LEMON SYLLABUB

 

A little while ago I made lemon posset for a dinner party dessert.  You can read about that here.  I served it in a variety of small, dainty cups and glasses.  

Then a couple of months ago I acquired some more small Pyrex glass cups at a village brocante which would also be perfect for the dessert.  You can read about that here.  My thinking was white china cups for the ladies, plainer glass ones for the gentlemen, corny and old fashioned I know but I didn't have a full set of either so a mix and match would be fun.  They are both roughly the same capacity.

The next time I had it in mind to make lemon posset I was looking for the recipe and came across one for lemon syllabub instead.  I wondered what the difference was.

Essentially, for lemon posset you cook the cream and mix in lemon juice.  For lemon syllabub the cream is not cooked but you make a lemon syrup and also include some sweet white wine which appealed to me!  (Other recipes I have seen online suggest just using ordinary white wine.)

Mary Berry's recipe for it is in her book "Classic Mary Berry" and also on the BBC website as a video which you can see here.  Interestingly in the book the recipe suggests leaving the syrup to infuse for at least an hour or even overnight whereas in the video you combine it with the whipped cream as soon as the syrup has cooled.  

To whisk it up I used what I call my "spider whisk" because it reminds me of the ginormous spiders we get here in France.  You push the handle up and down and the spider bit twizzles round at huge speed, making it very effective as a hand whisk.  I was pleased to find that even French double cream whipped up quickly using it.

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The other day I found a set of ten of these little glass sundae dishes in a UK charity shop. 

They cost next to nothing and are perfect for the next syllabub!

(Or ice cream, or chocolate mousse.)

Ingredients

1 lemon (well scrubbed if not unwaxed) rind and juice

100ml sweet white wine

75g caster sugar

300ml double cream

Method

First, make the syrup by peeling strips of rind from the lemon as thinly as possible using a vegetable peeler or small sharp knife.  Put the rind into a small saucepan with the lemon juice, sugar and wine.  Bring to the boil gently and once the sugar has dissolved simmer for a few moments.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Strain the cooled syrup into a bowl but reserve the peel.

Add the cream to the bowl and whisk until it just holds its shape, ie until thicker but still floppy, not stiff.

Divide the syllabub evenly between six cups, glasses or ramekins,  dropping a dessertspoonful at a time into each one.  

Cut the lemon peel into thin strips and use to decorate the syllabub.  Chill in the fridge for a minimum of two hours.  The dessert is ideal for making the morning or day before you need it.

You could also decorate it with a sprig of mint, a few raspberries, sliced strawberries or edible flowers such as violas.

Serves 6.

LEMON POSSET

We had dinner at a friend’s house one autumn evening last year and for dessert she served lemon posset, something I had never made or eaten before.  It was utterly divine and she served it in pretty stemmed champagne coupes.  

She and her husband are renovating one of those drop dead gorgeous French houses known as a "maison du maître" with large airy rooms, tall, draughty windows and high ceilings.  They still have plenty of work to do!  But the previous owner left behind a vast quantity of old furniture, linens, china and glassware, including the coupes.  Some of it was not to her taste but much of it was real treasure.

This is in sharp contrast to the unattractive furniture and other stuff that the owner of our first French house wanted to sell us.  We were mightily relieved to find it had all gone when we finally got the keys!  The difference is that our friend's house had been a well loved home whereas ours had been a holiday home for generations of a Parisian family who just descended on the place for six weeks every summer!  You can read a bit about that here.

Anyway, at the first opportunity, the next time we had guests for lunch, I decided to make lemon posset myself.  I served it in a hotchpotch of china cups and glasses and it went down a treat.  I adapted a Mary Berry recipe which was a doddle to make and I shall add it to my repertoire of favourite desserts.  It was luscious yet light and very lemony!  It's also ideal for a dinner party as it can be made the day before.

Ingredients

600ml double cream

15og caster sugar

3 lemons, zest and juice

a handful of fresh raspberries for decoration

strips of lemon zest for decoration (optional)

Method

Put the cream, sugar and lemon zest into a wide saucepan.  Bring to the boil over low heat and simmer gently for 3 minutes, stirring all the time.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool until lukewarm.

Stir the lemon juice into the cooled cream mixture and pour into 8 small ramekins, cups or glasses.

Chill in the fridge for at least two hours until set or overnight.

Just before serving, decorate with the fresh raspberries and strips of lemon zest.

Serves 8 portions.

VEGAN LEMON CAKE

This vegan cake was easy to make and looked lovely when iced.  You can see the recipe I used here.  I was interested in some of the comments which suggested that people use vegan recipes if they want to make a cake but have no eggs or butter in the house. 

I made it for a cake sale and it sold out.

Frequently I don't get to taste a cake that I have made for an event but I snuck a slice of this one because I was curious to know how it tasted and was delighted to find that it was perfectly delicious.   I don't think I have ever been without eggs and butter in the house and therefore the means to bake a cake!  However, it's so easy to make that I would definitely make it again, not just to provide something vegan but because it's really, really good!  

