My original plan was to make jam roly poly, but this is traditionally suet based and I don’t eat suet. It’s also traditionally steamed in a large pan for up to two hours, and I figured most modern households probably wouldn’t have a big enough pan plus the assorted steaming cloths and other related paraphernalia required. The steaming time is on top of the other prep time and time is at a premium in most households, plus there’s the gas/electricity bill to think of. The final kicker was the waste equation: will kids seriously eat this stuff? If not, however cheap the ingredients, it’s not a good use of funds.

In the end I decided to adapt a budget friendly recipe that was still roll-y and also easier on the fuel costs, suet-free, more acceptable to a wider range of palates, and could be made without fancy equipment. Before I got started, I did a taste test of the M Savers ingredients that Morrisons sent over. I tried:

• Strawberry jam, 35p: this was a standard fruit jam made with 35g of fruit per 100g. It’s smooth, which makes it good for cake fillings, and the natural taste of the strawberries comes through strongly. Would I buy it again? Probably not, as it’s made with glucose-fructose syrup.
• UHT skimmed milk, 49p: this did not have the usual horrible strong UHT taste, and I was very impressed indeed. Would I buy it again? Definitely.
• Tinned custard, 18p: this is the sort of custard that can be made up from custard powder, but with the convenience of being ready made. The flavour seems to have a fair bit of caramel in it, and it made me think of crème brulee. I like crème brulee, so I’d perhaps buy it again.
• Self-raising flour, 52p: This performed as well as any standard SR flour, but at a fraction of the cost. I’d definitely stock up on this product.

On to the recipe, which is a roulade…

 Ingredients

• 3 medium free range eggs
• 85g caster sugar, plus extra spoonful for rolling
• 2 drops vanilla extract (optional)
• 85g self-raising flour, well sifted
• 100g strawberry jam
• 425g canned peaches in juice, well drained & chopped into tiny pieces
• Custard to serve (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and line a standard sized baking tray with non-stick baking parchment.

2. Whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla until very light and fluffy. An electric whisk saves time, but a hand held one is fine too.

3. Fold in the flour thoroughly using a metal spoon so you don’t knock too much of the air out, then pour onto the baking tray, smoothing the mixture evenly into the corners.

4. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, until light golden in colour and springy to the touch, then allow to cool slightly for 2 or 3 minutes.

5. Prepare a second piece of baking parchment by laying it flat on a work surface and sprinkling with a little caster sugar (for a more fancy version use a tiny bit of icing sugar instead).

6. Gently remove the cake from the baking tray, and place upside down onto the sugared parchment. Carefully remove the first piece of paper from the underside of the cake and discard it.

7. Roll the warm cake up into a roll (short side to short side) inside the second piece of parchment, making sure the first edge of the roll is tightly curled under when you start rolling. Leave to cool completely.

8. Once cooled, unroll the cake and spread evenly and gently with strawberry jam. Top with small pieces of chopped peach, taking care to leave some space free at the end of the roll so it seals properly.

9. Roll the filled cake back up, placing the end seam underneath it to keep it closed. Warm gently in a low oven and serve with custard. Makes 8 to 10 slices.

This recipe uses about 18p of ingredients per serving, including custard, if you use the msavers products. It’s quite warming and filling so it’s a nice treat during cold weather, and it’s also a sneaky way to get certain people to eat more fruit.

If you’ve made a baked main course, you can warm this dessert using the residual heat of the oven instead of switching it on again. If peaches aren’t popular in your household you can also try thinly sliced fresh banana. In the summer this roulade can also be served cold, with a flavoured yoghurt or a little whipped cream spread over the top of the fruit before the cake is rolled up.

Full disclosure: ingredients and baking tools supplied by Morrisons. No money has changed hands, and this is not a sponsored post. All opinions, observations and comments are my own. Recipe idea my own.

This is a dessert I make on wintry days when I’m not using the main oven, as it saves on electricity. You will need a microwave-safe glass casserole dish to make this recipe, preferably one with a lid.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 2 dessert apples
• 2 dessert spoonfuls of raisins
• 1 heaped teaspoon of flaked almonds
• 1 heaped teaspoon of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 15g butter

1. Mix the sugar, cinnamon, almonds and raisins together.

2.  Cut a wide cone shape out of the top of each apple, then remove as much of the core as you can without going through the bottom of the apple (the skin needs to stay intact in this area or the apples will go soggy). Prick a few tiny holes in the skin of the upper half of each apple, so it doesn’t split when it’s cooking in the microwave.

