Posted in Chocolate, GBBO Challenges, Nuts, Pastry, Puddings, tagged Chocolate hazelnut and Raspberry vertical tarts, desert, GBBO Technical Challenge, pastry on November 14, 2022| 1 Comment »
I’d love to have more time to try some patisserie stuff, I love watching Bake Off the Professionals and seeing some of the amazing patisserie things they do. It’s all so precise and they have lots of clever equipment too! These deserts were perfectly timed with Rich’s Birthday, so they made a tasty treat for pudding on Saturday night. Click here to see how I got on.
(more…)Posted in Fruit/Veg, GBBO Challenges, Pastry, Puddings, Summer, tagged GBBO Technical Challenge, lemon meringue pie, pastry on October 17, 2022| 1 Comment »
We were really looking forward to dessert week on the Bake Off, especially having seen the clip the week before showing the very limited instructions for making a lemon meringue pie. I honestly don’t think I have ever made a lemon meringue pie before, but I’ve made plenty of pastry, curd and meringue, so I was hoping it was going to be fairly straightforward. Click here to keep reading.
(more…)Posted in Fruit/Veg, GBBO Challenges, Pastry, tagged GBBO Technical Challenge, pastry, vegan sausage rolls on November 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Free from week on the bake off always surprises me, they make things that I would never usually attempt or things that really don’t appeal, but when I give them a go they are usually pretty good! This week was no exception, I love making sausage rolls and have tried plenty of different recipes over the years. But a vegan sausage roll didn’t really appeal – if you had told me it was a mushroom, lentil and miso pie I would have thought it sounded delicious. Click here to see how I got on.
(more…)Posted in GBBO Challenges, Nuts, Pastry, tagged Baklava, GBBO Technical Challenge on November 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »
It was Emily’s 6th Birthday party last weekend, so I didn’t have time to do the technical challenge as I was busy making and decorating her Jungle Book themed cake (coming soon!). So after a busy 2 week half term and kids party I decided to treat myself to some baking! I absolutely love Baklava but rarely eat it and have never attempted to make it, let alone make filo pastry, so it was great to give this a go. Click here to see how I got on.
(more…)Posted in Christmas, Fruit/Veg, gluten-free, Nuts, Pastry, Winter, tagged christmas baking, Gluten free baking, mini clementine Bakewell tarts on December 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Last week was a busy week of baking and here is another delicious Christmassy recipe that we made. I haven’t done a lot of gluten free baking recently as Rich is no longer following a gluten free diet. But these sounded good, especially the pastry made with marzipan in it. Click here to see the recipe.
(more…)Posted in Biscuits, Chocolate, Christmas, Pastry, Spices, Tray Bakes, Winter, tagged chocolate tiffin, christmas baking, rocky road, Rudolph Rocky road on December 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »
We have been super busy baking at home this week! So this is the first of my Christmas baking blogs, hopefully plenty more to come. I tried to pick recipes this year that the girls could help with to keep us busy at home. These were really good fun to make and look very cool too. Click here for the recipe.
The recipe was from November’s Sainsbury’s magazine – mince pie tiffin bites. We all love rocky road in our house, so this festive version will definitely be a favourite. Here is the recipe:
Mince Pie Tiffin Bites
100g skin on almonds
85g glacé cherries, quatered
55g dried cranberries
2 tbsp brandy or orange juice
125g butter
100g golden syrup
20g cocoa
Zest of 1 orange
150g dark chocolate
275g mince pies (roughly 5)
For the topping:
200g milk chocolate
3 tbsp double cream
16 chocolate covered pretzles
8 red glacier cherries
Small amount of white and black fondant for the eyes
Posted in Fruit/Veg, GBBO Challenges, Pastry, Puddings, tagged GBBO Technical Challenge, Sussex Pond Pudding on November 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I am sure plenty of people will agree with me that this weeks technical wasn’t really the most appealing, but I wanted to give it at go and I could see that the flavours should be pretty tasty. Luckily I had some suet in the cupboard as I was planning on making my mincemeat for Christmas this weekend. I ran out of time to bake with the girls, so this was my first solo challenge, click here to see how I got on.
I decided that we really didn’t want to make the whole recipe, Rich really wasn’t keen and I also didn’t have the right sized pudding bowls, so I used a small metal one instead and made just under half of the recipe. The full recipe can be found here. The recipe was easy enough to make. But I was not paying enough attention and forgot to line my tin, I had greased it though, so hoped that would be enough.
I didn’t time it very well as the 2 hours was up on the steamer while Rich was on a work phone call and we hadn’t even eaten dinner yet, so I left it another 20 mins before getting it out and having a go and turning it out. Unfortunately it wasn’t very easy to remove from the tin and broke, making a big puddley mess on the plate, just like most of the bakers! I think this is my first proper bake off fail! Amazingly it tasted much better than it looked and the lemon inside was soft and it was a bit like eating a sweet marmalade pudding. Emily and Chloe had a small bit to share and they really enjoyed it. It’s not really something I will be making again though!
Posted in Christmas, Fruit/Veg, Pastry, Spices, tagged christmas baking, Mince pies, Toffee Apple Mince Pies on December 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »
This years build up to Christmas is going so fast we haven’t even blogged about any Christmas baking yet! That doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy doing lots. I’ve done 2 Christmas cakes and tried some new Christmassy recipes this week, so keep an eye out for photos and recipes coming soon. It wouldn’t be Christmas without Mince pies and this year I thought I would try something new, click here for this yummy recipe.
Posted in GBBO Challenges, Pastry, Puddings, tagged Gateau Saint Honore, GBBO Technical Challenge, patisserie on October 25, 2019| Leave a Comment »
It’s actually quite a relief that this is the penultimate week of the Great British Bake Off! I have loved doing all the technical challenges and trying things I wouldn’t normally have had a go at, but I’m also looking forward to doing some of my own baking too. I love patisserie but rarely attempt any as it really is very time consuming. We are away this weekend, so I volunteered to bring dessert – perfect excuse to give this a go! Click here to see how I got on.
Posted in GBBO Challenges, Pastry, Spices, tagged Brick Pastry, GBBO Technical Challenge, Moroccan Pie on October 22, 2019| Leave a Comment »
This week has been super busy as it was Emily’s 4th Birthday on Sunday, so all my baking energy went into creating a crazy rainbow coloured unicorn cake for her! This was a bit of a last minute decision to make it for dinner on Monday night as Em was coming to stay for the night, so a great opportunity to make it together and then eat it for dinner. Click here to see how we got on.
Gloverly Cupcakes 