’s Family Fruit Cake With A Twist of Lemon.

Serves 8 (but it’s go-o-o-od, so I usually double the ingredients  and bake a big one which can last more than one day for my family)

Takes 20 mins to prep, 1h 15 mins  to bake.

Oven – 180ºC / 170ºC Fan / 350ºF / GM 4

What You Need:

225g (8oz) SR flour
100g (4oz) butter
100g (4oz) caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling.
100g (4oz) raisins or sultanas
5ml (1tsp) grated lemon rind
(optional) 1tbs lemon curd
1 egg
75ml (5 tbs) milk

What you Do:

1. Prep a 15cm (6inch) round cake tin or a 450g (1lb) loaf tin by greasing and lining.
2. Sift flour into a bowl
3. rub butter into flour until it looks like breadcrumbs.
4. Add sugar, fruit & lemon rind,  and lemon curd if using (do if you have some, makes it sticky-moist and lush)
5. Mix using a metal spoon with egg and milk, do not beat, until evenly combined.
6. Transfer to your prepared tin (I always stop to poke any ‘top’ raisins down a little and cover with mix to avoid that burnt raisin thing on top).
7. Sprinkle top with a little extra sugar if you like a crunchy topping.
8. Bake for 1 1/4 hours, or until a skewer comes out clean (Fan ovens check it just after an hour).
9. Leave in tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto cooling rack.
10. Stores in an airtight container for a few days. If, you know, it got the chance.

And here’s some idea for variations which have proved popular over the years:

Date & Walnut – add 5ml mixed spice to the flour. Omit lemon and fruit, and instead add 75g (3oz) chopped dates and 25g (1oz) chopped walnuts.

Cherry – add only 50g (2oz) raisins, and add 50g (2oz) chopped glace cherries.

Coconut & Lemon – Omit all fruit. Add 50g (2oz) desiccated coconut and increase lemon rind to 10ml (2tsp).

If you have any other variations, do share!

I know we usually do a Sunday Recipe, but I thought today would be better for this one, as you can beetle out to get the few things you’ll need and make it as the perfect Easter Sunday Dessert. It really is the most amazing thing – and it’s funny, I didn’t make pavlova for years because I thought it was really hard and complicated. Not so! It’s dead easy. And universally popular – everyone always comes back for seconds, there really won’t be any leftovers.

Serves a family of 8 two moderate helpings each.

How long it will take:
20 minutes prep,
1hr baking,
10 minutes construction

What You Need:

For the Meringue:
4 medium egg whites
225g (8oz) caster sugar (I’ve used granulated before with no bad effects)
5ml (1tsp) Cornflour
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) White Wine Vinegar (I use any wine vinegar in the cupboard, red or white)
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) vanilla essence

Simple Topping:
Your choice of soft fruit – we LOVE raspberries and blueberries. But straight strawberries are good, as is a tropical topping with kiwi, banana and mango. The choice is yours: Three punnets of soft fruit is needed.
600ml Double Cream

What you Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 150ºC / 140ºC fan / 300ºF / GM 2.
2. Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment, and draw round a dinner plate (20cm-ish circle) in the centre of the paper. Turn the paper over so the marking is underneath and won’t transfer to the meringue! (NB – I have used foil in a baking-paper-less crisis, and it worked just fine)
3. Place the egg whites in a clean, grease-free bowl and whisk them until stiff and dry.
4. Add the sugar, a spoon at a time, whisking until the mixture is smooth, glossy and holds stiff peaks.
5. Gently fold in the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla with a large metal spoon.
6. Spoon the mixture onto the parchment. With the back of the metal spoon, spread it to just within the circle, making decorative swirls, leaving a shallow dip in the centre.
7. Bake for 1hr until the meringue base and sides are crisp. Leave to cool on a cake rack – cracking is totally normal as it cools.
8. Whilst it is cooking prep your topping; for the simple version, just whip your cream until it is nice and stiff, and chop any large fruit into bite size pieces.
9. Place the pavlova on a large serving plate and scatter with a couple of handfuls of your fruit.
10. Spoon the cream into the dip in the centre, spreading thickly and evenly almost to the edge
11. Arrange the rest of your fruits on top (I find topping it a fab job for small helpers)
12. Nom nom nom.

