Bread Pudding

This is comfort food at it's best - squidgy and stodgy in all the right ways, and with a warming hint of mixed spice to finish it off. Perfect for chilly February afternoons. This recipe is another one of the family oldies I found whilst sorting through my recipe books - mum can still vividly remember her granny making it, and she always requested the crunchy corner piece! As with most old recipes, there was no picture, and this led to a slight mistake on my choice of cake tin - I went for a loaf tin, but I was later informed that a traybake is the better option - this is because you get more surface area, and so more crunchy Demerara sugar topping per slice (wow, that was almost scientific, Heston would be proud!). So, you'll see my loaf cake version in the picture, but I'd advise that you use a traybake tin of about 20cm/20cm (you want to be able to fill it at least a couple of inches deep).

Ingredients:

225g stale wholemeal bread

225g mixed dried fruit (get a mix that includes dried peel if possible, as this adds a great hint of citrus)

50g light soft brown sugar

50g margarine

1 and 1/s tsp mixed spice

1 egg

1 heaped tbsp demerara sugar to scatter on the top

Method:

1. Break up the bread into chunks (including the crusts), put it in a bowl, cover with water and stir it around for a couple of minutes to soften the bread. Put it into a sieve and push out the excess water (you may need to do this in two batches).
2. Put the soaked bread into a dry bowl and stir through all other ingredients (except demerara)
3. Grease your chosen tray (see comment above) and spoon in the mixture.
4. Push the mixture down and sprinkle the demerara sugar on the top.
5. Cook in the oven at 160 degrees celsius fan / 180 non fan for 1hr.
6. Leave to cool in the tin, then remove to store in an airtight tin.

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Mum's Tea Loaf

The snow's gone. It's raining. This calls for comfort baking. Whenever I'm stuck indoors I still like to bake, but I try to hold back a little on the fats and sugars - as I know I won't be out running it off anytime soon! Mum's tea loaf fits the bill perfectly. As the name suggests, it's great with a fresh cuppa, a good book and a comfy sofa... but there's no fat (in the recipe at least - see above!) and only a little sugar. I used earl grey tea for this one as it gives it a slightly floral note, but you can use whatever you like really.

I was particularly in the need of the comforting smells of cake today as I was having a bit of a 'growing up mope' - a bit of a "childhood's nearly over and what have I really achieved?" type complaint. I'm no olympic athlete, I'm not in a band or dancing on the west-end and I'm not a super-successful entrepreneur. I've experimented with a lot of hobbies, but they've all just fizzled out over time - ballet, gymnastics, violin, drums, tennis... my 'quit' list goes on. I came to question, "why didn't I just pick one and become really good at it?", "why did I never see the big picture?". My mum had the best advice, she said that if I was destined carry on with a hobby, I never would have doubted it, I would never have asked to quit, or found excuses not to go, I would have just done it no questions asked because it made me happy. And then I thought, isn't that what baking is to me? I've done it since I can remember, I never get bored of it, and I never question why I want to do it, I just do... So I got out the flour and turned on the oven.

Ingredients and method:

Soak 225g sultanas in 225ml earl grey tea (for a minimum of 2hrs)
Add 1 egg, 85g light soft brown sugar and 170g self raising flour and mix.
Pour into a greased and lined loaf tin (about a 900g one).
Cook for 45 mins at 180 degrees then cook for a further 30 mins at 150 degrees c (I used fan).
Leave to cool slightly, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Serve in cold slices with butter or spread.


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Mum's almond and semolina slice with blackcurrant jam

I have to admit that I have a slight reliance on photos when it comes to choosing recipes. With 101 recipe books on the shelf, if it hasn't got a picture, the recipe tends to go back on the shelf and another book is searched through. It's a shallow habit I know, I should have more faith in the craftsman... and in  my own cooking for that matter. Determined to change this, I set about finding my oldest recipes, those without even a description, let alone a picture, in a hope to find some hidden gems - those passed down recipes which I had set aside to make way for another shiny new cookery book.

So did I find one you might ask? Well the answer is most definitely yes. I've entitled this recipe 'Mum's slice' because it was mum who always made it for me, but I think it's real heritage stretches back a little further judging by the paper... mum thinks it was passed down to her from her mum or possibly even her gran (I didn't even know they had almond essence back then!). It's one of those recipes that I have enjoyed eating for many a year, but one I've never looked at on paper or enquired about further - too busy enjoying it I suspect!

There's always something nerve-wracking about adapting a family recipe, something that's been cooked in the same way for years - and if I've enjoyed it so much, why change it? But I had a little yearning, a little adaptation I couldn't help but try. The dry ingredients always consisted of semolina and self raising flour, with the almond flavour coming from the essence. So I decided to substitute some of this for a bit of ground almonds, to compliment the essence. I'm pretty happy with the result, but I still love the original - so feel free to just swap the ground almonds back for self raising flour if you'd prefer.

Ingredients and method:

Rub together 140g semolina, 110g self raising flour, 30g ground almonds, 140g caster sugar and 140g margarine.

Add 1 beaten egg and half a tsp of almond essence (I always find the smell so nostalgic!) and mix to a stiff paste.

Press half the mixture into a lined, square cake or swiss roll tin (or just greased and dusted with flour) - mine was a square 18cm/18cm tin.

Dot with blackcurrant (or any flavour you fancy) jam (about 130g) and then spoon on the second half of the mixture in small pieces to cover most of the jam.

Scatter about 30g flaked almonds on the top and cook for about 30mins at 180 degrees c (I'd check after 20mins).

Leave to cool slightly, turn out of the tin and then leave on a wire rack to cool before storing it in an airtight tin (I often don't cut it into slices until I serve it so as to keep it as moist as possible).

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Mum's the word... Raspberry Torte

As the wonder woman who taught me to cook, I think it's time my mum got a mention. This torte is my favourite comfort food, dinner party dessert, bring & share pud... it's pretty perfect for everything really.

What I love about this torte is the way it reflects the seasons, in summer mum fills it with raspberries for a sharp contrast to the sweet almond cake and in autumn we go out blackberry picking for something sweeter. I've seen similar recipes in Mary Berry's Cookbook and The Master Chef 1991 Cookbook (Daphne Nelson's dessert) so I'm not sure who got there first, but to me it doesn't matter - it's my most requested dessert and my thanks goes out to whomever had the idea first... but my greatest thanks goes to my mum for cooking this for me after many a busy week at work.

Mum's method's pretty simple really:
Beat together 150g each of the following:
- Margerine/Spread
- Caster Sugar
- Self Raising Flour
- Ground Almonds
With 1tsp ground cinnamon (and a couple of drops of almond extract if you want a more obvious almond flavour - more akin to a bakewell)

Spread half onto a lined spring release 22cm circular cake tin, cover with fresh/thawed berries (about 200 - 250g unfrozen) and then 'dot' the remaining mixture over the top and scatter with flaked almonds.

Cook for about 45mins at 180 degrees C until the top is golden and a skewer comes out with only slightly moist crumbs - you may need to leave it a little longer or cover the top with foil (if it browns too quickly) depending on your oven so keep checking.

Leave to firm up until cooled (warm not hot) and then remove from the tin and dust with icing sugar before serving with yoghurt creme fraiche or cream... and mum says it's great with a fruit coulis at a posher 'do'.

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