At some point in the future I might also try using GF flour, as suggested in the online recipe, which would be good for vegans and those who are gluten intolerant.

Finally, I couldn’t resist sharing some pictures of the fabulous sunsets we’ve been having recently.

Ingredients 

For the cake

275g self raising flour

200g caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

zest of 1 lemon

juice of ½ a lemon

100ml vegetable oil

170ml cold water

For the icing

150g icing sugar

juice of ½ a lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.  Grease and line a loaf tin* or use a paper liner.

In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and lemon zest).

Add the oil, lemon juice and water and mix together until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30 minutes or until done.  Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

When the cake is cool, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add enough lemon juice to make a spreadable icing.  Pour onto the cake and spread over the top.  

Decorate with more lemon zest, sprinkles or edible flowers if you wish.

Cuts into 8-10 slices.

*The recipe online said to use a 1lb loaf tin.  I think there was probably too much mixture for that.  

I used a 2lb (900g) French loaf tin which is slightly longer and slimmer than an English one and the cake was plenty deep enough.  Next time I might use a 20cm round tin.

GLUTEN FREE LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE

Who doesn't love a lemon drizzle cake?

They are always immensely popular at cake stalls.

I made this gluten free version recently for a cake stall at a local village event and it sold really well.

The recipe comes from a handy little book called "200 gluten free recipes" published by Hamlyn.  It lists using brown rice flour but I used Doves Farm gluten free self raising flour with a little extra GF baking powder.

It was a simple, all-in-one kind of recipe, dead easy to make, and looked stunning.  I wouldn't normally include lemon zest in the drizzle, just lemon juice, but it looked great and was very lemony.  I don't often get to taste the cakes given for a cake stall but I was keen to try this one.  The recipe made a huge cake and with the lemon zest in the drizzle did not need any further adornment.  Definitely a keeper of a recipe and one to use again.

Ingredients

For the cake

250g butter, softened, or baking spread

250g caster sugar

250g gluten free self raising flour

3/4 tsp gluten free baking powder

4 eggs, beaten

1 lemon, zest and juice

For the topping

100g granulated sugar

2 lemons, zest and juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.  Butter a large, 2lb/900g loaf tin or use a paper liner.

Place all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat together with a hand held electric whisk until well combined and fluffy.

Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the top.  Tap on the worktop a few times to release any trapped air.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until golden brown and firm.  Remove from the oven and prick all over with a skewer, cake tester or cocktail stick.

To make the drizzle mix the lemon zest, juice and sugar together in a small bowl.  Spoon the drizzle evenly over the cake and leave it to cool in the tin.

Cuts into 10-12 generous slices.

LEMON DRIZZLE BUNS

For a friend's birthday I gave her a pretty tin of eight home made lemon drizzle buns.  She and her husband are not regular consumers of cake so lemon drizzle seemed like a safe option.  They could have a bun each for birthday tea and freeze the rest to be enjoyed later.

The fashion for cupcakes seems to have passed but these could easily be called cupcakes, or fairy cakes, and decorated with buttercream or icing and sprinkles if you like.  When I was a little girl my mum often made things like this and they were always called "buns".  She rarely had a lemon in the house, except at Christmas, so would have added a few chopped glacé cherries or currants - in which case they would have been called cherry buns or currant buns (sometimes called Queen cakes).  Even more occasionally she would have swirled some simple icing on the top and maybe a few hundreds and thousands left over from the Christmas trifle, especially if aunts and uncles (and assorted cousins) were coming to tea which would have warranted something a bit more fancy than usual.

My mixture actually made nine buns so one served as "quality control" and consequently I can confirm that they were lovely.  My friend sent me a message the next day to say she and her husband really enjoyed them and none of them made it to the freezer!

Simple buns never go out of fashion.

Ingredients

For the buns

115g baking spread or softened butter

115g caster sugar

2 eggs

115g self raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

zest of 1 lemon

For the drizzle 

juice of 1 lemon

2 tblsp granulated sugar

Method

Put 10 paper cake cases into a muffin tin.  Preheat the oven to 200° C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.

Put all of the cake ingredients into a medium sized bowl and beat well with a hand held electric whisk, or a wooden spoon, until well blended.

Divide the mixture evenly between the bun cases filling each one to about two thirds full.  Using an ice cream scoop with a lever action can help to make them all about the same.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and springy.  While they are in the oven make the drizzle by mixing the sugar and lemon juice together.

While the buns are still warm, prick holes in the top and spoon the drizzle over.  Remove from the tin to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes 8-10 buns.

SAUCY LEMON PUDDING

Don't be put off by the rather uninspiring photo! This pudding is delicious!

There are plenty of recipes on the internet for it and this one comes from the Olive Magazine website.  It popped up in my news feed at the right time when I needed a pudding and although easy is a little vague.  The instructions tell you to mix the batter in a food processor, to whisk the egg whites until firm but not stiff and fold the two mixtures.  You can (at the time of writing) see the recipe here.

