September Granola

I've always been fascinated with the idea of looking at food as a culture and how, in looking at it that way, you can take inspiration from different regions, diets or even time scales in the case of British Nostalgia baking. Last year, my big favourite was South East Asian food. I still look to the styles of cooking there a lot now, by creating a nutritious Chinese-style stir fry, or picking up some sushi for lunch in town.

At the moment, I am really interested in 'health foods' -raw, vegan and even Paleo. These are focused on eating healthily, naturally and simply. Because of this, they can often be seen as restrictive, which is why I wouldn't look to eating in any of these ways exclusively. This last month, I've been eating as a pescatarian, which I will be blogging about very soon. This, in comparison, was a very relaxed diet as I could eat everything but land meat, and there were times, say when travelling across country to the Bird Fair when finding lunch was pretty damn hard. However, I really love how choosing to eat in this more natural way causes you to be a much more creative chef. Juices are obviously a big one for this, being totally natural, raw and plant based. At York Station's Filmore and Union, they make the most delicious juices, and I am starting to look into getting one of my own.

So when I found out that Belle Gibson who I follow on Instagram, was launching a new app, The Whole Pantry, I was pretty stoked. The app features wholefood recipes and 'Lifestyle and Wellness guides'. It is especially good for anyone looking for healthier snacks, and all the recipes, I believe, are vegetarian and gluten free.

When yesterday, I decided to stock up on a breakfast staple of mine -granola -I looked to The Whole Pantry for ideas. Belle's recipe didn't include any oats at all, which I though was an impressive use of ingredients. My granola ended up quite different due to the ingredients that I had to hand, but I loved some of the methods and flavours in this. The use of coconut oil rather than butter or sunflower oil is one that I will be using all the time now, and having a splash of vanilla essence gave my mix a floral undertone that made me think of the scents of late summer. You can play around with this as much as you like too; just stick roughly to the ratios of dry to wet ingredients for optimum results. I've used cup measurements for this, as it seemed to be much easier for the recipe.

September Granola

• Two cups of rolled oats OR flaked coconut.
• 1-1.5 cups of mixed seeds. I used pumpkin, sunflower and sesame.
• 1 cup coarsely chopped nuts such as pecan, almond, walnut or hazelnut.
• 3 tbsp honey, agave syrup or malt rice syrup.
• 2 heaped tbsp (1/4 cup) coconut oil, melted.
• 1/2 tsp seasalt flakes (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• Ginger: 2cm cubed fresh grated, or 1 tsp dried.

Preheat the oven to gas mark one / 125'C.
Simply mix all the ingredients together, and tip on two lined trays. Pop them in the oven, ideally both on the same mid-low shelf, and bake for 30 minutes, turning once. For a crunchier bake, which I prefer, leave for forty, but keep checking it. The granola will catch quite quickly, so make sure that you're keeping half an eye out on it.

 Toppings inspiration anyone? Plums or apricots and figs -perfect fruit for the summer-autumn season.

Thyme-infused Ganache

Recently, I was asked to take part in a flavour pairing event run by Aero. I was soon sent my kit in the post containing the impressively-sized Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit, along with a bar of Aero mint and orange bubbles. The chocolate was spotted immediately by my family, and disappeared before you could say "Nestle".

The book however, provided me with a more lasting satisfaction as I perused through all the listed combinations with chocolate. The Flavour Thesaurus, although not something that I might of necessarily bought myself, looks like it may well prove to be invaluable, as a brief skim through has left me feeling inspired and ready to become more experimental in the kitchen.

http://adventuresofalondonkiwi.blogspot.co.uk/

Lots of ingredient combinations caught my interest, but in the end I decided to pair my chocolate dish with thyme. As soon as I read this, I knew that it would work; I could imagine the flavours in my head and knew exactly what I wanted to make.

We have plenty of thyme in our garden, so after arriving home today, I set about preparing my infused ganache. Make sure that the cream isn't too hot; if your 37 degree skin can melt chocolate, then boiling liquid will almost certainly cause it to split.

Thyme-infused Chocolate Ganache

• 125g good quality dark chocolate (I used 70%)
• 100ml double cream, extra thick if it is availible
• 2-3tsp fresh thyme

Chop the chocolate up as finely as possible, and place in a bowl.
Add the cream and thyme to a milk pan, and gently heat, using a really low heat to allow the thyme to infuse its flavour fully. When the cream starts to feel hot to touch, but not boiling, remove from the heat. Strain off the thyme leaves, and pour evenly over the chocolate. Let it sit for a couple of minutes while the chocolate melts, then stir into a smooth, glossy mixture.