Alternative Special Topping:
Choice of soft fruit as before
25g (1oz) caster sugar
6 sprigs fresh mint
2 cinnamon sticks, halved
juice from 1 orange
450ml (16fl oz) Double Cream
150ml (5fl oz) Greek Yogurt

• For the Special Topping – Remove all stalks from fruit, halve/quarter any strawberries and place all in a large bowl together.
• Mix in the sugar, 3 minute sprigs, cinnamon sticks and orange juice
• Leave to stand for 2 hrs to infuse.
• Just before eating, whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Fold in the yogurt, and the mixture will thicken into stiff peaks.
• Add cream to the pavlova base as usual
• Drain the fruits (reserve the juice in a serving jug), discarding the mint leaves and cinnamon sticks.
• Spoon the fruit mixture over the cream mix
• As you serve, spoon a little juice over the fruit, and sprinkle with the remaining mint leaves.
• Serve with the reserved fruit juice.

Yesterday afternoon I was supposed to be making steak pies for dinner… mmmmmm…. *sigh*. Forgot to get the steak out of the freezer. It’s 4pm. Wah!

So, as we all do in such situations, I raided the cupboard and fridge for whatever I’d got and invented! Here is my recipe for a simple but luscious work-with-what-you’ve-got pasta bake… and I’m going to call it…

Katy’s Forgot-To-Defrost Aubergine & Pancetta Pasta Bake

(for 4 people so scale for more or less)

Ingredients (measurements are very, very approximate);

Pancetta (100g-ish) – you could also use lardons or chopped up bits of bacon

1 Aubergine

1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes

2 Shallots

Dried Herbs (I used an Italian mix that’s heavy on the Oregano)

Fresh mozzerella (one packet – the type with the ball in water)

Mature Cheddar – grated (you can use whatever cheese you like/have) – I used about 150g but feel free to use more or less as you like.

Parmesan – a good sized chunk was grated to cover the top of the dish

Pasta – whatever shape you like – I used 300g for 4 people

Method (again, very approximate and ad hoc);

Cook the pasta in boiling water for about 8 minutes (timing will depend on the type of pasta you’re using). You don’t want it too soft because it’ll be doing more cooking in the oven later.

Chop up the shallots very finely.

Scoop out the inside of the aubergines and chop all that up finely too (discard the skins).

Fry off the pancetta, shallots and aubergine.

Once the pasta is cooked, plonk it all into a suitable pasta bake dish (I use a rectangle glass dish).

Add the pancetta, shallots, aubergine, tin of chopped tomatoes, dried herbs (good pinch or two) to the dish and mix it all up.

Rip or chop the mozzerella into bitesized morsels and scatter over the dish, sprinkle over the cheddar/cheese and mix them all in.

Finally, grate the parmesan all over the top, this will give a lovely crispy topping.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at about 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5. When the top is looking golden and it’s all smelling divine – serve and enjoy!

Oh, it went down well in our house with cries of “More! More!”. I’m going to try it again but add more aubergine I think and possibly a second tin of tomatoes. Definitely the kind of dish that you’ll welcome seeing in the fridge the next day when a boring old ham sandwich just won’t cut it.

If you give it a go let me know how it went.

Thanks to the Archers, I’ve been wanting one of these all week. And today, feeling rather *cough* fragile (in a gin-and-dancing induced fashion), I succumbed. Oh, the joy. The sheer heavenly perfectness that is Lemon Drizzle Cake. Be careful though – one slice is just never enough. With a large mug of tea (and a hangover *ahem* ), TWO slices may not do it either.

