Chocolate Fudge

No boiling required - this is such a quick and easy fudge to make, but it's very sweet - a little goes a long way!

Chocolate Fudge

Makes: 36 pieces
Takes: 10 mins preparation + refrigeration overnight

Photo to follow

Ingredients

4 oz (100g) plain chocolate
2 oz (50g) butter
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 lb (450g) icing sugar, sieved

Method

1. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt it with the butter over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk and vanilla.
3. Gradually beat in the icing sugar (the mixture gets very stiff towards the end, so expect your arm to ache a bit afterwards!)
4. Press into a greased 7" square tin, levelling the surface.
5. Refrigerate overnight then cut into 36 squares. Keep refrigerated.

Enjoy :-)

Try to share it with your family though.... ;-)

Banana Muffins

Great way to use up bananas that have gone a bit brown and soft :-) And it's a low-fat recipe, containing fruit, so it's cake that's good for you! Bonus!

Banana Muffins

Makes: 12 muffins or 24 cupcakes
Takes: 10 minutes + 20-25 minutes cooking time

Ingredients

9 oz (250g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 medium well-ripened bananas
1 egg
3 oz (80g) soft brown sugar (demerara is fine)
5 tbsp water
4 tbsp corn oil (light olive oil is fine)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170oC (fan oven)/190oC/Gas Mark 5.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
3. Peel the bananas and place into a separate bowl. Mash them to a puree then add the egg, beaten.
4. Beat the sugar and water into the banana mixture then add the oil and stir well.
5. Tip in the dry ingredients and quickly mix till just combined. Don't overmix - it's better to have a few lumps and traces of flour!
6. Spoon into paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, until firm and springy to the touch. Cool on a wire rack.

Best eaten fresh but they also freeze well - great for lunchboxes!

Smoked Salmon and Spinach Tagliatelle

It sounds really decadent but it isn't really too bad as a treat now and then - and you can buy packs of smoked salmon scraps quite cheaply which makes this dish even more affordable. It works fine without the spinach if you prefer.

Smoked Salmon and Spinach Tagliatelle

Makes: 2 portions
Takes: 10 minutes + 10 minutes cooking time

Ingredients

200g dried tagliatelle (approximately - enough to serve two people)
150 ml creme fraiche (I use the reduced fat variety)
125g smoked salmon (again, approximately! The scraps come in a 120g pack and this is fine)
Two good handfuls baby spinach (about 50g)
Lemon juice
Black pepper

Method

1. Cook and drain the pasta and return to the pan.
2. Stir in the creme fraiche then cut the salmon into small pieces and add.
3. Rinse the spinach and drain. Add to the pasta mixture and stir well.
4. Heat through gently until the spinach wilts (5 minutes should be plenty). Season with a squeeze of lemon juice - about 1 tsp - and plenty of black pepper.

Nice for a special dinner, without needing loads of preparation (though I like that kind of recipe sometimes too...)

Tomato Sauce

I make this mainly for pasta, with or without various extras (see below), but it's also great as a pizza topping. The long cooking time and the addition of butter at the end makes the tomatoes sweet without any harshness or bitterness. While it's not a quick recipe, it is extremely easy and preparation is very quick - it's just that it needs to cook for a while!

Tomato Sauce

Makes: 4 portions of pasta sauce, or topping for 8 individual pizzas
Takes: 5 minutes + 1 hour cooking time

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped (I use a small amount from a jar of ready-prepared garlic)
2 400g tins peeled plum tomatoes
1 tbsp butter
a few basil leaves (optional)


Method

1. Heat the oil and add the garlic, then cook until the garlic is softened but not browned.
2. Add the tomatoes and break them up with a wooden spoon.
3. Bring to the boil then turn right down to simmering point, cover, and cook gently for about an hour, stirring occasionally.
4. The sauce should be quite thick, without any 'liquid' layer at the top. Take the pan off the heat and add the butter. Stir until the butter melts. Add the basil, torn into pieces, if desired.

Other herbs, dried or fresh, could be added - basil should only go in at the end but other herbs could be added with the tomatoes.

Other variations might be: Add finely chopped onion with the garlic and cook until translucent before adding the tomatoes; fry sliced some mushrooms with the garlic till golden; add small pieces of bacon, fried until crispy (I like this better if you cook the bacon separately and add it after cooking the sauce); any of your own ideas!