Line a rectangular tin with greaseproof paper, and pour over the ganache, spreading into a even layer between 1cm and 1.5cm thick. Leave in a cool place -not the fridge if you can help it -to set, before cutting it up into squares, shapes using icing cutters. 

Passionfruit Sponge Cake

I hardly need an excuse to bake, but my Mother's birthday this week gave me the perfect reason to get the mixing bowl out midweek. It lead to a funny sort of day; diving into M&S first thing to grab some passionfruit, via a gorgeous deli for almond croissants; carefully taking my precious parcels into school, then back out to a short trip to Leeds, before dashing back home again to get the oven on.

I strained out the pulp of the passionfruit and used my fail-safe Victoria Sponge recipe, replacing the vanilla essence with a spoonful of the fruit pulp. I've heard that you can purchase passionfruit extract to get a stronger depth of flavour in the sponge. While that was baking, I whipped up my first ever batch of passionfruit curd, using a recipe from Nigella Lawson. I was surprised at how quick and easy the curd was to make, so I will most definitely be making a few more fruit curds in the future! I was getting a little pressed for time at this point; so I tidied up and left everything to cool overnight. 

 5:30am the next morning, I was in the kitchen again prepping the cake. After sandwiching the curd between the sponge layers, I made half a batch of my cream cheese frosting, replacing the butter with a tablespoon or so of left over curd. I couldn't use e electric whisk without waking everyone, so for the next half hour, while I warmed up the croissants and finished getting ready I kept on nipping back to beat the icing, and seem to get perfectly acceptable results for spreading over the top. I think marscapone would taste even better, with just a little icing sugar beaten in, as an alternative, so do try that too and let me know what you think.

By half past six, breakfast in bed was ready for my  Mama, and the cake, finished with a sprinkling of pale pink pearls, was lit. I had to leave for my early train at 7, but not before I'd made sure that my gift had been opened and the day's surprises revealed -namely a spa package courtesy of my Father to the Feversham Arms.... I'm so jealous! Sufficed to say, I am pretty pleased with our efforts for this year -my Mother is by far the easiest person to buy for! Who do you like to treat? 

Passionfruit Curd

• 5 passionfruit
• 50g unsealed butter
• 1 large organic egg 
• 1 egg yolk
• 75g caster sugar (I used golden)

Blitz the passionfruit pulp in an electric mix, and strain it into a bowl. Save a small amount of the unstrained seeds.

Melt the butter gently in a heavy based saucepan. Beat together the eggs, yolk and sugar and pour into the saucepan, along with the passionfruit juice, stirring continually until the mixture begins to thicken.

Add the reserved seeds, and remove from the heat. Decant all this into a sterilised jar or two, and leave, ideally overnight, to cool.

Vegeree

In a bid to introduce more vegetable-based meals into our diet, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's book, River Cottage Veg Everyday has been taken from the bookcase and firmly installed in the kitchen with our other favourite recipe books. I love this book and need to try more of the recipes. Tonight's recipe was a take on a family favourite, kedgeree. Vegetable kedgeree -or vegeree as Hugh christened it -is a gorgeous dish for capturing the tastes of seasonal produce, and can easily be adapted by what food is currently in your veg box.

Vegeree

• 3 medium onions
• 1 large aubergine
• 2 medium courgettes
• 1 red pepper
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Around 1 tbsp curry powder, depending on how much of a kick you like
• 300g basmati rice
•  4 large eggs, at room temperature
• Sea salt and black pepper

Preheat your oven to 190'C/gas mark 5. Slice the onions lengthwise and chop the aubergine, courgette and peppers into 1cm chunks.
Pop all the veg into a roasting pan, and toss with the oil, curry powder and plenty of salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cook the rice according to pack instructions, or to a preferred method. Bring a pan of water to a gentle simmer, add the eggs and cook for 7 minutes for a "soft-hard boil", and then immediately cool in a bowl of cold water before peeling and cutting into quarters. 

