Granola Bars

Firstly, I want to say a MASSIVE thanks to all those who contributed a guest post. I loved reading what other people have been making, and it has filled me with inspiration! It feels good to be back in the hot-seat though!


When I'm at work and need a snack I often turn to cereal bars, I have found a few healthy ones (where I can pronounce all of the ingredients, and sugar isn't the number one ingredient), but they are expensive and tend not to be very filling. 


My recipe does contain sugar, but considerably less than a lot of the granola bar recipes I found.  Although they aren't particularly low in calories or fat (175 calories and 6.7g per bar) they give good slow-releasing carbs from the oats and fruits and have good fat from the seeds and nuts. The great thing about these granola bars is you can substitute whatever you have in your cupboard for the ingredients below, as long as you keep the ratio of wet and dry ingredients more or less the same. For example you could try pumpkin seeds instead of sunflower seeds, hazelnuts instead of walnuts and apricots instead of figs.

Roxanne's Granola Bars

Lemon Bars

My final guest post (for now) comes from Pam, and looks like the perfect treat for a Tuesday tea-break!

I love lemons. The sharp sweetness and tangy bite they give is just like nectar to me. So when I offered to make, bake and blog a recipe for your site I knew it had to include one of my favourite ingredients! I decided to make some lemon bars I'd had my eye on trying for a while... 

The recipe I followed is from The Food Network website and was enough to feed the 5,000, so I adjusted the measurements down by half. This was an experiment after all...

Lemon Bars

Tasty little biscuits

Marzipan

Today's guest post comes from my friend Jess, you may remember her from our bake-off here, or our baking collaboration here. I know it's not technically 'baking' but Marizpan on a Monday does have a nice ring to it...

Hello! Greetings from Brooklyn, New York. We are having some rather miserable weather right now. It not only makes me a bit nostalgic for England but also makes me crave decadent sweets (or 'candy') to nibble on. So, on prompting from my Taste Tester who rather pointedly put a bag of ground almonds in the cart at Trader Joe's, I made some marzipan.

Strawberry & Raspberry Ginger Crunch Yoghurt

Controversially, no baking was involved in this recipe. Before you take off the 'bakes' part of my name, wait for a second - this recipe includes gingernuts, which are baked (and you could make them yourself), therefore, technically it passes. Phew! This posts comes from my friend Rowan.


A few weeks ago our lovely host Roxanne dared to let me cook her dinner. After a pleasant-but-not-exciting veggie stir fry, I wanted something a little unusual for dessert. A combination of drunken Eurovision madness and stolen health-kick ideas seemed to deliver the goods, and so Roxanne asked me to tell you about it...

Strawberry & Raspberry Ginger Crunch Yoghurt

All Bran Cake

Today's guest post comes from my Gran. This looks like the perfect recipe to make when you open your cupboards and all you find is cereal and dried fruit! 

Here is the recipe for All Bran Cake - it is sooooo easy to make and tastes very delicious! 

Brown 'N Serve Rolls

Today's guest post comes all the way from Idaho and from my Great Aunt Kathy (she's my aunt's mother, but pretty great too!) Kathy has been making these rolls for 40 years, so it's safe to say this recipe is tried and tested. 

BROWN 'N SERVE ROLLS

My mother gave me a Betty Crocker Cookbook when I got married 41 years ago. I didn't know much about cooking or baking so only made dishes that had a photo and I would follow the recipe exactly. Eventually I wanted to try making bread and there were good instructions and photos and I found I really liked making it. After many years of baking I now am willing to alter a recipe. This recipe is adapted from that Betty Crocker Cookbook.

1 package active dry yeast (2¼ teaspoon)

¾ cup warm water (105-115°F )

¾ cup lukewarm milk

¼ cup sugar

2 teaspoon salt

¼ cup oil

2 cups white flour

2¼ cups whole wheat flour

Stout and Beetroot Cupcakes

Today's guest post comes from my friend Ellie, we have got together a few times for baking sessions, our latest being Lemon and Courgette Cupcakes, read the post here.

Stout and Beetroot Cupcakes

Try this recipe for an unusual but yummy treat to discover who the adventurous folk are amongst your friends!

I found this recipe a while back and was so excited to try it as I was newly venturing into the world of vegetable-based baking. I got all my bits together one Sunday afternoon only to realise I had everything but the cupcake cases, and the shops were closed! So I got my thinking cap on and made my own cases from squares of greaseproof paper. They were 5-inches squared, a great size for my muffin tin, and I squished them into shape using a glass pressed into the tin. I later used 4-inch square pieces and had a great result with that too... it really depends how much cream cheese frosting you’re going to pile on that needs to be contained!

It’s an easy recipe and they came out of the oven very spongy and tasty looking as you can see in this photo.

Proper Parkin

And on the third day of guest post week my friend Kate gave to me...

Proper Parkin

I love Parkin.  It’s not very well-known outside of Yorkshire (where I grew up) and Lancashire, and my London chums are really missing out on what is a quality cake! It’s a sticky, gingery delight which is incredibly filling to boot due to its oaty base.

It’s traditionally eaten on Bonfire night, but this recipe was such a hit I’ve been getting requests for it all year round!  This is a recipe I adapted from Margaret Pritchard’s recipe in the Guardian - it’s a one-cup wonder which even I can follow..

Makes 2 loaves:

You’ll need:

2 cups fine oatmeal (or whole rolled oats and a blender)

2 cups self-raising flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

6 rounded tsp ground ginger

225g margarine at room temperature

2½ tbsps black treacle

2 cups hot milk

One cool apron* 

Theresa’s Cheese Souffle

Day 2 in my week of guest posts comes from my 7-year-old sister Theresa. It’s a savoury recipe for today, and I am very jealous I wasn’t there when she made it as it looks so yummy! I’m promised there will be a soufflé cooked for me next time I’m home...

Theresa’s Cheese Soufflé

You will need: (to serve 4)

40g butter

40g plain flour

300ml/½ pint milk

100g cheese

3 large or 4 small eggs

fresh herbs

Smores Squares

This week I am bringing you a guest post everyday as some of my friends and family share their recipes – I hope you enjoy! I will be making all of the guest recipes in the future, and will report back as to how I get on. 
The first guest blogger is Polly, who previously shared her Peanut-butter cookies, see the post here.

I'm back with another naughty but nice recipe for you (one to break the diet with!!!)

Smores Squares

What you need: 

1½ cups plain flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
6 ounces chocolate chips
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup digestive biscuits/graham crackers, roughly crushed with your hands
large handful mini marshmallows