3. Put a quarter of the butter into the cavity in each apple, then press in as much of the fruit and nut mixture as you can. Put the remaining butter on top, then sprinkle with any leftover sugar.

4. Place in glass baking dish, and add 2cm depth of boiling water from a kettle around the outside of the fruit without splashing the filling in the middle. Put the lid on the dish.

5. Microwave on full power for 1 minute, then carefully check to see whether the apples are cooked by slightly squeezing one of them. If it needs more cooking, replace the lid and cook on full power for another 30 seconds and check again. You might need to cook for a further 30 seconds again after this, but most apples will be cooked in about 2 minutes or so.

6. Take apples out of the water with a slotted spoon, and move to serving bowls. If you like, you can add cream, custard or ice cream, but they’re quite nice served plain too.

How do you like them apples?

Ingredients

• 300g raisins & sultanas (mixed)
• 200g glacé cherries
• 1/2 tin of crushed pineapple (or 1 small can)
• 150g dark brown sugar
• 200g butter/margarine
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 200g self-raising flour

1. Bring the raisins, sultanas, cherries, pineapple, sugar and butter to the boil in a large pan and simmer slowly for about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

2. Add the eggs, then sift in the flour. Mix well.

3. Line a square or round deep 8″ cake tin with greaseproof paper. Place mixture in the tin and bake at 160 degrees C for approx 1.5 – 2 hours. Cake is cooked when a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean and cake is firm to the touch.

4. Decorate with marzipan and icing for a traditional feel, or glaze with melted marmalade and add toasted whole almonds to the top for a nutty twist.

Happy baking!

Ingredients

• 200g pot of glace cherries (buy them already halved if you can)
• 150g unsalted butter, softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs, lightly beaten
• 30ml milk
• 200g self raising flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• small pinch of salt
• 75g dessicated coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (Gas 4), and line a loaf tin with baking parchment.

2. Rinse the syrup off the glace cherries, and put them on a paper towel to dry off a little.

3. Cream together the butter and sugar, then slowly add the eggs one at a time while mixing thoroughly. After this, stir in the milk.

4. Sift in the flour, cinnamon and salt, with the cherry halves in the seive (this coats them in flour so they won’t sink to the bottom of the cake as it cooks). Then fold in the flour.

5. Fold in the coconut, then fold in the cherries.

6. Bake for about an hour, but check it after 45 minutes of cooking. It’s cooked when a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

If you’d like to fancy it up a bit you can add some water icing after it’s cooled, plus a few reserved cherry halves for decoration. Or go the whole hog and spread the top with chocolate icing or Nutella and sprinkle with dessicated coconut.

Are you going to give this one a go? Let us know how you get on.

It’s quite simply a delicious rich, creamy bar of chocolate that has a fresh hint of tangerine oil blended into it. Perfect for sharing while cosied up with someone nice in front of a DVD on a chilly winter evening.

I don’t go a whole bundle on orange flavoured chocs usually, but for some reason this tangerine take on things really hits the spot. Try it for yourself if you don’t believe me.

The company that makes these tasty treats uses Fairtrade chocolate, has Soil Association organic accreditation, and has won a bunch of ethical awards. Even the pretty shiny silver inner wrapper is compostable.

The cheapest I’ve found this tangerine chocolate bar for is £1.99 for 85g at Holland and Barrett. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m back off there to stock up on a few more.

Everyone has their own favourite version, and here’s my personal take on it. This one is a doddle to make, it’s very tasty and it’s great if you’re wanting to use up a few narnas that are far past their best.

Ingredients:

• 100g butter, softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice
• 4 medium size bananas, mashed with a fork
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 125g seedless raisins
• 75g candied mixed citrus peel (from the bakery aisle)
• 225g self-raising flour, sifted

1. Start by preheating your oven to 180C or Gas Mark 4. If you have an electric fan oven, only preheat to 170C. Prepare a 1kg (2lb) loaf tin by lightly greasing it and lining with baking parchment.

2. Cream together the sugar, butter and allspice.

3. Chuck in all the other ingredients and give it a darned good stir until it’s all combined.

4. Pour the mixture into your prepared loaf tin, and smooth the top to make it level.

5. Cook for around 1 hour to 1 & 1/2 hours, until golden on top. The cake is cooked if a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. If you’re worried about the top burning before the middle is cooked, pop some kitchen foil over the top of the cake towards the end of baking.

