STICKY TOFFEE PUDDINGS

Ever since the days started getting colder and darker (boo!), I've been craving warming, comforting foods. I'm loving roast dinners at the moment, especially since the girls have finally decided that they quite like them too. Isn't it a great feeling when kids suddenly decide - after months or even years of shunning a certain food or meal - that they DO like it after all? Of course, they might change their notoriously fickle minds again next week so I'll make the most of this while I can!

As far as I'm concerned, a roast dinner simply must be followed by a decadent pud, and you can't get much more decadent than a classic sticky toffee pudding. My version is made using individual basins and it is steamed to make the most deliciously moist, self-saucing puddings. And with Christmas Day being just four weeks away tomorrow (sorry to remind those of you who are still in denial), these mini puddings would make a great prepare-ahead alternative to the traditional Christmas pudding if, like me, you're not a fan.

Before I had kids to cater for, making cakes and desserts was my absolute favourite kind of cooking but, with less free time and more focus on healthy family meals, I've found myself doing less baking in recent years. I'd actually forgotten how easy this recipe is - sure, there are a few stages involved but none of them is especially difficult.  It's a great recipe to try when you have a little time to potter around in the kitchen.

I love the fact these desserts are portion-controlled (a single pudding will easily feed two children or one hungry grown-up) and any leftover puds can be whacked in the freezer for another day. Call me boring, but feeding my freezer makes me very happy!

Sticky Toffee Puddings

Makes 6

150ml boiling water

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

125g dates, chopped

175g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

40g cold unsalted butter

125g caster sugar

1 large egg, beaten

Toffee sauce

140g dark muscovado sugar

85g unsalted butter

4 tbsp (60ml) double cream

vanilla ice cream, custard or cream, to serve

To make the toffee sauce, put the muscovado sugar, butter and cream into a small saucepan over a low-medium heat. Stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved, then gently bring to the boil. Divide the sauce equally between six 150-ml non-metallic pudding basins and transfer to the fridge for at least 1 hour. The sauce needs to set a little before you add the sponge mixture on top.

Meanwhile, pour the boiling water into a heatproof measuring jug and add the bicarbonate of soda. Add the dates and give a good stir, then leave to soak for 1 hour.

To make the sponge, sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixture bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles dry breadcrumbs, then stir in the caster sugar. Drain the excess water from the dates (reserving the liquid), then gently stir the soaked dates and beaten egg into the flour mixture to form a dropping consistency (adding more of the reserved liquid if needed).

Remove the pudding basins from the fridge and divide the sponge mixture equally between them. Cover each basin with a square of aluminium foil, pleating it in the middle to allow for rising. Place in an electric steamer and steam for 40-45 minutes, until the sponge springs back when pressed.  

Tip out the individual puddings onto a plate, scraping any remaining sauce out the basins with a small spatula. Serve with vanilla ice cream (our favourite), custard or cream.

Tips

• This is a great make-ahead recipe - make a few days ahead, then give each pudding (still in its basin) a 45-second to 1-minute (depending on wattage) blast in the microwave just before serving. Remember that heating more than one pudding at a time will take longer.
• Any leftover puddings should be frozen as soon as possible (still in their basins). They can be reheated from frozen - 1-1½ minutes in the microwave should do it, but make sure they're piping hot all the way through before serving.

SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE

I find it hard to believe that I've been writing this blog for over six months and I still haven't shared my recipe for spaghetti bolognese (or "spag bol", as us Brits call it). This was my favourite meal as a child growing up in the 1980s, probably because it was one of the most exotic meals on the menu. Back in those days, spaghetti bolognese night was the only time we ever ate pasta (unless you count canned spaghetti in tomato sauce), which I find rather incredible considering how much of the stuff my own children consume!

This recipe is probably as far from a classic Italian spaghetti bolognese (or ragu) as you can get but it's the only version I can contemplate making because it's the dish of my childhood. It's not my mother's recipe, but it tastes similar (from what I can remember) even though I've made some tweaks to make it more acceptable to my own children. They are not keen on "bits" so I've learnt to grate the carrots rather than dice them, and to use passata in place of canned tomatoes for a smoother sauce - and cleaner plates!