The Boy likes this as is, with fusilli pasta. The Doctor and I are more likely to have it with fresh filled pasta, such as ravioli or tortellini. A sprinkling of grated cheese on top is also yummy ;-)

Drop Scone/Scotch Pancake Thingies

I don't know what the proper name for these would be, OK?! But I do know that they're very quick and easy to make, and they taste great. And they use such basic ingredients that we can nearly always make them without needing to plan ahead. Always a popular choice for a pudding in our household :-)

Drop Scone/Scotch Pancake Thingies

Makes: About 12
Takes: 5 minutes + 5 minutes cooking time

Ingredients

6 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp milk

Method

1. Measure the flour and sugar into a bowl and mix together then add the egg. Mix to a smooth paste.
2. Gradually mix in the milk until the consistency is like double cream (you may need slightly more or less milk, depending on the size of the egg).
3. Pre-heat a non-stick frying pan (you may need a little oil in the pan, though I don't use any). Add spoonfuls of batter to the pan and cook until the bottom is brown and the top has dried out.
4. Flip to brown the other side then serve warm.

Great with maple syrup, honey, chocolate sauce, jam, or just as they are! I'm guessing that you could also add some dried fruit and/or chopped fresh fruit to the batter before cooking, though I've never actually tried it...

Cranberry and Orange Granola

Because of my nut allergy I have to be a bit careful with muesli and granola, so if I want it it's safer to make my own! I love the fruitiness of this particular recipe, and it's low-fat and low in added sugar too :-)

Cranberry and Orange Granola

Makes: About 1 1/2 lb
Takes: 20 mins + 45 mins cooking time

Ingredients

2 oranges
4 tbsp runny honey
11 oz rolled oats
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
3 1/2 oz dried cranberries
3 1/2 oz raisins

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160oC (fan oven)/180oC/Gas Mark 4 and line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment.
2. Finely grate the rind of the oranges and squeeze out the juice. Put the rind and juice together with the honey in a saucepan and warm gently.
3. Add the oats and seeds and mix well then spread over the baking tray (it doesn't need to be level or anything - clumps of mixture are fine!)
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally to break up the clumps, till golden and starting to crisp. Give it a bit longer if you like your granola really crunchy.
5. Stir in the fruit then leave to cool before storing in an airtight container.

You can serve it with natural yogurt and fresh fruit, or any way you like really - my preference is just to add skimmed milk! It's also good as it is, still warm from the oven...

It keeps well for at least a week. If you're not sure you'll get through it in that time, halve the recipe (in fact, all the quantities here are doubled from the original as I found it better to make it in bulk!) It may not need to bake for quite as long though so keep an eye on it.

You can ring the changes by adding different kinds of dried fruit - a mixture of dried cranberries, blueberries and cherries is _delicious_! You can also add nuts of course, though you may want to reduce the quantity of oats accordingly. Try replacing a couple of ounces of oats with the same weight of chopped hazelnuts, for example. It's a flexible recipe so adapt it to your taste :-)

Light Fruit Loaf

I'm not generally a fan of fruitcake - too heavy and rich for me, and too high a chance of coming across nuts. But this isn't like ordinary fruitcake! It's light and sweet and low in fat, and gets most of its sweetness from the fruit - which makes it healthy cake in my book, meaning I can eat lots of it ;-)

Light Fruit Loaf

Makes: 12 slices
Takes: 20 mins preparation + 1 hour 10 mins cooking time

Ingredients

1 oz (25g) butter or margarine
1 3/4 oz (50g) caster sugar
4 medium eggs
6 oz (175g) self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 medium carrot, peeled and grated
3 1/2 oz (100g) ready-to-eat apricots, chopped
3 1/2 oz (100g) raisins
3 1/2 oz (100g) sultanas

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 130oC (fan oven)/150oC/Gas Mark 2.
2. Cream together the butter/marg and sugar then add the eggs and stir well.
3. Sift in the flour and baking powder and stir to combine then fold in the carrot, apricots, raisins and sultanas.
4. Pour into a greased and lined 1 lb (450g) loaf tin. Bake for about an hour and 10 minutes, till a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.
5. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before slicing.

You can freeze the whole cake or individual slices - great for packed lunches! It is a bit crumbly 'cos there's a high fruit:cake ratio so you might want to stick a napkin in that lunchbox too... But it tastes really good :-)