My High 20 Recipes of 2025 – A digital cookbook of my prime recipes, as visited by you, for 2025. There’s one thing for everybody right here.
Right here we’re within the final two days of 2025, which I could add, appeared to fly by in direction of the top of the yr. I’ve delved into my dashboard statistics, and I’m sharing my TOP TWENTY RECIPES, as chosen by you, all my readers.
Now we have pies, sandwiches, muffins, college dinner favourites, preserves and no-cook lunches – it’s a really eclectic combination of recipes and recipe concepts, which I hope you’ll get pleasure from and really feel impressed to make a few of them.
Right here’s to 2026, and a NEW YEAR which I hope can be blissful, peaceable, wholesome and sort to ALL of us, Cheers, Karen
My High 20 Recipes of 2025 – The First 10 Recipes
My College Dinner recipes have been extremely popular recently, and right here’s the recipe for College Dinner Cheese Flan, which I promised to share. Additionally known as Cheese & Egg Flan, or Cheese Pie, it has JUST 4 components in it. Specifically cheese, eggs, milk and pastry. I keep in mind it effectively from my college days, when it was at all times served heat with chips and baked beans.
2. College Dinners Chocolate Concrete (Chocolate Crunch)
Sure, it’s the old fashioned dinners pudding favorite, served with pink custard, which is definitely pink blancmange. The recipe is from a pal’s mom, who was once a college prepare dinner. Nonetheless, I’ve needed to cut back the portions, as the unique recipe was for 30 parts! I’ve tailored the recipe for College Dinners Chocolate Concrete (Chocolate Crunch) so it yields 12 slices, or squares.
3. The Queen’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake
My recipe right now for The Queen’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake is a variation on one I’ve been making for years, with out realising that it was Her Majesty the Queen’s favorite cake. It was a favorite for birthday events and the cake tin, with my daughter taking a small sq. to highschool in her lunch field typically.
Apparently, Her Majesty is so keen on this recipe for The Queen’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake, that she has it day by day within the afternoon with a cuppa, and can get pleasure from a slice each day till it’s all gone. I like this concept that The Queen is a little bit of a chocoholic, and enjoys a easy no-bake cake above different extra complicated muffins.
4. Conventional Selfmade Pickled Onions
The recipe I’m sharing right now could be very poignant, because it was my mum’s recipe for Conventional Selfmade Pickled Onions, and he or she made just a few jars each November for the Christmas tea desk. Why solely make these in November? Nicely, within the UK you begin to see small “pickling onions” within the greengrocers and supermarkets from October onwards, and with a view to the Christmas buffet desk, and that ubiquitous cheese board, now’s the time to make these pickled onions so that they have time to “mature” for six weeks. For those who make them within the first week of November, they are going to be splendidly mellow however nonetheless crisp and crunchy by the point the festive interval begins in earnest.
5. Conventional British Ploughman’s Lunch
What could be extra quintessentially British, than a Conventional British Ploughman’s Lunch. Beloved of Pubs throughout the nation, it’s one in every of my favorite lunches. A standard Ploughman’s Lunch is extra an meeting job than a recipe. It’s predominant elements are cheese, crusty bread and butter, pickles, chutney and salad greens. It truly is essentially the most well-known of pub lunches – easy and but so satisfying, particularly if taken with a pint of actual ale or cider.
6. College Chocolate Sponge & Chocolate Custard
My recipe for College Chocolate Sponge & Chocolate Custard is an actual blast from the previous! It’s my model of a favorite college dinner’s pudding. Massive squares of chocolate sponge cake, at all times baked in a giant roasting tin, have been served with lashings of chocolate custard. It was the perfect pudding ever on a moist, windy or chilly college day, and the parts have been at all times very beneficiant too.
I’ve not shared a recipe for twenty-four parts (or extra!) of College Chocolate Sponge & Chocolate Custard right now, simply 9 massive squares in your eating pleasure! This can be a delightfully wealthy and light-weight chocolate cake and it reheats effectively within the microwave. You may serve it with Pink Custard in the event you like, however we favor a double chocolate whammy.
This recipe for Conventional Oxtail Stew is as previous because the hills, as my mum and grandmother used to say. It’s a standard British stew utilizing a really low-cost lower of beef, particularly oxtail. Oxtail has turn out to be extremely popular once more lately, after languishing for some time on the backside of the butcher’s checklist. Each my mum and each grandmother’s used to make use of it quite a bit, because it was an affordable and cheerful lower of meat, though classed as offal.
