In the mood for pistachios and having some fantastic Conference pears from Hayles fruit farm ( autumn was warm and dry this year, the apples and pears are fabulous ), I searched for a recipe that would accomodate both. I found one in GF, but adjusted it the way I thought would be best. It is, the next day even better!

For my small square tin I used 140 g of unsalted, roasted pistachios, shelled, 100 g of which I whizzed with 60 g of milk chocolate and 50 g of caster sugar. In KA bowl I had 100 g of self raising flour waiting, another 50 g of sugar, 100 g of soft butter. I added the whizzed ingredients and combined with 2 beaten eggs and a splash of milk.  Scraped it into the lined tin, added a few chunky pieces of pears and baked in 190 degrees for about 22-25 minutes, cooled.

Finished with a simple milk chocolate and cream glaze and the remaining 40 g of pistachios, roughly chopped and sprinkled on top. Excellent with a cup of tea on a Thursday morning, when the house is lovely, clean and quiet( toddler in the playgroup). Bliss. 🙂

If I ever publish a cookbook( loud laughter), I might include this bread in it. Mainly due to the fact, that I haven’t copied a recipe here, I just thought this morning- something with pesto would be nice, as pizza went down so well even with Izzie.  So I used 300 g of mixed seed posh flour, which was expensive to buy, but I still got it, as there is so much more to learn in my relationship with bread baking. Crumbled in some fresh yeast, didn’t measure it, just a bit more than for our regular pizza. A splash of olive oil, a pinch of salt( it needs more!) and warm water, added slowly while KA worked the dough- I wanted it quite runny, but not too runny.  It proved in the oven still slightly warm after lemon macaroons till more than doubled in size. Then I knocked it down, rolled out, spread out some pesto on it, quite generously and rolled tightly for the second proving. After about 20 minutes of it I baked it in 200 degrees for about 35 minutes, then switched off the heat and kept it in for another 10.

Ok, it wouldn’t win awards in competitions, but it does taste great with a chilled glass of wine, while it’s still warm. Salted butter is a must. Will be made again, maybe some salty serrano ham on the side or something.

Perfect with a cup of tea on a rainy day like today. After girls night out last night, overflowing with wine. I’m about to get cracking with beef cannelloni for later, which were to go with a good looking Amarone I bought a few weeks ago, but not too sure about the wine at this very moment….. .

I used the recipe from mojewypieki, but should have made half a portion, we might struggle with the amount I made.  Should have known better, 540 g of plain flour is a lot. With that 80 g of sugar, a touch of salt, 20 g of fresh yeast, 250 ml of warm milk, 2 eggs, 75 g of melted butter.  I made zaczyn first- 3 tbsps of flour, all the yeast, some sugar and most of the milk, 20 minutes later added it to the rest of the ingredients and let Kitchen Aid do the work.  It proved for over an hour, then I knocked it down and rolled onto a rectangle. Brushed it with melted butter, then generously sprinkled brown sugar mixed with cinnamon, MUCH less than suggested in the recipe and I still have lots left, I’ll use it for coffee. Rolled it and sliced into 12 buns, very sticky and tricky to handle. Placed into a lined baking tray and left to prove for another 30 minutes. Then baked in 180 degrees for 20 minutes. The house smelled fabulous.

The glaze is ok, not  in any way brilliant. Again, could have made half of it and it would have been enough. 60 g of soft butter, 4 tbsps of icing sugar, vanilla paste- whipped. 120 g of Philly added. A splash of milk to make it runny.

Perfect buns for someone who gets up at 6 am and wants to make a family happy with such breakfast. Needless to say- I don’t get up at 6 am to bake.  🙂

The flavour combo is Aska’s idea. We’ve been exchanging ideas, as to what would be the best way of making a good coconut macaroon. Aska obtained coconut flour from Whole Foods, but had doubts about quantity, I was of the opinion the macaroon should be made with nuts, not flour, even if it’s a fine, coconut flour. So I toasted some desiccated coconut, ground it and added 100 g of it to 50 of almonds and proceeded with the usual recipe.  The filling is made of mascarpone, lime curd( Sainsbury’s own brand, next time I might splash out a bit more, this one did not wow me), fresh lime juice and zest, as usual, adding and tasting until I was happy.