I dutifully processed the batter in my Magimix, whisked the egg whites separately and…..then what?  I thought tipping the egg whites into the food processor would beat all of the air out of them so I spooned the batter mixture into the egg whites instead.  That seemed like use of a food processor for its own sake and it would have made more sense to mix the batter in a bowl by hand or with an electric whisk then fold in the egg whites.  Then , when I went back and looked at the videoclip in the recipe ……. that's exactly what was shown! 😁 The written recipe did not match the video instructions which made a lot more sense!

If you serve the pudding more or less straight from the oven you get a sponge with a runny custard underneath it.  If you serve it a bit later the custard sets the way custard does but it’s no less delicious for that and perfect with a little cream (or ice cream).  The next time I make it I would use a different dish and take a better photo.  Watch this space!

Ingredients

200g golden caster sugar (or white)

50g butter

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon plus extra to make up to 100ml

50g plain flour

3 eggs, separated

250ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Butter a baking dish or soufflé dish.  Preheat the oven to 180C / 160 fan / gas mk 4.

Put the egg whites into a medium bowl and beat with an electric hand held whisk until firm but not completely stiff.

Put the butter, sugar and lemon zest into a large bowl.  Beat with the whisk until paler and creamy.   Add all the other ingredients and beat until you have a smooth batter.

Gently fold in the egg whites with a metal spoon until well combined then pour the mixture into your baking dish. 

Sit the dish in an oven tray half filled with hot water and bake for 40-50 minutes until set and a light golden brown.  

Dust with icing sugar and serve hot so that the sauce underneath is runny.  It will set as the pudding cools but is equally delicious.

Serves 4.

SIMNEL CAKE

 

The weather on Easter Sunday this year was especially foul.  Cold, grey and with persistent rain that was occasionally horizontal.  Most other options for entertainment were cancelled so it was a perfect day for baking a cake!  A rummage in the kitchen cupboards revealed that I had all the necessary ingredients to make a Simnel cake, including a pack of marzipan.

This is the first Simnel cake I have ever made in my whole life.

Usually I would make a chocolate cake for Easter (see here).

A Simnel cake is a traditional cake for Easter, a rich fruit cake.  It's not quite as rich and dense as a Christmas cake but more so than an everyday fruit cake, containing a lot of dried fruit and some mixed spice.  The secret ingredient is the layer of marzipan, or almond paste, contained inside the cake itself.  This was only just visible once the cake was baked.  

I adapted a Mary Berry recipe using the fruit I had in stock.  Shops are not open in France on Sunday afternoons and in any case the weather was so foul that I would rather not venture out!  It's an all-in-one kind of recipe, no separate creaming of butter and sugar needed, but was quite a hefty amount of ingredients.  Consequently I used my Kenwood stand mixer to beat it as I didn't quite have the muscle power to do it with a wooden spoon and I thought my little hand held mixer would struggle.

It was a delicious cake, very moist and spicy and I would definitely make it again.  It seems a shame to only have one a year - rather like the Christmas cake!  Having never made one before I had nothing to compare it with except that my friend Gaynor makes one every Easter, using a Felicity Cloake recipe, which is lovely. 

Most recipes suggest that the top marzipan layer and the eleven balls (representing the eleven  loyal disciples) should be browned slightly, either under a grill or using a cook's blowtorch.  However, I had spotted an alternative method of decoration as above - simply pressing a mini egg into each ball then dusting with icing sugar.  You can of course decorate it any way you like, with eggs, flowers, chicks, chocolate or whatever takes your fancy.  There are plenty of ideas on the internet. 

Ingredients

225g baking spread (spreadable butter) straight from the fridge

225g light muscovado (or light soft brown) sugar

225g self raising flour

 

115g glacé cherries

175g sultanas

50g raisins

115g currants

115g ready to eat dried apricots

55g candied peel (mine was just orange peel) chopped

zest of 2 lemons

4 large eggs

2 level tsp mixed spice (or quatre épices)

Also

1 pack (roughly 500g) marzipan

1-2 tblsp apricot jam

11 mini eggs

icing sugar for dusting

Method

Begin by cutting the cherries into quarters, rinse well under running water to remove the syrup, tip onto kitchen paper and pat dry.  Snip or chop the apricots into small dice.

Preheat the oven to 150C / 130 fan / gas mk 2.  Grease a 20cm deep round cake tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Put all the fruit and other cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat together well by hand or use a stand food mixer.

Spoon roughly half of the mixture into the tin and level the top.

Divide the marzipan into three roughly equal portions.  Roll out one of them into a 20cm circle.  It doesn't matter if the edges are a bit untidy as they won't be seen.  Lay on top of the cake mixture in the tin.

 Spoon the other half of cake mixture on top of the marzipan and level the top again.  

Bake for 2½ hours until the cake is risen, brown and firm.  Check after an hour or so and cover with a circle of foil if it's already quite brown to avoid it becoming scorched.

When cooked, remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 10 minutes.  Then turn out carefully to finish cooling on a wire rack, removing all the baking paper.