Mix the rice with the roasted vegetables, seasoning if needed, and add the eggs. Have a rummage in your cupboard to see if you have any mango chutney; I can never resist adding a good dollop!

Pizza Nights

To round off Miriam's visit, we organised a pizza night. It is such a good, relaxed way to spend an evening with friends and is good for catering for lots of different people and tastes.

For the base we knead together all the ingredients below for 10-15 minutes and leave to prove for a couple of hours, before rolling into 6-8 small pizzas.

• 250g strong white flour
• 250g plain flour
• 5g dried yeast (or 10g live yeast)
• 10g salt
• 325ml water
• 1 tbsp oil (I use olive)

A tomato base is a must; if you have time, make your own from scratch, using 500g sieved tomatoes, roasted for 30-45 minutes with olive oil and garlic. My favourite cheat however, is to use a little pasta sauce, such as puttanesca , instead. The best thing about this is that we usually end up with half a jar left, which means I can use it to make a quick eggs in purgatory!
 My favourite toppings -

• garlic-infused oil, artichoke hearts, mascarpone, Parmesan and basil
•  Tomato sauce, prosciutto, black olives, peppers and mozzerella
• Tomato sauce, onions, basil pesto and goats cheese
• Others -Hawaiian, chicken and sweetcorn, whatever I can find...

To cook -have the oven preheating to it's highest setting. Ideally you should have a pizza stone as this cooks the pizza much faster. Alternatively use a tray, and give an extra couple of minutes in the oven. Stick the pizza stone or tray in the oven to get hot whilst you roll out your pizza. Slide the rolled pizza dough onto the stone (hot: use oven gloves!). I find that it is easier to add my toppings onto the pizza after placing on the stone; just remember to use oven gloves and a heat-proof mat!

Bake until the cheese is bubbling and the pizza or exposed toppings are starting to look a little charred. This only takes 6-9 minutes in a domestic oven, but if you're lucky enough to have an outdoor, wood-fired oven, you an have pizzas made in under two minutes. Now if that isn't fast food, I don't know what is!

Do make sure that you save a little dough (and room in your stomach!) to make a sweet pizza. I've heard of lots of fruity varieties, but I adore spreading on lots of soft Nutella, bananas and chopped hazelnuts, walnuts or almonds. The Nutella tastes even better on a warm pizza, and the caramelised bananas are heavenly.

Back to Basics -Victoria Sponge

Happy Easter everyone! Sorry about the quiet week; I've been a little bit busier than expected (namely, the renewed need for revision in preparation for exams...) and I've spent much of the past two days in bed ill, feeling rather sorry for myself. I've been having to take things slowly, attempting my first bit of food this evening -still a bit much for my stomach -and staying in bed way longer than usual; I'm normally an early riser for somebody under-twenty and I couldn't imagine staying in bed all day every weekend and holiday!

So it seems appropriate that my planned post is about going back to baking basics and keeping it simple. While I have been becoming increasing adventurous in the kitchen, even more so in my daydreams, I thought it would be worthwhile going back to square one and reintroducing myself to the classic Victoria sponge. In pretty much anything that I bake, I can always find a little issue that stops it from being perfect and so I felt that going back to this old staple was needed for a quiet weekend.

When I was younger, I was never particularly bothered about a Victoria Sponge. I found, too often, that the cakes presented to me were dry and gritty and plain; why chose blandness when your childish hands can reach for a soft rich chocolate cake? In my eyes, there was never a contest.

Of course, my tastes have developed much more now, and I have found myself appreciated the simple sponge. Buttercream is more popular at the moment than mounds of whipped cream (yuck!) and a few considered additions can make all the difference. Recently, a friend and I shared a slice of Victoria sponge, laden with strawberries and truly, it was five minutes of heaven. The cake was cooked beautifully, soft and full of air and lightness, but moist and creamy as you bit into it. That is my idea of a good sponge.

You can hardly alter a classic, but a little addition of cornflour -an ingredient I've blogged about here -does add a little something...

 

• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 free-range eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract/paste
• 210g self-raising flour
• 15g cornflour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• milk (about 2-4 tbsp)

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180'C. Grease and line two 20cm cake tins.
Cream the butter and sugar together for a good few minutes, until lightened in colour and 'fluffy'. You know the drill by now, I'm sure. Add in the eggs slowly, one by one, adding a tablespoon of flour inbetween each to avoid any curdling. If you can be bothered, separate the eggs first and give the whites a quick beating beforehand to help make the cake even lighter. You'll be able to add the eggs more slowly this way too. Beat in the vanilla extract, before folding in the flour, cornflour and baking powder. If needed, add in the milk -you're looking for a dropping consistency where the cake mix will fall off an upturned spoon in a satisfying blob. Spoon into the cake tins as evenly as you can.

