Chocolate Custard Muffins with Marshmallow Cream

Cracked crust with a moist chocolaty centre

Recipe titles are so important. To restaurateurs it’s a question of selling their dishes, to editors a means of making their books and magazines fly off the shelves, to bloggers it’s SEO; getting posts listed high in Google’s rankings and being able to reach new readers. Although it could be seen as a shameless exercise in sales and seduction, a recipe title also comes from the heart, and is often no greater than the sum of its parts. There’s something wonderfully alluring about a short, simple title that speaks a thousand words more than its lengthier counterpart.

Allow me to introduce the chocolate custard muffin. Sometimes you see a recipe and just know you have to make it. This is one such recipe. The word ‘chocolate’ caught my attention, before the comforting ‘custard’ enveloped me in a blanket of nostalgia. To me a chocolate custard muffin suggests warmth and sweetness, flavour without pretension, richness without intensity and a big fat hug in food form. I had to make them. Continue reading →

14Oct2011

Seared pigeon breasts with grilled polenta, wild mushrooms & chard

Seared pigeon breast, parmesan polenta, wild mushrooms & chard (and yes, I snapped before pouring on the sauce, oops!)

Contrary to what my most recent set of posts might lead you to believe, I don’t subsist entirely on a diet of bread, cake and pastry. I’ll admit to having a sweeter tooth than most, and finding few meals complete without some kind of sweet treat, but that’s not to say there isn’t a place for all things savoury in my heart. Having tempted you with treacle tart and toffee cake, macarons, profiteroles and numerous types of ice cream in recent weeks, it felt about time to test the water with a slightly less sugar laden recipe. Continue reading →

11Oct2011

Treacle tart with rosemary salt & clotted cream ice cream

Traditional treacle tart with a salty-sweet twist

Treacle tart is something of a British classic. Frugal and filling, it also has a delicious decadence, its humble ingredients coming together in a dessert with much greater elegance than the sum of its parts. Loved by generations of Brits, this syrupy tart achieved global recognition a few years back when chosen as the favourite pudding of a certain bespectacled wizard – for Harry Potter to choose treacle tart over Fizzing Whizzbees, Cauldron Cakes and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, it must be something pretty special.

Continue reading →

6Oct2011

Toffee popcorn cake with chocolate ganache & hidden ‘pop’

Toffee popcorn cake with hidden ‘pop’

‘The greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.’

Cake is as synonymous with birthdays as parties, presents and singing. That’s not to say it doesn’t serve a purpose at other occasions or celebrations – anyone who reads this blog will know I’m a strong supporter of cake consumption on a pretty much regular basis – but very little can compete with a cake baked specially for a birthday. Whether it’s a simple sponge cake or a more extravagant affair, there’s something incredibly indulgent about a confection created especially for you.

However, while cakes can be beautiful, delicious and a joy to eat, it’s sometimes hard to recreate the utterly magical birthday feeling you get as a child, that sensation of complete surprise and delight. When deciding what to make for a friend’s birthday last week, I wanted to inject just a little bit of that childhood magic back into my baking. A lovingly made cake is a good start, but I needed something to make it extra special.

The answer? Popping candy. Continue reading →

4Oct2011

Salty Snickers ice cream bars

Sweet, salty and scrumptious – homemade Snickers ice cream bars

For some reason, people are always incredibly impressed when you present them with home made ice cream. I’ve found the same with bread, and think perhaps it’s the fact that both are such readily available convenience foods that inspires such enthusiasm and awe in guests when you bother to produce them yourself.