Roll out another portion of the marzipan to a 20cm circle to fit the top of the cake, making the edges more tidy this time.  If you are using a tin with a loose bottom you can use it as a template.

Brush the top of the cooled cake with apricot jam.  (You can sieve it to remove lumps of fruit if you wish, or use apricot glaze which is smooth and lump free.)  Lay the second circle of marzipan on the top.

Crimp the edges of the marzipan to create a fluted effect and arrange the balls evenly around the edge.  Dab the bottom of each one with a little apricot jam to make them stick.  Using your finger or the handle of a wooden spoon, push a dent into each ball and insert a small mini egg.  Dust with icing sugar.

Cuts into 11 generous slices or at least 15 regular slices if you remove a ball or two as you go round!  (You can compensate the unlucky recipient of a slice without a ball with another mini egg!)

ICED LEMON SQUARES FOR AFTERNOON TEA

We have a friend whose birthday falls on St Patrick's Day so we held an afternoon tea party in his honour with a couple of nods to the Irish theme.  

A chocolate Guinness cake was the star of the show and of course Guinness was served for those brave enough to drink it so early in the day.

The cake stand had dainty sandwiches including egg and cress, always very popular, on the bottom tier.  The eggs were true free range, a gift from one of the ladies in our watercolour painting class and the yolks are an astonishingly bright orange.  She has a number of hens that lay lots of eggs and she brings everyone a box of half a dozen every week! We also used some home grown cress grown on our windowsill from a packet of seeds smuggled in from our trip back to the UK at Christmas.  (I have never found either cress or packets of seeds other than watercress in France.)

There were also ham and tomato sandwiches, smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches, all with the crusts removed!  I also made a plate of mini sausage rolls using cocktail frankfurters which were very tasty and well received.

The middle tier had home made scones (made by Nick) and some cream horns.  I wrote about them here.  The top layer had little iced and decorated squares of lemon cake.  I fancied doing French fancies but chickened out when I spotted this Irish recipe by Donal Skehan.  

However, they very nearly didn't happen.  The recipe is an all-in-one method and said to use butter "at room temperature". Well, I ended up with little flecks of butter in the mixture.  I knew that too much beating could make the cake tough not soft and had used up all my lemons so couldn't start again.  I looked for solutions on the internet.  Most said "just cook, it will be fine", a couple said beat harder and several said to sieve the mixture!  I tried that - what a palaver and I soon gave up and went with the "just cook" theory!

I baked it as a shallow tray bake, cut it into little squares and decorated with everything I had to make them look pretty. I made a thin icing using lemon juice and coloured half with yellow food colouring.  They looked perfect and tasted very lemony. The texture was slightly firm, a bit like a madeira cake and there were occasional little holes, presumably due to the tiny lumps of unblended butter.  

I would use this recipe again but make sure the butter was very well softened, not just "at room temperature" next time. I suppose that it very much depends on the temperature of the room!  The creaming method would have worked better to ensure the butter was properly blended on this occasion!

I could imagine my mum saying "you're never too old to make mistakes" and the swish of Mrs Stafford's broomstick as she swooped by!

Ingredients 

225g caster sugar

250g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 large eggs

225g butter at room temperature (well softened would be better)

3 tblsp milk

Zest of 3 lemons

For the icing:

200g icing sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Sprinkles of your choice

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140° fan / gas mk 3.  Line a large rectangular baking tin, 30 x 23cm, with baking paper.

Put all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat with a hand held electric whisk until well blended.

Transfer the mixture to the tin and level the top.  Bake for 35 minutes until done.  Remove from the oven and after a few minutes carefully lift the cake in its paper out of the tin and onto a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing sift the icing sugar into a large bowl and beat in enough lemon juice to make it runny but not too thin.  

Divide your cake into half if you are using two colours or thirds if you are using three.  Cut into squares of the size you want, very small and dainty or larger.  Separate slightly on the paper or by removing onto the rack.

Coat one section of cake with white icing, allowing it to drip down the sides of the squares.

Transfer half of the remaining icing into a separate bowl if you are using three colours or colour the remainder with just one colour if you are using two colours.

Decorate with sprinkles.

Cuts into at least 20 squares depending on how dainty you want them!

ECCLEFECHAN TART

After the success of last year's Burns Night Supper we decided to do it again this year but with a different menu.  The main course and dessert were things I had never made before.  I'll save the post about home made haggis for another day but as Nick said about the dessert "it's a keeper".  I'm not sure the same could be said for the haggis!

I stumbled across the recipe for Ecclefechan tart in a blog called "Them Apples".  You can see it here where it's credited to Jamie Oliver from his book "Jamie's Great Britain".  It's almost a cross between a mince pie and a treacle tart, looks suitably dark and dramatic, and is very rich and delicious.  It also reminded me a little of the Be-Ro butter tartlets that I made a while ago - see here.

My own copy of "Jamie's Great Britain", a charity shop purchase, is currently in our UK house so I couldn't verify the recipe and several other versions of it appear online.  Look it up and take your pick!