The recipe I've given below serves four adults, but the sauce is ideal for batch cooking so the ingredients can easily be doubled, or even tripled if you have a large enough saucepan. I also use the sauce as a base for lasagne (recipe to follow another time), which is a fabulous dish to serve when you have a crowd to feed.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Serves 4

2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 small carrots, peeled and coarsely grated (100g prepared weight)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
500g lean steak mince (5% fat)
1 reduced-salt beef stock cube
2 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dried mixed herbs (I like to use Italian seasoning)
400g passata
350g dried spaghetti
grated Parmesan cheese, to serve

Heat the oil over a low-medium heat, then add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the carrots and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for a further minute.

Increase the heat and add the mince and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until browned all over. Crumble over the stock cube and stir until thoroughly combined.

Add the tomato purée, Worcestershire sauce, herbs and passata. Season to taste with pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low-medium and simmer for at least 25 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and reduced.

Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, then add the spaghetti and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until tender but firm to the bite. Drain and transfer to dishes along with the bolognese sauce. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Tips

• There's no reason why you couldn't add extra vegetables to the sauce - mushrooms work especially well, but finely diced red peppers or celery, or grated courgette would also make fantastic additions.
• The bolognese sauce freezes successfully and is very useful to have to hand when you need a quick dinner. Freeze in single portions in freezerproof containers or freezer bags. Remember to label and date them - unless you enjoy playing freezer roulette!
• When I'm cooking meals that the children will eat, I only season with pepper as I figure that some of the ingredients I use (for example, the stock cube, Worcestershire sauce and Parmesan) are salty already.

MIXED BEAN CHILLI

Here's a little something for meat-free Monday! Even though we're a family of omnivores, I think it's important to incorporate meat-free food into our weekly menu, so I usually try to make at least one vegetarian dinner a week, and our lunches are often meatless. Actually, come to think of it, this particular recipe would be suitable for a vegan diet too, if you omit the yogurt accompaniment or swap it for a dairy-free alternative.

Sadly (although predictably), this chilli turned out to be a bit on the spicy side for my kids (and a bit on the vegetarian side for my husband, a confirmed meat-eater) but it freezes well so a batch lasts me a while. I like to eat it for lunch as a filling for a baked potato or, if I'm feeling slightly less virtuous, I'll serve with tortilla chips and a good dollop of cooling natural yogurt.

The vegetables and beans in this tasty chilli all count towards your five-a-day (although apparently beans only count as one portion a day, no matter how many you eat) so I reckon you'd be well on your way to this target if you ate this for lunch or dinner.

Mixed Bean Chilli (vegetarian/vegan)

Serves 4

½ tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tsp each ground cumin and paprika
1 tsp mild chilli powder
1 each red, yellow and red pepper, deseeded and diced (360g total prepared weight)
400-g can chopped tomatoes
400-g can mixed beans in mild chilli sauce
400-g can red kidney beans in water, drained and rinsed
200-g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a low-medium heat and cook the onion for 8-10 minutes, or until softened. Add the garlic and red chilli and cook for a further minute.

Add the cumin, paprika and chilli powder and mix until the onion is coated in the spices. Increase the heat to medium-high, then stir in the peppers, tomatoes, beans, chickpeas and tomato purée.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes, until thick and reduced. Stir in the coriander just before serving.

CARROT CAKE OVERNIGHT OATS

I definitely find that eating a nutritious, filling breakfast sets the tone for my whole day's eating. However, with two little girls to get fed, dressed, kitted up and out the door by 8.30am, mornings in our house can be hectic and if I'm running short on time I often find myself skipping breakfast.

That's why I'm loving overnight oats right now. When I get up in the morning, all I have to do is grab the bowl from the fridge, take a spoon out the drawer and dig right in! Sure, they take a bit of pre-preparation but I can honestly say that I put can them together in five minutes flat (usually while I'm cooking our evening meal) and one batch will last me two breakfasts.

Overnight oats need never become boring because it's so easy to change up the ingredients for new and exciting flavour combinations. Carrot might seem like an odd ingredient to use but, trust me, it totally works!

Carrot cake is my absolute favourite cake so these carrot-cake-inspired overnight oats were always going to be a winner for me. They marry together all the delicious flavours of the a traditional carrot cake - the sweet carrot, warming spices, juicy sultanas and hint of zesty orange - and the walnuts add a welcome crunch against the soft oats.

Carrot cake for breakfast? Yes, please!

Carrot Cake Overnight Oats

Serves 2

80g rolled oats
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground mixed spice
40g sultanas
25g walnut pieces
1 carrot, peeled and finely grated (about 80g prepared weight)
finely grated rind of 1 orange
400ml semi-skimmed milk or unsweetened almond milk
1 tbsp maple syrup

Put the oats and spices in a large bowl and mix until the spices are evenly distributed. Add the sultanas, walnuts, grated carrot and orange rind and stir well.

