Beetroot Bread

Ingredients:

• 250g Wholemeal bread flour

• 250g White bread flour

• 1 tsp Salt

• 200g Beetroot

• 200g Starter

• 300ml Warm water

Method:

Put the flours and salt into a large bowl and mix together. Grate the beetroot and add to the flour, along with the starter. Slowly add the water and mix together to form a dough.

You can add more or less water depending on how your dough feels; I find it

varies slightly every time.

Tip the dough out onto a lightly oiled worktop and knead for 10 minutes.

There are various ways to knead your dough. I like to stretch it out, then roll it back in and give it a 90 degree turn, before stretching it out again.

Put your dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover loosely with a damp cloth to stop it drying out. Place somewhere warm, I usually put it near our wood-burner.

Leave to prove for several hours until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Sourdough takes longer to develop than bread made with shop bought yeast, but benefits from the extra time, as it develops a better flavour.

Tip your dough back out onto your lightly oiled work surface and carefully deflate it by poking it with your fingers. Reshape by folding in half four times and forming a nice tight ball. Coat with a little flour.

Place it in a lightly greased loaf tin for a square sandwich loaf, or into a floured proving basket, if you have one. Cover loosely with a damp cloth and leave for another hour or more to prove again. If using a tin, it should rise to the top.

Heat your oven to its highest temperature and boil the kettle. If using a proving basket, you will need to place an oven tray in to heat.

Place some hot water in a baking tray at the bottom of the oven, this will help to create a good crust on your loaf. If using the proving basket, tip your bread out onto the hot oven tray, slash the top and get it in the oven and shut the door, as quick as possible, to avoid heat loss. If using a loaf tin, slash the top and put your loaf tin in the centre of the oven.

Cook for 10 minutes before dropping the temperature to 200 degrees if the crust is looking pale, 180 degrees if the crust is noticeably browning, and 170 if it seems to be browning quickly. Cook for a further 40 mins.

When using a loaf tin, I like to take it out of the tin and place the loaf back in the oven for the last 10minutes.

Remove from the oven; the loaf should sound hollow when you tap it on the bottom.

Leave to cool fully before cutting.

Stout & Pepper Cake

Ingredients:

• 250g Caster sugar

• 125g Salted butter

• 2 Tablespoon black treacle

• 400g Plain flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 Teaspoon black pepper (2 if you really love Pepper)

• 1 Teaspoon ginger

• 1/2 Teaspoon ground cloves

• 250g Dried mixed fruit

• 3 Eggs

• 1/2 Pint of stout

Method:

Pre heat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius and grease and line a 7’’ cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Melt the butter, sugar, and treacle together in a pan.

Put the flour, baking powder, spices, and fruit, into a bowl and mix together. Add the melted butter, eggs, and stout, and mix well.

Pour the mixture into your greased and lined cake tin and cook on the lower shelf of your oven for 1 - 1.5 hours, until a skewer can be cleanly inserted and removed from the centre of the cake. Best serve with a pint of stout or afternoon tea.

Meaty Mince Pies

Ingredients:

• 300g plain flour

• 250g unsalted butter (cut into cubes)

• Pinch of salt

• 2 Eggs

• 100 ml Water

• 250g Minced venison (or beef)

• 250g mincemeat (see previous page)

• 100g Suet

Method:

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius and grease a cupcake tray.

Add the butter to the flour and rub it into the flour with your fingertips. Keep rubbing until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.

Add a pinch of salt, 1 of the eggs, and the water, and mix together to form a stiff dough.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out as thin as possible - 1 or 2 mm is best. Cut rounds for the bases using a pastry cutter and place into your greased cupcake tray.

Mix together the minced venison, mincemeat, and suet, and fill the bases with the mix. Cut slightly smaller rounds to use as lids. Whisk an egg and where the pastry lids and bases join, using a little egg to seal the edges together.

Prick the tops in the middle with a fork, and brush the tops with a little egg.

Cook in the centre of  your oven for about 30-35 minutes, until golden in colour and cooked through.

Foragers Rumpot

Though you can get traditional ceramic rumpots, you can use any clean, large container.