*supposedly* Serves 10… (yuh. right.)

Prep Time – 15 minutes

Cooking time – 35 minutes

What you Need:
2 small lemons (unwaxed, scrubbed)
275g granulated sugar
175g butter, softened (plus some for tin greasing)
200g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
3 large eggs

What You Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 ºC/fan 160ºC/Gas 4.
2. Line the base of a 900g (2lb) non-stick loaf tin with baking parchment and butter the tin well.
3. Finely grate the zest of the lemons.
4. Put 175g of the sugar in a food processor with the butter, flour, baking powder, eggs and lemon zest and blend on the pulse setting until the mixture is just combined and has a thick, smooth texture.
5. Spoon the cake batter into the prepared tin and level the surface.
6. Bake for 35 minutes or until well risen and pale golden brown.
7. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for 5 minutes.
8. Squeeze one of the lemons to get about 3 tablespoons of juice and mix this with the remaining 100g of granulated sugar.
9. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack set about a tray or plate. Remove the baking parchment and gently turn the cake the right way up.
10. Stab the cake with a skewer, making around 50 deep holes.
11. Slowly and gradually, spoon over half the lemon sugar, allowing it to thoroughly coat the top of the cake and drizzle down the sides.
12. Leave the cake to stand for 5 minutes, then do the same with the remaining lemon sugar.
13. Leave to set for at least an hour or until the sugar and lemon has crystallised.
14. Serve the cake in thick slices with a good strong cup of tea.
15. This cake actually improves on leaving for a day. So I’m told. Mine never seem to make it that far.

One of my own personal favourites, and as usual so easy you can whip it up yourself or easily cope with small helpers too. My bigger helpers can manage this one on their own. Of course, tray bakes are ideal for school/cubs/scouts/brownies/guides cake requests, but just as good when feeding a hungry horde. If you’re doing this one the proper school dinner way, it MUST be served with a lashing amount of thick custard of choice (try our school dinners pink custard perhaps).

Time to prep – 10 minutes

Time to Bake – 20 minutes

What you need:

• 8 oz butter
• 8 oz sugar
• 10 oz SR flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 4 eggs
• Jar of Red jam (Yes it must be red, it’s the rules. Seedless raspberry is best, we think)
• Pack of Desiccated Coconut

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC, gas mark 4, Fan 170. Grease and line a roasting tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy – an electric mixer is best for this. Add the eggs one at a time beating well with each addition. If the mixture starts to separate, add a little flour with the egg. Fold in the remaining flour and the baking powder.
3. Pour the mixture into the tin and level the surface. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until well-risen and golden, and coming away from the sides of the tin.
4. Turn the cake out of the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.
5. Spread your jam of choice over the top of the cake and sprinkle with desiccated coconut.
6. Cut into individual small cakes.
7. To be VERY popular, serve while still slightly warm with custard of choice.
8. Sit back and bask in the glow of approval.

You can see our other school dinners recipes here – the cornflake tart is a very popular choice.

I very nearly didn’t post this – I hadn’t ever really considered it a ‘recipe’. But I mentioned it in passing to Katy and she “oooh-ed!” in glee at my genius, and went away and made it. So I mentioned it to another friend in the playground – three Mums overheard and there was a collective “OoooH! I know what I’M cooking for tea tonight!” from them, too.

So – maybe, just maybe, you’d like the ‘recipe’ too.

