Was there ever a post with so many possible ‘titles’ – chocolate biscuit/cookie, Halloween biscuit/cookie, Gingerbread Man Chocolate Biscuit …?

To me, this is a biscuit as opposed to a cookie – because in its ‘basic’ form it is dunk-able.  I’ve used  a Gingerbread Man Cutter but a chocolate biscuit dough – because it’s not Christmas and chocolate biscuits taste lovely.  It’s in the form of a Halloween ‘Mummy’ because …. well, other people do that.

I have to say, Halloween has always passed me by – as my family has its focus firmly on Bonfire Night.  Fireworks.  Bonfires.  Sausages.  Doughnuts on strings.  Apple bobbing.  Toffee Apples …  As a child I coloured chalk pictures on black paper of spectacular eruptions and as an adult I’ve made vats of baked beans and overseen bonfire singed baked potatoes with gusto.  There’s no time for Halloween.

It is also true I’m a wimp.  There’s a reason I chose to write ‘romance’ where happy endings are guaranteed and I need to be coaxed to watch anything beyond a ‘parental guidance’ film.  I don’t really ‘get’ Halloween  – but when my neighbours’ children stand at my door with their faces daubed in violet and green I have to have something.  Once a mum, always a mum …

This, then, is my ‘trick or treat’ option this year.

This is my ‘go-to’ chocolate biscuit/cookie dough.  It’s very stable, takes minutes to whizz up and is easy to remember – 200g butter, 200g caster sugar, 400g dry ingredients and one egg.

The flour and cocoa powder need to be sieved together.  Cocoa powder is prone to lumpiness and you may as well get the two combined at the start.

Beat the softened butter together with the caster sugar.  You are looking for ‘light’.

Slowly add the  beaten egg.

And then the flour, salt and cocoa powder.  Mix until just combined and gather into a ball.

Flatten and chill for 30 minutes.

Remove from the fridge and briefly knead until there are no cracks.  Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 4mm. I use marzipan guides.  If you are finding your dough sticky to work with you may find it easier to roll between sheets of cling film or baking paper.

Use a floured cookie cutter to cut out the ‘gingerbread’ men.  If you give the cutter a little wiggle it helps when you lift your cut-outs to your baking tray.

Cover with cling film and chill for a second time.  This is to minimise shrinkage which isn’t hugely important here.  (I freeze mine – and that’s as much to do with the fact I never have any room in my fridge.  When it’s time to bake there’s no need to thaw first.) 

Bake at 175ºC/Gas Mark 3/325ºF for 12 minutes, or until the biscuits spring back to the touch of a finger.  (Have you noticed how on TV cooking programmes they always have new baking sheets?  Wouldn’t that be nice!  Please excuse my much used bake-o-glide.) Allow the biscuits to cool on the baking sheet for 30 minutes or so.

Then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, make up some royal icing – about 250g.  I was short on time so used a commercial mix, so followed the instructions on the packet.

Making your own paper piping bag saves lots of money.  Fold one corner up diagonally and cut in half.  I use a knife, sliding it along the sharp crease so I have a clean cut.

You are left with a triangle.  Place it on the worktop with the 90º angle pointing towards you.

Curl one side over to that 90º angle.

Wrap the other side round.  (It’s easier when you’re not holding a camera.)

You should now have a cone.  If your point isn’t sharp, bring it into line by adjusting the layers.

Fold over to secure.

And then again, to keep it all from unravelling.  Make a couple.  It gets easier with practise. Also make a half-sized one.

Fill with a little of the royal icing – don’t go more than halfway up the bag or you’ll end up in a horrible mess.  Close the bag by folding over the top a couple of times.

First the eyes.  Snip the end off your piping bag.  Keep one hand on the folded over top and the index finger of the other along the piping bag seam and use it to guide the bag.  To pipe a circle you need to hold the bag vertically.  Place the tip on the biscuit, raise 1mm and start to squeeze.  Allow the icing to spread out in a circle.  Once you have an eyeball the size you want, stop squeezing.  Lift off with a circular motion.

If you’re left with a ‘nipple’ (and, yes, I believe that *is* the technical term) you can flatten it with a dampened cooking-only paint brush.  It doesn’t matter here as you need to pipe the pupil. In a small bowl, mix a bit of royal icing with black food paste.  Using your ‘baby’ piping bag, pipe small black dots in the centre of the white dots.  Leave to dry.  Not long.

By the time you’ve got to the end of 16-or so cookies, the first ones will be dry enough.

I start with the legs.  This time you’ll find it easier if you hold your piping bag at a 45º angle and allow the icing to flow.

I love the way his little eyes peek out. Just the arms to go.

One mummy.  Keep going.

Eat.

‘Mummy’ Halloween Biscuits – about 16

• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 350g plain flour
• 50g cocoa powder

Beat the softened butter and caster sugar together until light in colour and fluffy.  Then slowly add the beaten egg, beating together until extremely well combined.  Add the pinch of salt.