As well as making a deliciously fruity rum, you also get boozy fruits to eat with ice cream, cheesecake, pancakes, flan, porridge etc.

Ingredients:

• Rum

• Sugar

• Fruit (apples, pears, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, damsons, plums, gooseberries, cherries, blackcurrants, rhubarb- anything you can get your hands on)

Method:

Remove any stems, seeds and stones from the fruit. Cut larger fruits into smaller pieces.

Put the fruit into a large pot, or rumpot if you have one. For every 500g of fruit, sprinkle 250g of sugar over the top. Add enough rum to cover the fruit, by at least 1 inch.

Cover the top of the pot with cling film, to stop the alcohol evaporating.

Throughout the summer continue to add more fruit as it becomes available. Every time you add more fruit, add more sugar and rum, until the pot is full.

If all your fruit is available at the same time, you can add it all at once.

Once the pot is full, allow at least 6-8 weeks before straining the fruit from the alcohol and eating/drinking.

Beech Leaf Noyau

Ingredients:

• 700ml Gin

• 200g Granulated sugar

• Young beech leaves (enough to fill a jar)

• 200ml brandy

Method:

Pack the leaves and sugar into a large jar.

Pour the gin over and put the lid on. Shake the jar to mix in the sugar. Shake once a day, for a few days, until the sugar remains dissolved.

After 3 weeks decant the gin and mix with the brandy. Pour into bottles, placing one of the beech leaves into each of the bottles.

While this can be drunk straight away, it is best kept for at least a month.

Toffee Apples

This will make enough toffee for the apples plus a little extra. Poor the leftovers onto a piece of greaseproof paper and leave to set. Break into pieces with a toffee hammer or knife.

Ingredients:

• 300g caster sugar

• 200g golden syrup

• 100ml water

• 6 apples

Method:

Pop lolly sticks into your apples. Put the sugar, syrup, and water, into a pan.

Melt on a medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has all melted and turned a caramel colour, stop stirring. Boil the sugar until it reaches 150 degrees (hard crack) on a thermometer.

If you don’t have a thermometer, drop a little of the sugar into some water, it should set hard instantly.

Turn off the heat and carefully dip your apples into the toffee. Place onto a piece of greaseproof paper until set hard.

Orange Mead

Ingredients:

• 1.8Kg of honey

• 4.5l boiled water

• 4 large oranges

• 1 tsp mead yeast

  Method:

Orange Mead

Put half the honey into a clean, sterile bucket with the juice and rind of the oranges. Pour in the boiling water and stir until the honey is dissolved. When the liquid has cooled to room temperature, add the yeast. Leave to ferment for 2 days.

Strain the liquid through a clean muslin into a demijohn, fit with an airlock and leave to ferment for a further 5 days.

Syphon the mead into a clean demijohn, leaving behind any sediment. Add the rest of the honey and mix well. When fermentation ends (when bubbles pass through the airlock at less than one a minute) siphon the mead into bottles and cork.

Age for a minimum of 3 months before drinking.

Fiery Ginger Marmalade

Ingredients:

• 4 lemons (zest and juice)

• 1kg grated courgette

• 1kg jam sugar

• 100g freshly grated root ginger

• 200g crystallised stem ginger (finely chopped)

Method:

Put the lemon juice, zest and courgette into a large pan and warm gently to release some of the juices.

Add the sugar and the ginger and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 10 - 15 minutes until setting point is reached.

Leave to cool for 10 minutes, before pouring into warm, sterilised jars.

Crab Apple Jelly

I love stocking the cupboard with crab apple jelly, it’s great spread on toast or served with pork. It's a fantastic pinky orange colour. High in pectin, there is no need to use jam sugar with these apples.

Try adding other wild fruits, such as blackberries, to the mix.

Ingredients:

• 1kg crab apples

• Up to 1kg granulated sugar

• Water

Method:

Put the fruit into a large pan and add just enough water to cover the apples. Bring to a boil and simmer until the fruit starts to fall apart.

Strain through a muslin or cheese cloth. Leave to drip for several hours or overnight, but whatever you do avoid squeezing or you’ll end up with cloudy jelly.

Measure the resulting liquid and for every 600ml of juice, you’ll need 450 kg of sugar. Put the juice into a pan and bring to the boil.

