Bread and Butter Pudding

This is my husband's favourite pudding. It reminds me of being a child and eating it swamped in custard however he prefers his with dollops of vanilla ice-cream melting beside the warmth of the pudding. It makes a great dessert on a chilly autumn evening when the nights are drawing in and darkness is falling. The hot pudding covered in lovely hot custard will warm you through and through.

I made it using 1 1/2 pints of milk, granulated sugar, 2 eggs, butter, raisins and 4-5 large slices of bread (depending on the size of the dish you are using!).

Preheat the oven to a medium heat. Gently heat the milk and 3 tablespoons of sugar in a medium pan until just before boiling point. Take of the heat and whisk in the eggs. Take the bread, butter it and then slice into triangles. Layer it along the bottom of the dish and sprinkle over some sugar and raisins, place another layer of bread on top and again sprinkle on some sugar and raisins. You may add another layer depending on the size of the dish. Pour over the heated milk and sugar and then place in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. Serve with custard, vanilla ice-cream or double cream. Delicious!

Very Cherry Biscuits

This recipe must be the simplest and quickest recipe i've made so far. You'll love these cherry biscuits and they are lovely to eat on a lazy sunday afternoon while watching old black and white films. To make these, you will need:

100g/4oz unsalted butter
50g/2oz caster sugar
a few drops of vanilla extract
150g/6oz self-raising flour (sieved)
10-20 glace cherries

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and grease two baking trays. Slice the butter into cubes and melt it over a low heat. Pour into a bowl and add the caster sugar, vanilla extract and then the flour. Use your hands to mix the mixture until it forms a firm dough.

Roll half the mixture into little balls and squash down with a spoon. Place a few chopped cherries onto the top of the biscuits and place them onto the baking tray and into the oven for 10-15 minutes. While the first tray of biscuits is cooking take the rest of the mixture and mix it with all the chopped cherries. Again, roll into little balls and bake for 10-15 minutes until they are golden. Transfer to a wire rack and try to wait until they are cooled before eating them!

This recipe is supposed to make 15 biscuits but mine were quite small so it might be better to make 10 larger bicuits. Enjoy!

Cranberry Muffins

I don't usually make low fat cakes but I found this recipe in a weight watchers cookbook and the picture made them look so good. They do taste good and apparently each mufin only has 200 calories! I like them but I don not think they are quite as good as normal muffins made with butter. Try them for yourself and let me know waht you thought of them. This receipe makes about 12 muffins.

You will need:

300g (10.5oz) plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

150g (5.5oz) light muscovado sugar

60g (2oz) craisins (dried cranberries)

1 egg

225ml (8 fl oz) skimmed or semi-skimmed milk

50ml (2fl oz) sunflower oil

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6. Line the muffin tray with paper cases.

Take a large bowl and sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon together. Stir in the sugar and the craisins. In a small bowl lightly beat the egg and then add the milk and the oil and beat the ingrediants together. Fold them together with the dry ingrediants until they are mixed well to a dropping consistency.

Using a tablespoon drop the mixture into the paper cases. Place them into the the middle of the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes. Mine took 20 minutes but ovens tend to vary so keep an eye on them. Once you have removed them from the oven place them onto a wire rack to cool. You could change this recipe by adding sulatanas to it or maybe chopped up glazed cherries.

Autumn Plums

Last night I made a really quick pudding by heating up some plums in the oven. Before I put them in the oven I squeezed over some orange juice and sprinkled on some brown sugar and some ground cinnamon. When they were piping hot I removed them and served them with some organic vanilla yogurt and a mixture of nuts, seeds, sultanas and raisins mixed in honey! They were great as a quick dessert after a days work!

Chocolate and nut biscuits

You will need:

175g/6oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
125g/4.5oz soft margarine
90g/3oz light muscovado sugar
60g/2oz caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
125g/4.5 dark chocolate chips
30g chopped nuts

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5 and lightly grease two baking trays. This recipe makes about 18 biscuits.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the margarine, caster sugar and light muscovado sugar and then add the egg, flour and baking powder and the vanilla extract. When all the mixture is combined add in the chocolate chips and nuts. I used chopped up dark chocolate squares and hazelnuts.

Place tablespoons of mixture onto the baking trays allowing about 4cm between each for them to spread. Place in the middle of the oven and cook for aboout 10-12 minutes until they look golden brown. Remove them from the oven and leave them on the baking tray for a few short minutes before transferring to a wire rack! Delicious at any time of day! I'm sure this recipe will work well with a variety of different chocolate, nuts or even chopped cherries. Let me know how you get on!

The foodie Blogroll

I just wanted to say that I have joined the foodie blog roll that is a list of links to amazing food blogs set up by Queen over at http://www.leftoverqueen.com/. Be sure to check it out and if you write a food blog be sure to join the foodie community!

Chocolate biscuit squares

This recipe is just delicious. I found it in one of my nan's old cook books and it tasted so good I had three slices last night!

You will need:

6oz plain chocolate (broken up)
2oz butter
8oz digestive biscuits (crushed)
grated orange peel
4oz sultanas
2oz chopped cherries

Melt the butter in a saucepan and once melted add the chocolate. This should be done over a low heat. Stir in the crushed biscuits, chopped cherries, sultanas and grated orange peel and mix until everything is covered in chocolate. Pour the mixture into a tray (with a sheet of grease proof paper on the bottom) and leave it in the fridge to set. Cut into squares.