Sift the plain flour and cocoa powder together.  Add to the butter and sugar and mix until combined.  Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Once it has chilled, knead on a lightly flour-dusted surface until it is smooth and free from cracks.  Roll out to a thickness of 4mm.  Using a ‘Gingerbread’ Man cutter, cut out your biscuits and transfer to a baking sheet.  Chill again.

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/Gas Mark 3/325ºF.

Bake for 12 minutes.  (Aga:  top set of runners in the Baking Oven, reversing the tray halfway through.)  Leave to cool on the tray for 30 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

When completely cold, you can decorate.

Make up 250g of royal icing sugar as per packet instructions.  First pipe the eyes.  Then pipe small black dots.  Starting with the left leg pipe loose bandages, moving up, across and down the right leg.  Pipe up the body and finish with the arms.

Eat.

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Salmon, watercress and new potatoes brought together in perfect harmony.  I love this quiche.

I admit I’m wistfully clinging to memories of fine weather here – because I do think this is a perfect lunch for a bright Spring day when the sky is cornflower blue, the clouds a collection of fluffy cotton wool balls and I’ve yet to suffer the disappointment that, yet again, I have failed to water my hanging baskets effectively.

In actuality, it’s been a wet week and if there’s much more rainfall I’ll have to bring out my high heeled, wedged wellington boots.  (Yes, I know what you’re thinking – urban creature to the core.)

The English watercress season is coming to an end (it peaks in the Spring and then again in the Autumn) and it seemed wrong to ignore the bunches at the market this week.  Besides which, it’s a wonder food.  It’s rich in vitamins A and C, iron, calcium, magnesium and folic acid.  So that goes some way to balancing out the double cream …, doesn’t it?  Besides which, Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) who was generally thought of as a man of great ability claimed it could restore a youthful bloom to women.  Which settles it.  A ‘must buy’ ingredient.

This recipe I found in a lovely book called ‘The Higgidy Cookbook’ by Camilla Stephens.  I’m an inveterate ‘tinkerer’ with recipes, but this I’ve left alone.  I think it’s beautifully balanced and, bar halving the amount of dill because Jem prefers it that way, it is as it ever was.

Begin with the pastry. Even though this pastry is slightly ‘richer’ than the one I used in my Lemon Meringue Pie, the cardinal rules remain the same.  The first being, don’t over-handle it. The second, don’t skip the chilling.

Sift your flour and salt into a large bowl. Then add the fat, cut into smallish cubes. Here I’m using all butter.  It shouldn’t be soft, which would make your pastry difficult to work with, but it needn’t be fridge hard either. There’s a ‘sweet’ point between minimal handling and keeping everything cool.  (If you don’t mind washing up, which I do, a food processor is a perfectly acceptable option.  Flour, butter and cheese in the processor and pulse until the mixture resembles ‘breadcrumbs’ before adding the egg/water liquid.  Bring together to form a dough, and wrap in cling film to chill.)

For my boys, here’s the science – what you’re actually doing by ‘rubbing in’ is coating tiny bits of flour with fat – before you add any liquid. It’s a raincoat! The idea is to stop liquid penetrating the flour. Liquid + flour = gluten proteins. And gluten proteins give you tough pastry which you’d prefer not to eat.

Clean hands, not cold. (There’s no need to run your hands under a freezing tap or concern yourself as to whether you’re a cold heart, warm hands kind of person. Anyone can make pastry.)  Butter cut into smallish cubes, at a squeezable temperature.

Stop when it resembles breadcrumbs – ish. There will still be little lumps of fat, but that doesn’t matter. You’ll get far better results if you don’t ‘over-work’ it.

Now add the finely grated parmesan cheese and combine with a blunt knife. Besides adding a savoury note to your pastry, this cheese will give it a lovely colour when it’s baked.

An egg yolk to bind and add richness.  Loosen the egg yolk with 3 tablespoons of cold water and add gradually.  Using your knife, bring it together.

Gather it together into a ball.  Dough gathers dough so use it to collect any stray bits until the sides of the bowl are clean.  Lightly knead on your worktop.  The intention is to have a smooth dough which is completely free of any cracks.

-If you’ve made a mistake with the egg yolk/water mix and the pastry is crumbling beneath your fingers – run your hands under the cold tap and lightly knead in the water on your hands.

-If it’s too wet you’ll have to sprinkle flour on your worktop. Go careful because you are altering the fat/flour ratio.

Form it into a flat disc and wrap in plastic cling. The flat is important. If you chill it as a ball the outside will come back to room temperature much quicker than the centre and you’ll struggle to roll it later. Put it in the fridge. Chill for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Longer is absolutely fine …

I melt butter.  My mum, you may remember, used old butter wrappers.  Either way, make a good job of this.  It’s so annoying if you can’t get a quiche out of the tin!  I’m using a loose-bottomed fluted rectangular tart tin, 30cm x 20cm (Silverwood).