Stand by – it’s dead easy, totally yummy, but it’s NOT scientific, and it’s all about guesswork…

Serves Family of 6 (I usually double these ingredients and have 2nd day leftovers)

Time to Prep – 10 Minutes

Time to Bake – 40 Minutes

400F/200C/fan 180º/Mark 6

Ingredients

500g Minced Beef

1 onion, chopped

1 jar Bolognese Sauce of choice (We like Seeds of Change)

1 tub Creme Fraiche

1 slab of cheddar cheese

Pack dried lasagne sheets

Method

1. Brown the mince with the onion in a large pan, add the sauce and mix thoroughly. Leave pan to one side off the heat.
2. Place tub of creme fraiche in a pan, heat until it is melted.
3. Grate around three generous handfuls of cheese into the melted creme fraiche – the amount is up to how cheesy you like it – and mix thoroughly. You now have your meat sauce and your cheese sauce, and are ready to construct in the normal way:
4. In a large baking dish place a thin layer of the meat sauce.
5. Top with lasagne sheets – cover the sauce but try not to overlap.
6. drizzle some cheese sauce over the pasta sheets.
7. repeat steps 4-7 until you have used up your fillings as layers. Remember that the thinner the layers of sauce, the more pasta you have, and the sturdier the lasagne will be.
8. Finish off with a cheese sauce layer, and add a topping of grated cheese. Pop in the oven for 40 minutes or so, until the lasagne is golden and bubbling.
9. Serve with heaps of crunchy fresh salad.
10. (*whispers* 2nd day leftovers are rather popular when served with chips…)

And before you say anything yes, I do know I’ve just made an entire nation of Italians shudder. BUT. My 8yr old can make this unaided. It tastes delish. And it’s quick enough for an emergency hot meal on a school night. All of which means it’s good enough for us.

(First published last year – but I plan on the same this evening!)

Okay – here it is. Our Pancake Day effort. This morning, tempted by some really very evil Tweets this morning, I decided the boys might like a change from their usual Golden Syrup-fest. So I surprised them with this :

Once the boys had polished off one each of these, only No.1 managed a 2nd. Boy went for his more usual plain (yes, as in just-the-pancake; no toppings at all. Odd child, I know), and Jolly had a mini one with his favourite maple syrup. Never before have they been contented with so few pancakes! Win!

This recipe is one of those I have jotted down on a scrap of paper, copied from a friend who had it from a friend… it never ever fails. Fably muffin-recipe-easy, and the only way I can get Jolly to voluntarily eat ANY kind of carrot. And they are so moist too; they never need storage instructions because they simply don’t last long enough…

Time to Mix – 10 minutes

Time to Cook – 25 minutes

Oven to 180ºC/ GM 4

200g (8oz) plain flour (Half and Half with white and wholemeal is lovely)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
200ml/7fl oz vegetable (or rapeseed) oil
100g (4oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
125g (4fl oz) finely grated carrots
225g/8oz tinned crushed pineapple, semi drained (I often chop/mush up tinned pineapple chunks)
100g (4oz) raisins

1. Sift ALL dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
2. Oil, sugar and eggs in another large bowl and beat until blended.
3. Add grated carrots, pineapple and raisins to the wet mix.
4. Slowly add dry mix into the wet, stirring just enough to combine (don’t worry about lumps).
5. Pour batter in to muffin cases and bake for 25 minutes (I find 20 in a fan oven is fine).

This is the recipe the Husband has been asking and asking for. Remember it? A hunk of hard chocolate deliciousness, smothered in the custard of choice. Happily, it’s so flippin EASY to make, it’s not really any wonder we all had it so often. I make it with a certain Pink 4yr old, and am only allowed to do the heavy mixing bit. It still takes less than ten minutes to get it into the oven.

So – here it is, the original real life genuine School Dinners 1970′s Chocolate Concrete recipe…

Time needed – 10 minutes prep (even when assisted by 4yr old), 45 minutes cooking.

•    160g/5 1/2 oz Butter
•    1 Egg
•    25g/1 oz Cocoa powder
•    225g/8 oz Self Raising flour
•    175g/6 oz Granulated sugar

Pre heat oven to gas mark 3/170ºC (160ºC fan)

Melt the butter in a pan – do NOT let it bubble and/or burn!

In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together, so it looks like chocolate flour.

