Banana Tarte Tartin, Passion Fruit & Banana Sorbet

December 23, 2011
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This is Gregoire’s Banana dessert from his Never Skip Dessert  book, which is unfortunately out of print!  Easy tart to make and made from ingredients usually in the house; butter, flour, sugar and bananas. The first time I made it was last weekend for Emily  and husband Andrew, it was a hit.  I baked it [...]

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Gloria’s Quince & Apple Mincemeat (fat-free)

December 8, 2011
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It’s still not too late to make mincemeat for your Christmas mince pies.  I can cope with shop bought pastry but not shop bought mincemeat, it’s just not the same, miles apart.  The ones you buy are monotone, lack vibrancy and sharpness to balance against the sweetness.   I made my lovely friend Gloria’s mincemeat [...]

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Amaretto Wheat Variety 10.5% from Felin Ganol Watermill

November 29, 2011
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After writing my last post on Low Protein Flours Make Great Bread, It’s All About the Flour I said I would write in detail how I made my loaves using Anne Parry’s Amaretto white flour from her watermill in Wales.  A flour currently being sold as All Purpose because of its low protein content, 10.5%. [...]

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Low Protein Flours Make Great Bread, It’s All About the Flour

November 24, 2011
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Anne Parry owner of Felin Ganol watermill told me about this stoneground white flour she had, a single variety called Amaretto that was low in protein 10.5%.  This flour is being sold as an All Purpose flour but she thought it had a great flavour.  I couldn’t wait to try it.  I did and love [...]

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Chestnut & Almond Cake – Gluten-free, Dairy-free

November 19, 2011
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It has taken longer than I intended to post this recipe because cake number two and three didn’t turn out as planned when experimenting and I wanted to make certain by the fourth one I had ironed out problems. The cake has a lovely mousse texture, very soft, although in photos it appears solid, it’s [...]

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Tarka,Tadka, Chaunk, Dhungar: Tempering Spices & Making Dal

November 15, 2011
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I’ve recently made 2 posts on spices and now would like to mention one of my favourite ways of spicing lentils; tarka.  Tarka, tadka or chaunk and also known by other names if you look on wiki here, is a very good way of spicing food, not just legumes. I first noticed it years ago [...]

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Dan Lepard’s Slider Buns with Buffalo Burger

November 11, 2011
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Dan asked Luc, Fergus and I to do a home trial of his slider buns coming out tomorrow in his Guardian column, Luc’s results are here, and Fergus’ buns are here.   What’s so different about these buns?  It’s the method, using a roux method.  I first heard about this from a blogger friend Sunflower [...]

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Some Spicing Tips

November 9, 2011
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I’ve written the post on Don’t Dry Roast Spices here, and wanted to do a quick one on a couple of tips.  A week or so ago I was asked by Carl if I had any tips for a Goan curry he was making, to which I answered no, but I said I do have [...]

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Don’t Dry Roast Spices

November 8, 2011
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Want to be controversial in the foodie world here, tell them not to dry roast spices before making a masala mix.  If I hear or read one more chef, cookery writer stating, “you should dry roast spices for masala because it enhances them, giving a better flavour..”  I might just scream…quietly inside. It was a year [...]

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Stoate’s Flour at Cann Mills, Dorset

November 5, 2011
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If you remember I attended a couple of workshops with the baker  Paul Merry  back in the summer, and Paul runs them from  Cann’s watermill in Dorset.  Michael Stoate own’s the mill and while I was there one of Michael’s employees Kevin, showed me around. Michael’s family have been in the flour milling business since [...]

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Progress of Utility Room Baking Space

November 2, 2011
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Since I’ve been back from France there has been some progress in turning what was our dumping space garage into a proper utility room with baking space for me. These photos were taken last week, above photo a view into the garden. Below the door leads into Bikerboy’s now very tiny garage that barely fits [...]

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Chestnut Flour Madeleines – Gluten Free

October 30, 2011
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  I’ve been wanting to test out this recipe here for a year, had asked my local health food shop to order some chestnut flour but after a month of waiting they told me they couldn’t get any.  This summer on ordering lots of different flours from Shipton Mill I was delighted to see they [...]

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Roland Feuillas, Les Maîtres de mon Moulin

October 26, 2011
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Words I associate with Roland are; passion, mission, generosity, kind, energy, leadership, entrepreneur, enthusiasm, devoted.  By now if you’ve been keeping up with my week spent in the village of Cucugnan here, and reading all about my baking with Roland here, in his extraordinary wood fired oven here, you might have had some idea this [...]

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Baking with Roland in Cucugnan

October 24, 2011
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A week ago today I arrived in Cucugnan to bake with Roland Feuillas in his bakery  and learn about what this man so highly spoken of by Jean-Philippe de Tonnac was doing in a small village in the South West of France.  I didn’t have a clue what to expect since Jean-Philippe said very little [...]

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King of Wood Fired Ovens in Cucugnan

October 20, 2011
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In Roland’s small bakery  taking up most of the space is this monster wood fired oven.  You can see this is no model kit oven, it took 2 men at a time working on it who came from Spain, Ecuador and Colombia a year to build, it has something like 30 or 40 thousand kilos [...]

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