While the pastry is resting, it’s time to get the filling ready.  Since you want it cool before you add it to your pastry case it makes sense to crack on.

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/Gas Mark 6

Finely slice an onion.  Mine were particularly small, so I used three.   Common sense here.  I like onion, but it’s your tart.

Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and, over a low heat, soften for about 10 minutes.  (Aga:  Melt the butter on the Boiling Plate, add the onion, stir and pop into your simmering oven for 20 minutes or so.)

Small, waxy, peeled salad potatoes – cooked  until just tender to a knife point.  Then cut into 1.5cm/1″ chunks. (Aga:  Bring to the boil in salted water, drain completely and place in the simmering oven.)

Place your salmon fillets on a large sheet of foil and add lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Wrap, taking care to fold the edges over all the juices are kept inside and the fish can steam.  (Aga:  bottom runners of Roasting Oven.)

12 minutes later, it’s ready and looks like this.

Prepare the watercress by picking off the leaves and discarding the stalks.  Chop finely.  Add finely chopped dill, to taste.

By now your pastry will have chilled sufficiently and you can line the tin.   I roll my pastry between two sheets of cling film, but if you prefer you can roll on a lightly floured surface and flip your pastry over a rolling pin to transfer to the prepared tin or slide the base of the tin under the rolled out pastry, lightly flip the edges inwards and lift into the tin before flipping the edges back.  You are aiming for a 3mm/an eighth of an inch.  (Why isn’t there a little symbol for that???)

Pass the rolling pin across the top of the flan tin to trim the excess pastry.  Push into the sides and I always bring it slightly above the top rim as an insurance against any shrinkage.

Prick the base with a fork and return it all to the fridge for that all-important chilling.

(This is the obvious time for a cup of tea.)

When the chilling time is up, take the pastry lined flan tin from the fridge and bake ‘blind’.  (Line the pastry case with baking parchment and pour in your baking beans.  Use a generous amount as they provide support to the sides and weigh down the base so it doesn’t puff up.)  Bake for 20 minutes.  (Aga:  There is no need to blind bake.)

Then lift out the baking parchment and beans and return the pastry case to the oven for a further 5 minutes.  You want the pastry to be ‘dry’ before adding the quiche filling.  (If you find you have any cracks you can use some of the off cut raw pastry to patch them up.  Brush the repair job bits with beaten egg before returning to the oven for those last 5 minutes.)

Leave the pastry to cool and reduce your oven temperature to 180ºC/Gas Mark 4.

Lay the cooked and cooled onions across the base.

Then the par-boiled potatoes.

Flake the salmon and arrange on top of the potatoes.

Scatter over most of the watercress and dill.

Whisk together the cream and the eggs.  Season with salt.

Pour into the pastry case and then scatter over the remaining watercress and dill.  Finally top with lightly crushed pink peppercorns.

Bake for 30 minutes until the filling has just set.

Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then remove.  A can of cannelloni beans did the job  for the sides.

Slide the base of a large quiche tin or cake lifter between the base and the pastry.  Place on your serving platter.

Eat.

Salmon and Watercress Quiche with Pink Peppercorns – Serves 6

(From a lovely recipe book by Camilla Stephens ‘The Higgidy Cookbook’.)

For the Savoury Shortcrust Pastry:

• 200g/7oz plain flour
• A generous pinch of salt
• 100g/3½oz unsalted butter
• 30g/1oz Parmesan Cheese, grated
• 1 medium egg yolk, beaten
• About 3 tablespoons of ice-cold water

For the filling:

• 3 salmon fillets (approximately 350g)
• Tablespoon of lemon juice
• Knob of unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, finely sliced
• 200g/7½oz new potatoes, par-boiled and cut into 1.5/1″ chunks
• 50g watercress (leaves picked off and the thick stalks thrown away), finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of fresh dill, finely chopped
• 3 medium eggs, beaten
• 300ml double cream
• ½ teaspoon of pink peppercorns, lightly crushed
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sift the flour and salt together.  Add the butter cubes and ‘rub together’ until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Add the finely grated parmesan cheese.

Sprinkle over the beaten egg yolk and water.  With a blunt knife, mix together until the pastry begins to come together.  Use your hands to gather the final bits and then knead lightly on your work surface to ensure your pastry is smooth.  Flatten to a disc, wrap in cling film and pop into the fridge to chill.

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/Gas Mark 5/400ºF and put in a baking sheet to heat up.

Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and soften the finely sliced onion.  After about 8 minutes, transfer the onion to a bowl to cool.

Par-boil the new potatoes until soft to the point of a knife but with a little resistance.  Cut into 1.5cm/1″ chunks and transfer to a bowl to cool.

Place the salmon fillets onto a large sheet of foil placed on a baking tray.  Sprinkle over the lemon juice and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Pull the sides up and scrunch the joins together to make a neat parcel.  Place in the oven and bake for 12 minutes.  Once cooked, unwrap and put to one side to cool.

