As much as I admire the petite perfection of professionally produced patisserie, I retain a soft spot for old-fashioned home baking. Apart from the gratifying results, the hands-on process of working with butter and flour, and filling the house with the scent of warm sugar and spice, can make you feel good about the world in a way no other form of cooking can. Which is probably why I bake so often. Most of it, even when the recipe involves yeast, is much easier than we are often led to believe. A doddle in fact.

Dried cherry and apricot buns

Scandinavia has an extraordinary range of bun goods, often more spicy and moist than our own Chelsea and Bath buns. Their home baking is typically scented with cardamom and cinnamon, spices I need no encouragement to use. These plump little buns are easy to make, and, for a recipe that contains yeast, exceptionally good-natured. They take a while to prove, so I tend to make them on a day on which I am at home doing something else, letting their slow rising fit around my other jobs. Makes 18-20

flour - 500g
easy blend yeast - 1 x 7g sachet
green cardamom pods - 10
semi-skimmed milk - 310ml
butter - 65g
light muscovado sugar - 65g
dried cherries - 100g
soft dried apricots - 150g
cinnamon - 1 heaped tsp
egg - 1, beaten with a little milk
runny honey - 4 tbs

Sift the flour with a generous pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the yeast. Crack open the cardamom shells, pull out the black seeds and grind them to a fine powder. A pestle and mortar will be useful here. Add them to the milk then warm it gently in a small saucepan. Test it with your finger - it should be slightly hotter than body temperature. Pour the milk into the flour and yeast and stir, then mix to a soft ball of dough with your hands.

Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 9 or 10 minutes. There is no need to be rough with it. Once the dough feels soft, silky and springy, place it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and put it somewhere warm for a full hour and a half to two hours, until it has almost doubled in size.

Cream the butter and sugar together briefly with a wooden spoon, then stir in the dried cherries and the roughly chopped apricots. Season with the ground cinnamon.

Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and roll out to a rectangle about 30cm x 40cm. Place it with the longest side towards you. Spread the fruit mixture over the dough - it will appear quite thinly coated - then brush the far edge with a little beaten egg and milk. Roll up the dough to produce a long, thick 40cm sausage.

Put some paper cases on a baking sheet. Slice the dough into 18-20 rounds. Place each one in a paper case then put the tray in a warm place for a further 45 minutes to an hour to rise. Set the oven at 200°C/gas 6.

Brush the buns lightly with more of the egg and milk then bake for 25 minutes or until golden and nicely risen.

While hot, brush each one with the honey.

Popovers with apples and maple syrup

I need no excuse to make Yorkshire puddings. The traditional idea of using them as a dessert, replete with golden syrup and cream, has always appealed, but the addition of stewed apple came by pure chance. There just happened to be a dish of it left over from the roast pork and I couldn't resist spooning it into the centres of the little batter puddings. The warmly nutty maple syrup is pure indulgence. A jug of cream wouldn't go amiss. You will probably find you have more batter than you need. Makes about 12

For the batter:

flour - 125g
2 eggs
milk - 150ml
water - 150ml
a little groundnut or sunflower oil

For the filling:

medium apples - 4
sugar - 2 tbs
a knife point of ground cinnamon
maple syrup
a 12 patty tin or bun tin

Put the flour in a mixing bowl, add a good pinch of salt then stir in the eggs, milk and water to form a thin batter. Set aside for 30 minutes. Set the oven at 220°C/gas 7-8.

Core and chop the apples - I don't peel them for this - then put them in a small pan with the sugar, cinnamon and the smallest splash of water. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered with a lid, until the apple is almost a purée.

Put a little oil in each of the patty tins then place in the oven for 5-10 minutes to get smoking hot. Pour spoonfuls of the batter in to the hot patty tins. Return to the oven and leave for about 20 minutes until risen and pale gold in colour.

Remove the popovers from the oven, place a spoonful of warm apple in the centre of each one then drizzle with maple syrup. You could dribble a slick of cream over them, too, if you wished.

Afternoon tea cake

I am not sure why I refer to this as an afternoon tea cake as we usually have thick slices of it some time during the morning, with deep cups of frothy coffee. I like it for its plainness, and the old-fashioned frugality of its store-cupboard ingredients. It is a joy to make and is particularly suitable for those without access to a food mixer. I think you should use whatever dried fruit takes your fancy. I last used one of those ready-packaged mixtures of sultanas, raisins and peel, and put in some chewily sharp dried cranberries, too. Pecans or walnuts would make a good option if you didn't fancy almonds. Serves 6-8

plain flour - 220g
baking powder - 1½ tsp
caster sugar - 170g
dried fruits - 175g
skinned almonds - 90g
butter - 125g
milk - 60ml
eggs - 2
a little coarse sugar, such as demerara

Set the oven at 160°C/gas 4.

Line a 16 x 10cm loaf tin with kitchen paper. Sift the flour and the baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the caster sugar and the dried fruits and roughly chopped nuts.

Melt the butter in a small pan, pour in the milk then mix gently into the dry ingredients. Stir in the lightly beaten eggs. (I take great care not to over-mix at this point.)

Scrape the mixture into the lined cake tin, sprinkle the top with a little demerara sugar and bake for an hour and 15 minutes. (Start testing for doneness after an hour.) Leave to cool before eating.

Pistachio and almond shortbreads

Mint tea and some sort of sugary Lebanese pastry has long been a habit of mine, but rarely at home. Making those dry, crumbly shortbreads in your own kitchen is a revelation. Warm from the oven, they have a deep nuttiness to them that rarely comes through in shop-bought pastries. Tender and crumbly if eaten soon after baking (and when I think they are at their humble best), they will nevertheless also keep for a week or so in an airtight container, taking on a more typical dryness as they age. Makes about 10

butter - 170g
golden caster sugar - 100g
shelled pistachio nuts - 50g
ground almonds - 50g
plain flour - 200g
icing sugar

Set the oven at 160°C/gas 3.

Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy (I recommend the food mixer with a beater attachment).

Meanwhile, reduce the pistachios to a fine powder and mix them with the ground almonds. Stir the nuts and the flour into the butter and sugar mixture. Stir until thoroughly mixed. I sometimes knead the mixture a little to mix it fully. Take generously heaped tablespoons of the mixture and roll them into large balls. You should get about 8-10. Place them on a non-stick baking sheet. Flatten each one slightly with a fork. (I sometimes use an old shortbread mould for this.)

Bake for about 25 minutes until the biscuits are barely coloured. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before attempting to lift them from the tray with a palette knife. Roll them in icing sugar.

Eat the biscuits slightly warm, or certainly within 24 hours.