We’re pretty lucky. Not only did we get a house we love, but it turns out that it has an added benefit that we’d never even considered before we moved in… the fruit, veg and herbs from the garden.
Category: Baking/Cooking
Foraging for fruits
I’ve already mentioned that we have quite a lot going on in the garden fruit-wise. OK, it’s not really foraging when it’s in your own back garden, but hey. It is when you didn’t plant them.
We have raspberries, redcurrants, gooseberries, and loganberries, all of which seem to be favourites for the birds too, so we’ve had to throw a net over them. We’re also having to stop Scarlett picking and eating every berry she sees before she makes herself ill. Not sure which is the greater threat.
Going full croissant
I’ve had a crack at making almond croissants. I strongly suspect these would have turned out better if I’d parked the almond element for my first attempt, but no. I had to go full croissant.
The end result appears quite nice, but to be fair, a sprinkle of icing sugar and a kindly Instagram filter, and I’d probably look like hot stuff too.
Little by little
Not much to report on the house front, although our buyers have now paid their deposit to their solicitor, a mere three months later. Exchange and completion dates still to be determined.
We’re in a dilemma now, whether to move before or after the baby’s born, as we’re swiftly approaching the danger zone. Just hanging fire to see if we get any info from our bank this week about the mortgage.
The Bake Off Final
We’ve had the Bake Off challenge final… I came… drumroll please… third. Of five. A distinctly average performance among my peers, but I definitely had some highlights.
Double chocolate and raspberry tart
I’ve been hanging round third place on our GBBO leaderboard, and it’s sadly too late to change that now. But, I’m determined to go out fighting!
Here’s my double chocolate and raspberry tart. I got lucky with these raspberries – look at them, they’re neon! – as they’re almost out of season, but these were really tasty.
Apple and caramel cream horns
Hands up if you’ve ever made a cream horn. I’m guessing nobody, other than the five of us taking part in this challenge (and the Bake Off participants themselves, of course). And with good reason.
They’re a pain in the arse. They require a lot of different processes and techniques, and on a personal note, a week later, I still haven’t got feeling back in one of my fingertips after touching a hot toffee-coated spoon.
Ultimate Vanilla Crème Brûlée
This might be the best pudding I’ve ever made. And it still came second to my friend Charlie’s cinder toffee version in our GBBO challenge!
I used this BBC recipe, but I’ve got fancy pants vanilla essence which contains vanilla seeds, which I used in place of the vanilla pod because I’m not made of money, it gives a lovely flavour and you still get the flecks of vanilla. I also used this almond puff pastry sticks recipe to serve with them, but I found them a bit too dry.
Bake off biscotti
I, along with several of my friends, am watching this year’s Great British Bake Off very carefully. Don’t get me wrong, I always watch it, but this year is different.
I put a call out on Facebook to see which of my friends would be interested in a GBBO challenge – baking our version of the contestant’s weekly contest in a mini competition of our own. I did exclude my lovely friend, Lenka, who is insanely talented on the baking front (check out her Facebook page), so she’s judging (albeit remotely), and showing us how it’s done. She’s basically a young, Slovakian, Mary Berry.
How d’you like dem onions?
When the Morrisons man hands you onions, you make… French onion soup. Idiot that I am, I ordered six bags of onions, not six onions, in a recent online shop (Barry did the same with oranges a few years ago), and made it my mission to use them all in delicious recipes.