Divide the mixture between two bowls (or jars/leak-proof containers if you intend to transport the overnight oats). Pour half the milk into each bowl - it should just cover the ingredients. Top each with 1/2 tablespoon of maple syrup and stir gently, then cover with clingfilm or a lid and chill in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, simply give the mixture a good stir and dig in.

Tips

• I prefer to use finely grated carrot in this recipe because it softens nicely overnight; coarsely grated carrot retains more of its crunch.
• I've used cow's milk but you can, of course, use non-dairy milk. I've tried this recipe using unsweetened almond milk and it was equally delicious.

BROCCOLI & STILTON SOUP

January is definitely a soup kind of month - there's something immensely comforting about eating a steaming hot bowl of soup when the weather is as chilly as it has been lately. It's also a great portable lunch - I often used to pack up a thermos of soup when I worked in an office. I admit that this recipe is not all that dissimilar to the Cauliflower Cheese Soup I posted a while back (link here) but I hope you'll forgive me because the end result tastes quite different. Although the cheese (and butter) in it might not be so great for the waistline, this soup does at least deliver one of your five-a-day. It's also s(o)uper tasty!

If I'm perfectly honest, my main reason for making this soup was to use up the last of our Christmas cheeseboard. We had a really nice selection of British cheeses this year - creamy Somerset Brie, crumbly Wensleydale with cranberries, tangy vintage Cheddar and strong blue Stilton. I do love a good cheeseboard, but I'm not someone who regularly eats cheese on its own so most of the leftovers were used up in cooking. I just love how oozy and gooey cheese goes when it's melted - yum! There are loads of tasty ways to use Stilton in cooking - my favourites are to add nuggets of it to macaroni cheese and to crumble it over a mushroom or squash risotto.

Broccoli & Stilton soup

Serves 3-4

10g butter
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
150g (peeled weight) potato, peeled and cut into 1-cm cubes
225g broccoli, separated into florets
750ml vegetable stock (I used Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder)
100g Stilton (or other blue cheese), cubed
freshly grated black pepper and nutmeg, to season

Heat the butter and oil in a large saucepan over a low–medium heat. Add the onion to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes, until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for a further minute. Add the potato, increase the heat a little and cook for 5 minutes.

Put the broccoli into the pan and pour over the stock - don't worry if the stock doesn't quite cover the broccoli. Bring to the boil, then partially cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the broccoli is very tender.

Season to taste with plenty of black pepper and nutmeg. Remove the pan from the heat and, using a hand-held stick blender, process the soup in the pan until smooth (or leave the soup a little chunky if you prefer).

Add the Stilton to the soup, return the pan to a low heat and stir until melted. Transfer to bowls and serve.

Tips

• Skip the butter if you're counting the calories - it's there for the flavour but the soup will taste perfectly fine without it.
• I use the broccoli stalk as well as the florets - just remember to peel off and discard the thick outer skin before slicing.
• A stick blender makes the job of blending soup incredibly easy but you can, of course, use a blender or food processor instead. Just allow the soup to cool down a little before processing and work in batches if necessary.
• I like my soup thick, but feel free to add extra stock (or even a little milk) if you prefer a thinner consistency.

NO-BAKE WHITE CHOCOLATE & RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE

I made this cheesecake for one of our Christmas Day desserts this year (to go with the more traditional offerings of sherry trifle and Christmas pud). It proved popular with everyone so I've already decided that cheesecake will be a permanent feature of our Christmas Day menu in future. Yum!

The great thing about this recipe is that it is really easy to adapt. You don't have to use white chocolate - dark chocolate and milk chocolate work just as well - and you can also use different varieties of biscuits in the base or fruits in the topping. I chose raspberries because they're my oldest daughter's favourite fruit yet we don't have them very often, and they have the additional bonus of being a rather festive colour!

Here in the UK, this style of cheesecake with a biscuit base and cream cheese topping is probably more widely known than its baked counterpart. Not all recipes will contain chocolate in the topping but I find it a useful ingredient because it means that the topping will set without using gelatine. Besides, what recipe can't be improved by chocolate?

I haven't even mentioned the best bit yet. This recipe is so easy to make. Standing-on-your-head-with-your-hands-tied-behind-your-back easy! There's no baking involved (just a bit of gentle mixing) and it can be made in advance too. The only thing that could possibly go wrong - and I'm only mentioning this because it has happened to me - is that you could burn the chocolate when you melt it. Consider yourself warned!