Finely chop the watercress and dill.

Prepare a loose-bottomed rectangular flan tin, 30cm x 20cm, by brushing with melted butter.

Once the pastry has chilled, roll to a 3mm thickness and transfer to the tart tin.  Pass a rolling pin across the top of the tin to remove the excess pastry and push the pastry against the sides to give a neat finish.  Let the pastry stand a little proud of the rim.  Prink the base with a fork and return to the fridge for a second 30 minutes.

Once chilled, remove the uncooked pastry case from the fridge.  Scrunch up a sheet of baking parchment and line the flan tin, filling with baking beans.  Place on the hot baking tray in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Take the flan out and remove the paper and baking beans.  Return the flan to the oven for a final 5 minutes.  Leave to cool.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180ºC/Gas Mark 4/350ºF.

When you are ready to bake, scatter the cooled and cooked onions evenly over the base.  Follow that with the potatoes.  Then, thickly flake the salmon and discard the skin.  Evenly scatter the salmon over the potatoes.  Next the chopped watercress and dill, leaving a little to sprinkle on the top.

Whisk together the cream and the eggs.  Season with salt and pour into the pastry case.  Sprinkle over the remaining watercress and dill.  Finally, scatter with pink peppercorns.

Place on the hot baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes until the filling has just set and the top is turning golden.

(Aga:  There is no need to blind bake your pastry case.  After the second chill, arrange the cooled filling and cook on the floor of the roasting oven.  Check after 20 minutes.  If the top is browning too quickly and the pastry isn’t cooked, slide a cold baking sheet above it to provide a heat shield.)

Remove from the tin.  Eat.

Print – Metric/Imperial

Peanut butter is a danger ingredient for me.  If I have an open jar I simply am not able to resist sneaking the odd spoonful.  There’s a point where it seems inevitable I will finish the entire jar – sooner or later,  and for the sake of discipline it might as well be sooner.  (For the record, marzipan and white chocolate are equally irresistible.)

In British ‘English’ these are truly ‘cookies’ as opposed to what I’d call a biscuit.  Biscuits are ‘dunk-able’, smaller and will snap.  These are larger and altogether gooier.  They are, unfortunately, most delectable on the day you bake them – but, then, isn’t everything?  Much like the jar of Peanut Butter (and I have a particular fondness for SunPat) I find these Peanut Butter Cookies  almost irresistible.

Sadly, I almost always have the wherewithal to bake them.  Assuming, of course, I’ve taken the risk and bought the Peanut Butter.

I use a convenient whole block of softened butter.  (That’s butter that you can spread on bread without any effort, as opposed to melted butter.)  Often I weigh fridge cold butter and leave it to soften in my mixer bowl, but for these I let the butter soften in its wrapper, plop the lot in the bowl when I’m ready to bake and carefully fold the generously smeared butter wrapper up and pop into the fridge.  It’s brilliant for laying across the top of a chicken when you want to roast one …  Lazy basting.

Two sugars.  Caster and Light Muscovado.  Beat everything together until it’s pale and fluffy.  Don’t skimp on this bit.

When it looks like this, you add one beaten egg.  The mixture shouldn’t curdle.  Give it a good beating.

Then it’s vanilla extract and the crunchy peanut butter.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt together.  It’s important to do that because the bicarb and the cream of tartar are your raising agents and you want them distributed evenly through the cookie or it might rise unevenly.  I add a very small amount of salt to compensate for the fact I always bake with unsalted butter and I know the saltiness of my brand of Peanut Butter – you may have to adjust.  Add these dry ingredients to the mixture in the bowl.  Purist would say you should move to a metal spoon but, to be honest, I always put my mixture on the slowest setting and combine.  No more.

Next the porridge oats.  Again, combine.

That’s it.  At this point, I transfer my mixture to a pyrex bowl.  Yes, it’s more washing up which I usually avoid but I find that knob at the base of the mixer bowl gets in the way …

The only tricky thing about baking cookies is the ‘baking’.  Seconds turn a fantastic cookie into an okay one.  Minutes turn it into a disaster.  It really helps if you get your raw cookies the same size.  Then they’ll bake in the same time and you have a fighting chance.

I use an ice-cream scoop – one I will forever associate with school mashed potatoes.  That’s not a positive association (and this isn’t a great scoop for hard ice-cream) but it retains its place in my kitchen drawer for this very purpose.

Plop onto a lined baking sheet.  This mixture is very soft and will spread, so keep each blob at least 8cm/3½” apart.

It’s possible to freeze at this point.  If you are going to do that you can place your cookie mixture blobs closer together.  Open freeze, then place in rigid containers with each layer divided by baking parchment.  Defrost before baking.

Otherwise, it’s time to bake.  Ovens vary and cookies are sensitive.  I bake in an up-to-temperature aga on the top runners of my Baking Oven for 10 minutes, reversing the tray halfway.  Otherwise, 170ºC/Gas Mark 3/325ºF for longer – about 15 minutes.  To compensate for ‘hot spots’ reverse the baking sheet half way.

