Ingredients

150g (5 ½ oz) caster sugar and one extra tablespoon to sprinkle
zest of 1 orange and juice of half an orange.
125g (4 ½ oz) self raising flour
1 heaped tsp bicarbonate soda
40g (1 ½ oz) cocoa powder
1 egg
100ml vegetable oil (sunflower or general vegetable oil is perfect but I wouldn’t use olive oil)
4tbs/50ml milk
90ml warm water
100g (3 ½ oz) chocolate chopped into ½ cm square chunks

Equipment

12 hole patty tin (the one with lots of little holes in for making cupcakes) or muffin tin (similar but with deeper holes) OR muffin cases.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C

If using a tin, well grease each hole and lightly sprinkle with a little flour, shake the tin upside down to shake off any excess flour.

In a small bowl rub together sugar and orange zest until the sugar turns pale orange.

Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder. Stir this into the sugar mixture and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl lightly beat the eggs, stir in oil and milk.

Pour the egg mixture, chocolate chunks and warm water into the dry ingredients. Now gently stir the mixture just 2 to 3 times. The mixture should still look lumpy and like the wet and dry ingredients are not property combined.

Spoon this mixture into the tin with a teaspoon, sprinkle with the orange juice and an extra tbsp of sugar and bake for 20 mins until they are risen.

Remove from oven and let cool.

You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.

Ingredients

Cake
115g (4oz) butter, softened
115g (4oz) caster sugar
115g (4oz) flour
2 large eggs
1 ½ tsp baking power
½ tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp milk (optional)
Apple Topping-Filling
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp sugar
340g (12oz) desert apples

Ice cream/cream/custard to serve (optional)

Equipment

23cm (diameter) round or 20cm square loose-bottomed cake tin
Greaseproof paper or baking parchment

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C

Grease the tin with a hard fat like butter or margarine. Then line the bottom of the tin with a piece of greaseproof paper or baking parchment, the shape of the base and spread more butter/margarine over this paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar until it turns pale.

Add one egg to the butter mixture and stir gently to combine, then add the second egg, vanilla essence and a tbsp of the flour and again stir gently until combined.

Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and gently fold this in.

If the batter looks a bit thick, add the additional milk.

Without peeling them, core the apples then slice them into thin semi circular slices about ¼ – ½ cm thick. You should cut these from the centre of the apple a bit like the wedges of a Terry’s Chocolate Orange.

Spoon the cake mixture into the tin, spread it out to fill the tin and arrange the apples in concentric circles on top of the cake mixture.

In a small bowl stir sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle this evenly all over the cake.

Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the top is golden and a knife/skewer comes out clean when inserted.

Serve with cream or custard.

You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.

Ingredients

Cake
85g (3oz) caster sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
100g (3 ½ oz) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
90ml vegetable oil (sunflower oil or vegetable oil)
90ml yoghurt

Drizzle Icing
75g (2 ½ oz) white chocolate, broken into pieces or grated
15g (1/2 oz) butter
juice of 1 lemon

Equipment

1 lb loaf tin or a 20cm diameter round cake tin with a solid bottom

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c and grease the tin.

For the cake, put the sugar and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl and rub together until the sugar turns slightly yellow.

Sift the flour and baking powder into this sugar mixture and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then whisk in oil and yoghurt.

Stir this egg mixture into the dry ingredient using a fork, until smooth.

Pour the mixture into a greased tin and cook for 40 minutes until it is risen and is golden and a knife inserted comes out clean.

Meanwhile, get going on the icing.

Put the chocolate a bowl and microwave for about 30 seconds until melted, if the mixture is not completely melted and smooth put it back in the microwave for another few seconds until it is completely melted, but be very careful not to burn it.

Add the butter to the melted chocolate and stir these together.

Stir the lemon juice into this chocolate mixture, the consistency will be quite runny and may appear a little separated.

When the cake is ready, remove it from the oven and let it cool for just 5 minutes before turning out of the tin on to a plate and pouring over the icing immediately. T

his icing is supposed to be very liquidy, so you should expect it to run over the edges of the cake.

Leave to cool, the icing will cool and solidify on the cake.

You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.

Ingredients

Pastry
350g puff pastry (bought pre-made)
20g butter to grease pie dish
1 egg, beaten

Filling
450g (1lb) stewing beef, cut into cubes
3 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions (approx 250g in weight)
2 large cloves garlic
200g closed cup mushrooms, washed and sliced in half
2 medium carrots
1 ½ sticks celery
300ml stock (1 ½ tsp bouillon or other stock cube dissolved in boiling water)
½ tsp mustard
½ tsp each of dried thyme, rosemary and oregano
2 x bay leaf
200ml red wine
¾ tsp vinegar (white wine, red wine or cider vinegar are all fine, but not malt or spirit vinegar)
2 tsp soy sauce
1 heaped tsp cornflour

Equipment

Ceramic pie dish or 4 ceramic ramekins
Rolling pin
Pastry brush

Method

Making the Filling
Pre-heat the oven to 150 centigrade (gas mark 2).

Fry the onion in a small amount of the olive oil (about 1/3) for 10 mins until translucent, add garlic and fry for 1 min, then add celery and carrot, stir well and turn down the heat.

Meanwhile fry mushrooms in a small amount of the olive oil (about 1/3) in another frying pan, when cooked remove to a bowl.

Fry beef in the remaining olive oil in the frying pan you used for the mushrooms, until pale on outside, about 5-10 mins, remove from pan and set aside.

Brush the casserole dish with a little olive oil and place on a low heat on the hob.

Add the fried onion mixture, mushrooms and beef into the casserole and stir together, add the stock, herbs, bay leaves, wine and mustard and give it a good stir. Cover and leave for a few minutes until it begins to simmer lightly.

Put this in the oven, covered for at least 1 ½ hours.

When the stew has finished cooking, remove from the oven and turn the oven up to 180 centigrade (gas mark 4). Much of the liquid should have evaporated off the stew – leaving just a thin layer of liquid at the bottom. If not remove some of the excess liquid.

Remove the bay leaves from the stew.

Stir the soy sauce together with the cornflour in a separate cup or bowl and add this and the vinegar into the stew and stir well to combine.

Making The Pie
Grease the pie dish or ramekins and pour the stew into this. Try to arrange the stew so that it comes about half to ¾ of the way up the depth of the tin, but with more of the stew piled in the middle of the tin or ramekin than around the edges.

Roll out the pastry (if it is not already rolled-out) using as little flour as possible and cut a ring the size of the pie dish and about 1 cm wide.

Brush the edge of the pie dish with the beaten egg and stick the ring of pastry to this, brush this with egg.

Cut a piece of pastry the same shape as the pie dish or ramekins, place this over the pastry rim. Trim off any remaining pieces of pastry from around the edge.

Cut the leftover pastry into leaves or another pretty shape and add them to the top, using the beaten egg to stick them on. Cut a cross in the middle of the pastry to let steam out.

Brush the pastry top thoroughly with the remaining beaten egg. Bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown on top.

Serve immediately.

You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.

Ingredients

Pastry
6oz (165g) plain flour
3 ½ oz (100g) Butter
55ml water (approx)
1 egg, lightly whisked
a bit of butter, to grease the tin

Filling
8 ½ oz (240g) salmon steak, skinned and chopped into cubes approx 1 inch cubed
2 tbsp capers
2 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp French Dijon Mustard
2 heaped tbsp finely chopped dill
2 tsp cornflour
4 ¼ oz (120g) frozen peas (frozen weight), placed in bowl of boiling water to thaw

Equipment

Ceramic pie dish or 4 ceramic ramekins
Greaseproof paper
Rolling pin
Pastry brush

Method

Marinating salmon

Mix together lemon juice, capers, mustard, and dill in a large bowl. Cover and put this in the fridge to marinate, for at least half an hour, but preferably overnight.

Pastry
Place a freezer-proof pot or tub in the freezer with the water in it to cool in preparation for making the pastry.

In a largish bowl, make the pastry by chopping the butter into small cubes and mixing it into the flour and salt. Then use your fingers to rub the butter and flour together to break down the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Take the water out of the freezer (hopefully it should be cool but not actually frozen hard) and add to the pastry a bit at a time. Stir the water into the flour mixture with a knife; you will know when you have added enough water because when you stir, it should form into a dough. Try if possible to ‘handle’ the pastry as little as possible, i.e. only stir it as much as you actually need to, to bring it together into a dough.

Wrap the pastry loosely in cling film and put it on a plate in the fridge to cool for at least half an hour. I always try to form it into a fairly flat shape (max 3cm thick) before putting it into the fridge, as it is easier to roll-out when it comes out of the fridge.

Rolling-out pastry
Grease the pie dish or ramekins.

Lightly dust a surface with flour. Roll out a half the pastry to the shape of the pie dish or ramekins and line the bottom.

Brush the inside of the pastry shell with egg, put this in the fridge.

Cut a piece of greaseproof paper, bigger than the size of the pastry dish and lightly dust this with flour.

Now, roll-out the remaining half of the pastry on this greaseproof paper and cut the pastry to a size that will cover the top of the pie dish or ramekins. Put this on to a plate or other flat dish in the fridge to cool.
Making pie(s)

When you are ready to cook the pies preheat the oven to 200 centigrade and put a metal tin or tray in to preheat.

Take the pastry base out of the fridge and sprinkle the cornflour evenly over the base.

Filling
Drain the peas and put them on a bit of kitchen towel to absorb any extra liquid, to ensure they are as dry as possible.

Mix the peas into the marinated salmon and put this mixture into the pastry case which has been sprinkled with cornflour. Brush the sides of the pastry case with remaining egg, place the other piece of pastry that you have rolled-out over the top and press the edges together to seal the base to the pastry lid.

Cut a cross in the middle to allow steam to escape.

Put the pie(s) on the bottom shelf of the oven on the preheated tray. Cook for about 25 mins until the pie(s) is just slightly starting to brown. Move it up to the middle shelf for an additional 10 minutes to brown.

Serve immediately

You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.