Banana Custard - MS Word document for downloading

My husband loves this dessert! Banana custard is so quick and easy to make, especially if you make the sauce in the microwave. Raspberry, strawberry and black currant jam are the ones we prefer in the bottom of the dish, but why not experiment?

Serves 2 - so you might want to double the quantity

Preparation time: 3 minutes

Cooking time: about 8 minutes, in a 750w microwave (cooking times will vary for a higher or lower wattage microwave)

Custard forms a skin very quickly when cooling. In “proper” (i.e. staged) food photography, they usually use yellow paint for custard, as it looks smooth and glossy! “Proper” food photographs would also have used a lit cigarette behind the dish to give the appearance of steam. Read more »

Banana Bread - MS Word document for downloading

To me, one of the beauties of this delicious Banana Bread recipe is that it can be cooked at the same time as reheating one of the casseroles I cooked on Sunday with the roast, thus making really economical use of the heat in the top oven. It takes 1 hour at 180C- Gas Mark 4. It’s quickly put together and freezes really well. Serve thinly sliced, with a little butter (or a lot!) and preferably freshly made.

You will need a 1 kg (2lb) loaf tin (9″x5″)

Preparation time: 10 minutes (by hand)

Cooking time: 1 hour Read more »

Apple and Blackberry Crumble - MS Word document for downloading

I really enjoy Apple and Blackberry Crumble pudding and find the mix of flavours absolutely delicious. You can use any fruits. I’d much rather eat strawberries, raspberries, peaches etc as fresh fruits and use rhubarb, cooking apples and some plums and damsons etc in crumbles.

A while ago, after a cookery class where we had made Apple Crumble, we were discussing the variations you might make to this dish. I mentioned that I really enjoyed Apple and Blackberry Crumble. There were looks of pure horror. One pupil commented, “Miss, you really do eat some strange stuff!” I was astonished. To my mind, little could be more English than picking and eating blackberries. These children live on the edge of a very small town, yet no-one in the group had ever tried blackberries and they were very unwilling to try them!

With a food processor, it’s very easy to double or treble the quantities of this crumble recipe. If you prepare extra fruit, you can make a number of crumbles at the same time, cooking one for the meal and freezing the rest of them uncooked. The foil dishes and lids sold in supermarkets are very useful for this purpose. The crumble topping on its own can be stored in the fridge for about six weeks, or in the freezer for about six months.

The quantity of crumble mix and fruit below serves about 6 people.

Assuming you are using a food processor, the crumble mix will take a couple of minutes to make.

Preparing the fruit could take 10 minutes, or so.

Cooking time: depends on the size of dish, but approx 30-40 minutes at 190C or Gas Mark 5.
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