If you're feeling adventurous …

... or want something different

Design your own Rocky Road

Traditionally Rocky Road is made using Brazil nuts,

glacé cherries and marshmallow.

Rules are meant to be broken - take a look at the

list below and if you'd like to design your own

Rocky Road swap any or all of the three

ingredients in the original recipe for the

same weight

(or may be four if you want to stay true

to Rocky Road and include the mini marshmallows)

Cashew

Peanut

Pistachio

Pecan

Hazelnut

Glacé cherry

Dried sour cherries

Cranberry

Apricot

Banana chips

Dried Pineapple chips

Sultanas

Nougat

Turkish Delight

Fudge

Toblerone

Praline

Salted Caramel

Mini Marshmallow

Popping Candy

My latest suggestions are :

Pecans with dark cherries and vanilla fudge

Pistachios, apricots and Turkish Delight

Spoilt for choice!

Next up … chocolate fudge

The slaw – but not just any old slaw!

OR you could make a special coleslaw – yum!

Coronation Slaw

110g white cabbage, finely sliced – approximately

one third of a medium size cabbage

1 carrot – peeled and sliced with a

julienne peeler

1 spring onion – 15g finely sliced

salt and black pepper

30g ready to eat apricots, finely diced

30g sultanas soaked in mango and apple juice

50g mayo

50g sour cream

1 tsp mild curry powder

squirt of lime juice

1 tbsp mango chutney

The recipe given will give you a box of slaw – measuring approximately 11cms x 6.5cms x 5cms. One box lasted me a week, a spoonful here and a spoonful there.

You'd be surprised how well it fits as a side to the fishcakes!

Store cupboard sweet – a photo and hints and tips

Here is the result :

You have options – you can choose to make one or all of the elements or you can opt for shop-bought!

Taking the recipe in order :

You have chapter and verse on meringue kisses – posted on 29^th July

You have the vanilla ice cream recipe posted on 22^nd July

You have both versions of the Sticky Toffee Sauce – the original posted with the ice cream on 22^nd July and the plant recipe “Plant your strawberries” posted on 5^th August.

The choice is yours!

Next … a variation on the theme

A store cupboard sweet

… and “store cupboard” includes your freezer too!

A Hodgepodge ...

… aka a mess. I just love to be able to pull ingredients for a speedy sweet straight from the store cupboard/pantry and freezer and serve a dessert worthy of the extra calories! I like to be prepared - what follows is a series of recipe ideas and variations - the components of which can either be made ahead and frozen or can be part of your store cupboard/pantry.

Hazelnut Hodgepodge

Serves 1

3 meringue kisses, crushed

1 scoop of vanilla ice cream

A sprinkle of toasted, chopped hazelnuts – 25g approx

30g frozen raspberries – defrosted – do not sweeten and keep the juices

1 tbsp sticky toffee sauce – loosen in microwave for

15 secs on medium

Assembly

A glass bowl or sundae dish makes this

dessert stand out, layer as follows :

crushed kisses

scoop of ice cream

sprinkle of hazelnuts

raspberries but reserve the juices

drizzle of sticky toffee sauce

drizzle of raspberry juices

Add a final sprinkle of hazelnuts

Coming up – a photo and hints and tips …

In the face of adversity … crack on

I must have known about the snow – only because the dessert I had planned was similar to the Christmas Sundae and only one element needs to be prepped!

This dessert is a variation on a theme … but this time it's lemon.

You'll need :

Spring Sundae

Lemon drizzle cake or Madeira will do just as well

Lemon syrup – see recipe below

Sicilian Lemon Curd – courtesy of M&S

Amaretti biscuits crushed – roughly 25g per person

Swedish Glacé ice cream

Limoncello Liqueur – optional

You can make your own cake if you prefer – you're going to soak it in lemon syrup.

Using the same sundae dish as for the Christmas Sundae, begin to build. One standard slice of cake per person, cut into small pieces, drizzle lemon syrup over the cake then add a dessert spoon of lemon curd in the centre, add one scoop of ice cream and top it with the crushed Amaretti biscuits.

If you want an adult version, pour a shot of Limoncello over the ice cream, before sprinkling the Amaretti biscuits.