Oxtail wants a bit care when making ready and takes a very long time to prepare dinner, so as to render it tender, however that is greater than made up for in it’s flavour, which is splendidly wealthy and beefy. Right now’s recipe for Conventional Oxtail Stew makes use of wine as the primary cooking liquor, however beer can be nice, particularly darkish beers, stouts and porters similar to Guinness.
8. Ninja Strain Cooker Ham (Gammon)
My recipe for Ninja Strain Cooker Ham (Gammon) is a wonderful method to prepare dinner a big joint of ham, or gammon, in simply 1 hour. Nonetheless meltingly tender and infused with aromatics, this methodology isn’t just fast, nevertheless it saves on vitality prices too. You may prepare dinner this in an ordinary stress cooker, in addition to a Ninja Multi Cooker, or an On the spot Pot Multi Cooker.
9. Previous-Common Tinned Salmon Sandwiches
My recipe right now for Previous-Common Tinned Salmon Sandwiches is a household favorite, and one which my late dad and mom and each units of grandparents liked. These Previous-Common Tinned Salmon Sandwiches have been made most Sundays for afternoon tea, or for the Sunday Tea Tray. They have been particular sufficient to grace the desk at different events too, similar to birthday events, Christmas, Easter and once we had friends for Sunday tea.
10. Egg in a Cup
My recipe right now for Egg in a Cup is a really poignant one, as my late mom used to prepare dinner this for me earlier than I used to go to highschool. It might have been her 89th birthday on the twenty second October, and I’ve been fascinated with her greater than ordinary over the past week. Not that we knew this easy egg recipe as Egg in a Cup! It was at all times referred to as Buttered Boiled Eggs.
The Subsequent 10 Recipes
11. Mums Two Ingredient Strawberry Mousse
This recipe for Mum’s Two Ingredient Strawberry Mousse is one in every of my favorite “frugal” retro recipes. Mum used to make this repeatedly for Sunday Tea, in addition to for particular events, similar to Birthdays, Easter, Christmas and simply because! Made with simply two predominant components, Evaporated Milk and Jelly, you may add lemon juice in the event you like a sharper flavour, and mum at all times added lemon juice to hers. For those who don’t have any recent lemons, then bottled lemon juice works simply effective, and people little lemon formed bottles of Jif Lemon Juice.
12. Straightforward Mincemeat Cake
Straightforward Mincemeat Cake is one I’ve been baking for a few years, and my mum earlier than me – it was my late father’s favorite cake. It additionally makes a wonderful final minute Christmas cake, and is kind of frugal in prices too. You may nonetheless add marzipan and icing if you want, and even “feed” it with brandy. Made with simply mincemeat, flour, eggs, butter, combined spice and freshly zested orange peel, it’s delightfully fruity and really moist.
I like to recommend utilizing a great high quality mincemeat, and even higher, a selfmade mincemeat for a greater tasting cake. I’ve a number of mincemeat recipes on Lavender & Lovage, and I made this cake (as proven within the images) with this recipe: BOOZY FAT-FREE MINCEMEAT.
13. Dwelling away from Dwelling: Betty’s Fats Rascals Recipe
My tackle the well-known Betty’s Fats Rascals; Fats Rascals are a cross between a bun and a scone, extra like a rock cake, and are scrumptious when loved with a day cuppa. The origin of the identify is unknown, however they’re thought to have been made because the mid-Nineteenth Century underneath the identify of Fats Rascals, though the unique recipe is regarded as Elizabethan.
14. Sourdough Bread within the Ninja Foodi
This Sourdough Bread within the Ninja Foodi is baked in a multi-cooker; multi-cookers are identified extra usually as On the spot Pots, Air Fryers, Crockpot or as within the case of mine, a Ninja Foodi. My mannequin is the Ninja Foodi MAX 14-in-1 SmartLid Multi-Cooker 7.5L, and it has 14 superb features, because it’s identify suggests. In an try to chop again on costly vitality prices, as often this loaf takes 1 hour to bake in a extremely popular oven. I’ve exprimented with baking my ordinary Basic Sourdough Bread made Straightforward, however in my Ninja Foodi.
Previous-Common Malt Loaf is a large favorite of mine. It’s primarily based on an previous BeRo recipe for sultana malt loaf, and this attractive, sticky, wealthy and fruity loaf will get higher the longer you allow it.