This recipe makes quite a large tart and being very rich you only need a small slice.  It would easily serve quite a crowd.  Next time I think I would scale it down a bit (which would be another good reason to go and get a smaller tin!).

I made my own pastry from scratch for the first time in ages.  (Whisky is used to bring the dough together but I'm not quite sure I would do that again.)  I certainly seemed to be out of practice with the pastry making, even with the help of a food processor!  There was much patching of splits and cracks and it was very crumbly, which I found rather disappointing considering that until I got lazy and started using shop bought pastry, I've been doing it since I was about ten years old!  Even so, the tart was lovely and I would definitely make it again, and not just for Burns Night.  It’s a great dessert for the winter months.

As an aside, over the years several people have asked me where I find black treacle in France.  The answer is, I don’t think I ever have!  You can probably get it from the online shopping services that provide British foods to ex-pats in France although I haven't used them myself.  I have occasionally seen tins of Lyle's golden syrup on the "English shelf" in several French supermarkets but in fact I bring mine from the UK.  

Squeezy plastic bottles make it easier to weigh or measure out so I now buy both black treacle and golden syrup that way. 

Lyle's golden syrup is available in squeezy bottles in UK supermarkets but most have their own brand equivalent.  The flavour is slightly different from Lyle's but fine for baking - you might only notice the difference if you like it on your porridge or a crumpet!  I first saw a squeezy bottle of Silver Spoon black treacle in (I think) Asda but the other shop that stocks it is M&S.  I usually get some when we visit the UK by car.  It’s perfectly legal to bring it to France but as it's a liquid you can’t carry it in a cabin bag if travelling by say Ryanair.  It’s fine in your checked in bag but I'd recommend sealing it in a plastic bag or two, just in case of mishaps!

A further update/aside:

I ordered a secondhand copy of Jamie Oliver's book from Amazon.  The books never cost very much and the postage to France was only a couple of pounds more than to the UK so I thought it was worth a punt.  I have had secondhand books posted successfully before but that was before Brexit and I thought this might be a good test case in terms of whether or not I would be stung for hefty import duties.  (The reason why thousands of small UK businesses have lost their European customers.)  A friend recently had to pay 38€ to receive a parcel containing her own clothes, mostly old and well worn, which she had posted due to lack of capacity in her flight luggage.

Anyway, four weeks later the book had not arrived.  I contacted the seller and they immediately sent another copy.  Three weeks later book number two turned up and was just left in my post box with no demand for import duties.  (I am still convinced that book number one might eventually turn up!)

I looked up the recipe for Ecclefechan tart and found the only difference to mine was the addition of some chopped stem ginger, so the next time I make it I will add that and also some chopped walnuts as Karen suggested in the comments.

As a further, further aside……French post boxes are excellent.  They are a large metal box which is usually positioned on the street, so in your gate, wall, door if that's on the street, or a pole at the end of the drive.  They are quite capacious and will take a large parcel.  The outer door has a lock to which all postman have a universal master key so quite large parcels can be delivered whether you are at home or not.  The inner door has a key unique to the box so that only you can retrieve it.  Great idea!  Of course, you can still have a bit of a palaver if the parcel is sent by courier other than La Poste, as they don’t have the master key.

Ingredients

For the pastry

250g plain flour

125g cubed salted butter

50ml whisky

For the filling

1 generous tblsp black treacle

300g mixed dried fruit - I used roughly equal quantities of currants, sultanas, raisins and cranberries

150g unsalted butter, softened

150g soft light brown sugar

3 large eggs

150ml double cream

zest of 1 small orange and 1 small lemon, mixed together

Method

Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour either by hand or using a food processor.  Add the whisky to bring the dough together into a ball (I also had to add a splash of water).  Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.*

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.  Butter a 25cm loose bottomed tart tin.  Placing the tin on a baking sheet makes it easier to get in and out of the oven.

Roll out the pastry to line the tin and prick the base all over with a fork.  Line with scrunched up baking parchment, fill with baking beans and blind bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and lift out the paper and beans.  Bake for another 5 minutes until beginning to turn golden brown and remove from the oven.

To make the filling, cream together the butter and sugar and beat in the eggs one at a time.  Stir in the double cream.

Drizzle the black treacle over the pastry base and scatter the dried fruit evenly over it.  Scatter the orange and lemon zest over the top.  Pour or spoon the filling on top of the fruit and spread it out evenly.  

Return to the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (mine took about 40 minutes) until almost set.  There should be a slight wobble.

Allow to cool slightly before removing from the tin.  (Mine had leaked here and there and stuck to the base so I served it on the base, on a cake stand.)

Serve at room temperature.

Cuts into 10-12 generous slices.

*the next time I made the tart I made a standard sweet pastry recipe using 225g plain flour, 120g cold butter, 2 tblsp icing sugar and an egg beaten with a splash of water.

For the filling I used 260g combined weight of dried fruit plus 40g chopped walnuts.  I also added 2 balls of stem ginger, chopped.

The pastry was easier to handle and roll out, didn’t need any patching, I didn’t chill it because it was a perishing cold day, and it turned out of the tin beautifully!

