Recipe Book Review & Giveway: Dairy Diary’s Four Seasons*

Dairy Diary Four Seasons

[As-gifted] Four Seasons published by Dairy Diary is our latest recipe book review, and an ideal on for someone who wants to use locally produced ingredients when they are in season or in other words it’s a book for someone who enjoys British Seasonal Food.

Written by Kathryn Hawkins, Clare Lewis and Wendy Veale, the book is filled with delicious recipes celebrating British Ingredients, reflecting how the seasons influence the way we cook and what we eat. The recipe book is broken down in five distinct sections Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Christmas so has every part of the year covered. Each recipe has a full colour photo of what it should look like when cooked. It’s a great help when you are not experienced.

The author also provide a list of foods available during each season; this can vary by region and is dependent on the weather. Keep reading to see two of the recipes from the book and what we thought about them and find out how you can win a copy of this recipe book worth £10.99.

What I thought of Dairy Dairy and which recipe I decided to make

The book is filled with a lot of information on where to find food in season, useful tips on planning, storing, preserving and also give quick ideas on salads, soups, bread/pizza, roast vegetables, stewed fruits and pies.

The book is easy to use as it has a recipe finder at the front which is well laid out. I really like the fact that each section has the seasonal ingredients and a list of the recipes which can be made with the ingredients listed. Some of the ingredients may be a little more difficult to find such as Jerusalem Artichoke and some may not be well known in the UK despite being available.

It’s a great book to have if you grow your own fruits and vegetables as it only uses British grown produce.

I have enjoyed reading this book as the photos of each of the recipe help you decide what you would like to make and help you to see how the food will look when cooked. Before cooking, I tend to list all the ingredients and check if I have them at home or if I have to purchase them, each recipe has an easy to follow list of ingredients. The recipes are well explained and straight forward for follow, and each one has a section with various tips that I did find very useful. At the bottom of each page, there is also a small section for you to write comments or notes, it’s great when you look back at the book or a specific recipe as I usually make a note of any changes I made (if any) or how the recipe turned out for me and also how much I liked it.

If you are health conscious, and want to know the content breakdown of each recipe, there are details of per serving calories, fibre, salt, sugar and fat (including saturated). It’s great if you want to count calories to lose weight or if you need to know how much fat there is in the food you will be eating.

This book is not aimed at vegetarians but it gives veggie options on some of the meat recipes. Each recipe also has symbols showing if they are suitable for freezing, vegetarian or vegan. It would have been useful to have this next to the recipe title in the index which is at the end of the book.

As this book is aimed at using in season ingredients, I decided to make one of the recipes with apples as I was given a lot of Bradley cooking apples and they are always better used when fresh and the other with a cauliflower I got reduced at the supermarket.

Recipe 1 –  Apple Flapjack Tart (Autumn Section)

This recipe appealed to me as I don’t really like flapjack but thought the mixture of pastry, apples and topped with flapjack would make it more interesting. I followed the recipe to the letter and it was clear and easy to follow.

I made it for my partner’s mother who is 91 and she enjoyed it very much, as the recipe stated that you can freeze this cake, we froze individual portions for her to use over the week. I tasted a piece before giving the rest away and it was great, not too sweet and far nicer than plain flapjack.

Recipe 2 – Cauliflower Cheese Soup (Autumn Section)

What a simple, quick and tasty recipe. As the recipe states, it is only enough for two people and I would agree with this. We had the soup with some French crusty bread and we both really enjoyed it.

I would not call this a slimming soup but it would make a great starter for a dinner party as it is such unusual and easy to make. I made it early in the day and then warmed it up on a low heat at dinner time. It worked well and therefore I would expect that you could easily make it the day before and warm it up as needed. I did not have any low fat soft cheese so I used a smaller quantity of cream cheese. It worked well but I expect the soup was far more calorific with this alternative.

Where can you get a copy of Four Seasons published by Dairy Diary

You can buy your copy here and it costs £10.99 for a hardback copy.

About the book

Publisher:  Diary Diary
Size: Size: 210 x 275mm (8¼ x 10¾”).
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages:  176 pages
ISBN:  9781911388470

• 75 triple-tested recipes
• A stunning photograph for every recipe
• Seasonal ingredients
• Where to find foods in season
• Planning and storing
• Quick meal ideas
• Delicious recipes for spring, summer, autumn and winter
• Nutritional information
• Cook’s tips

How to win yourself a copy of this book?

Terms & Conditions:

*Prize is not exchangeable for cash and not transferable
* Open to residents of the United Kingdom Only
*Entrants and winner of the competition must be 18 or over and must not be employed by Dairy Diary
* All entries must be received by Sun, 26 November 2023 (23:59).
* The winners will be chosen at random
* The winners will be notified via the email address. They have up to 28-days to respond and claim their prize after being notified, after which time the prize will be considered unclaimed and will be re-assigned using a random selection method.
* Submission of a posting will be taken to mean acceptance of the rules and terms and conditions.
* By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website
* The winners will be published on the original giveaway blog post.
* Prizes are administered separately by Dairy Diary and Yeah Lifestyle cannot be held responsible for problems related to fulfillment of prizes including non-delivery of the item

Review by: Brigitte Kershaw

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