Sausage Rolls

This recipe is from Delia Smiths Christmas Cookbook, a book I love!

Makes 24

For the flaky pastry:

8oz (225g) plain flour

6oz (175g) butter (hard from fridge)

a pinch salt

cold water to mix

For the filling:

1lb good quaility pork sausage meat

1 tsp sage

1 onion, grated

1 beaten egg to glaze

pre-heat oven to gas mark 7, 220 c

Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Get the butter out of the fridge and dip it into the flour and then grate it on a course grater placed in the bowl over the flour. Keep dipping the butter down into the flour to make it easier to grate.

At the end you'll be left with a pile of grated butter in the middle of the flour, so take a palette knife and start to distribute it into the flour (don't use your hands), try to coat all the pieces of butter with flour until the mixture is crumbly. Next add enough water to form a dough that leaves the bowl clean, using your hands bring it all gently together. Put the dough into a polythene bag and chill it for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

When you're ready to make the sausage rolls mix the sausage meat, onion and sage together in a mixing bowl. Then roll out the pastry onto a floured surface to form an oblong (as thin as you can). Cut this oblong into three strips and divide the sausage meat also into three, making three long rolls the same length as the strips of pastry (if it's sticky sprinkle on some flour).

Place one roll of sausage meat on to one strip of pastry. Brush the beaten egg along one edge, then fold the pastry over and seal it as carefully as possible. Lift the whole thing up and turn it so the sealed edge is underneath. Please lightly and cut into individual rolls each about 2" long. Snip three v-shapes in the top of each roll with scissors and brush with beaten egg. Repeat all this with the other portions of meat and pastry.

If you are going to cook straightaway, place the rolls on baking sheets and bake high in the oven for 20-25 minutes. If you want to cook them later, store them uncooked in a freezer box and freeze until needed. Although you can store the cooked and cooled sausage rolls in an airtight tin, they do loose their crunchiness. For this reason I think it's preferable to remove a few at a time from the freezer and cook them as required.

Almond Paste

Ready to marzipan that Christmas cake? Well here is the recipe I always use. It is from my old faithful 'Dairy book of Home Cookery'. This book has everything in it, it's like a little cooks bible!



Sufficient to cover top and sides of a 20.5-23cm (8-9inch) fruit cake fairly thickly.

275g (10oz) ground almonds

225g (8oz) icing sugar, sifted

225g (8oz) caster sugar

1 egg plus 2 egg yolks (remember you can freeze the whites and use them in meringues another time!)

5ml (1tsp) lemon juice

2.5ml (1/2 tsp) vanilla essence

1. Combine almonds with both sugars.

2. Mix to a fairly stiff paste with remaining ingredients.

3. Turn out onto a board or table covered with sifted icing sugar. Knead lightly with fingertips until smooth, crack-free and pliable.



I then heat a little apricot jam and brush it over the cake before rolling out the almond paste and covering the cake with it.

Enjoy!

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

Recipe from Martha Stewart

I have just made this recipe for Annie ready for her Thanksgiving meal this weekend, it looks great and I will be making it again. The measurements are American, but quite easy to convert online.

Serves 8

8 tbspns unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1 3/4 cups cranberries

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (that's either all plain or a mix of plain and self raising)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Rub the bottom and sides of an 8 inch round tin with 2 tbspns of the butter. In a small bowl stir together 1/2 cup sugar with the cinnamon and allspice. Sprinkle mix into the bottom of the tin, arrange cranberries in a single layer on top.

2. With an electric mixer, cream remaining 6 tbspns of butter with 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beat until well combined. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low add flour mix in three batches alternating with the milk, until well combined.

3. Spoon batter over cranberries in tin and smooth top. Place pan on a baking sheet, bake cake until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of cake; invert onto a rimmed platter.

Cherry Mojitos

Cut this recipe out from a magazine last year, have yet to try it!

Add 250g sugar to 300ml water and bring to the boil in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. Then put 300ml lime juice (about 9 limes) into a non reactive bowl and add 1.35kg cherries (pitted and halved). Stir in the syrup and refrigerate for an hour (no more than overnight). Stir 530ml vodka (black cherry or plain) into the cherry mixture. To serve, fill glasses with ice, spoon in the cherry vodka and top with sparkling water. Serve immediately.

Banana Loaf

I must take more photos of things when I make them - sorry!!

This is a recipe form 'Mary Berry - Foolproof cakes' and is a favorite of ours to use up over ripe bananas. I actually tend to freeze bananas and them get them out when I want to make this. But the cake also freezes very well.



100g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

2 eggs

2 ripe banana, mashed

225g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp milk



1. Lightly grease a 2lb loaf tin and line it with greaseproof.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 c

Measure all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat for about 2 minutes, until well blended.

2. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake for about 1 hour, until well risen and golden brown. A fine skewer inserted in the centre of the cake should come out clean.

3. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then loosen with a palette knife and turn the cake out.

Remove the lining paper and leave on a wire rack to cool completely. Slice thickly to serve.



How easy is that!!

Chocolate Brownies

This is the easiest and cheapest Brownie recipe I have ever come accross! It was given to me by a Saturday girl who worked for us a couple of years back.



Melt together:

3 1/2 oz butter

4 heaped desert spoons cocoa



Remove from heat and stir in:

8 oz granulated sugar

2 eggs



then add:

3 oz self raising flour



Line tin approx 8" square with greaseproof.

Pour in & bake @ 180 c for 25 minutes



(usually doesn't need 2 cook quite as long and usually better to use a slightly smaller tin because then it's not so thin!)



ENJOY!

Apple Pie

This is a recipe I cut out from a BBC Good Food Magazine years ago, it is a trusted favorite!

Serves 8

FOR THE FILLING

1kg Bramley apples
140g golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp flour
FOR THE PASTRY
225g butter. room temperature
50g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
350g plain flour
softly whipped cream to serve

1. Put a layer of paper towels on a large baking sheet. Quarter, core, peel and slice the apple about 5mm thick and lay evenly on the baking sheet. Put paper towels on top and set aside while you make and chill the pastry.

2. For the pastry, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until just mixed. Break in a whole egg and a yolk (keep the white for glazing later). Beat together for just under 1 minute - it will look a bit like scrambled egg. Now work in the flour with a wooden spoon, a third at a time, until it's beginning to clump up, then finish gathering it together with your hands. Gently work the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for 45 mins. Now mix the 140g sugar, the cinnamon and flour for the filling into a bowl that is large enough to take the apple later.

3. After the pastry has chilled, heat the oven tp 190/fan 170/gas 5. Lightly beat the egg white with a fork. Cut off a third of the pastry and keep it wrapped while you roll out the rest, and use this to line a pie tin - 20-22cm round and 4am deep-leaving a slight overhang. Roll the remaining third to a circle about 28cm in diameter. Pat the apples dry with kitchen towel, and tip them into the bowl with cinnamon-sugar mix. Give a quick mix with your hands and immediately pile high into the pastry-lined tin.


4. Brush a little water around the pastry rim and lay the pastry lid over the apples pressing the edges together to seal. Trim the edges with a sharp knife and make 5 little slashes on top of the lid for steam to escape (can be frozen at this stage). Brush it all over with the egg white and sprinkle with a little caster sugar. Bake for 40-45 mins, until golden, then remove and let it sit for 5-10 mins. Sprinkle with more sugar and serve whilst still warm from the oven with softly whipped cream.