The baking powder and cream of tartar will cause the cookie to puff up and the soft dough will have spread.  You are looking for a ‘set’ top and slightly golden.  As in this photo, it looks like it could do with a bit longer – that’s the time I remove it.

And let the cookies cool on the baking tray.  They deflate and take on a lovely cracked top.  The acceptable face of cellulite.

Moorish.  Calorific.  And very lovely.

Eat!

Peanut Butter Cookies – Makes 27

• scant 250g block of unsalted butter
• 180g/6oz caster sugar
• 180g/6oz light muscovado sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100g/3½oz crunchy peanut butter
• 180g/6oz plain flour/all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt – you may need to adjust this depending on your brand of peanut butter.  I use SunPat.
• 120g/4¼oz porridge oats

Pre-heat your oven to  170ºC/Gas Mark 3/325ºF.

Cream together the light muscovado sugar, caster sugar and unsalted butter until it is pale and as fluffy as you can make it.

Add the beaten egg.  Mix.  Then the vanilla extract and peanut butter.  Mix again until everything is smooth.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt.  Add to the sugar and butter mixture.  Mix to combine.

Then add the porridge oats.  Mix until just combined.

Scoop the 27 cookies onto baking trays, leaving plenty of room for expansion.  (8cm/3½”).  Bake in batches, at the centre of the oven and reversing the tray halfway through, for about 15 minutes.  (Aga:  top set of runners in the Baking Oven and check at 10 minutes.) Remove when the cookie is golden and just set.  Leave to cool on the baking trays.

Eat.

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I was given a marrow.  I’ve come to the conclusion I must be unusual among my peers because I was very pleased to have it.  Apparently that’s not the general emotion when confronted with a marrow …?  Also, I never have the slightest difficulty getting through a courgette glut either.

 

Shall we do the debate on when is a marrow a marrow?  Does it have to have stripes and seeds which are hard to the bite?  Or is it just the courgette you didn’t spot until it had become a marrow????

Personally, I am content to think of it as supper and it’s the perfect ‘carrier’ for lots of good things ..

I live in a town which is dubbed ‘little Italy’ because we have the largest concentration of Italian families in the UK.  The 1950s saw a sudden influx of Italian immigrants, primarily from Sicily and villages in Campania, who came to work for the London Brick Company.  The Italian connection means it’s as easy for me to get pancetta as it is bacon.  I’m feeling the Italian vibe …

There’s no need to add any oil to the frying pan.  Low heat and wait for the pancetta’s own fat to melt.

Brush the mushrooms of any dirt, trim and chop them.  When the fat is oozing out from the pancetta, add them to the pan.

Cook over a medium/low heat until the mushrooms have softened and the water released from them has cooked away.

Place them in a bowl.  Add the chopped parsley and thyme, the fresh breadcrumbs and lots of freshly ground black pepper.  Pancetta is salty so you are unlikely to need to add any additional salt, but there’s no reason not to give the mix a taste.

And that’s the filling done.

Pre-heat your oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 5.

Peel your marrow.  (I must remember to get myself a new peeler, mine is feeling blunt.)

Then cut into slices.  Being as how this was a 2kg plus beast of a marrow I went for 2″ slices.  When confronted with a smaller marrow I cut 1½ slices and would serve two rings per person.

Misusing my fish filleting knife, I remove the seeds core.

The seeds I throw away.  The end of the marrow you can chop up and add to your filling mixture or sauté in a little olive oil and freeze to add to soups and the like.

Butter a shallow dish and arrange your marrow rings in a single layer.  Season with salt and pepper.

Then fill the hollowed out spaces with your pancetta and mushroom filling.  Pack it down.  Drizzle with olive oil.

Tightly cover the baking dish with foil so that the marrow will steam as well as bake.  Place in the oven (Aga:  bottom set of runners in the Roasting Oven) until the marrow is tender to the point of a knife.  Set the timer for 45 minutes.

Set to work on the spicy tomato sauce.

I find red onions are less prone to making me weep so sometimes dispense with my lovely pink onion goggles.  Otherwise cutting the onion is the same.  Leaving the root intact, cut off the top of the onion and then in half.  Peel back the outer layer and make narrow vertical cuts.  Put the flat of your hand on the top of the onion, nice and out of the way, and cut through towards the root but not through it.  This sauce isn’t whizzed to smoothness so it’s worth remembering the size of onion you cut is the size you are going to eat.  Cut down and, miraculously, you are producing neat cubes.