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Slowly bring to a rolling boil and boil rapidly, without stirring, until setting point is reached. I find this varies

Pour into warm, sterilised jars.

Rocky roads

Ingredients:

• 50g Butter

• 200g dark chocolate

• 2.5 tbsp golden syrup

• 100g rich tea biscuits, roughly broken

• 100g mini marshmallows

• 100g cranberries

• 100g Brazil nuts, roughly chopped

Method:

On a low heat, melt the spread, chocolate and syrup together in a pan.

Line a square baking dish with cling film

Once the chocolate and spread mix is completely melted, add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and mix through.

Pour the mixture into the baking dish and place it in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight, until set.

Remove from the dish and discard the cling film. Chop into bite-sized squares.

Kombucha

There are many ways to make Kombucha tea, so this is only meant as a beginners guide. You could experiment with adding flavours before you bottle it. Ginger, lemon/lime or a handful of fresh or dried berries are all popular choices.

Kombucha is a really great health food, promoting good gut bacteria. It’s been in use for hundreds of years, all over the world. The first recorded use was in China in 221 BC during the Tsin Dynasty, where it was known as “The Tea of Immortality”.

Although this is a fermented drink, the balance of bacteria and yeast keep the alcohol content so low, it is classed as non alcoholic.

Two important points when making kombucha:

1. As with homebrew, make sure everything is really clean. Avoid antibacterial soaps and sterilisers though, Ecover is ok

2.Do not use metal containers or spoons, as this can kill your scoby!

Ingredients:

• 100g granulated sugar

• 4 tea bags (black, green, earl grey - whatever takes your fancy)

• 1.65L Boiled water

• 1 SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeasts) - Can be purchased online or befriend somebody who makes Kombucha already

• A little Kombucha

Method:

Put the sugar, and tea bags into a large, clean container. Cover with the boiled water and stir well. Leave until cooled to room temperature.

Remove the tea bags and add your scoby and Kombucha. Cover the top of the container with a muslin cloth. Leave to ferment for 5-14 days. The longer you leave it the less sweet and more vinegary it will taste.

Pour the tea into clean swing top bottles, leaving behind some of the liquid and the scooby (ready to start all over again).

This is where you can get inventive and add your extra flavours to the bottles.

At this stage fermentation starts and can take anything from 2-5 days. Pop the lid on and check every day to relieve the pressure. Be careful to keep checking - too much pressure and your bottles will explode. After a few days the Kombucha should be fizzy and ready to drink.

Chill before serving.

Over time new SCOBY’s will form which can be used to make more Kombucha or given away for friends to brew their own.

Lemon & Nettle cake

Ingredients:

• 1L jug full of young nettle tops

• Juice and rind of 2 large lemon

• 200g butter

• 200g caster sugar

• 3 eggs

• 300g self raising flour (sieved)

• 1 tsp baking powder (sieved)

• 1 tsp ground mixed spice

Method:

Stick the nettles into a saucepan, and cover with hot water. Boil for 3 minutes.

Drain the nettles and put them into a food processor, along with the juice and rind of the lemon. Blitz to a fine pulp.

Cream together the butter and sugar and break in the 3 eggs. Add the nettle/lemon and mix well.

Finally add the flour, baking powder & mixed spice, and mix well, until fully incorporated.

Pour into a greased and lined loaf tin and cook in the centre of a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius for 60-70 minutes, until a skewer can be cleanly inserted into the centre of the cake. If the cake is browning too much, cover with a piece of lining paper.

Chilli Chocolate brownies

Ingredients:

• 300g really dark chocolate

• 300g light soft brown sugar

• 250g Butter

• 2 teaspoon of Chilli flakes

• 220g Plain flour

• 3 Egg whites

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

Put the chocolate, sugar, butter, and 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes into a pan and slowly heat until dissolved.

Meanwhile whisk the egg whites to form soft peaks.

Take the chocolate mix off the heat and stir in the flour. Fold in the egg whites.

Pour into a baking tray and sprinkle the rest of the chilli flakes over the surface. Cook for around 25 minutes.

Leave to cool fully before cutting into squares.

