Recipes

Banana bread is amazing – it stays moist for day after day and it’s much healthier than normal cake.

When it comes to ingredients lists, I tend to “zone out” after the first four or five. Any more, and I tend to dismiss the recipe as unnecessarily complicated. Who has time to find them all?

If you purchase the pastry and acquire the curd, all you do is leave yourself to whip up a really simple meringue.

The ‘roll’ is of the most indulgent form of bread. Subtly sweet, shining white and usually filled with bacon or egg or sausage or some combination of the three. I love them.

At every coffee break I can, I’ll have an empire biscuit to accompany my hot beverage because Empire Biscuits are superior to all.

A deliciously, scrumptious crumple for all the family.

This is a sublime twist on Victoria Sponge that goes great at any time of day.

Wonderfully sticky and sweet… Individual Tartes Tatin to get your taste buds watering. It’s also easy enough to make as one large Tartes for those large family get-togethers.

When it comes to seasonal baking, there is one bake that is underappreciated and under-recognised throughout the Scotland, the UK and the World. That bake is Black Bun. The idea of a cake-like mix inside a pastry filling seems a bit strange, but it just works.

The word ‘Bannock’ can refer to many slightly different non-yeasted breads, each with their regional variations from Scandinavia to northernmost Canada.

This may well be the best-tasting bread we’ve ever had. Just make sure you use plenty of oil. And the best salt you can find. Lots of it.

This bread looks, on the face of it, fiendishly difficult to master – but it isn’t!