Anyone who owns an ice cream maker will know that this is not a complicated process. We’re no longer required to fetch snow down from the mountains or patiently shave away at blocks of ice as our ancestors once did. The ability to make a basic custard is useful, but not an absolute necessity – as shown by the simple ‘Philadelphia-style’ recipe below – and then it’s just a question of mixing and matching flavours to your taste. Nonetheless, there is still something very magical about ice cream, the way it undergoes a texture transformation as it freezes, turning a nondescript liquid into a cool, creamy, velvety delight which melts in your mouth. Continue reading →

30Sep2011

Cinnamon, Chocolate & Fig macarons

Cinnamon, chocolate & fig – flavours to welcome in autumn

Summer is definitely my favourite season. I don’t know if it’s because I was born in July, but there’s something about the feeling of the sun beating down on warm bare skin, long light evenings and leaves on the trees that makes me inherently happy. Summer food is pretty good too. I’ll take alfresco eating, beautiful ripe fruit and salad over stew any day, and don’t even get me started on the joy of frozen desserts – bowls of soft, sweet ice cream and melting scoops in cones, icy granite with shots of syrup and silky sorbets best enjoyed on a hot hot day.

However – like a lot of good things – summer inevitably comes to an end, and despite this recent bout of freakishly warm weather (please let it last!), it feels about time to welcome in the autumn. Continue reading →

28Sep2011

Fougasse two ways: September Fresh from the Oven challenge

Fougasse – plain & with semi-dried tomatoes

Baking bread is something that scares a lot of people. The chemistry and craft involved in each stage of weighing, kneading, proving and baking can seem like a daunting task, so it’s important to approach the process with some background knowledge, and even a guide to hold your hand. When I first embarked on the mission of making my own bread, my helping hand existed in the form of the River Cottage Bread Handbook.

I’ve sung its praises countless times on this blog; from simple wholemeal loaves to home made croissants, this lovely little book will guide you through the world of baking in a simple, straightforward way. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’m also a massive fan of Guardian columnist and baking guru Dan Lepard; I’m yet to make a recipe of his which hasn’t turned out wonderfully. But there’s one more person I’d like to add to this list, completing a holy trinity of baking brilliance – award winning chef, baker and all round good guy, Richard Bertinet. Continue reading →

25Sep2011

Crème Brûlée with Pistachio Nut Butter & Pistachio Shortbread

Creamy crème brûlée with a shiny crackly crust

Dessert, for me, is all about decadence. While a main meal tends to provide sustenance in addition to satisfaction, pudding provides an opportunity for sheer indulgence. You’re hardly going to get your five-a-day from chocolate, cream, sugar or any combination thereof, but that’s not really the point. What it fails to do for your health, dessert doubles for your happiness.

And what could be more decadent than a dessert that requires its very own bit of kitchen equipment? Continue reading →

21Sep2011

Profiteroles with hot chocolate peanut butter fudge sauce

Bite-sized cream puffs with molten peanut butter fudge sauce

I love watching cookery programmes. Whether it’s the jaunty Jamie Oliver cruising round Italy in his camper van and crusading against American obesity, a group of stressed out contestants in the latest series of Masterchef, or simply a boozed up Keith Floyd making friends with the locals, there’s just something about food and TV that makes for a great evening’s entertainment. This year I’ve become slightly obsessed with the BBC’s Great British Bake Off.

I didn’t watch it last year, but am a big fan of crowned king of cake The Boy Who Bakes, and an avid reader of the recipes that both he, and his fellow finalist The Pink Whisk, post on their respective blogs. In last night’s episode, five female quarter finalists battled it out to create beautiful baked cheesecakes, perfectly rolled roulades and towers of croquembouche; a pastry traditionally served at French weddings and celebrations consisting of hundreds of crispy choux buns held together with hardened sugar.

Continue reading →

18Sep2011

Oat & buckwheat pancakes (& the joy of breakfast)

Fresh, fluffy pancakes with creamy guacamole

‘When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,’ said Piglet at last, ‘what’s the first thing you say to yourself?’ ‘What’s for breakfast?’ said Pooh. ‘What do you say, Piglet?’ ‘I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?’ said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. ‘It’s the same thing,’ he said.

Reading this quote from A.A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner, I can’t help but smile. In just a few short sentences, the author manages to capture both the thrill and satisfaction of finding pleasure in food. Any foodie worth their salt (or should it be honey?) will always have thoughts of their next meal ticking over gently at the back of their mind, and after the enforced fasting that comes with a good night’s sleep, there are few greater pleasures than waking up and deciding what to eat for your very first meal of the day. Continue reading →