King cake

Ingredients:

• • 750g strong bread flour

• 120g sugar

• Handful of sultanas

• • 12g salt

• 20g bread yeast

• • 100g Butter (melted)

• 450ml warm milk

• Ground cinnamon

• 125g Icing sugar

• 15ml Lemon juice

• Purple, green and yellow food colouring

Method:

Mix the flour, sugar, sultanas and salt together in a large bowl.

Add the yeast and the butter. Slowly add a little milk at a time, while mixing together with your hands to form a sticky dough.

Tip out onto your worktop and knead for a few minutes.

There are various ways to knead your dough, I like to stretch it out, then roll it back in, and give it a 90 degree turn, before stretching it out again.

Cover with a damp cloth and leave to prove for about 2 hours. Lightly dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out the dough to form a rectangle a quarter inch thick.

Sprinkle a good layer of cinnamon evenly over the surface and roll the dough up to form a sausage.

Place into a greased and floured bundt tin, making sure the 2 ends meet. Seal the join with a little oil or water. Leave to prove for a further 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Put the cake into the oven and cook for about 40 minutes, Remove from the oven and upturn to remove the cake from the tin.

Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice and divide into 3 equal portions. Add the food colouring to the icing and drizzle over the cake.

Leave to cool fully before cutting.

Ginger wine

This one is super easy to make and great on a cold winter evening by the fire.

Ingredients:

• 50g root ginger

• 1.5kg granulated sugar

• 100g raisins

• 2 tsp of citric acid (or the juice and rind of 2 lemons)

• 4.5l water (boiled)

• 1 tsp of wine yeast

• 1 campden tablet (optional)

• 1 teaspoon fermentation stopper (optional)

• 1 teaspoon Bentonite (optional)

• Rum

Method:

Grate the ginger into a bucket, add the sugar, raisins, citric acid, and 2.5l boiled water and stir well.

Mix in 2 litres of cold water and finally add your yeast. Take a reading using a hydrometer. This is known as the Original gravity or OG.

Cover loosely for 1 week before straining into a demijohn with an airlock.

When fermentation ends (bubbles passing through the airlock at less than one a minute) take another hydrometer reading. This is known as the Final gravity or FG. Using a simple formula, (OG - FG) x 0.13 = %, you can then figure out the alcohol content of your finished brew

Finally, add a few capfuls of rum to your bottles, syphon the wine in and cork. Age for a minimum of 3 months before drinking.

Halva

The word Halva comes from the Arabic word Hulw, or sweet. There are versions of it appearing all over the world, in different forms, and under different names, with some versions dating back as far as the 7th century!

There are so many ways to make this, you could replace the honey with sugar, for a vegan version, or replace the pistachios with other ingredients, such as, dried fruits, nuts or chocolate.

Ingredients:

• 340g honey

• Handful of pistachios

• Tsp vanilla extract

• 450g tahini

Method:

Heat the honey in a pan until it reaches 115 degrees Celsius, or ‘soft ball’ on a thermometer.

Stir in the pistachios and vanilla extract, followed by the tahini. Mix well, until fully incorporated.

Pour into a greased and lined cake tin, and leave to cool.

Once cool remove from the tin and wrap well in cling film. Refrigerate for a minimum of 24 hrs.

Parsnip Wine

Ingredients:

• 2 kg parsnips (cut into 5mm pieces)

• 4.5l water

• 1.5 kg granulated sugar

• 200g raisins

• Juice & rind of 2 lemons

• A strong cup of black tea (for tannin)

• 1 teaspoon pectolase (to prevent pectin haze)

• 1 teaspoon of wine yeast

• 1 campden tablet (optional)

• 1 teaspoon fermentation stopper (optional)

• 1 teaspoon Bentonite (optional)

Method:

Boil 2.5 litres of water and add the parsnips. Boil for around 20 to 25 mins until soft, but not falling apart, otherwise the wine will never clear.

Strain the water from the parsnips into a bucket, add the sugar, raisins, lemon juice/rind, tea and pectolase, and stir well.

Mix in 2 litres of cold water and finally add your yeast. Check your gravity and make a note of it. Cover loosely for 3 days before straining into a demijohn with an airlock.