No-bake White Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecake

Serves 8-10
Biscuit base
175g digestive biscuits
75g unsalted butter, melted

Topping
225g white chocolate
150g full-fat soft cheese (I use Philadelphia)
20g caster sugar
375ml extra-thick double cream
225g fresh raspberries
white chocolate stars, to decorate (optional)

Line the base of a 20-cm round springform cake tin.

Crush the biscuits to make fine crumbs. Place in a bowl, pour in the melted butter and stir until the biscuit crumbs are thoroughly coated. Tip into the prepared tin and press down using the back of a spoon to form a base with an even thickness. Place in the fridge to chill whilst you are making the topping.

Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Place in the microwave and heat on MEDIUM in bursts of 30 seconds, stirring in between, until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Put the soft cheese in a large bowl, add the sugar and mix thoroughly. Stir in the cooled melted chocolate, then gently fold in the cream. Spoon the cream cheese mixture on top of the biscuit base and smooth the surface. Return the tin to the fridge to chill for 3-4 hours, or overnight.

Run a sharp knife around the inside edge of the tin, then unclip the tin. Transfer the cheesecake to a plate and arrange the raspberries over the top. Sprinkle over the white chocolate stars to decorate, if using.

Tips

• To crush the biscuits into crumbs, I tend to put them in a strong freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin. This is a job you can easily delegate to your kids - just keep an eye on them (mine can become a little over-zealous when it comes to bashing). You can do this using a food processor if you prefer.
• Another way to melt chocolate is to set the bowl over a saucepan of  gently simmering water and stir regularly until melted. Just make sure that the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water and that none of the water gets into the chocolate.
• Whichever method you use for melting the chocolate, it's best to remove the bowl from the heat source before the chocolate is fully melted as the heat of the melted chocolate should be enough to melt any remaining solid bits of chocolate. 
• It is important to use full-fat soft cheese in this recipe because the topping won't set properly if you use a lower-fat version. It'll still taste nice though!  
• I tend to use extra-thick double cream in this recipe for ease of use - you don't have to whip it before using, thus saving a bowl's worth of washing up! You can use regular double cream instead, but you will need to whip it until it forms very soft peaks before folding it very gently into the soft cheese and chocolate mixture.

CHOCOLATE REFRIGERATOR CAKE

Chocolate refrigerator cake (or tiffin, as we know it in our household) - what's not to like? It's dangerous for me to have this in the house because it's so tempting to nip to the fridge for an extra square (it goes SO well with a cup of tea), yet sadly it's hugely calorific. Luckily, this week I had a good excuse to make it because it was my birthday. And we all know that calories consumed on our birthdays don't count, don't we?

Before I had my kids, one of the things I looked forward to doing with them was baking. I have fond memories of baking cakes with my maternal grandmother and I have even more respect for the endless patience she showed my 5-year-old self now that I realise just how stressful baking with small children can be! My solution is to keep it simple by getting my kids to help with recipes that don't require precision or a light touch. Chocolate refrigerator cake is ridiculously simple to make - as the name suggests, it doesn't even need to be baked. The children can weigh the ingredients, crush the biscuits, cut up the fruit with scissors (obviously with assistance), stir everything together and press it into the tin. Oh, and lick the bowl!

The fact that this ended up looking festive (thanks to the white chocolate star sprinkles) was a happy coincidence but, as it happens, it would make a great Christmas gift. It keeps incredibly well and I've actually sent a slab of it through the post as a present on more than one occasion. It would look super pretty cut into small squares, then packed in a clear cellophane bag and tied with ribbon.

Tips

• If you don't have a square tin, you can use a traybake tin - just make sure that it has a similar surface area.
• To stop the golden syrup from sticking to the spoon, place the spoon in a cup of boiling water for a minute or so before using. The syrup will then slide off the spoon very easily.
• I like to include almonds in this recipe, but they're completely optional. Aside from the allergy risk, they can be a choking hazard for small children. If you choose to leave them out, just replace with an equal weight of dried fruit.
• This is an incredibly versatile recipe - you can use whatever biscuits and dried fruit you fancy, as long as you keep the overall weight the same.

Chocolate refrigerator cake

Makes 16 squares
100g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
2 tbsp golden syrup
180g dark chocolate, broken into squares (I used Cadbury's Bourneville)
200g digestive biscuits
50g glacé cherries, quartered
25g dried apricots, chopped
25g raisins
25g almonds, chopped (optional)
220g milk chocolate, broken into squares (I used Cadbury's Dairy Milk)
white chocolate star sprinkles, to decorate

Grease and line a 23-cm square cake tin.