Make a well in the centre, and pour in the melted butter. Beat well (small hands will need help here) to combine.

Beat the egg and gently stir into the flour mixture.

Put the greasy doughy mixture into a greased 30cmx18cm (12″x7″) baking tray, gently press into the corners and flatten into the tin (the mix is quite stiff, and I often cheat and use 2/3 of a bigger tin. It holds it’s shape quite happily).

Brush with water and sprinkle with sugar.

Place in the top half of the oven for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 mins, then cut into required slices/pieces/hunks/slabs and place on a wire tray to cool.

You can eat it as it is – but if you want to be authentic, it really needs the School Dinners Pink Custard for true Comfort Pudding lushness.

If you really do need the recipe for a school, here’s an old one I found for 100 people:
5lb 4oz (84oz) self raising flour
4lb (64oz) margerine
3lb (48oz) sugar
5oz Cocoa Powder
8 Eggs

1. Mix Flour, Sugar & Cocoa Powder together
2. Melt Margerine but don’t let it boil, only melt
3. Pour into flour, sugar, cocoa you’ve already mixed well
4. Add Eggs slowly until you get the right consistency

Here we have it, by popular request, the next in the School Dinners Puddings recipe collection. D’you know, I didn’t actually remember this one. Not at all. Thick Fudge Tart? No clue. But then, I obtained the recipe (stolen from the back of an envelope which ‘fell’ out of MIL’s recipe book when she wasn’t looking) for School Dinners Fudge Tart, brought it home and gave it a go.

And as I was standing at the hob, beating away at this creamy coloured mix, it started to thicken… and all of a sudden the synapses fired up. I actually said “yeeeesssssssss!!!” in an excited fashion into the empty kitchen. Because I DO remember it. I do, I do, I DOOOO! Only I didn’t know it as Fudge Tart. I knew it as that yummy-thick-creamy-sweet-vanilla-ey-thing-on-pastry.

But as it all came together, it did what every school dinners puddings recipes should do. Made me feel 9 again, and gave me that warm comfortable happy spot.  *happy*

Serve with thick, creamy school dinners yellow custard, naturally… (or maybe chocolate custard – just switch the pink blancmange mix for a chocolate one).

The recipe is an old one, so it’s in Imperial I’m afraid – you’ll just have to convert yourself if you need to. But then, it wouldn’t feel right making a school dinners pudding in metric, would it? I suppose, if you’re in a hurry a ready made pastry case, or a block of shortcrust pastry would do the job. But… it’s not quite in the spirit of the school dinners canteen, is it?

(and yes, right after this picture was taken I flipped the slice upside down and splodged it over the side of the dish. *sigh*)

Pastry
6 oz plain flour,

1 1/2 oz marg,

1 1/2 oz lard/ shortening (Of course, just 3oz butter would be fine here instead of these two…)

1 1/2 fl oz water.

Filling

1/2 pint milk,

3 oz sugar

4 oz marg (butter!),

2 oz plain flour,

1 teaspoon vanilla essence.

1/2 oz grated chocolate.

Method

• Make up pastry as normal, line and grease 8 inch flan tin.
• Bake blind for 15 minutes. Gas 5 ,185ºC
• Pour 1/4 pint of milk into saucepan, add marg/butter and heat till nearly boiling.? Blend the remainder of milk with the flour and beat to a smooth paste.
• Add to the milk mixture.?Then add the sugar and cook thoroughly (stir and stir and stir) until a thick smooth finish is obtained.
• Add the vanilla essence and beat through.
• Pour in pastry case and leave to cool.
• Decorate with the grated chocolate.

What was it with pink custard? Lusciously gorgeous in colour and texture and comfort factor – and universally adored. Pink custard just made any school dinners pudding a real treat, no? Remember the sponge squares with a thin layer of jam and coconut on top? Or fudge tart squares (produced further to mucho requests from cornflake tart eaters)? Or my husbands personal favourite chocolate concrete? All made slightly-more-perfect with that creamy pouring of pink goo.