Pop into the oven for 25 minutes until golden, and the sides are coming away from the tins. Allow to cool, before turning out onto a cooling rack. Once cold, fill and ice your cake. I wanted to make a slightly more transport-friendly cake this time round, so I omitted the buttercream and added only some of my homemade damson jam. For my buttercream recipe, click here. Equally, white chocolate buttercream would be nice too. If leaving the top plain, dust over with icing sugar.

 Packman cake!! ;)

Handbook of icings

Seeing as icings are used pretty interchangeably, I've included all my go-to's here. The first two are taken more or less directly from the Hummingbird Bakery; any others are my own variants or are credited:

TIP: Beat the butter before adding the icing sugar. It will give you an idea of whether or not it is soft enough, and will make any other ingredients easier to incorporate. Either that, or start it all off by hand.

Basic Buttercream:

• 250g icing sugar, sifted a couple of times
• 80g butter, softened
• 25ml milk (whole)
• A few drops of vanilla extract

Gently cream the icing sugar and butter together, starting it off by hand to save mess. Start to beat, adding milk a drop at a time until you have the right consistency. The icing should be stiff enough to hold it's shape for piping. Continue to beat for at least five minutes with an electric mixer until the icing is nice and light. Transfer into a piping bag, and get icing!

Cream Cheese frosting

•  300g icing sugar
• 50g softened butter
• 125g cream cheese, cold

Beat the icing sugar and butter together with an electric whisk on a low speed until well mixed. Add the cream cheese and beat until incorporated. Turn up to a high speed and beat for a good five minutes.

 Chocolate Buttercream

• 250g icing sugar
• 100g softened butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 50g chocolate, melted (I think this is best with white, but you decide...)

Beat the icing sugar, butter and vanilla extract together for five minutes, before adding in the melted chocolate. 


Lemon Buttercream:

• 250g icing sugar, sifted a couple of times
• 50g butter, softened
•  Zest of 1 lemon
• 3 tsp lemon curd
• Milk -I needed 10-15ml.

Gently cream the icing sugar and butter together. Add the zest and curd, then start to beat, adding milk a drop at a time until you have the right consistency. The icing should be stiff enough to hold it's shape for piping. Continue to beat for at least five minutes before icing.

Lemon Cupcakes

Last week I showed you my cupcake designs inspired by a Cath Kidston competition. I made a few batches of these over the week due to various commitments and requests for sugary treats, and I think that I have just about nailed the perfect recipe. Previously, I found that plain cupcake recipes either give me too much of a sloppy mix resulting in heavy cupcakes, or are based on a classic sponge which is to dry a recipe to work for portion-sized cakes. Then I hit upon the idea of using cornflower to thicken the mix and give a light texture. I am an advocate of creaming butter and sugar together, rather than blitzing the butter into the dry ingredients, because it is so easy to be left with a few sneaky lumps of butter. I also like to use lemon curd to give an extra tangy kick.

Lemon Cupcakes -makes 12 large cupcakes or 18-24 fairy cakes

• 60g butter, at room temperature
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• Zest of 1-2 lemons
• 2 tbsp lemon curd (optional)
• 10g corn flour
• 150ml lukewarm milk, ideally whole
• 150g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (if butter is unsalted)

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3, 170'C
Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl for around five minutes, until creamy and fluffy. Gently beat in the egg -if I have time, I like to separate the egg, give the white a quick beat, then slowly add them in, egg white first. This gives a lighter texture and helps to ensure that the egg doesn't curdle. Beat in the zest and curd, if using.
Mix the corn flour with a little of the milk to form a paste. Add in the rest of the milk slowly to the corn flour paste, stirring well to avoid any lumps. Gradually add half of this to the creamed butter mix. Makes sure that is incorporated, and add in half of the flour with the baking powder, mix, then keep on adding and alternating the milk and flour to the mix until everything is combined. If using, add the salt.
Note: to make vanilla cupcakes, omit the lemon zest and curd, and add vanilla essence to the milk.

