Baking recipes - scones etc

bugs

If there are any things that you aren't familiar with and afraid of trying, I'd hugely recommend Marguerite Patten's the Basic Basics - Baking book.  (Order it online or buy in a shop - you *do* not want to try saying the title out loud..).  All the simple classic recipes, lots of variations, instructions on substituting oil for butter where appropriate (note butter is much better than margarine!), some advice on alternative diets where possible.

I have a little book by Parragon (yes, with 2 rs, I think), one of those small hardbacks they tend to sell in discount stores, calling just "Baking".  Use that an awful lot, and favourite recipe is one for oat and raisin cookies which has quite a small amount, relatively speaking, of butter and sugar along with a lot of er, oats and raisins.

For more luxury stuff - and it might be a good investment considering the price of tracker bars etc! - Nigella's Domestic Goddess book is surprisingly good.  Recipes are reliable and nice and the instructions are really quite clear.  And the pics are lovely and might help with your boyfriend's conversion!

Finally, a book I'm trying to find an excuse to buy for myself is Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book.  For you, the section on traybakes might be esp useful as they're nice little treats and a good substitute for other bars.

Last of all, deliaonline is free and has a really good recipe search and lots of cake, scone, bread etc recipes.  Have a look at the energy bars recipe for example.

Happy baking...

bugs

And another thing about bero - they have their recipes online as well. I assume it's the same recipes as in the book so might be worth investigating to see if you feel like investing all of £1.50 on it!

VickyA_2

Thanks for all those tips.

No doubt my boyfriend won't mind me getting the Domestic Goddess book considering he's a bit of a Nigella fan anyway. I'll check out my mum's Mary Berry book when I next visit too. I'd always turned my nose up at MB for the reason that my mum always went by what "Mary" had said.

bugs

MB's book does look great though - I don't own any of hers so don't have the same "issues" as you! Your house was clearly a bit more upmarket than mine..a 1970 Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook was and still is the only source of recipes in my mum's kitchen! And it's rarely used. Now I have a shelf-full in my house but absolutely no recipe book I ever saw comes close to recreating my mum's brown bread: "Enough flour. Enough bran. Enough salt. A bit of butter. An egg if you've got one. Cream if you've got some. Yoghurt if you've got some. Buttermilk (one tub). Some water to rinse out the remaining butter milk. Enough baking soda. Mix, shape, cook in the oven.. what temp? Hot enough. How long? Till it's cooked". She also has a handy trick of offering someone a cup of tea and whipping up a batch of scones before they get their coat off (almost) - similiar recipe..enough of each ingredient. I can just about manage a Victoria sponge without a recipe to hand but that's it, and I still need my £2.99 Woolies scales to do it!

While I think of it, the board on Delia's site is also v friendly (of course, not so useful and lovely and FT coloured as this one) for cooking questions.

Caterina

Thank you Heldaz and Sarahsaver and others for your good suggestions on fat substitutions, I am really trying to get my family to eat healthier foods and this was very useful!

Caterina

angela110660

I love making cakes and buns and my family are very appreciative - they don't last long however!
Easiest cake to make I think is Boiled Fruit Cake a recipe that my auntie gave me years ago.

Basically get a big pan and put in 6ozs light brown sugar (I use natural caster though), 6oz margarine - I use Olivio or similar, 8oz of mixed dried fruit eg sultanas, currants and raisins; 10fl oz milk, 2 tsps mixed spice. Stir it all and heat it up and simmer for 2 minutes. Leave to go cool and beat in 2 eggs and 10oz SR flour. Line base of a round 8" cake tin or a large loaf tin and pour in mixture. Cook on Gas 2/3, Elec 300/325F or 150/170C for 1hour 15mins. Test with a skewer and cook for about 15mins more max if still a bit sticky in the middle. Leave in tin to cool before turning out - will keep for several days (if you are lucky) in a sealed container or wrapped in foil. Never fails.

VelvetGlove

Oh wow! The Be-Ro cook book, when I moved out from home I took a photocopy of mum's very much thumbed through cook book & I did use quite a few of the recipes in there. Obviously some recipes I couldn't use as the pages were torn or missing - I did say it was a well used book

I'll be sending off for the Be-Ro book as I would love a proper copy, looks a different shape than the one mum had - hers was sort of tall & thin (imagine a spiral bound shorthand pad with an inch off the width for an idea of the shape of it).

Thanks so much for this info rach, never knew it still existed! ;D

Janeryan

Thanks for all those tips.

No doubt my boyfriend won't mind me getting the Domestic Goddess book considering he's a bit of a Nigella fan anyway.  I'll check out my mum's Mary Berry book when I next visit too.  I'd always turned my nose up at MB for the reason that my mum always went by what "Mary" had said.  

I made a victoria sandwich for the ist time successfully a couple of weeks ago after seeing Mary Berry do one on Saturday Kitchen. It was fab!!!! I would deffo reccomend her recipe-apparently the trick is not to overbeat the mixture!!!

catznine

I learnt to cook using the Good Housekeeping cook book which I think saw on another thread as a freebie - could be worth checking out!

Magentasue

Golden rules with scones:
1) Oven must be hot when you put them in.
2) Work quickly - as soon as S.R. Flour gets wet it's 'activated' and needs cooking straight away.
3) The dough shouldn't be sticky but it shouldn't fall apart either.
4) DON'T ROLL THINLY - some recipes say 1/2" - too thin.

Once you get confident, scones are a doddle. Just a bit of practice