Now, I always thought that pink custard was simply yellow custard with some food colouring in. Not So! Recently I have discovered why whenever I make some, it simply never looks or tastes the same as memory tells me it did in the 70′s.

A recent tip-off has alerted me that it is actually a  little more devious… I tried it. It works. It so, SO works.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… School Dinners Pink Custard.

What you Need:

1 pint milk
1 packet pink blancmange mix
(strawberry and raspberry both work, but for me raspberry is where to put your money)
2 or 3 tbs sugar to taste

What You Do:

• In a heat-proof bowl empty the contents of the blancmange packet.
• Add the sugar and two or three tbs from the pint of milk and mix to a paste.
• Warm the remaining milk in a pan  – do not boil.
• Pour a little of this milk on to the paste and give it a really good mix.
• Pour this bright pink goo into the warmed milk and then bring to the boil.
• Keep stirring (it has a tendency to catch and burn if you decide this would be a good time to empty the dishwasher/make a cup of tea).
• Simmer for about a minute (if the custard is very thick add a little more milk to thin it down – remember you are supposed to be pouring it smoothly, not ladling it out in gloops!).
• Serve with your school dinners pudding of choice… Nom nom nom…

Coming Next Week – School Dinners Fudge Tart.

I am an oddball, so I’ve been told, because I’m really not that fussed about chocolate (shock!). Listen up all those with kind hearts who have, over the years, bought me boxes of luxury chocolates. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but a buncha beautiful flowers (but not yellow ones, ‘k), make my heart sing that bit louder.

However. There is an exception to my little oddball-thing; chocolate chip cookies, more specifically; warm, homemade chocolate chip cookies. Nom nom nom. I have even been known to eat half (ok, all!) of the uncooked cookie dough because I just. can’t. stop. myself.

I have spent many a happy hour or two trying out different recipes and here, for you, is my perfect-so-far recipe for chocolate chip cookies…..

100g butter or margarine (my personal choice is salted butter)

60g soft brown sugar

1 beaten medium egg (free range if you please)

150g flour

half a teaspoon of baking powder

100g chocolate chips (plain is my choice but milk or white, it’s up to you)

dribble of vanilla extract

I’m blessed with a rather attractive food mixer and it does the whole job but the baking. My method is to cream the butter and sugar then add the beaten egg then the flour, baking powder, vanilla and lastly the choc chips. Takes about 5 mins max on a low speed.

Then put cookie-sized blobs of the dough onto your greased baking sheet (or sheet with parchment) and bake at 180C/gas mark 4 for about 10 minutes and voila.

Best devoured warm. Oh yes. Mmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm… pass me a glass of ice cold milk please.

Another school dinners favourite, these chocolate rice krispie cakes were always made in huge trays and served in square chunks with the obligatory oodles of custard.

Best of all, they are also a classic cook-with-children recipe; easy and fun to make and always a favourite to eat! This is the original 70′s recipe I used myself as a child, that’s been carefully tucked away in one of my Mums recipe books – looks like it was probably torn off a Rice Krispie’s box!

Traditional Chocolate Rice Krispie Cakes

Preparation time
15 – 20 minutes

• 3 cups Rice Krispies (I just use a small mug)
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp butter (margarine in original)
• 1tsp cocoa powder
• few drops of vanilla or almond essence

Put syrup, sugar and butter/marg and cocoa powder into a pan, melt (stirring) until everything is smooth and chocolatey.
Remove from heat, add essence and Krispies.
Mix well and pour into a greased 7″ square tin (I use a swiss roll tin). Mark into squares and remove from the tin when cold.
Alternatively, divide mixture between 12 cake cases in a bun tin.
Put in the fridge to set.

No freezing, but will last a few days in an air tight container. Not that it will actually, you know, LAST once everyone knows where it is being kept.