LEMON TART or tarte au citron

Having friends round for dinner in November is a different kettle of fish from earlier in the year.  There is definitely a need for something comforting and warming.  On the actual day the fog never lifted and the temperature outside did not reach double figures.  I was tempted to make a crumble for pudding but with a soup for starters and a casserole for mains settled on lemon tart instead, thinking it would be lighter.

I had made one before but instead of leafing through numerous cook books for the recipe I looked online.  I somehow ended up using this recipe for Classic Lemon Tart on Mary Berry's own website.  It comes from her Complete Cookbook.

The recipe uses nine eggs and six large lemons!  When I looked again I saw that I needed a 28cm tart tin with a loose bottom, which I don't have.  I used my 25cm tin and scaled down the ingredients accordingly.  I also used ready made sweet pastry to save time, draping it over the edge of the tin as per the instructions.  Somehow the side of the tart broke away from the overlap in a couple of places and shrank back a bit.  This meant that the tart couldn't be filled right to the top because it would have overflowed.  I ended up with filling left over so simply poured this into a small dish and baked it separately.  Something to enjoy later!

It was absolutely divine, very sharp and lemony, and would serve probably about twelve people as it's very rich and you really only need a very small slice!  It kept really well in the fridge and was still delicious several days later so I would definitely make it ahead next time.  This would give me time to make my own pastry as I suspect the ready made one I used was a bit too thin and that might be why it split at the edge.

Since then I have found other Mary Berry recipes for lemon tart with more manageable quantities of ingredients!  One is on the BBC Food website here and was a technical challenge in an early series of the Great British Bake Off.  It appears in the book from the series called "How to Bake".   A very similar version of it also appears on the current edition of Mary's Baking Bible (although not the original edition).  I would use either of those next time although they both specify a 23 cm tin and at the current time of writing I only have a 20cm or 25cm!  A reason to pay a visit to our lovely nearby cookware shop perhaps!  (Or maybe I'll wait until our next visit to the UK where our local DIY/ironmonger's shop sells everything like that for much more reasonable prices!)

A tip for zesting lemons: always zest before you cut it in half to squeeze out the juice.  Zesting this many lemons is time consuming but much more fiddly if you try to zest afterwards!  Also: if you use a microplane zester the best way to get all the zest out of the groove is to use the rounded end of a teaspoon handle - not your fingernail as I once saw done in an episode of Celebrity Bake Off.  Someone (I forget who) used her hideously long false nail to scoop out the zest before putting it in the cake and if you have ever noticed how grubby those nails can be underneath..........YUK !!

Ingredients

1 ready made, ready rolled pack of sweet pastry

7 eggs

240ml double cream

280g caster sugar

zest and juice of 5 lemons

Icing sugar to dust before serving.

Method

If your pastry is in the fridge bring it out about 15 minutes before you want to use it otherwise it may crack when you unroll it.

Preheat the oven to 200° C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.  Butter a 25cm loose based fluted tart tin.

Unroll the pastry and line the tin with it, tucking the pastry into the sides and draping the excess over the edge.  Place on a baking sheet, line with baking paper and fill with baking beans.  

Blind bake the pastry for 15 minutes or until the edges are just golden.  Remove the paper and beans and carefully trim away the excess pastry.  Return to the oven for 10-12 minutes until dry.  Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.  

Reduce the oven temperature to 160° C / 140° fan / gas mk 3.

To make the filling, put all the ingredients into a large bowl and with an electric whisk beat until well combined.  The mixture will still be very liquid.

Pour the mixture carefully into the cool pastry case but do not overfill, only close to the top if there are no gaps where it might leak.

Transfer carefully to the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes.  The filling should be set but with a slight wobble in the middle.

Serve cool or completely cold.  Give a generous dusting of icing sugar just before serving.

Serves 10-12.

COCONUT AND LEMON TRAYBAKE

 

We joined a walking group when we first came to France this year, back in March.  After each walk (called a randonée) most people retire to the bar in the village, or sometimes to someone's house, for a debriefing - liquid refreshment and a slice of cake!

A traybake is ideal for this as it can easily be cut into squares and passed along the table for people to help themselves.  The resulting chunk of cake tends to look a bit tidier and is easier to handle than a slice from a round cake.  (Loaf cakes are equally good in this respect too.)

I had it in mind to make Mary Berry's lemon drizzle traybake but on reorganising my pantry and kitchen cupboards (what a joy it is to have a pantry!) I found several packets of coconut which, I know, is not everyone's favourite in a cake but needed using up.  

To make the cake I adapted a recipe from a charity shop find - a book called "Cakes, regional and traditional" by Julie Duff which, as the title implies, is full of lovely old fashioned and traditional recipes from all over Britain.  I based this recipe on the one for coconut pound cake and will be delving into the pages of this book again!

The cake was lovely, a nice moist and soft texture with not too much coconut and a delicate lemon flavour. 

For another coconut and lemon cake see here.

