Taken from my new book..

Mix 175g flour, 3tbsp custard powder and 1tsp baking powder. Rub in 100g butter. Whisk an egg with 1tbsp milk and gradually add to the mix forming a dough. Add more milk if it’s not enough. Knead to a smooth dough and rest for 20 mins.

Preheat your oven to 180C and line some baking trays

Roll out the dough and cut into shapes.. remember they’ll be sandwiched together so you need an even number. You can roll them pretty thin, as I discovered, they rise a lot.

Bake for 15 mintues and leave to cool.

Cream together 100g icing sugar, 1tbsp custard powder and 50g butter, add milk if necessary. Use to sandwich the biscuits together.

Et voila! Custard Creams… absolutely wonderful

So I’m stood in work, bored as ever, letting my mind wander.. and I come up with an idea! What if, instead of jam at the bottom of a Bakewell Tart, you had chocolate.. I then spent the rest of the day refining the idea in my head, and decided that a combination of cherry and chocolate would make the best bakewell..

So today, off I set to the supermarket, to buy ingredients, to test out this theory.

First the pastry is made, just a basic shortcrust.. I always feel that puff pastry just doesn’t work well for tarts and sugar paste would be too sweet with the chocolate and frangipane. Shortcrust is a very easy recipe, half fat to flour (and for this I used 3oz fat, 6oz flour) rubbed together to form breadcrumbs and then formed into a dough with a little water. Shortcrust is a very durable paste and doesn’t have to rest, though if you want to leave it for a bit it won’t hurt.

This gave me enough to make 1 large tart (8 inch diameter) and 9 mini tartlets.

Grease your dish and line with the paste, press up to all the edges and trim with a sharp knife.

Now, to the filling! Today I decided to use a black cherry preserve and chocolate spread. I mixed the two together and spread over the bottom of the large tart. For the smaller onesI did half with just the preserve and half with just the chocolate spread.

To make the frangipane cream together 6oz butter and 6oz caster sugar, beat in 3 large eggs and then add 6oz ground almonds and 1oz plain flour. Spoon into the tartlets, you don’t need to worry too much about spreading it, it’ll sort itself out when cooking. Pour into the tart, I spread it to the edges gently with the back of a spoon just to help it along.

Sprinkle the top with flaked almonds.

Cook at 220C for half an hour and take out the tartlert, the tops will be brown. Turn down the oven to 180C and cook the tart for a further half hour, until the top is browned and the frangipane is frim to touch.

Dust with icing sugar and serve.

I’d have to say it came out very well. The plain chocolate tartlets are definitely much nicer warm, the cherry ones are good either way. The tart is ok cold but definitely at it’s best when warm.

I think next time I want to experiment with the chocolate, perhaps try making my own spread, with dark chocolate, or just use melted chocolate.. or maybe even try with a ganache, though I think that would be too sweet.

Definitely good with the cherry and chocolate together

I went into a bookshop, with the aim of getting myself a new book to read… and come out with a recipe book! And then do actually sit down and read it!!

I have no clue what this says about me.

It’s Feast by Nigella Lawson.. it was on offer, only £10 instead of £25, a good bargain for a book that side, and it’s got loads and loads of yummy recipes that must be tried..

Soon… it shall be soon….

Nice and traditional, easy to make, and lovely and yummy..

Cream together 6oz butter and 6oz caster sugar until pale

Beat in 2 eggs. Fold in 6oz self raising flour.

Divide between 2 8inch sandwich tins (greased and lined)

Cook at 180C for approximately 20 minutes, until golden and skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave to cool and sandwich together with jam and/or buttercream (half butter to icing sugar) or fresh fruit and whipped cream

Dust with icing sugar

Had a craving for cookies and so they were made!

Just a really simple sugar cookie and then some had holes cut and boiled sweets added to make a stained glass effect, the rest decorated with icing or chocolate.

Cream together 227g butter and 300g granulated sugar.

Beat in 2 eggs and then fold in 490g plain flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder.

Knead until a smooth dough, wrap and rest for about an hour, roll out and cut to shape.

Cook at 180C for 10-15 minutes, take them out >just< before they turn brown for a soft cookie, for a hard cruncy cookie wait until they’re turning brown around the edges.. Don’t let them get completely brown unless you want to break your teeth!

NB This recipe made 57 cookies! You may want to half it

A Chocolate brownie base with a baked cheesecake top.. I found the recipe and just >had< to try it!

For the Brownie Melt 4oz chocolate with 113g butter. Whisk in 70g flour, 200g sugar, 1tsp baking powder, 1/2tsp vanilla, 1/8tsp salt and 2 eggs. I added some chocolate chips as well. Pour into a greased pan (8inch sqaure)

For the Cheesecake whisk together 1 egg, 225g cream cheese, 100g sugar, 1/2tsp vanilla and 1tbsp flour until fluffy. Pour on top of the brownie.

Bake at 175C for ~40 mins, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean (I allowed a few brownie crumbs to keep it gooey!)

Cool and serve!

The cheesecake layer came out smaller than I would have liked.. I think next time I’ll double the amount.

It took a very long time for the centre of the cheesecake to be cooked, hence how brown it looks, it also made the edge of the brownie overdone.. The mixture did come out very runny which also led to some of the brownie mix bubbling up through the layer.. some more experimentation is needed I think!