Spoon into the cake cases so that each is around two thirds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes -if making smaller cakes, keep an eye on them after 15 minutes -until lightly golden, and they spring back when touched. While they cool, get making the icing. You could simple spread over a little lemon curd, topped with a circle of fondant icing, or make my lemony buttercream:
Lemon Buttercream:

• 250g icing sugar, sifted a couple of times
• 50g butter, softened
•  Zest of 1 lemon
• 3 tsp lemon curd
• Milk -I needed 10-15ml.

Gently cream the icing sugar and butter together. I usually do this by hand to save mess. It always amazes me how it all comes together when it looks like there is nowhere near enough butter for the amount of icing. Add the zest and curd, then start to beat, adding milk a drop at a time until you have the right consistency. The icing should be stiff enough to hold it's shape for piping. Continue to beat for at least five minutes with an electric mixer until the icing is nice and light. Transfer into a piping bag, and get icing!

Gratin au Poisson Fumé

Smoked Fish Bake
I tried out a new Rachel Khoo recipe yesterday, which turned out really well. We had some smoked haddock, which is one of my favourite fish and it is ideal for this fish pie. Usually, fish pie in my house involves salmon and mash, but you would hardly recognise this dish for the more usual salmon pie. This is lovely served with runner beans.

•  750g (8-10) medium potatoes -this is a good way of using up cooked potatoes like roasties
• 250g smoked haddock or other white fish
• Optional: steamed veg such as celery, carrots or peas. This helps to make the dish go further.
• Handful of chopped fresh parsley
• Handful of mature cheese -I used smoked Cheddar and Parmesan, but Comté or Gruyere would be even better
• For the Béchamel sauce:
• 30g butter
• 30g plain flour
• 500ml lukewarm milk (ideally whole)
• 1/4 onion, skin removed, studded with around 5 cloves
• 1 garlic clove, crushed by a knife
• 1 bay leaf
• grating of nutmeg
• salt and white pepper

(If using fresh potatoes and veg, set them to steam now)
Firstly, make the Béchamel sauce. In a large, heavy-based sauce pan, melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the flour and beat until smooth. Remove from the heat for two minutes, then slowly add the milk, whisking and beating constantly. Put the pan back on the heat, adding the onion, garlic and bay leaf, and keep beating regularly else the sauce will burn. Simmer for ten minutes, loosening with a little milk if needed. Remove the onion, garlic and bay leaf, and season with the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Using white pepper is purely aesthetic -black pepper will leave black speckles, but is perfectly fine to use. I used my favourite smoked salt from The Cornish Sea Salt Company, to enhance the flavour. Allow to cool a little.

Preheat the oven to 180'C, Gas mark 4.
Chop the potatoes to 1/2 cm slices. Skin the fish and cut into bite-sized chunks and add to the Béchamel sauce, along with the parsley (save a little to garnish) and vegetables, if using. Spoon into a baking dish, and top with the potatoes. Sprinkle over the cheese and remaining parsley, and bake for 25 minutes. If you like a crunchier, caramelised top, leave for an extra five minutes. Serve, and enjoy.

Winter Warmers

To celebrate our successful move into our new house, we decided to round off one of our hill walks with a indulgent Sunday lunch at a village pub. My parents are big on walking; when they were in the early stages of their relationship they were living some miles apart, and each weekend Dad would drive up to Mum's and they'd cover miles of countryside on long walks. As a consequence, I've grown up being driven two hours or so across to Wales on the search for decent walking country.

During the first few weeks after we relocated up North, my Father and I went walking every weekend while my Mother worked on her dissertation. It was still warm in the last throws of summer, and we'd sit on top of a hill, staring at the view as we ate cream cheese and seasonal fig sandwiches, marvelling at our proximity to an abundance of walking locations.

Sunday, however, was our first walk of 2013. We drove up and down precariously steep hills before parking up outside our chosen pub in one of the picturesque estate villages. And.. yuck! We started the walk on a steep hill section that was thick with mud. It was hard going on my ankles, especially as I was only wearing light trail shoes rather than proper walking boots! It was pretty fun though, and we only passed two pairs of walkers aside from us, taking the same route in the opposite direction. About half way through, just as we came up into an open stretch the clouds opened up and blew freezing sleet straight at us. My trousers weren't quite up to the onslaught, and when we reached the pub an hour later I was utterly soaked. Good fortune then, that we were presented with the best roast I've had in a long time.