Place the butter, golden syrup, and dark chocolate in a small saucepan over a very low heat (I use my hob's lowest setting) and melt gently, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, place the biscuits in a strong plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. I like to leave some chunks and not completely pulverise the biscuits into crumbs.

Put the crushed biscuits, dried fruit and almonds into a large bowl and pour over the melted chocolate mixture. Stir well until everything is completely coated in chocolate. Tip into the prepared tin and, using the back of a spoon, press down to cover the base completely. Transfer to the fridge and chill for at least 10 minutes.

Melt the milk chocolate, either in the microwave or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Pour the melted chocolate into the tin and spread it out to form a thin layer over the biscuit base. Scatter over the sprinkles.

Return the tin to the fridge and chill until set. Remove the tiffin from the tin and cut into squares using a large heavy-bladed knife.

Images and text © Louisa Smith

CLASSIC MACARONI CHEESE

Macaroni cheese is a staple meal in our household. My eldest daughter ranks it as her joint #1 meal (along with fish and chips) and my husband is a massive fan too since it was his favourite dinner as a child. Therefore, I thought it was about time that I shared my recipe for a classic macaroni cheese. I've called it 'classic' because it is a fairly basic version that could easily be adapted to include other ingredients. I like to mix in cauliflower and broccoli florets, and my family enjoys it with sweetcorn and ham. To be honest, I don't always add the crunchy topping because the kids are often screaming (literally!) for their dinner and don't want to wait the extra five minutes it'll take to sort this out. It is a nice addition on those occasions when mealtimes aren't quite so fraught though.

I feel I should apologize for posting yet another pasta recipe but the truth is that my family eats a LOT of pasta. I have to make a conscious effort to limit pasta to just three dinners a week, such is my small girls' appetite for the stuff! I am yet to meet a child that doesn't like pasta (although I'm certain they must exist) but when I was growing up in the 1980s we only ever had pasta as spaghetti Bolognese and canned spaghetti in tomato sauce. I often wonder how my mother coped without this fantastic fallback ingredient, which is so cheap, easy to store, quick to cook, and versatile.

For ages, I didn't think I could make cheese sauce – I remember using cheese sauce granules that you mixed with boiling water when I was a student. It was pretty artificial-tasting! I finally got the hang of making cheese sauce when I was cooking baby purées for my oldest child – she developed a taste for a particular purée that was made from cheese sauce mixed with mashed cod and vegetables, which I ended up making countless times. I discovered that warming up the milk before adding it to the butter and flour mixture made the process a lot easier, not to mention quicker, and I've never looked back!

Classic macaroni cheese

Serves 2 adults and 2 children (generously)
300g dried macaroni

Cheese sauce
30g butter
30g plain flour
300ml full-fat milk
good pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
90g vegetarian extra-mature Cheddar cheese, grated

Crunchy topping
20g natural dried breadcrumbs (I like to use panko)
30g vegetarian extra-mature Cheddar cheese, grated

Bring a medium-sized saucepan of water to the boil. Add the macaroni, bring back to the boil and simmer for 10–12 minutes (I find that macaroni takes longer to cook than other pasta shapes), until tender but firm to the bite.

Make the cheese sauce while the macaroni is cooking. Put the butter in a small saucepan and melt over a low–medium heat. Pour the milk into a jug and microwave for 2 minutes to warm through. Once the butter is bubbling, add the flour, stir to make a paste and allow to bubble for 1 minute. Start adding the warmed milk to the butter and flour mixture, a little at a time, stirring vigorously until each addition has been incorporated. To start with, the mixture will form into a lump but just keep stirring frequently and once you've added enough milk it will transform into a smooth sauce. When you have added all the milk, increase the heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring frequently, for a further 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the nutmeg and cheese, then stir until the cheese has melted and the sauce is smooth.

Meanwhile, preheat the grill to medium.

Drain the macaroni and tip it into the saucepan containing the cheese sauce. Stir until the pasta is thoroughly coated in the sauce. Transfer to a 1.5-litre baking dish.

Mix together the breadcrumbs and the remaining cheese, then scatter over the macaroni and cheese sauce. Place under the preheated grill and cook for 5 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown. Serve with freshly cooked vegetables (frozen sweetcorn and peas are our favourites) on the side.