You can leave the cocoa powder out if you don’t want a chocolate version, of course.

(next week: real proper actual school dinners pink custard to go with it!)

I thought I’d better finally share, as I’ve been asked to so often, and now they’re fighting over the cyber-cakes on Twitter I thought it time they made their own (are you paying attention @christinemosler @ChildofFunk @allaboutheboys @babyrambles @dandydodo?). And as a bonus, it’s a recipe so easy you can make it with a 3 yr old.

You know how you have a zillion recipe books, but only a handful you constantly return to? Well, this is a recipe from one of mine – it’s the 1980 version of Readers Digest ‘The Cookery Year’, first published in 1973, and inherited from the husbands Great Aunty Peg. And it’s a classic, and I. Love. It. It has never failed me – but not for clever fancy-dancy dinner party recipes. I love it because it is laid out seasonally, and because I can rely on it to tell me which cut of meat to use, how to make marmalade, how to prepare Kohl Rabi… and Bake the Cakes Like Mummy Used To Make. More a kitchen reference than a recipe book, I wouldn’t be parted from mine.

There is a new, up-to-date  version available, but it’s nowhere near as good or comprehensive. Keep your eyes peeled and find yourself an original version that looks like this. They are for sale on Amazon (click the picture to see the Amazon reviews of lots of people agreeing with me), but I’m pretty sure they’d pop up regularly on eBay or your local charity shop or 2nd hand bookstall.

So. Courtesy of the Best Book In My Kitchen, here is the secret to happiness – Apple Cakes.

(and it’s an old book, so it’s all in Imperial – you’ll just have to convert yourself)

• Grease 16 patty tins thoroughly.
• Peel & core the apples and cook them, with brown sugar to taste, over low heat until they form a thick puree (I often add a dribble of water, and go easy on the sugar or they end up too sweet).
• Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking powder & salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and rub this into the flour until the the mix looks like breadcrumbs.
• Stir in the sugar, and then mix in the beaten egg. Use your hands to make into a soft dough.
• Knead lightly on a floured surface, and roll out 1/4in thick. Handle the dough carefully, it is fragile.
• Cut out 16 bases and 16 lids with a plain 2 1/2″ cutter.
• Lift the bases into the patty tins with a pallete knife. Cover with a tsp of the apple puree, and top with a lid – they self-seal during cooking. Sprinkle with caster sugar (optional).
• Bake just above centre, preheated to 400ºF, 200C (I use 180º in a fan) GM 6 for about 15 minutes.
• Leave to cool slightly in the tins, then ease out with a palette knife to cool completely in a rack.
• Serve while fresh (I defy you to have any left a day later to go stale) – delicious on their own, but ideally with a hot pot of tea and a dollop of clotted cream of course.
• See? Easy as apple cakes.

Annabel Karmel is at it again – another new book out this week, this one just made for me – ‘Top 100 Pasta Dishes‘.
What did we do in the UK before pasta arrived? You know, that ‘oh, it appears to be 5.30 and I’ve cooked no dinner’ moment – what do we do? Reach for the pasta.
Easy.
So, I needed no arm twisting when we were asked to review the new book – I know Annabel Karmel can be trusted to have interesting recipes that are quick and easy, look pretty and above all can be used for the whole family. Full review coming on the main site shortly, but we have been given permission to give you a sneak recipe peek…

Fusilli with salmon in a light cheese sauce with spring vegetables

“This is a favourite recipe of mine; it’s a delicious combination of spring vegetables and tender chunks of salmon. It makes a delicious meal for adults as well. The sauce couldn’t be simpler – just stir together the ingredients and heat through.”