Soften in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Gently.  It needs to be soft and translucent and will take about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic. I grate mine with a fine microplane grater as I find it means I don’t have any discernible ‘blobs’ of garlic in my sauce. Plus I no longer own a garlic crusher because I hated washing it up!  Have your tomatoes ready.  Garlic burns quickly and burnt garlic tastes revolting.  So, thirty seconds, no more …

Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, caster sugar and cayenne pepper.  England doesn’t have a great climate for the growing of tomatoes so you get a better result using good quality tinned tomatoes imported from Italy, but the caster sugar is added to give a little sweetness that sun-ripened straight off the vine would have naturally if picked in Campania.  So far, this is a fairly standard sugo al pomodoro …

Only I like a hit of chilli – and that makes it arrabbiata.  Chilli flakes work fine.  If you’re using fresh, the ‘heat’ is in the pith that holds the seeds inside.  If you roll your chilli on your work surface you will dislodge the seeds, which is aesthetically better.  More vigorous rolling will dislodge the pith, which lessens the fire.

Cut off the stalk end and turn it up so the seeds and pith can fall out.  This method of de-seeding minimises the contact your hands have with the chilli fire and makes any inadvertent touching of your eyes less tortuous.  Cut down the length of the chilli and then across into cubes.

Or just chop.  I don’t worry about the seeds as I like it spicy and I added a second chilli as a cautious nibble told me these were quite mild.  Add to the tomato sauce and simmer for half an hour until it’s exactly the consistency you want to eat it at.  When it’s ready it can be left to cool and re-heated before serving.  I pop mine in the warming oven and forget about it until supper.

If your marrow doesn’t give beneath the point of a knife it’s not ready.  Pop the foil back over and put into the oven again.  My big marrow took an hour.

Serve with the spicy tomato sauce.

Italians don’t seem to feel any meal is complete without bread.  I feel the same about candlelight and a generous glass of red wine ..!  Buon appetito.

Pancetta and Mushroom Stuffed Marrow with Spicy Tomato Sauce – Serves 6

For the Pancetta and Mushroom Stuffed Marrow:

• 6 4-5cm/1½-2″ slices of marrow
• Olive oil
• 300g pancetta
• 600g chestnut mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons of chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons of chopped thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 100g/4oz fresh white breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 5.

Remove the seeds from the marrow rings.  Butter a dish which will hold all six and arrange them in a single layer.  Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

If using a whole piece of pancetta, cut into cubes.  Place the cubed pancetta into a dry pan and heat to release the fat.

Brush the mushrooms free of dirt, trim and chop.  Add to the pancetta and lightly fry for about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

Add the chopped parsley and thyme, freshly ground black pepper and the breadcrumbs.  Stir.

Fill the marrow cavities with the pancetta and mushroom mixture.  Drizzle with olive oil.

Cover the dish with foil so the marrow will steam as well as bake.  Cook until the marrow is tender to the point of a knife.  Between ¾-1 hour.

Serve with the tomato sauce.

For the Spicy Tomato Sauce – Serves 6

• olive oil
• 1 large red onion or two small, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed/grated
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3x400g tins of good quality Italian chopped tomatoes
• 1½ tablespoon of tomato puree
• 1½ teaspoon of caster sugar
• ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan and fry the red onion over a medium heat until it is soft and translucent.  This will take about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds before adding the tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar and cayenne pepper.  Simmer for 30 minutes until it has reduced and thickened.

Serve with the marrow.  (Any extra can be frozen and makes a great pasta sauce.)

Eat.

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This is my baked vanilla cheesecake topped with fresh raspberries – a) because I particularly like fresh raspberries with vanilla cheesecake and b) because it’s a ‘birthday’ cheesecake and I felt I needed to make an effort.  

In actual fact, it wasn’t anyone’s birthday.  Monday I drove Seb and assorted plastic storage boxes to uni and since he’ll be away on the ‘real’ day, we decided to celebrate early.  (He demonstrated a sad lack of any ‘separation issues’, btw, and it reminded me of his ‘first day at school’ when I stood forlornly waving goodbye to my four year old who scarcely looked back.  Who’d be a mum?) 

Now to concentrate on vanilla cheesecake.

It is really important your cream cheese and eggs are at room temperature.  So get them out at the very beginning.  If you to try use fridge cold cream cheese you’ll never get a smooth mixture.  The eggs are the ’emulsifier’ and if they’re cold they encourage your mixture to curdle.

Now the base.  Until very recently I’d have been whizzing up oaty hobnobs or digestive biscuits in my food processor, but now … now I make my own.  (I can hear you groan, but trust me …!)  I promise it’s so easy and definitely worth it.

This epiphany came about when I happened across a recipe book called ‘The Pocket Bakery’ by Rose Prince.  In there, page 204, there’s a recipe for ‘Ricotta Cheesecake with Roasted Peaches and Toasted Pinenuts’.  She says, “Just to show you what a real cheesecake is, setting aside all those industrial versions, we want to encourage you to make your own biscuit base.”  Where it not for the fact Rose Prince uses Stoates flour, as I do and which led me to think she might know a thing or two, I might never have taken the idea out of the steamy bathroom where I do my reading.  (Bubblebath, glass of wine, candles .. no-one can get me …)

I’m totally converted.  Firstly, it tastes better.  Secondly, it feels emotionally ‘right’ not to be pouring butter into something I otherwise avoid eating.  And, thirdly, there’s no temptation to finish the packet which, I admit, is something I’ve been known to do in times of stress.

