Tried and tested lockdown recipes!
Ben's banana, bread and custard pud - serves 4
You will need bread, 2 small bananas/1 large banana, jam, a carton/tin of ready to serve custard and brown sugar for this dish - leftover bread and bananas can be used, although I prefer using fresh!
Spread jam of your choice on 4 slices of bread and then cut into quarters, or halves, depending on the depth of the ovenproof dish you are using.
Layer the bread in your ovenproof dish, alternating with slices of banana, making sure the bread slices are pointing upwards.
Pour over the custard and cook in a preheated oven at 170°C, or fan oven
160°C / Gas Mark 3 for about 20-25 minutes.
Once cooked, remove from the oven and sprinkle with brown sugar and grill for a further 2 minutes until golden brown. It can be eaten hot or cold.
Serve and enjoy!
Margaret's Weetabix Loaf
You will need 2 Weetabix, 8ozs Demerara sugar, 8ozs sultanas,
1/2 pt of milk, an egg and 7ozs of self raising flour.
Soak the Weetabix, Demerara sugar, sultanas and milk in a bowl overnight.
Add the beaten egg and flour to the bowl and mix well.
Place the mixture in a loaf tin and cook in a preheated oven
at 170°C, or fan oven 160°C / Gas Mark 3 for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Margaret's Easy Pavlova
You will need the whites of 2 eggs, 1 cup caster sugar, 1tsp white vinegar, 2tsp cornflour and 4 tbsps really boiling water.
Put all ingredients in a bowl together, boiling water last.
Whisk with an electric hand held whisk for 15 mins, without stopping until you produce a thick mousse.
Spread on a 9in circle of non stick baking paper and bake on a low oven shelf at 180°C for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 140°C for 1 hour.
Leave to cool, decorate with whipped cream & fruit from the garden (or the supermarket if not in season!!).
Margaret's Cream of tomato soup - this is a good way of using a glut of tomatoes!
You will need 1/2tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp smoked paprika, 1 chopped onion, 1000g of roughly chopped tomatoes, 500ml vegetable stock, 300ml skimmed milk and 150g of soft cheese.
Heat the oil in large saucepan and fry the chopped onion for 3-4 minutes.
Add the paprika and then the chopped tomatoes, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the stock, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Stir in the milk and soft cheese then purée with a handheld stick blender until smooth.
Serve with crusty bread.
Jayne's Banana cake from an April Carter recipe published on the Jamie Oliver website - serves 8-10 people.
For the cake you will need 3 ripe bananas, 2 large eggs, 60ml natural yoghurt, 150g unsalted butter, 225g plain flour, 1tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp sea salt, 150g soft light brown sugar and 1tsp vanilla extract.
For the icing and decoration you will need 100g unsalted softened butter, 175g icing sugar, 60g chilled cream cheese and ½ tsp ground cinnamon - 1 banana as optional.
Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Grease and line a 20cm round deep cake tin. Melt the butter over a low heat.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and ¼ tsp of sea salt. Peel and mash the bananas in a separate bowl with the back of a fork, then whisk in the melted butter, sugar, eggs, yoghurt and vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and whisk until just combined.
Spoon into the cake tin and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in its tin for 10 minutes, before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
While the cake is cooling, make the icing. Using an electric mixer beat the butter, sugar and cinnamon until pale and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and beat until just combined. Spread onto the top of the cooled cake and top with slices of banana before serving, if you like.
Jayne's classic white lockdown loaf from a Phil Vickery recipe published on the This Morning website.
You will need 600g white flour, 1 level tsp salt, 2 tbsp any oil,
1 x 7g sachet dried yeast and approximately 300ml warm water.
Place the flour, salt and oil into a mixer and bring together. Add the yeast and enough warm water to form a soft dough, mix well until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl and the gluten is now forming a stretchy dough.
Tip onto a floured surface and knead well for 5 minutes. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with cling film and leave to double in size.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/ Gas Mark 7.
Once doubled in size, remove the cling film and tip onto the floured surface again and gently knead for a few seconds, just to bring together. Form into a sausage shape roughly the length of a 2lb loaf tin, then fold the edges under. Pop into the 2lb loaf tin and press into the sides and bottom.
Recover with cling film and leave again to rise until just under double in size. Dust the risen loaf with a little flour. Make 3 long, diagonal slashes across the loaf and pop into the oven. Bake until well risen and browned, roughly 30 minutes.
Once cooked remove from the tin and leave to cool completely before trying to slice.