My parents both chose roast beef, which was so beautifully pink and tender that even I'd of been happy with it. I chose belly pork, which came with crackling, vibrant apple sauce and such delicious gravy that I couldn't stop gushing about it. At a few pounds more than the usual pub roast the price reflected that quality, and it was well worth it. I'm afraid that I have no photos, but it looked as good as it tasted!

I got changed as soon as we got home, and resisted them temptation to curl up by the fire and have an afternoon nap like an old man. A couple of hours after getting back, I decided to make a loaf of bread, using the sour rye flour that I had picked up from a gorgeous independent patisserie.
In Paul Hollywood's How to Bake it was suggested to use two tablespoons of black treacle for added richness. As I leafed through some of our older books, I discovered that this wasn't a new idea at all... "add in the yeast with the molasses" instructs Martha Day in Complete Baking.
Had I read the instructions beforehand, I would have started earlier... the proving time was stated as eight hours! I quickly began calculating how to get it done -initial rise until half past nine, knock back and reshaping, have a quick catnap until half eleven, preheat oven and bake... It was looking set to be a long night! Luckily, being sat by the fire, the dough rose fast enough to be ready to go in the oven by ten, and the whole thing was finished before half past. Technically, a faster rise loses some of the depth of flavour, but with the rich flour and addition of treacle, I wasn't too worried.

And I didn't need to; the rye cob cooked faithfully in the allotted time with a good crust and soft inside. When baking, I always have a tin of water underneath the bread, which creates a steamy atmosphere that really improves the texture of the bread.

I'd like to bake this again on a slow Saturday, and serve with avocado and a poached egg.
*Sigh*

Cinnamon Couquettes

It's a good thing that I'm no vlogger; as I have spent the last couple of days with no voice! Luckily it seems to be due to a cold rather than another episode of laryngitis, which is a real pain. My voice has started to come back now though, thanks to spending much of the day alone working. Its funny though; you know how they say that you don't appreciate something until you've lost it? Well until today, I didn't realise how much I sing to myself when nobody is around to hear! Every time I opened my mouth to hum to myself, a sound more like a braying donkey than Beyoncé left my lips, so I soon shut up.

There is only so long that a girl can stay tied to her desk, so after a few hours work I had hit the recipe books. I was tempted by a baked cheesecake, but I still wasn't feeling up to a cold bike ride down the road to our nearest shop to get cream cheese. Instead, I got out my faithful Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo, and went straight for the chouquettes.

Chouquette, the sweet sister of gougère, is a kind of choux pastry. You'll be more familiar with choux in the form of éclairs, profiteroles and huge caramel-covered croquembouche towers, but chouquettes are lovely too; more of a tasty treat than the full-on indulgence of it's cream-filled cousins.

I've altered the recipe very little; I find it best not to meddle with pastry! My only change is in the choice of flavourings, which I am very pleased with.

 At first I wasn't too worried about this; I've made Rachel's gougère before but in the end I was actually surprised to get any chouquettes at all; I used too large a pan and the mix cooled down before it could be properly beaten, and consequently I had a very runny mix. Undeterred, I slapped the pan back onto the heat, got out an egg whisk to smooth out the inevitable lumps, and beat it all into submission. I was expecting a big sloppy mess, so I couldn't believe my eyes when after a few minutes baking the little balls of dough had tripled in size quite happily. They were all a little wonky, but I was so pleased that I managed to save the pastry that it didn't matter.

Cinnamon Chouquettes

• 125ml of each milk and water
• 100g butter, cubed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 170g strong plain bread flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg, combined with the flour
• 4 eggs
• Icing sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180'C, gas mark 4. Make sure that all your ingredients are weighed out and to hand, and that the flour is in a container that allows it to 'shoot' into the mix in one go. Whenever something is added into the mix it will suddenly look lumpy and unpleasant, but keep beating all the while and it will soon be smoothly incorporated.
First, heat the milk, water, sugar, salt and butter over a high heat in a medium pan.

When the butter has melted, turn the heat down low and quickly tip the flour cinnamon and nutmeg in. With a wooden spoon, beat the mix furiously until the dough comes together cleanly in a smooth ball. Remove from the heat, and continue to beat until cool enough to touch. Now add in the eggs, one at a time. Here you should have a glossy paste that will hold it's shape when piped.