So, put 80g/2¾ of softened butter and 165g/6oz Demerara sugar in a bowl and mix.  Rose Prince states mix until it is ‘pale and light textured’.  I find this butter/sugar mix needs frequent scraping down of the bowl sides and I never reach anything which I’d describe as ‘light textured’.

Add the egg, vanilla extract and stir.  Then the flour, baking powder and salt.  Gather everything into a soft dough, wrap in cling film and pop into the fridge for 30 minutes or so.  Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/Gas mark 4, 350ºF (or do nothing, while feeling smug you cook on an aga) and have a cup of tea.

Time in the fridge makes the dough ‘roll-able’, but it’s a tricky thing to transfer to the baking sheet.  I roll between sheets of cling film which helps.  Roll to about ½cm/¼” thick, and place on a baking sheet lined with bake-o-glide or baking parchment.

Bake for 15 minutes.  (Aga:  I cook on the top set of runners in the Baking Oven for the same time.)  Then, leave to cool.

While that’s happening, prepare the tin.  Ideally, you need a springform tin which measures 23cm/9″ across the bottom …  You will immediately notice there’s a problem with that – as 23cm isn’t the same as 9″.  Anyone else frustrated by inconsistent tin sizes???

Springform is the best choice because you can unclip the sides to release the cheesecake without risking too much damage.  (My tin actually measures 22.5cm, btw, and is a Kaiser La Forme plus.)  Cut strips of baking parchment a good 6cm/2″ deeper than the height of the tin and fold up a narrow strip and cut up to the line.  This is so it will lay smoothly round a curve.

Draw around the base of the tin.  Twice.  Cut out the circles.

The downside to many springform cake pans is that they have an internal lip which makes getting anything off the base difficult.  My Kaiser springform doesn’t have that lip which is a plus, but the trade-off for the completely flat base is the lip is outside the side.  So I now have two circles of baking parchment larger than I need.  I place them into the tin and mark a score line with my nail around the base, then cut around that line which leaves me with two accurate paper circles.

Grease thoroughly.  I brush on melted butter.  Thoroughly buttering the tin isn’t just about getting the cheesecake out at the end, it’s also about avoiding cracks across the top.  You want your mixture to rise evenly and gently pull away from the sides without pressure put on that top surface.

Place one of the parchment circles in the base and then line the sides with the scissored strips.  Brush with butter.  It’s the glue that keeps the paper in place.

Finally, top with the second circle.  Brush with butter.  That’s the tin ready.

Break the now-cooled ‘biscuit’ base into generous shards and place in a food processor (or plastic bag).  Whizz (or bash).  Until you have fine breadcrumbs.

Add 40g melted butter and whiz again.

You are left with fine, sandy breadcrumbs. Press into the base of your prepared tin, using the back of a dessertspoon.  At this point, using ready-made biscuits you would usually put it in the oven for a 10-15 minute bake.  Don’t do that.  Rose Prince’s recipe moves seamlessly on to adding the ricotta cheesecake topping and then baking.

The first time I tried this recipe I baked my biscuity base before adding the cheesecake mixture.  What I ended up with was a damp ‘seepage’ line.  So, no baking.  Simply whizz and press.

Now would be the time to reduce your oven temperature.  160ºC/320ºF/Gas Mark 3.

I put my room temperature cream cheese into the mixer bowl and beat until smooth.  Then I add a small carton of sour cream and the same amount of double cream (for me that’s cream with a 48% butterfat content).  I add that to the cream cheese to give me a lighter end result.

Then it’s the sugar and the room temperature eggs.  You are not trying to add air, but ensure a beautifully smooth mixture.  Beat, using a flat beater on a medium speed, for 5 minutes.  It should be smooth and very creamy.  Scrape down sides of the bowl to catch anything missed on the bottom and add the flavouring.

Vanilla here.  With vanilla, I’m afraid you get what you pay for.  You want a soft, fat, bendable pod.  Split the pod with the point of a sharp knife and scrape out the gooey seeds with a teaspoon.  (Pop the pod casing into a jar of caster sugar – eventually you end up with ‘vanilla sugar’ which is lovely to bake with.)  The seeds go into the cheesecake mixture.  Mix again.

Cheesecakes need a gentle bake and the best way to do that is to use a water bath.  Wrap the base of your prepared cake tin in foil.  Make a good job of this.  Two sheets are better than one.  There must be no gaps or water will seep into your cheesecake and it will be fit for nothing but the bin.

Once all is watertight, place into a roasting tray.  Put on the kettle.  This time, it’s not for you.

