Old-fashioned tray bakes are easy to make, and delicious with a cup of tea, writes DOMINI KEMP

I SET OUT ON a baking session to beat all baking sessions. I was going to try out lemon bars, caramel squares and all sorts of goodies that you could store in an old-fashioned tin, then casually produce as an accompaniment to a cup of tea, which would win gasps of admiration from all those who would gaze in awe at my marvellous, domestic creations.

The reality was somewhat different. The lemon bars were a complete disaster, with the filling oozing under the pastry and turning it into a gloopy mess.

I tried the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery and it just didn’t work out for me, so after that, I started to lose interest in this baking project, until I saw an interesting recipe for pecan bars in a Thomas Keller book. He recommends freezing the pecan bars and eating them straight from the freezer.

To be fair to the man, this isn’t such a bonkers suggestion. I brought a block of them to a pal’s house as my contribution to dinner. I thought they’d be lovely to have, cut into tiny squares as some sort of posh petits fours, with a cup of coffee after a civilised dinner. I stuck them in her freezer as soon as I arrived, promptly forgetting all about them after a few glasses of wine.

To be fair to our hostess, she did make an attempt to persuade her rowdy guests to have a civilised cup of coffee, but this suggestion was quickly shot down in favour of opening another bottle of wine. So much for grown-up coffee, home-made petits fours and polite guests.

A few weeks later, she discovered them in her freezer and told me rather guiltily she’d eaten a slice, while still frozen, and that they were really good. I quickly reassured her that this was, in fact, how Keller wanted this recipe eaten, so she was in fact very à la mode, culinary wise. You would think they’d be too hard on the teeth, but in fact they’re pretty soft and gooey, so the freezing makes them much sturdier.

The other bars are particularly easy to make, and very tasty. I was worried that the plums would be a bit pappy, as you just roughly chop them and don’t need to peel them or anything. But they disintegrated to become this lovely layer of jammy, plummy fruitiness, between the blankets of buttery oats.

Pecan walnut bars

Pastry

200g plain flour

100g butter

100g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

Filling

4 tbsp molasses

2 tsp vanilla extract

300g soft brown sugar

350g golden syrup

150g butter, melted

6 eggs

240g pecans, roughly chopped

120g walnuts, roughly chopped

In a food processor, mix the flour, butter and sugar together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and it should come together to form a ball. If not, add a splash of cream or water. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill it.

Mix all the ingredients for the filling together in a food processor or with an electric beater. Stir in the nuts. Leave the filling to chill in the fridge while you sort out the pastry.

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees/gas mark four. Roll out the pastry to fit a Swiss roll tin that is 30cmx21cm in size. Prick the base of the pastry and line with parchment paper and beans. Bake blind for about 20 minutes, then carefully remove the paper and bake for another few minutes to dry out the pastry. Turn down the oven to 170 degrees/gas three.

When the pastry has cooled down a little, spoon the nuts over the base and then carefully ladle in the filling. Bake for about 50 minutes more, until the filling is firm enough. It tends to get firm in the outside and the middle bit remains a bit gooier. But remove it from the oven and allow it to cool. You won’t notice it as being too gooey once they’re frozen.

Cool it down and chop into three sections, wrap well in parchment paper and cling film (to help protect against freezer burn) and freeze in blocks. Or else chill down and serve straight away. They are very rich, so less really is more with these.

Plum bars

550g plums (about seven plums) stoned and roughly chopped

¾ tsp mixed spice

350g light muscavado sugar

black pepper

450g butter

4 tbsp golden syrup

500g oats

100g plain flour

50g chopped walnuts

Roughly chop the plums and mix them with the mixed spice, 75g of the soft brown sugar and a few grinds of black pepper. Leave to macerate while you prepare the topping. Melt the butter with the rest of the brown sugar (275g) and the golden syrup. Mix the oats, flour and walnuts together in a big bowl. When the butter mixture is smooth, pour it on top of the oats and flour and mix well.

Line a 30cmx21cm Swiss roll tin with parchment paper and spread half of the oat mixture on the base of the tin, using a spatula that you dip into water to help smooth it down. Spread the plums over this and pat down lightly. Then spread the rest of the oat mixture on top, trying to seal in the plums. Bake at 180 degrees/gas mark four for about an hour, until the topping is golden brown. Allow the mixture to cool in the tin for a while and then remove it and slice. These keep in an airtight container for a few days.