Place a piping bag with a 5mm nozzle into a tall mug to support it, and spoon in the pastry. Hold the piping bag at 90' and squeeze out walnut-sized balls, around 2cm apart. Before you lift the piping bag away to pipe the next chouquette, flick it sideways to avoid tall tips that will burn. According to the recipe you should get 20-30 chouquettes, although I, despite loosing some pastry, got a few more.
Dust with icing sugar and cinnamon -I forgot to do this on my fist batch but it didn't seem to matter -and place in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and golden.

While the chouquettes are baking, you can quickly make up some cinnamon butter. I just keep adding each of the ingredients until I am happy with the balance of sugar butter and cinnamon, but loosly base you amounts on this:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 50g soft brown sugar
• 4 tsp cinnamon

Melt the butter and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. That's it!! Spoon this onto the chouquettes once they have started to cool to get a gorgeous, caramel-y topping.

How amazing is the view behind our house? I keep on finding myself working over here instead of in the box-filled study....

These should last a couple of days in an airtight container, but are so light and moreish, I doubt they'll last that long...

Honey, I'm Home!!

Phew... apologies for the lack of blogging over the past week, but I have been caught up in the throws of moving house!! As we were moving just ten miles from our rented house of the last six months, we (read: Dad) decided to book a small removals firm for one trip, and then hire a van to carry the rest of the stuff across, so it has been a full on weekend. There are boxes and homeless pieces of furniture absolutely everywhere, so I've decided against photographs of the new place for now. Moreover, there is a lot of scary wallpaper and mismatched carpets to deal with! There seems to be something of a running trend throughout the house involving square-based designs on all of the wallpapered rooms.

Luckily there is no structural work at all that needs doing, so we can slowly get our way through all the cosmetic work that needs doing. It is a 1930's semi with the most amazing views over the fields behind it. Aside from the kitchen and utility areas, there are two main rooms downstairs; we've turned the front reception room into a library and study, leaving the back room with the views as the main living and dining area.

To my Mother's delight, and all her female friends and relatives awe and jealousy, we have a proper larder. The kitchen isn't exactly big, so it lets us use all our cupboard space for crockery, pans and other bits and pieces. I've already claimed a whole cupboard for all my baking bits! And I'm dropping hints about how great a KitchenAid would look in the corner cupboard -somehow though, I think that may be something that I have to fund for myself! I can't decide on a colour though -I like the pistachio green, but I haven't seen it in any of the shops that I would by from. What is your favorite colour?
I haven't been able to do much with my room yet, as we haven't had the chance to haul up the big desk upstairs. It will be great to have space for all my work, but the desk doesn't *quite* fit with my plans of a French country-inspired room. If I thought that I could get away with it, I'd try and steal Mum's gorgeous bureau, but perhaps not....

 Excellent desk; not-so-good renaissance piece.
 I do have one little oasis: the shelving units in my built in wardrobe are now nice and neatly displayed compared to the mess elsewhere. At the top, I've got a couple of boxes with Royal Doulton crockery in that my mother bought for me shortly after I was born. It was picked partially for it's name, Isabella, which I was nearly named. One of my oldest friends, my mother's Goddaughter, also has a set from Mum.

Between homework and unloading the van I christened our new house's oven (electric again, sadly, but at least it is by Leisure) with a couple of loaves of bread from Paul Hollywood's How to Bake. This was bought for my Dad, the chief breadmaker, but I knew that I would be getting just as much use out of it as him, if not more!

I made a white milk loaf, which was a nice simple mix to start with. I decided to use buttermilk to give the loaf an extra depth of flavour, which worked well. When kneading, Hollywood specified spreading a little olive oil across the work surface rather than flour, which I hadn't tried before. It helped to give the dough a really nice glossy finish after a few meditative minutes working with it.

I was pretty pleased with how these turned out, despite being in the oven five or so minutes too long (I need to get a timer for this oven!!). They could have done with a deep cut across the top to encourage a better rise. It is a lovely recipe; the milk and in the dough give a soft texture with (to use a phrase of Mr. Hollywood!) a nice crumb.

Speak soon, and I'll be keeping you all updated on the redecoration projects to come!