Pour the silky smooth cheesecake mix on top of your biscuity base.   Once the kettle is boiling, pour hot water into the roasting tin so your cheesecake is sitting in a gentle water bath which reaches halfway up the sides of the tin.  Then into the oven.  Bottom shelf.  1½ hours.

(Aga:  I cook in a water bath because I find it still gives better results.  It’s 20 mins on the grid shelf on the floor of the Roasting Oven and then transfer to the simmering oven for a further 2 hours.)

It’s cooked when the sides are gently pulling away from the paper and the centre is set but still a little wobbly.  The cheesecake will continue to cook as it cools.

Conventional ovens – turn off the oven and leave the door ajar for an hour or so and let the cheesecake cool very gently.  This is all about avoiding cracking.  Then you remove completely, cover the top with clean foil but making sure it’s not in contact with the surface, and put into the fridge.  Four hours or overnight.

(Aga – I have a four oven aga so after two hours in the simmering oven, I take my cheesecake out of the water bath and put on a cooling rack resting on the warming plate.)

The now completely cooled cheesecake is ready to be unwrapped.  Go gently.  A cheesecake is a fragile beauty.  Release the clip and gently pull away the baking parchment.

I like to remove the base.  The easiest way I’ve found is to use the flat base of a larger quiche/flan tin.  Slide it between the biscuit base and the tin.  It’s one of those nerves of steel situations …

For my ‘birthday’ version.  I covered the top with fresh raspberries.

It may well have been easier to have brushed my raspberries with warmed, slightly thinned with water, sieved and cooled raspberry jam before placing on the cheesecake .. but, I didn’t …

That’s it.  A calorific slice of Heaven.  And candles ..

Yes, of course, I did! Happy Birthday Seb!

 

Baked Vanilla Cheesecake with fresh raspberries – Serves an optimistic 12

 

The Base (discovered in ‘The Pocket Bakery’ by Rose Prince)

• 120g/4½oz softened butter
• 165g/6oz Demerara sugar
• 1 large egg
• ¼tsp vanilla extract
• 225g/7½oz plain flour
• ¾tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Cream 80g/2¾oz of the butter with the Demerara sugar until is is lighter in colour and very soft with a flat beater.  Add the egg, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder and fine salt.  Mix again.  Scrape the dough out onto your work-surface and form into a ball, then press into a disc, wrap in cling film and put into the fridge.

Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4 and prepare your 22cm/9″ springform cake tin.

After half an hour your dough should be roll-able.  Between two sheets of cling film, roll until it is approximately ½cm/¼” thick.  Then, transfer to a baking sheet lined with bake-o-glide or baking parchment.

Bake for 15 minutes until it is golden and ‘cooked’ through.  Set aside to cool. (Four Oven Aga:  I cook on the top set of runners in the Baking Oven for 15 minutes.)

Break into shards and put into the bowl of a food processor.  Blitz until it becomes sandy crumbs.  (Or place in a plastic bag and bash until you reach the same stage.)

Melt the remaining 40g butter and add that to the crumb mix.

Melt the remaining 40g of butter.  Add that to the biscuit crumbs.  Whiz again.  Then pour into the lined and greased springform tin and press in, evenly and firmly.

Wrap the base of the cake tin in strong foil to make a waterproof coat.  Place in a large roasting tin.

 

The Filling

• 900g/2lb full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 170g carton of soured cream
• 170g double cream, I measure using the soured cream pot
• 270g/9½oz caster sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 vanilla pod, split with a knife lengthways and the sticky seeds scraped out with a teaspoon

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF/Gas Mark 3.

Place the cream cheese into a bowl and beat until smooth.

Add the double cream and soured cream and beat again.

Now the sugar and eggs.  Mix for 5 minutes on a medium speed until your cheesecake mix is silky smooth.

Add the vanilla seeds and mix to incorporate.

Pour into the prepared tin and smooth the top with an angled palette knife.

Put on the kettle.  Once boiling, pour the water into the roasting tin until the hot water reaches halfway up the sides of the springform cake tin.  Then transfer to the oven.  Bottom set of runner for 1½ hours. (Aga: cook for 20 mins on the grid shelf on the floor of the Roasting Oven and then transfer to the simmering oven for a further 2 hours.)

Once the sides are slightly pulling away from the baking parchment and the centre is set but still has a slight wobble, turn the oven off.  Leave the cheesecake in place and leave to cool very gently for an hour.  (Aga:  remove the cheesecake from the Simmering Oven and either place on a cooling rack on the warming plate or leave to cool in the water bath.)

Cover the top with foil, making sure it isn’t in contact with the delicate cheesecake top, and put in the fridge to chill for a further four hours or so.

Completely cold, remove the cheesecake from the wrappings.  Loosen the clip and peel away the baking parchment.  The flat base of a large quiche/flan tin makes it easier to transfer to a serving plate.

Decorate with fresh raspberries.  With warmed, thinned with water, sieved and cooled raspberry jam – glaze.  Serve at room temperature.  Eat.

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