Category: Cookery Projects

  • Fig and Caramelised Onion Flatbreads

    Fig and Caramelised Onion Flatbreads

    And at last, figs are here. The bounty of the season! Let’s frolic under heaving fig trees or shove armfuls of them into our bags-for-life at the market. Make snow angles in the teetering piles of them building up all around us. Or not. You may be thinking that a fig and caramelised onion flatbread…

  • French Recipe: Goat’s Cheese and Onion Tart

    French Recipe: Goat’s Cheese and Onion Tart

    It may just be residual stress from cookery school, but making a tart – sweet or savoury – is up there in the top five reasons to bring me out in a cold sweat. Various forms of confrontation are another. As is speaking French. But back to tarts; over the last 6 and a half…

  • Burnt Basque Cheesecake with Poached Rhubarb

    Burnt Basque Cheesecake with Poached Rhubarb

    I’m not what one would describe as a perfectionist. Gaylord and my mum commiserate about my appalling washing up and Gaylord has a mini panic attack whenever he sees how I hang laundry. There are occasional times though when I’m seemingly possessed by perfectionism; it kind of sneaks up on me and has me bound…

  • How to Make Hot Cross Buns

    How to Make Hot Cross Buns

    If you’re ever uncertain about what time of year it is – who knows why, maybe you have a nice bunker – I’d advise you to go to the supermarket. They will set you on the right path straight away because as soon as one holiday is shunted out the door, the next is sequinned…

  • Gingerbread marshmallows

    Gingerbread marshmallows

    I appear to have travelled through time. I blinked and somehow it’s advent. Time travel is clearly the only logical answer – although the time machine would have to be invisible and must be parked in one of the few unused parking spaces outside. And all users would have had their memories magically wiped. But,…

  • French recipe: Pain au Chocolat

    French recipe: Pain au Chocolat

    What are the first three foods that come to mind when you think of France? Take your time, I will wait. Ready? Let’s see – I assume baguettes are up there? Baguettes seem to grow like grass here. What about delicate pastries like eclairs? Or their 1600 cheeses? Basically, anything involving butter? France is pretty…

  • Toffee Apple Pie with Easy Homemade Pastry

    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…

  • Apple and Custard Cinnamon Rolls

    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,…

  • French recipe: Spiced Apricot Tarte Tatin

    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…

  • Nectarine Hand Pies with Creamy Cheesecake Filling

    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…