6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove from tin and allow to finish cooling on a wire rack.

7. Slice, scoff. The end.

Fancy a bit of this one? Or do you have your own recipe?

The first one is Auberge du Chocolat: The secrets of fine chocolate making, by Anne Scott. This book really is something else, and it would make a perfect Christmas gift for a foodie friend, partner or relative.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to melt, temper and work with chocolate, this book shows you how. It will also give you the confidence to create all the classic fillings, and work with interesting new flavour combinations. The author has a real can-do approach, so after reading you’re left feeling like you could just get on with it and make some really special treats, either for your own consumption or giving as quality gifts.

There are separate sections on decorating and presenting your chocolates, dairy-free chocolates, and making choc treats with kids. If you follow the instructions you should definitely be able to create professional looking gourmet chocolates at home after reading, if you just take your time and don’t rush. Photographs are plentiful, and mouth-wateringly attractive.

Auberge du Chocolat by Anne Scott is published by New Holland and has an RRP of £16.99. It’s currently on offer at Amazon for £8.99, with free super saver delivery.

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Our second book is Natural Soap, by Melinda Cross. It focuses on traditional soapmaking techniques and has a strong emphasis on natural ingredients. The author began making soap as a hobby, and then became a professional supplier of natural soaps and toiletries.

It begins with a through explanation of the basics of natural soapmaking, and describes the properties of all the ingredients that can be used to make it. You won’t find any bright colours, artificial perfumes, or melt and pour in here, but that’s really all part of the charm – and the products look luxurious. The largest part of the book is given over to a whole range of different soapmaking projects, including bar soaps, liquid soaps, and scrub soaps, each with presentation and wrapping tips.

As an added bonus there are also recipes for shampoos, shaving soap, bath melts, and an impressive range of creams and lotions at the back of the book. To top it all off, there’s a section about turning your hobby into a small business – this is concise and direct, and gives you a realistic idea of what is necessary if you want to be successful.

Natural Soap by Melinda Coss has an RRP of £8.99. At the time of writing this review it’s available on Amazon for £5.03, and qualifies for free super saver delivery.

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COMPETITION TIME: If you would like to win a hardback copy of Auberge du Chocolat, just leave a ‘yes please!’ message in the comments section below. We’ll pick a winner at random from all the comments at lunch time next Friday.

Good luck everyone!

T&Cs: UK entrants only please, winner picked using random.org. No cash alternative. Only one entry per person please – multiple entries will be disqualified. Competition closes at noon on Friday 18 November 2011.

For some reason there weren’t many sloes in our neighbourhood this year, possibly due to the strange weather we’ve had over the last few months. If you’re thinking about making your own sloe gin for the first time all you need to do is find a blackthorn bush with some nice ripe little sloes on it in October or November. There’s a handy guide to identification over at the Sloe Biz site so you know what you’re looking for.

Once you’ve sloe’d yourself up, give them a good wash and remove any stray leaves or stalks. You then need to break their skins down a little and there are two options. The first, traditional, way is to use a sterilised needle to prick each sloe several times. The other, easier, way is to freeze them for 48 hours instead. Entirely up to you.

The simplest recipe I have is this one:

• 700ml (70CL) bottle of any London Dry gin
• 320g prepared sloes
• 150g caster sugar

You can leave out up to half of the sugar if you’d prefer a less sweet drink, but the sugar does help the sloe juice to come out of the fruit more easily. Also, you really shouldn’t buy a fancy expensive gin for this, as you’ll lose any delicate flavouring as the sloes take over the bottle. This year I used Waitrose’s economy gin, which is less than £10 a bottle and tastes perfectly fine.

To vary the flavour you can add a few drops of almond essence, or replace some of the sugar with smashed up barley sugar sweets. You can also make spiced sloe gin by adding a quarter of a cinnamon stick, a clove or two and a tiny strip of orange peel.

The method is very simple. Most people say you should use a very large airtight jar or demijohn, but if you don’t have either of these then all you need is the original bottle and a large spotlessly clean jam jar. Here goes:

1. Pour the gin into a jug and cover it.

2. Put the sloes into the empty bottle, where they will take up half to one third of the bottle.

3. Add the sugar to the sloes, giving the bottle a gentle shake, and leave it for a few minutes.

4. Tip up to a third of the fruit and sugar mixture into the clean jam jar.

5. Pour the gin back over the fruit in the bottle and the jam jar. Cap both tightly and give each a good shake to help the sugar dissolve.

