Its another loaf recipe – easy, versatile and perfect for the “goûter” I tend to use my loaf tin more than any other in the kitchen. This recipe is perfect for the autumn season as apples and walnuts are plentiful.

Ingredients :

• 150g softened butter (I just melt it in the microwave)
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g flour
• Teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of bread soda
• Pinch of salt
• 50g raisins (pre-soaked in hot water to plump them up!)
• 60g walnuts
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 200g grated apple (2 apples)

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Beat the eggs and sugar
3. Add the flour, baking powder, bread soda, salt and cinnamon
4. Mix in softened butter
5. Add grated apple, raisins and walnuts
6. Pour into cake tin
7. Bake in pre-heated oven for 50 minutes at 180°C

The flan is a firm favourite in France (and especially in this house!) and is similar to what is known as a custard tart in english.  I prefer to make it with a short cut pastry but you could make it with a puff pastry.

Ingredients :

• 1 short cut pastry (pate brisée)
• 1 litre of milk
• 3 eggs
• 160g sugar
• 100g cornflour
• 2 sachets vanilla sugar
• 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla pod

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Roll out your pastry and press it into your tin , prick the base with a fork and place in the fridge while preparing the flan mixture
3. Beat the eggs with the cornflour, the vanilla extract and 125ml of milk (taken from the 1 litre of milk in the recipe) together in a large bowl using an electric mixer
4. Pour the remainder of the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla sugar, the sugar, the vanilla pod (cut the pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds, put the seeds and the empty pod halves into the milk).
5. Bring to the boil
6. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture beating all the time with your electric whisk
7. Pour everything back into the saucepan, place on a low heat and stir continuously with a wooden spoon
8. Allow it to simmer for a few seconds so that the mixture will have thickened slightly
9. Pour the mixture into your pastry base (remember to remove the vanilla pod halves at this point) and bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 180°C
10. Allow to cool completely before cutting and store in the fridge

Well this definitely isn’t a french recipe but one that I have always made when there were a few bananas left in the fruit bowl!

Ingredients :

• 175g self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of bread soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 125g sugar
• 50g butter
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons of milk
• 3 bananas
• 50g walnuts

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Sieve flour into a bowl and add sugar, bread soda and cinnamon
3. Melt butter in microwave and mix into the dry ingredients
4. Add milk, walnuts, egg and mashed bananas
5. Mix well
6. Pour into greased loaf tin
7. Bake at 180°C for 40 minutes

No recipe for todays baking because it came straight from the Odlums.ie website. I chose the recipe for chocolate chip cookies because it had everything I needed to make them – the only difference is that my muffins are a lot less impressive and a lot less chocolate-y looking than the image on the Odlum’s site. No idea why!! 🙂

Here is the link to the recipe for the Odlums Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is a really versatile pastry and it adapts perfectly to both savoury and sweet recipes.

Ingredients :

• 100g butter
• 210g flour
• 5cl water
• Pinch of salt

Method :

I use my food mixer for this but you can do it by hand (its just a lot more work!)

1. Chop butter in cubes
2. Add flour and salt and mix well until you have a mixture that feels like breadcrumbs
3. Slowly add the water until you get the texture required
4. Allow the pastry to ‘relax’ for an hour or two before using

• If I am using this for a sweet desert pastry I add a desert-spoon of caster sugar to the mixture. You don’t have to of course, again it depends on your own preferences.

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This is really just a variant of the French Yoghurt Cake that I already posted but includes apples.

Ingredients :

• 250g flour
• 150g sugar
• 1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 75g butter
• 100g natural yoghurt or fromage blanc
• 2/3 apples
• Pinch of salt
• Vanilla essence (optional)

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Melt the butter in the microwave
3. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together
4. Add the eggs and yoghurt/fromage blanc to the dry ingredients and mix well with a whisk
5. Add butter and mix well and add vanilla essence to the mixture if using
6. Peel and chop your apples and add
7. Pour into well greased loaf tin
8. Bake for 40 minutes

This is a very simple plain cake, and one that almost all french kids start with when they start baking at a very young age.

Ingredients :

• 1 carton natural yoghurt (wash out the carton to use it to measure the other ingredients)
• 3 cartons flour
• 2 cartons sugar
• 1/2 carton neutral tasting oil – I use sunflower oil
• 3 eggs
• Teaspoon of baking powder
• Vanilla essence

Method :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
2. Mix all the ingredients together
3. Pour into greased loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes (this could vary by a few minutes depending on your oven)

Yes you’ve guessed it right – a delicious, rich, chocolate-y chocolate cake. Perfect for dessert served with a crème anglaise or some ice-cream or even as a particularly yummy gouter (afternoon snack). This is my three kids favourite cake and it takes only 5 minutes to prepare and 13 minutes to cook!

Ingredients :

• 200g good dark chocolate (I use 70%)
• 100g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 50g flour

Method :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bain marie*
3. Beat the eggs with the sugar until it is light and fluffy
4. Add the melted chocolate and butter to the mixture
5. Add the flour
6. Grease a round tin and cook for 13-15 minutes at 200°C (I prefer nice and gooey in the middle so 13 minutes is enough, 15 mins is perfect if you want it cooked through but not dry)