The loaf didn’t rise as much as I expected (or hoped) so it had quite a dense (although rich and buttery) texture. Also, the chocolate chips all snuck to the bottom, which isn’t a bad thing really. The buttermilk gives a really nice tang to it though, and the chocolate chips give an extra little kick.

Ingredients (makes 1 loaf):

• 120 g unsalted butter
• 330 g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200 g plain flour
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• ½ tsp salt
• 120 ml buttermilk
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• 100 g dark chocolate chips (optional)

Sieve together the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. In a separate mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. gradually mix the flour mixture and buttermilk into the butter/sugar. The Hummingbird Bakery book recommends adding some of the flour, and some of the buttermilk, mixing and then adding a bit more of each, until all is combined.

Mix in the vanilla and any other additions like chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into a greased loaf tin and bake for 35–40 minutes at 170°C.

After a couple of experiments, I came up with this recipe. I recreated the sandwich and tried them side by side. It’s pretty damn close to the real thing. I used Wensleydale for authenticity, but this sweet chutney would go well with any salty and/or creamy cheese like feta, cheddar or goat’s cheese.

Also, despite the fact that it’s no longer a necessity in the world we live in, I love the concept of preserving food at the end of its season to last through the bleaker months. This is a great way to preserve a surplus of carrots.

Ingredients (makes 2 small jars):

• 10 carrots (approx. 700 g)
• 110 g (½ cup) caster sugar
• 300 ml (1 ¼ cups) white wine vinegar

Grate the carrots.

Heat the grated carrots in a large pan over a low heat. You could use some oil, but oil isn’t listed as an ingredient in the M&S sandwich, and I found that with a decent non-stick pan, you don’t need it. Sweat the carrots until they are soft.

Add the sugar to the carrots and cook over a medium heat to let the sugar caramelise. Pour in the white wine vinegar and bring it to the boil, stirring. Continue to cook until the liquid has evaporated and the remaining chutney is a thicker consistency.

While the chutney is still hot, ladle it into hot, sterilised jars. The chutney should keep for several months.

Now, as for the sandwich… here is the M&S original:

Since I made the chutney, they have changed the packaging and no longer describe the chutney as “caramelised” for some reason. They also list onions as an ingredient, which I’m pretty sure wasn’t the case before. Ah well – they still taste very similar! Here is my recreation (admittedly, not as neat as the packaged one!) Wensleydale cheese, caramelised carrot chutney, a smear of Greek yoghurt, and lettuce.

One of my earliest childhood foody memories is visiting my grandmother (who had spent time as a 1950s American housewife) and tucking into her walnut and chocolate chip cookies. They weren’t like anything else I’d tried at the time.

Now, the big, blousy, entirely soft and chewy cookie is king, and they are ubiquitous in supermarkets and coffee shops. It’s actually much harder to find crunchy cookies. Burton’s Maryland Cookies are the only ones that spring to mind.

Of course, the Hummingbird Bakery in London has American baking as its raison d’être, so it’s no surprise that these chocolate chip cookies from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook are large, soft and chewy. Very tasty they are too, although I think I’d prefer a little more crunch, at least round the edges. The hardest part of this recipe is not eating all the cookie dough before you bake it. I now understand the parts of those American films and sitcoms where characters compulsively eat cookie dough from the packet.

Ingredients (makes 24):

• 225 g (8 oz)  unsalted butter
• 350 g (12.3 oz) soft light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 400 g (14 oz) plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 225 g (8 oz) dark chocolate, chopped

The original recipe uses metric units; conversions are approximate

Cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the eggs one at a time, and mix well. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Fold in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Stir in the chocolate chunks and chill the cookie dough in the fridge. Try not to eat it.

Spoon balls of the cookie dough onto prepared baking trays. Bake at 170 C (325 F, Gas Mark 3) for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

They’re kind of delicious. Not too much sugar, so they’re not overly sweet, and the marmalade adds a lovely rich orange flavour. Now, I’m not saying that Paddington Bear would forgo his marmalade sandwiches for these, but he’d definitely have one or two for afters.

Ingredients (makes 12 scones):

• 350 g (13 oz; 3 cups) self-raising flour
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• pinch of salt
• 40 g (1 ½ oz; 7 tsp) caster sugar
• zest of 1 orange
• 100 g (3 ½ oz; 7 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
• 50 g (1 ¾ oz) orange marmalade (a rich, thick-cut one if possible)
• 150 ml (5 fl oz) milk (you might not need it all)

Grease two baking tins. Stir together the flour, sugar, cream of tartar, orange zest and salt. Gently rub the butter into the dry ingredients, taking care not to overwork it too much.

Add the marmalade and the milk, a little at a time. Stir it in with a knife, until it comes together to form a dough. You may not need all the milk for this.

Roll the dough out (or pat it with your hands) so that it’s about 1.5 cm deep.

Cut scones out using a biscuit/cookie cutter. Shape together the extra bits that are left and cut out again. Brush the scones with a little milk.

Bake the scones at 200°C (390°F) for about 15-20 minutes, or until light brown in colour.

Ingredients:

• 1 tin of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper

Mix the spices with the oil in a bowl. Add the chickpeas and stir them well enough to completely coat. Roast them at 200°C (about 400°F) for 30-45 minutes, until they are darker brown. Be careful when you open the oven as the odd one might explode!

Baked is also a coffee shop in Brooklyn, and you can read more about their brownies on the Baked website. Definitely looks like my kind of place next time I happen to be in Brooklyn.

The original recipe uses Imperial units, so I’ve metric-ified it for us European folks. The coffee gives a great depth of flavour, and I definitely recommend keeping it in, but if you’re not keen on coffee you might want to drop it down to half a teaspoon.

