Category: Baking
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Toffee Apple Pie with Easy Homemade Pastry
The beginning of November is marked by a sudden chill in the air, cold hands and feet for people with poor circulation (including yours truly), conkers and shiny toffee apples. Or at least, the toffee apples make an appearance in the UK, the same can’t be said for here in France. So, to recreate that…
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Spiced butternut squash muffins
This post was originally published while I was living in Manchester, on 29th October 2018, and I think these little spiced butternut squash muffins deserve so much more from me than being buried in my archives! Here they are with some updated photos. The spooky glamour of Halloween ended quite abruptly for me a couple…
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Apple and Custard Cinnamon Rolls
Unlike babka, whose introduction started with ‘the babka incident’, cinnamon rolls have always had a ubiquitous presence in my life. Soft, chewy and warming, that sticky glaze covering your hands, they are a comfortable duvet in edible form. But with a little makeover, these apple and custard cinnamon rolls might as well be a cocoon,…
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Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Caramel and Chocolate
Finally, finally, after five years of writing this old blog, I bring you peanut butter banana bread. The fact that this is my first recipe for banana bread is honestly shocking. Considering that for years I have kept a stash of bananas in my freezer for the entire purpose of a regular supply of banana…
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Moist Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Unlike many bakers, I didn’t grow up baking at my grandmother’s knee. In fact, my most regular activity in my granny’s kitchen was drying the dishes (can you even qualify that as a skill? – ‘oh her baking is delicious’ ‘you haven’t seen anything, just watch her dry up’). My granny was of the generation…
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How to Make Fluffy Focaccia (and survive a heat wave)
The heat wave came without warning. Although I can’t say the same for the focaccia. That came from an all-consuming craving for salt-crusted cushion-soft bread, and no matter how many heat waves we suffer, there will always be a focaccia in this house. I have not experienced many heat waves in my life. This is…
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French recipe: Spiced Apricot Tarte Tatin
I’ve never kept it a secret that I’m a winter girl at heart. My favourite foods usually involve pastry or suet, I mean, I love lard for goodness’ sake. However, I will admit defeat in favour of summer fruits. This season can claim proud responsibility for the best fruits of the year. One of those…
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Pear, Chocolate and Hazelnut Scones
There’s been a week’s intermission from blogging and from France, but I can offer you some pear, chocolate and hazelnut scones as compensation, dear reader. I don’t look like a French native. My cheeks are almost ruddishly pink – something even my dad pointed out recently in a fairly critical manner (‘why are your cheeks…
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Hummingbird Cupcakes with Coconut and Passion Fruit
Hummingbird cupcakes have been my answer to a long cold winter. When I moved to the south of France, I expected skies in the exact shade of blue of a Swedish hunk’s eyes, sun-drenched river banks, warm terracotta soaking up the sun, and me, lounging in my garden leisurely sipping a cocktail. Now, a year…
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Nectarine Hand Pies with Creamy Cheesecake Filling
To do lists are all well and good, but they’re only satisfying if you can actually cross something off them. For once, I am proud to say that two tasks on my to do list can have a line drawn firmly through them, and this is particularly satisfying as these two tasks were hanging over…