Ingredients:
200g (7oz) fusilli
2 tbsp of light olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
100g (3 ½ oz) orange pepper, cut into strips
100g (3 ½ oz) brocolli florets
1 medium courgette, slice and cut into semi-circles
250g (9oz) salmon fillets
200 ml (7floz) vegetable stock
150g (5 ½ oz) tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and cut into chunks
75g (3oz) parmesan cheese, grated salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Cook the fusilli according to the instructions on the packet.
• Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the orange pepper, broccoli and courgette and sauté for 6-7 minutes until tender, stirring occasionally.
• Meanwhile, cut the salmon into chunks, put in a saucepan, cover with fish stock and poach over a gentle heat for 3-4 minutes until cooked. Remove from pan, strain and set aside.
• Stir the crème fraiche and vegetable stock into the cooked vegetables and bring to a simmer. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and chunks of salmon and simmer for 2 minutes, then stir in the parmesan and season to taste.
• Toss the drained fusilli with the sauce, taking care not to break up the chunks of salmon.

I’m afraid the picture isn’t mine – we had big bowls, not pretty pots, and it was scoffed far too quickly for me to manage to get a picture of it. But every last scrap was eaten, and next time I’ll be increasing the quantities as there were rather a lot of shouts of “Is there any more please?”.

For some strange reason I have had a longing to make one of these for ages. Maybe because the school has FINALLY started up school dinners, and the tales of what-they-ate-today has brought all sorts of memories back (but they have no pink or brown or white custard? What’s with that?). On chatting to various friends-of-a-certain-age about school dinners, one dish was universally clamoured after, no matter where we went to school. The Cornflake Tart. You remember it? Pastry base, layer of jam, then crunchy golden cornflakes spread on top?

Well.

I was chatting with the lovely mother in law a couple of weeks ago about this – she was a teacher, and ALSO remembers it fondly. In fact she exclaimed “Oh! I have the recipe for that! I asked the school cook for it at my last school (circa 1978). Would you like it?”

Would I!

And so – here, for you, is the real, actual, proper, straight-from-the-school-cooks-mouth recipe for School Dinners Cornflake Tart. Enjoy.

Shortcrust Pastry

6oz/180g flour

3 oz/80g butter (original recipes says half margarine, half lard… I stuck with butter!)

1floz/30ml water

Filling

4oz/110g Golden Syrup

3oz/80g Cornflakes

2oz/40g Butter (again recipe says Margarine)

1oz/30g Sugar

4oz/110g  Red Jam

Method

1. Line the tart trays (I used a flan dish, and remember my school serving this up in enormous tray bake tins) with the pastry and crimp the edges

2. Prick the pastry all over and bake blind, for approx 20 minutes at Gas 6/400F/200C/180 Fan

3. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a large heavy bottomed saucepan, then stir in the cornflakes.

4. Spread a thin layer of jam over the pastry case and place the cornflake mix on top.

5. Return the tart to the oven for 5 minutes to allow the mixture to set.

Extra steps not actually in the original recipe:

6. Do NOT leave the tart in the oven longer than 5 minutes, or you end up with one that looks like mine…

7. Serve with a heap of gloopy thick yellow custard (or take the school dinners pink custard option) – and tell me you don’t feel better afterwards. And also about 9 years old.

And yes, I MIGHT have left the tart in the oven a bit long. And I MIGHT have broken off the worst of the burnt bits before I took the photo. And it MIGHT be in a rather dated pink flowery dish that was a wedding present nearly 20 years ago. And I MIGHT have forgotten to photograph it looking beeyootiful with custard because everyone was too greedy to wait, so had to photograph the seconds instead. But don’t care – it was still a thing of deliciousness, and comfort-in-a-bowl.

Okay – here it is. Our Pancake Day effort. This morning, tempted by some really very evil Tweets this morning, I decided the boys might like a change from their usual Golden Syrup-fest. So I surprised them with this :

Once the boys had polished off one each of these, only No.1 managed a 2nd. Boy went for his more usual plain (yes, as in just-the-pancake; no toppings at all. Odd child, I know), and Jolly had a mini one with his favourite maple syrup. Never before have they been contented with so few pancakes! Win!