Ingredients

For the cake

225g self raising flour

225g caster sugar

225g baking spread or softened butter

3 eggs, lightly beaten

115g desiccated coconut

1 tsp coconut essence (or Malibu)

zest of 1 lemon

For the icing

3 tblsp icing sugar, sifted

lemon juice

Method

Butter and line the base of a large roasting tin or traybake tin that measures roughly 30 x 23 cm (or 12" x 9").  Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.

Put all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat well until thoroughly combined.  I managed this with a wooden spoon but a hand held mixer would have been easier!

Tip the mixture into the prepared tin, spread it out and level the top.

Bake for about an hour or until done.  Mine was ready in 55 minutes.

Cool in the tin for about ten minutes then turn out carefully onto a wire rack.

To make the topping, mix the icing sugar with enough lemon juice to make a runny but creamy consistency and drizzle any way you like over the cooled cake.

Cuts into 24 squares.

CHICKEN, LEMON AND THYME KEBABS

We at last have summer weather here in France and the barbecue season has arrived!  We seemed to  suddenly lurch from a cool and wet spring to high summer with temperatures regularly above 30°C.  Luckily we have a shady place to cook on the barbecue and last year we lashed out on a new gas one.  We had resisted, thinking we were not really barbecuing unless we used charcoal, but it has taken much of the guesswork out of the cooking.  We no longer get food that's crozzled on the outside and raw in the middle and we can predict more accurately when it will be ready - no more waiting for the charcoal to become hot enough then having to get on with it!  In other words, cooking on a gas barbecue has taken all the stress out of it and is definitely just as tasty (if slightly less exciting).

I recently bought some excellent lemon and thyme marinated chicken brochettes in Lidl when we were having visitors.  They were quite pricey so we looked for a recipe we could adapt to make them from scratch.  We found one in a book called "Charred and Scruffed" by Adam Perry Lang.

The book itself was a gift from my brother some years ago, possibly to encourage us to be more creative than just burgers than sausages with our barbecue repertoire!  It's not a book I would have bought for myself as it's American so therefore in cup measurements, which I'm never very confident with, but it's full of lovely recipes.

Ingredients

4 smallish skinned chicken breasts, cut into large chunks

1 red pepper, seeds removed and cut into large chunks

For the marinade

2-3 tablespoons olive oil (or roughly equal to the amount of lemon juice)

2 cloves garlic

1 shallot

juice of 1 lemon*

1 tsp granulated sugar

3-4 small sprigs thyme**

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Grate the garlic and shallot using a microplane zester or the finest grater that you have.

Strip the leaves from the thyme sprigs, chop fine, and put them with all the other marinade ingredients into a small jam jar.  Shake the jar well to combine everything together.

* For extra tanginess you could add in the lemon zest and the fleshy bits from the juicer/squeezer.

** If you don't have fresh thyme, use a teaspoon of dried thyme and marinate for more than the minimum time.

Push the chunks of chicken and pepper onto skewers and lay in a shallow dish.  Pour the marinade over evenly, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for at least thirty minutes, or 2-3 hours.

Alternatively, put the chunks of chicken and pepper into a plastic bag, add the marinade and toss about to make sure everything is coated then leave in the fridge until ready to cook and assemble the skewers.

Grill on the barbecue for 8-10 minutes, turning occasionally.  Or bake in the oven for 20 minutes.  Test for doneness by inserting a sharp knife into a piece of chicken to see if it’s still pink.

Serves 2-3, depending on how many sausages there are per person.  (We have found Lidl Toulouse sausages a good bbq alternative to the magnificent Cumberland!)

BLUEBERRY AND LEMON MUFFIN CAKE

On many occasions I have felt compelled to make a cake from a recipe as soon as possible after I saw it in a book or on the internet.  This one was so compelling that I made it the same day!

I spotted it in a recent edition of the Guardian online where it appears as a cherry muffin cake.  The writer suggests you can adapt it to use other fruit and I happened to have a punnet of nice chunky blueberries in the fridge, bought the day before.   We also had guests coming for dinner so all the stars were aligned!

At the time of writing, you can see the original recipe here and  I wondered what was muffin like about it.  Probably because you make it the way you would usually make muffins, i.e. not by creaming butter and sugar, or rubbing butter into flour as in the most common cake recipes.  I wondered if the cake might also not keep well as muffins are often past their best the next day.  I decided that that wouldn't matter as a fair chunk of it would be eaten on the day and even stale muffins are edible if you warm them in the microwave and serve with instant custard!

The cake looked rather craggy when it came out of the oven so I dusted it with icing sugar before serving.

I was also a bit miffed that it looked like most of the blueberries seemed to have sunk to the bottom but as the cake was cut it was clear that some hadn't so that was a relief.

It was a delicious cake, really good.  The muffin method was not easier than say an all-in-one sponge cake but easy enough AND it was most definitely not stale the next day.  In fact it kept well (I put it in the fridge because of the fresh fruit) and the last couple of slices were still good two days later.

A brilliant cake and one for the recipe box.