When fermentation ends (when bubbles pass through the airlock at less than one a minute) add a crushed campden tablet and fermentation stopper, if using, as per the instructions on the packet.

After 3 days clear the wine by adding bentonite, if using, as per the instructions on the packet. Don’t forget to check your final gravity, if you haven’t already and want to know the percentage of alcohol in your brew.

Finally, syphon the wine into bottles and cork. Age for a minimum of 6 months before drinking.

12 Mini Fruit Cakes

I usually make this in September and feed it every couple of weeks, up till December, with a mixture of brandy, dark rum, and sloe gin, for a really boozy cake.

You'll also need 12 small (and empty) 'half tins' of baked beans. I like to make these as gifts, covered in icing and marzipan.

Ingredients:

• 1kg mixed dried fruit

• 50g chopped glacé cherries

• Brandy

• Kraken rum

• Sloe gin

• 225g plain flour (sifted)

• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt

• 1⁄4 level teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated

• 1⁄2 level teaspoon ground mixed spice

• 225g dark brown soft sugar

• 4 large eggs

• 1 dessertspoon black treacle

• 225g butter

• 50g chopped almonds

• zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange

Method:

Put the dried fruit into a bowl and add 100ml of brandy. Mix well and cover the bowl with a cloth. Leave to soak overnight. Pre-heat the oven to 140°C

Put the flour, salt, spices, sugar, eggs, treacle, and butter, into a large bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until thoroughly mixed.

Fold in the pre-soaked fruit mixture, chopped nuts and finally the grated lemon and orange zest. Grease and line the tins and spoon the mixture evenly between them.

Wrap the tins in a double layer of greaseproof paper, covering the tops of the cakes. Bake on the lowest shelf of the oven for 60-90 minutes until they feel springy to the touch.

Leave to cool before removing from the tins and skewering all over and feeding with a small drop of rum.

Wrap in greaseproof paper and store somewhere cool and dry. Feed every 2 weeks.

If you want to decorate the cake with marzipan and icing, do this shortly before eating.

Peppernut biscuits

Ingredients:

For the spice mix;

• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

• 2 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

• 1/2 teaspoon ground green cardamom

• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2 teaspoon ground star anise

• 1/4 teaspoon ground mace

• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the gingerbread;

• 180g butter

• 80g brown sugar

• 100g golden syrup

• 300g Plain flour

• 25g ground almonds

• 3 tablespoons of spice mix - see above

• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 1/2 tsp white pepper

• 2 eggs

• 500g icing sugar

Method:

Mix all the spices together well.

Heat the butter, brown sugar and syrup in a large pan, on a medium heat, until fully dissolved and mixed together. Leave to cool for 5 minutes. 

Meanwhile mix the plain flour​, ground almonds, spice mix, bicarbonate of soda and white pepper in a bowl.

Add to the saucepan of melted sugar and fat and mix well. Stir in the eggs.

Tip the mixture out onto a piece of cling film and wrap tightly. Refrigerate for several hours, or ideally overnight.

Split the mix into 2 halves and roll both out into 3/4" sausages and cut each sausage into pieces 3/4" thick. Roll each piece into a ball and place onto a lined baking tray, leaving a gap between each one. You should end up with around 24 balls.

Cook in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celcius for around 10-15 minutes, until golden in colour.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once cooled, mix up the icing sugar as per the packet instructions. Dip each biscuit into the icing sugar, and place onto a cooling rack. Leave until the icing has set.

Apricot Brandy

This was inspired by Robin Hobb's books. The story follows that of a bastard of a prince, Fitz, as he becomes an assassin. It's a beautiful story filled with magic, dragons and apricot brandy shared with his friend, the fool.

Ingredients:

• 700g Apricots

• 350g honey

• 700ml brandy

Method:

Wash your fruit and cut into quarters, Removing the stones. Put the fruit into a Kilner jar and cover with the honey. Pour over the brandy and put the lid on.

Shake the jar to mix in the honey. Shake once a day, for a few days, until the honey remains dissolved.

After 2 weeks decant into bottles through a funnel lined with a muslin cloth.

This can be drunk straight away.