Here's the syrup recipe :

Lemon syrup

200g icing sugar, sifted

8 tblsp lemon juice

To make the syrup place the lemon juice and icing sugar into a small saucepan and heat gently so that the sugar dissolves. Set aside to cool.

This will give you 300ml approx of syrup.

Sifting the sugar ensures it dissolves evenly, no lumps required!

This is the most versatile syrup, here's a few extra ideas :

A Soft drink, a drop of syrup in a tall glass, top with chilled soda water and just swizzle.

Spiked – add a generous drop of Limoncello liqueur.

Sparkling and special – for that celebration - add a drop in a Champagne flute or a Martini glass, top with Prosecco, swizzle and enjoy.

I can make it ahead and freeze it – if you'll pardon the pun!

Will they make it … Friday morning and many of the roads are blocked in the Peak District – after a blizzard to begin our day in Northamptonshire it's clearing.

It's lunchtime and in what seems like an interminable length of time and toing and froing I'm delighted to report that Whizzer and Brian are on their way, ETA 4.30pm, via the M6.

Happy Spring time!

Next up the Three cheese and potato tartlet recipe …

Editor's January Pick #3 - Let's Make Afters

Editor's note: Some of us start January with a fresh outlook on being healthy, but for the rest of us - back to business. This post was written with cooking with kiddies in mind, but even with my "wing and a prayer" approach, I think I could give it a go! After a recent disappointing experience with store-bought cinnamon rolls I believe this recipe is aching for a road test to prove that if you want something doing right, do it yourself!

Lets make afters

My first “afters” offering in “get them hooked on cooking” is Pinwheels. Once again minimum work in the way of prep for the supervisor, only a few minutes and the night before works well for me! No stress and maximum fun for the budding chefs.

Pinwheels

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed in fridge (375g)

15g butter, melted

50g dark chocolate drops (or finely chopped)

25g ground almonds

25g dried cherries, finely chopped

25g craisins, finely chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp milk

Preheat your oven 180c fan/200c/Gas 6. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper or similar. Unroll the pastry sheet and lay with the short sides left and right, you are going to roll to form a log.

Brush the surface of the pastry and melted butter then scatter the chocolate and ground almonds leaving a border at the top end of the pastry to enable you to “glue” the log when rolled. Then scatter the cherries and craisins over the chocolate and almonds. Carefully roll up from one of the shortest sides as tightly as you can forming a log.

Using a sharp knife, cut the log into 12 even slices. Place on the baking tray and brush with the remaining butter, then the beaten egg mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden.

Fondant Glaze

75g icing sugar

2-3 tsps boiling water

Pour the boiling water slowly over the icing sugar in a small bowl while stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon. Pour in only enough water to make a creamy mixture that has the consistency of pancake batter. Cool. You need to make sure the mixture isn't too stiff, you need to be able to drizzle the glaze over your pastries.

Here's some helpful illustrations and the end result.

Take a tip or three :

Use the greaseproof wrapping with the pastry sheet as a base to roll the pinwheels.

Place a damp j cloth on your worktop and then the sheet on top – it will avoid it ending up on the floor!

When you get to the stage of slicing into 12 portions mark the roll in the middle, and then each half again (i.e. quarters) and then divide each quarter into 3 – there's a fighting chance of reasonably even pinwheels.

I warn you – these will vanish at the speed of light – it's a good idea to have two batches 1 x 2 kids.

Design your own!

 This idea morphed when I discovered that my Nephew Lucas (and Editor in Chief and IT Adviser) declined the original version because he hates cherries! I like a challenge, so the “design your own” came to pass :

Design your own Rocky Road

Traditionally Rocky Road is made using Brazil nuts,

glacé cherries and marshmallow.

Rules are meant to be broken - take a look at the

list below and if you'd like to design your own

Rocky Road swap any or all of the three

ingredients in the original recipe for the

same weight

(or may be four if you want to stay true

to Rocky Road and include the mini marshmallows)

Cashew

Peanut

Pistachio

Pecan

Hazelnut

Glacé cherry

Dried sour cherries

Cranberry

Apricot

Banana chips

Pineapple

Sultanas

Nougat

Turkish Delight

Fudge

Toblerone

Praline

Salted Caramel

Mini Marshmallow

Popping Candy

My latest versions are :

Pecans with dark cherries and vanilla fudge

Pistachios, apricots and Turkish Delight

Cheese scones on their way!