Ingredients

220g plain flour

200g golden caster sugar

10g baking powder (this turned out to be about 1½ tsp)

zest of 1 lemon

pinch of salt

200g Greek yoghurt (I used full fat)

100g butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

¼ tsp almond extract

200g fresh blueberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.  Butter and line the base of a 20cm springform cake tin.

In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients (not including the fruit!).

In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.

Add the wet mix to the dry mix and stir well to make sure there is no unmixed flour.  Fold in the blueberries.

Pour into the prepared tin, level the top and bake for 40-50 minutes.  Mine was done in 40 minutes.

Cool in the tin.  Dust with icing sugar before serving if you like.

I served mine with a spoonful of fruit salad alongside and a blob of whipped cream.

Cuts into 8-10 slices.

 

CHICKEN WITH GRAPES, LEEKS AND ROSEMARY

This recipe is adapted from one of those recipe cards I picked up at Waitrose some time ago.  The original uses chicken legs but we had some skinless chicken breasts in the fridge already so I used them instead.

Waitrose recipes tend not to disappear or be hijacked so to see it on their website click here.

I cooked it in a favourite cast iron casserole dish that was given to me by my Aunty Vera donkeys years ago.  Probably in the 1980's when cast iron cookware was all the rage - if the cookery magazines were anything to go by in those days.  I suspect that my aunt bought one but was not enamoured with it, preferring her Pyrex instead!  I like it because it's actually quite small and ideal for making something for just the two of us.

Of course if you don't have a cast iron dish you can do the first part of the recipe in a frying pan on the hob and finish it off in an ovenproof dish in the oven.

The recipe was easy to make and with the grapes and wine had a slightly "weekend" appeal, yet was quick enough for a midweek meal.  The chicken was moist and delicious.  We had ours with the usual selection of weekday veg and mash.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts

a splash of oil

1 large or 2 small leeks, washed and sliced, not too thickly, not too thinly

a large handful of green grapes, washed and halved

2 small sprigs fresh rosemary

1 small glass of white wine (or use chicken stock)

a squeeze of lemon juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.

Using a cast iron casserole dish* on the hob, heat the oil then fry the chicken breasts, skin side down for 10 minutes until golden brown.  Turn the chicken and cook on the other side for 2-3 minutes.  Remove from the dish and set aside.

Add the leeks to the dish with a pinch of salt and fry for 3-4 minutes until beginning to soften.

Stir in the grapes, rosemary, wine and lemon juice.  

Remove from the hob, place the chicken breasts on top and roast, uncovered, in the oven for about 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with mashed or baked potatoes and veg.

Serves 2.

*If you don't have a cast iron casserole or one that can be used on the hob, do the frying in a frying pan then transfer the leek mixture to an ovenproof dish of some kind, maybe ceramic or enamel.  Place the chicken on top as above and roast as above.

LEMON CURD LAYER CAKE

This cake is on the front cover of Delia Smith's book "Baking" and I remember very clearly the first time I tasted it, many years ago.  It's  a favourite of Nick's family and his youngest sister had made it for his mum's birthday tea.  

The recipe calls for home made lemon curd.  I have made lemon curd successfully in the past but on this occasion I used a jar of Bon Maman.  The curious thing is, Bon Maman is a French product but I have never found the lemon curd for sale anywhere in France, even though I do look for it in the confiture section of every supermarket.  Other lemon curds are available but are not quite as good so this time I brought some to France from the UK with me, which did seem a peculiar thing to do.  

The cake is made in two sandwich tins and each layer is then sliced into two.  This is not my favourite thing to do and gives me the collywobbles every time I even think about it.  What if I didn't make the cut evenly and the cake ended up all wonky?  Luckily on this occasion I had a sufficiently steady hand and it turned out straight, but I did need a bit of a lie down afterwards.  For that reason alone I have given it two stars in the faff factor.

It was easy to make, looked great on the tea table and tasted divine.  You can't really go wrong with a Delia Smith recipe and a cake with such a pedigree, Bon Maman product not withstanding, was bound to be a big hit.  It was lovely.

Ingredients

For the cake

zest of 1 lemon 

1 tblsp of lemon juice 

175g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

175g butter, at room temperature

175g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

For the filling

a jar of good quality lemon curd, shop bought or home made

For the icing

zest of 1 lemon, removed with a zester, not a grater, so as to get long, curly strips of peel

50g icing sugar

2-3 tsp lemon juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C / 150° fan / gas mk3.  Grease two 20cm sandwich tins and line the base of each with baking paper.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, add all the other cake ingredients and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and creamy.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and level the tops.  Bake for around 35 minutes until done.  Remove to cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, first remove the peel from the lemon for the decoration.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add enough lemon juice to make a runny consistency.

When the cakes are completely cold, carefully slice each one in half using a sharp serrated knife.  Place one layer on a cake plate or stand and spread liberally with the lemon curd.

Repeat with another two layers then place the fourth layer on top.  Spread the icing on the top layer and decorate with the curly strips of lemon peel.

Cuts into 10-12 slices.