6. Store in a cupboard or at least out of direct sunlight, and leave the sloes in the gin for at least eight weeks. Some people even leave the fruit in for twelve months, but there’s a risk of the flavour spoiling. Shake the bottles every day for the first couple of weeks, then one or twice a week for the remaining time.

7. Strain out the fruit using a muslin cloth and return the gin to its original cleaned bottle. Taste a little of the drink to see if it tastes nice and mellow yet. You can then leave the contents to mature in the bottle for a few more weeks or months before drinking – although it never lasts that long in my house.

Do you make your own sloe gin? Please add your own tips and recipes if you like. If not, are you thinking about it this year?

My mid-morning coffee on a day like today is usually taken in a a nice nearby cafe where I can also get some work done on my netbook. It’s a good change of scenery and I know the staff so it’s nice and sociable too. This time I had a proper coffee at home made in a cafetiere, and it tasted pretty good. However I did end up feeling kind of cooped up in the office.

I decided to go for a very long walk at lunch time, as the weather was beautiful and because I thought I’d try my hand at foraging. After over an hour of searching around a local park and several nearby streets it was time to admit defeat. I was looking for blackberries but for some reason the local plants had produced microscopic or red mouldering fruit. Probably due to the strange weather we’ve had throughout the summer.

Anyway, I only found about ten edible berries in total, so I was a bit naughty on the way home and scrumped one of the many ripe passion fruits hanging down into the street from a neighbour’s plant. The plant is a Passiflora caerulea, so the fruits are edible and safe – they aren’t nearly as fragrant and delicious as the proper purple-skinned ones but the red caerulea contents were nice enough. In total I think this made up one of my five a day.

Got home and had a quick lunch of a peanut butter sandwich and an apple, with a glass of orange juice. Then it was back to work time, keeping myself busy for the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately the neighbours on one side were doing their usual half-term trick of keeping their kids stuck in their living room for the whole day, so there was an awful lot of screaming, fighting and general noise. I put up with it today, but tomorrow I’ll have to go out. This might wreck the budget, but I can’t not work…

Was supposed to go out tonight as I’d been offered free tickets for a show, but I feel a bit like I’m coming down with something buggy so I’m going to have an early night instead. Then, possibly stupidly, I did 200 sit-ups while the evening meal was cooking. Might regret that tomorrow.

Dinner was quick and easy baked potatoes with the last of the black beans from yesterday and some grated cheddar on top. I made a side salad too with tinned sweetcorn, half a chopped red pepper that was lurking in the bottom of the salad crisper, a big handful of parsley from the windowsill and some home made dressing. It was lovely comfort food, and made me wonder why I don’t have this sort of thing more often. Think that’s five a day today as well – in your face, scurvy.

Haven’t done any thrifty chores today, so will have to remedy that tomorrow. Listened to lots of excellent music for John Peel Day though, read bits of two business books, and haven’t watched any rubbish telly. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Total spent today: £0.00

Total spent this week: £1.03

How’s your Tenner Week shaping up?

Anyway, here’s what’s waiting for you at the market this month. Get stuck in.

Fruit: new season apples, blackberries, crab apples, damsons, elderberries, figs, hazelnuts, juniper berries, Kentish cobnuts, pears, plums, quinces, raspberries, sloes, sweet chestnuts, walnuts.

Vegetables: asian greens, autumn and red cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and tops, cardoons, cauliflower at its peak, celeriac, celery, chicory, courgettes finishing, fennel, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, kohlrabi, last of the lettuce, leeks, peppers, marrow, mushrooms (chanterelles, ceps, hedgehog fungus, horn of plenty), parsnips, pumpkins and squashes, radishes, rocket, salsify and scorzonera, spinach, spring onions, swedes, sweetcorn, turnips, watercress.

Fish and shellfish: brill, brown hen crab, brown shrimp, cod, Dover sole, eels, lobster, mackerel, mussels, native and rock oysters, prawns, scallops, sea bass, sprats, squid, spider crab, squid, turbot, wild salmon.

Meat, poultry and game: Autumn lamb, grouse, wild duck, partridge, pheasant, woodcock.

Cheeses: Caerphilly. Gruyere, Saint-Nectaire and all the other main French hard cheeses.

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So, what are you going to cook?