I made a loaf on the weekend, and left it sitting within the pantry able to obtain copious quantities of butter for our “Clocks Again Sunday Tea Tray” supper, by the hearth.
Right now’s recipe is for Conventional Stottie Cake. A fairly plain and flat wanting disc of bread, and but to many individuals within the North East of England the Stottie Cake is a vital and potent image of their id and area. Stotties are the bread of my childhood, linked perpetually in my reminiscence to my grandmother’s previous stone cottage and heat, blissful days sitting round a giant previous kitchen desk with a flickering fireplace and the wind howling exterior.
Stotties, as they’re known as within the plural, are born of thrift and frugality; on the finish of a protracted day of baking, as most bread was made at residence till pretty lately. I’ve shared my Nanny’s recipe for Stottie Cake (Stotty Cake) earlier than on Lavender & Lovage, right here: A Northumberland Cottage Kitchen Recipe: Stotty Cake (Stottie Cake) Right now’s recipe is similar, however I’ve up to date the images, in addition to including some pictures of the North East of England, and an enhanced picture of my grandparent’s previous cottage, because it was.
17. 1960’s Evaporated Milk Chocolate Cake
960’s Evaporated Milk Chocolate Cake is a much-loved household recipe from an previous Be-Ro cookbook. It first appeared in version 24 which was revealed in 1961. I’ve shared the unique model of this cake earlier than on Lavender & Lovage right here: OLD-FASHIONED MILK CHOCOLATE CAKE.
Nonetheless, the recipe I’m sharing right now has been tweaked to make a bigger cake, which serves 12 as a substitute of 8, however nonetheless utilizing the important ingredient of evaporated milk. This 1960’s Evaporated Milk Chocolate Cake is extra like a gateau, and is what we name “Your Sunday Finest Chocolate Cake” in our family!
18. Cheese and Garlic Sourdough Bread
Cheese and Garlic Sourdough Bread: A scrumptious cheese and garlic sourdough bread . Makes essentially the most superb toast in addition to sandwiches. This bread is made utilizing my grasp sourdough bread recipe. I show my dough (in a banneton) in a single day in a cool place, which leads to the bread construction having extra of these wanted “sourdough holes”, with a chewy and pleasantly bitter texture and style in addition to a wonderful crusty crust. Proving the bread in a single day means it’s prepared for early morning baking too, so there can be a freshly bakes sourdough loaf for breakfast.
19. Manor Home Cake
Right now’s recipe for Manor Home Cake is customized from a recipe I discovered in an previous pocket book, that was in a field of previous, classic books I purchased a few years in the past. It seems the pocket book was began in 1919, and the final entry was in 1936. The notes that accompanied the recipe for Manor Home Cake recommended that it was a “plain cake” that may have been served for elevenses or excessive tea in a “home of nice standing”.
There’s a business cake of this identify, that was made well-known by the British cake firm that boasts that it “makes exceedingly good muffins”. However, I usually discover that it’s a bit too dry and really crumbly, and, sadly is has palm oil in it too. A selfmade model of the well-known Manor Home Cake is all collectively a distinct matter; the cake IS crumbly, however isn’t dry in any respect, and has just a few extra sultanas than the business model.
20. Straightforward Three Ingredient Sourdough Crumpets
These Straightforward Three Ingredient Sourdough Crumpets are precisely that, straightforward to make and even simpler to eat! They actually do have solely three predominant components in them, particularly sourdough starter or sourdough discard, plain (all objective) flour and baking powder. Add a smidgen of salt and a few filtered water, and you’ve got all it’s good to make smooth, springy, chewy and totally scrumptious recent crumpets.
I’ve have lastly perfected the recipe after many months of tweaking and baking, and I’m thrilled with the outcomes, as these crumpets are so significantly better than commercially made crumpets and, you can also make them at residence with little or no gear wanted, simply a big non-stick frying pan and some crumpet rings. You can also make these sourdough crumpets with freshly fed and bubbly sourdough starter, as I are likely to do, or with any sourdough discard.
My High Twelve Recipes of 2024
See final yr’s TOP recipes HERE There’s not a lot distinction to 2025!
Pleased New Yr and Pleased New Recipes coming Quickly
Be careful for tons extra new recipes coming quickly, in addition to thrilling journey and gardening posts too.
Observe me on Instagram, Fb, Pinterest, and Twitter for day by day inspiration:
