The Recipe Room

These deliciously satisfying pecan squares are a fantastic solution if you’re looking for an interesting dessert for a dinner party or brunch.  Use the best quality pecans you can get and keep a close eye while baking to avoid burning.

I also suggest you try my apricot and pecan cake. It makes a fantastic breakfast option!

 

 Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate – what more do I need to say about this triple chocolate cake recipe?!  Get baking and enjoy. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

For another rich chocolate dessert to be eaten by the spoonful, try these intense little chocolate pots. They are sinfully tantalising!

 

A traditional Swedish dessert, this apple meringue pie is a real treat for the apple pie connoisseur.  With a crispy crust, scrumptious strawberry and tart apple filling, all covered with a light and delicious meringue, this pie is sure to satisfy even the most demanding of palates.  Although the recipe and finished product appear to be quite complex and difficult, in reality, it’s quite the opposite.  You’ll have it ready in just over an hour, and judging by past experience, it’ll only last about half that time before disappearing!

For another fruity meringue treat, try this iced fruit mountains and hot chocolate snow recipe.

 

This delicious date and raisin biscuit recipe was given to me years ago by a neighbour who was a real baking aficionado, and they instantly became one of my favourite biscuits!  I remember her house (and mine, as I lived right next door) used to always smell of cakes and biscuits at the weekends, which always left me with my mouth watering and wondering if it would be too cheeky to go over and ask for a sample!  Luckily, I never had to, as she eventually came over and offered me some of these delicious biscuits, and many other treats over the course of the years that I lived next to her.

To keep with the date theme, you could try this curly asparagus salad with goat’s cheese and Medjool dates as a meal before these biscuits. After all, you will probably need some healthy food to offset the sugar in this recipe!

As with most biscuit recipes, it’s pretty hard to go wrong. Just make sure you mix everything well and remember that the longer you let the dough sit in the refrigerator, the better they’ll turn out.  Enjoy!

 

 

This apple coffee cake is a deliciously spicy treat that goes extremely well with your cup of morning tea or coffee. For an afternoon or evening dessert, pair it with a xanté hot apple cocktail. The combined flavours will be delicious!

The tartness of the apples provides the perfect counterpoint to the aromatic sweetness of the coffee cake. In fact, I suggest you use the tartest apples you can find, as this really makes the cake stand out from the crowd. For a truly decadent delight, try adding some pecans or walnuts (or any other nut) to the batter. If you do, be sure to coat the nuts with a bit of flour before adding them to the mix, as this will help to keep them from sinking to the bottom during baking.

This is a French recipe originating from the Basque region, an area that borders France and Spain. That´s where I first tried this cake, after a very long morning walk around the city of Soule, France, and a quite heavy meal that included Coq Au Vin in a great restaurant where everything was fantastic. I didn´t know what to order for dessert, so the waiter recommended this delicacy, which is difficult to find even in Basque bakeries. Luckily, this rustic jewel is not hard to make, just hard to resist.

I really liked its textures and flavours, and thought it could also be an ideal afternoon tea time snack. It’s a cake with a crunchy textured top and bottom, and then a soft middle. The filling is simply pastry cream. The cake I first made consisted of a cake that was basically dripping with rum, a vanilla pastry cream and slivered almonds on top.

It is known in French as Gateau Basque, where the traditional filling is cherries; there are countless variations to the cake depending on where it is made. The stuffing can be varied depending on the requirements and availability: sometimes, powdered almonds or lemon zest may also be used to make the pastry of the cake, and the yeast may be replaced with baking powder. The cream filling may be flavoured with almonds, anise, rum or Armagnac, or it could also contain cherry jam.

Every summer when I was a little girl, we used to visit my great-aunt who lived in Canada,  and she would often take us blueberry picking.  The picking itself was pure torture, bending over for hours on end picking the berries, scraping our hands on the bushes and wilting under the hot sun, but when we finally got home she would always make tons of blueberrydesserts, which made all the effort worth it.  My favourite of those desserts was blueberry cake. (A similar version is this delicious pistachio and blueberry cake.)

This isn’t the exact recipe she used, but it’s fairly close to what I remember from those hot and humid Canadian summer afternoons so long ago.  I particularly like the way the blueberries seem to explode in your mouth with a burst of sweetness when you bite into one side of the cake.  Just make sure you let it cool well before you eat it as the blueberries retain the heat quite well and you can burn your tongue – trust me, I’m talking from experience on this one!

If you can’t get fresh blueberries, frozen ones will work perfectly well in their place. In fact you can’t really tell the difference, so if price is a problem, then go ahead and use the frozen berries which are generally a lot cheaper unless it’s the right season.  You can also try sprinkling a 50/50 mix of sugar and cinnamon on top for an extra-decadent delight.

Ingredients:

A bit of an exotic twist on your traditional pound cake recipe, this spicy pound cake is a breeze to make and a real delight to eat. My favourite way to eat it is dipping a big chunk into my Chai tea latte, though I realise that this may be a bit too rich and spicy for some palettes!

Tangerines are really better than oranges in this recipe, so if you can get them, use them! If not, it still tastes perfectly good with regular  oranges. Another option is to use half and half orange/tangerine and lemon or lime. If you’re feeling extra-adventurous, try scooping a dollop of pistachio ice-cream (Malai Kulfi) on top of the cake while it’s still warm (or reheat it in the microwave first).

For a chocolaty orange recipe, you can try my yellow layer cake with orange chocolate frosting or this dark chocolate and orange mousse recipe.

This banana and blueberry cake is so full of fruity goodness that I find it hard to resist snacking on every time I go into the kitchen, although I generally prefer to eat it at breakfast along with a cup of coffee or tea.  Another fruity option in the morning is this berry messy breakfast.

If you want to make it a tad heartier and healthier, try replacing a bit of the flour with bran or rolled oats.  The bananas should be very ripe for best results, but don’t worry too much as long as they’re not still green.  The recipe calls for fresh blueberries, but the frozen ones will work just as well, and you can hardly notice the difference.

Ingredients:

• 120g butter, softened
• 400g plus 1tblsp granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 125g bananas, mashed (about 2 small sized bananas)
• 375g plus 1tbsp flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1.5tsp baking powder
• 125ml whole milk
• 500g fresh  blueberries

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175ºC.
2. Grease and flour a 24cm fluted Bundt pan and set aside.
3. In an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter.
4. Gradually add the sugar while continuing to mix.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add the mashed bananas and mix well.
7. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking powder.
8. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until just blended and smooth.
9. In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with 1 tablespoon of flour and 1 tablespoon of sugar to coat.
10.  Stir coated blueberries into the batter and pour into the prepared pan.
11.  Bake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with just a bit of crumb on it.
12.  Remove the cake from the oven and place on wire cooling rack.
13.  Cool the cake in its pan for 15 to 20 minutes, then remove from the pan and continue to cool, right side up, on the cooling rack.
14.  When the cake has completely cooled, slice and serve.

 

Prep Time:  20 minutes

Cooking Time:  65 minutes

Serves:  10-12

Difficulty:  Medium

I love making cakes; they’re my favourite food bar-none, but sometimes for a party it just seems like too much bother to have to serve it on plates with a fork and knife, as well as all the extra washing-up this means later on.  So for my latest party, I decided to make squares instead, as they can be served on a napkin and eaten with your fingers if need be.  They’re not any more difficult to make than a regular cake, but just as tasty!

As an optional “extra,” you can also concoct an orange icing to top it off. Depending on your sweet tooth (or that of your guests), you can give it a try. With the icing, the mix of apricots, almonds and orange in these apricot squares is truly astounding, as I’m sure my guests would attest to!

For those who like to combine fruit with chocolate, I recommend this chocolate and apricot wrap cake.

Ingredients:

For the squares:

• 160ml dried apricots
• 114g butter
• 50g granulated sugar
• 165g sifted flour
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
• 125ml chopped almonds
• 1/2tsp baking powder
• 1/4tsp salt
• 100g brown sugar
• 2 beaten eggs

For the icing:

• 75g butter, softened
• 190g icing sugar
• 40ml orange juice
• 1/2tsp fine orange zest

Instructions:

For the squares:

1. Preheat oven to 175ºC.
2. Butter and flour a 20cm square baking pan.
3. Rinse the apricots, cover with water in a small pot and boil for ten minutes.
4. Drain off the water, let cool and then chop up the apricots.
5. Mix the butter, sugar and 125g of sifted flour until a crumbly mixture is formed.
6. Pack this mixture into the bottom of the square pan and bake for 25 minutes or until the top turns light brown.
7. Sift the remaining 40g of flour together with the salt and baking powder.
8. In a separate bowl, beat the brown sugar into the eggs and then add the flour mixture a third at a time, mixing well after each addition.
9. Add the apricots, almonds and vanilla and mix well.
10. Spread this mixture over the already baked layer.
11. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
12. Let cool.

For the icing:

1. Mix all the ingredients well, either by hand or with an electric mixer.
2. If the icing is too runny, add more icing sugar.  If it’s too thick, add more orange juice.
3. Spread the icing over the cooled apricot square.
4. Cut into squares and serve.

Prep Time:  20 minutes

Cooking Time:  65 minutes

Serves:  8-10

Difficulty:  Medium