Ingredients

• 315 g (11 oz) dark chocolate, chopped
• 227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter
• 1 tsp espresso powder
• 156 g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour
• 10 g (2 tbsp) cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 238 g (1 1/2 cups) caster/granulated sugar
• 100 g (1/2 cup) light brown sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Grease a 9×13 inch baking tin and line with baking parchment.

Over a low heat (or bain marie) melt together the chocolate, butter and espresso powder in a large pan. (I reserved a small amount of chocolate chunks to stir in later). Add the sugars to the chocolate mixture, and allow to cool. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt and cocoa.

Whisk three eggs into the chocolate mixture, and then the other two, and the vanilla extract. Fold the flour into the chocolate until combined. At this point, if you have some of the chocolate chunks left, you can stir them in.

Pour the brownie batter into the baking tin and bake at 175°C (350°F) until cooked: about 25-30 minutes. Leave to cool before removing from the tin and cutting into squares. I made about 20 brownies, but it obviously depends how small you cut them. They are so rich, that you could get away with cutting them smaller.

Ingredients: (serves 10)

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1  tsp paprika
• 350 ml (12 fl oz) chicken or vegetable stock
• pinch of saffron strands
• 6 spring onions (scallions), sliced
• 225 g (8 oz) couscous
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 red chillies, seeded, finely chopped
• 50 g (2 oz) pine nuts, toasted

Fry the cumin, coriander, paprika and garlic in the oil over a medium heat for about 1 minute. Pour in the stock with the saffron, and bring it to the boil. Add the onions and couscous, stir it all together and take the pan off the heat. Cover and leave the couscous to absorb the liquid for at least 5 minutes.

When you’re ready to serve, add the toasted pine nuts, lemon juice and zest, and chillies, and mix together thoroughly.

Ingredients:

• 250 g cranberries (fresh or frozen)
• 100 g light brown sugar
• 100 ml orange juice

In a large pan, dissolve the sugar in the orange juice, and then bring to the boil.

Add the cranberries and simmer for 5–10 minutes until they are tender, but still keep their shape.

Allow to cool, and refrigerate. The cranberry sauce should keep for up to a week before taking its place on the Christmas table alongside the turkey and sprouts.

I like chocolate logs because of their chocolate-y goodness, but also because they evoke the ancient European yule tradition of bringing a log into the house in the depths of winter. That’s bound to make you feel all warm and cosy at this time of year.

Making your own yule log from scratch means making a swiss roll, which can be a bit scary if you haven’t attempted this before. Never fear though, it’s actually very easy.

Ingredients:

• 100g walnuts
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 5 large eggs, separated
• 125 g caster sugar
• 25 g plain flour
• 25 g cocoa
• 3 tbsp marsala or sweet sherry
• 160 g dark chocolate
• 180 g icing (powdered) sugar
• 180 g butter, room temperature
• 150 ml double (heavy) cream
• 150 g sweetened chestnut purée

First, make the swiss roll that will form the log. Whisk together the egg whites until firm, and then beat half of the caster sugar into the whites.

Separately, whisk the egg yolks with the rest of the caster sugar.

Grind the walnuts in a food processor until they are fine, like powder, and mix with the baking powder and salt.

Fold the walnuts, flour and cocoa into the egg yolks. Into this mixture, gently fold the egg whites. The whole thing should be light and airy. Pour it into a lined swiss roll tin or flat baking tray (26 cm x 37 cm).

Bake at 180° C (Gas mark 4) for approximately 25 minutes, or until the sponge is springy to the touch.

Put a sheet of baking parchment onto the chocolate sponge and turn the tin over, emptying the sponge onto a work surface. Peel off the paper that is now on the top (that had been lining the tin) and leave to cool. Pour the marsala onto the sponge, and roll it up from the longest side. The second sheet of paper should be rolled inside it.

To make the chestnut filling, whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks. Gently stir the chestnut purée into the cream.

To make the chocolate “buttercream” to cover the yule log, cream together the butter and icing sugar. Melt the chocolate over a bain marie (or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water). Let the chocolate cool a little and then mix it into the butter icing, a little at a time. Refrigerate this chocolate icing for at least half an hour.

Now you can put the pieces of the log together. Unroll the chocolate sponge and remove the paper. Spread it with the chestnut cream filling, and roll it up again.

Decorate the log with chocolate icing and dust with a little icing sugar if you like.

Ingredients:

• 900 g (2 lbs; 8 cups) fresh cranberries
• 450 g (1 lb) eating apples, chopped
• 1 orange, juice and zest
• 600 ml (1 pt; 2 ½ cups) water
• about 900 g granulated sugar (depending on yield of cranberry juice)

Put the apple pieces (with skin and cores intact), cranberries, orange juice and zest, and water in a large pan/ Bring it to the boil. Cover the pan and simmer for about an hour.

Pour the cranberry mixture into a jelly bag and allow to strain over a bowl for several hours, or overnight. Don’t squeeze the bag, or the resulting jelly will be cloudy.

Add the strained juice back to the pan with sugar. The amount of sugar depends on the amount of juice you end up with. Add 450 g (1 lb; 2 ¼ cups) of granulated sugar for every 600 ml (1 pt; 2 ½ cups) of strained cranberry juice.

Heat until the sugar dissolves and then bring the mixture to the boil. Boil, without stirring for about 20 minutes, or until the jelly reaches setting point. You can tell this has happened by dropping a bit of the jelly onto a cold saucer, and seeing if it wrinkles when you push it with a finger.

Pour the cranberry jelly into sterilised jars, and seal.