Christmas Morning Muffins - MS Word document for downloading

This is a “Nigella recipe” I came across some years ago, which tastes and smells so wonderfully Christmassy. It’s those spices! As we have the Mincemeat Loaf on Christmas morning (see previous posting), I make these Christmas Morning Muffins on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. They make a special start to the day for so little effort. This recipe works well with cranberries or mixed dried fruit. If this mixture is too heavily fruited for your taste, halve the quantity of fruit.

Nigella suggests you measure out the fruit, flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar the night before, so all you have to do in the morning is melt the butter, and mix together with the orange juice, milk and eggs in the morning. This works well. On the other hand, you can measure everything out in the morning in the time it takes for the oven to heat up.

Makes 12

Preparation time: 15 minutes, if measuring and making all in one go.

Cooking time: 20-25 minutes at 200°C - Gas Mark 6.

You will need a bun/muffin tray and 12 muffin cases.

Read more »

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. This means you will automatically receive updates of new recipes posted to this blog. We respect your privacy. Your details will never be shared with anyone else. Thanks for visiting!

Irish Soda Bead - MS Word document for downloading

All the recipes for Irish Soda Bread I came across used buttermilk. This is an ingredient I don’t think I have ever bought, although it is available in the supermarkets.

Like everybody else, I occasionally run out of bread. I was very pleased to find a recipe that didn’t use buttermilk and still gave a very good result. With the following recipe, you can use buttermilk if you have it in stock, or you can use plain milk. If you do this, double the quantity of cream of tartar. The less Soda bread is handled, the better it will be. It is traditionally baked with a cross on the top, which people believed would scare away the devil.

This quantity makes 1 large loaf, or two small (enough for 4 people with soup).

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 40-50 minutes at 210C - Gas Mark 7 or halve the cooking time for 2 smaller loaves. Read more »

Gingerbread Tray Bake - MS Word Document for downloading

I am going to give you two recipes, both of which are delicious. I find it really annoying if I don’t have the size of tin suggested, so I’m trying to be helpful here. These recipes simply use different sizes of tins and slightly different quantities and ingredients. Successful cake making depends on accurate measuring of ingredients, as well as using sizes of tins suggested, with careful timing at the correct temperature.

During baking, the gingerbread mixture will rise in the middle and then sink. If you don’t want people to see that part, cut it out before serving and freeze it. I’ll give you a pudding recipe shortly which will make excellent use of this lovely slightly gooey part.

The first is the Gingerbread Tray Bake we made at school on Thursday for Presentation Evening. So many people commented on how delicious it was and asked for the recipe, urgently, to make over half- term! (I hadn’t planned to introduce cakes just yet, so didn’t photograph them!) Gingerbreads are usually best stored for a day or two before eating. This one can be eaten straight away. It can be served with or without icing and is perfect for a packed lunch. This recipe is from “Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake Book”.

Read more »