They’re nice. Florian loves them, but he loves anything with lime, for me the texture is a touch chewy. But one must try things, for science. 🙂

I hardly ever bake cupcakes, as I find them overrated and not that special. But if there is nothing sweet to have with a cup of tea in the evening I get annoyed, so this morning I searched mojewypieki.com for something simple and yummy to have after dinner. I found these in a posh version, with dried pineapple flowers on top, which I couldn’t be bothered with. So I reduced Dorota’s recipe by half and made 8 small muffins, which is a perfect amount- we enjoy them, nothing’s wasted and there is no time to be bored with the flavour.

I creamed 60 g of soft butter with about 4 tbsps of sugar, added 1 whole egg, 1 mashed ripe banana,  110 g of plain flour, less than half a tsp each of bicarb soda and baking powder, 1tsp of cinnamon and at the end just added 2 chopped, drained, canned pineapple rings. And baked 8 small cupcakes, 160 degrees, about 22-25 minutes.

Yummy and LOW CALORIE buttercream, as in the name consists of 25 g of soft butter, 2 tsps of icing sugar, 90 g of Philly cheese and a splash of vanilla paste.

They’re sweet, not not sickly and there are 3 left. 🙂

By a certain Nigella.  Made specially for Florek, who’s been busy these days making plans and thinking about stuff, but first of deciding to take us  on holidays next Monday. He deserved a chocolate cake.

I made half a portion, as making  a cake of 8 eggs for 2 people did not seem like a good idea. First melted 100 g of dark chocolate, 70 g of milk chocolate in 90 g of butter. Whipped 4 egg yolks with 50 g of caster sugar and 50 g of muscovado, while kitchen aid was busy whipping the whites stiff. Added the chocolate and butter mix into the yolks, a pinch of salt there too. Then egg whites in, bit by bit and gently. What makes this cake different and better from the other ones is the way it baked- in bain marie. 180 degrees, tin secured with aluminium foil, about 50 minutes. It rose like a soufflet, but came down significantly when out of the oven. Still, it did not affect the quality of it, the cake is fantastically light and super moist. And by now, half eaten. 🙂

Best ideas come to my head in bed either right before I fall asleep or early in the morning. This is one of them, a macaroon that’s a bit like Black Forrest Gateaux, a chocolate shell and cherry filling. I baked the shells usual way, but replaced 35 g of icing sugar with cocoa. And that was the colour sorted, as well as a lovely, comforting taste. For the filling I cooked 200 g of frozen cherries with some sugar, but should have skipped the sugar really, because as I blitzed the cherries with half a mascarpone and 50 g of melted white chocolate- I could hardly taste the cherries. The colour was there, lovely and purple, but I had to spike it all with lemon juice and a few fresh strawberries to bring it to life.  And the result is much to my satisfaction. The shells are nearly perfect, like those for Lisa, the filling could have been more cherry than berry, but once Florian is home, the macaroons will be going. Quickly. 🙂

I’ve done my first ever “order”. I haven’t taken a payment for it, as it’s for Lisa, but I’ve made over 60 rather perfect macaroons, that will be served on Bessie’s christening tomorrow. Lemon-yuzu, blackcurrant and raspberry.  Facing an audience tomorrow, rather just family and friends. It does feel good, I have to say. 🙂

Florek bought me a book by Michel  Roux called “Eggs”, a nice little book that changes my idea of what a good crepe should be, how to posh up scrambled eggs, a few good desserts that I’ll surely try etc.  And a recipe for macaroons,  which was about a quarter of the length of the one I normally use. I read it with disbelief, I thought it was far too simple; no Italian meringue, an ordinary one instead. No drying time. No weighing egg whites. But for scientific purposes I had to give it a go, especially having some leftover blackcurrant curd. So I did. It was a refreshing method, but I’ll be sticking with more fancy Italian meringue. It seems to make the mixture a lot more stable and the texture of a ready macaroon thicker, more enjoyable to eat. Not to mention that the absolute majority of them cracked in the oven, while with another method it’s a sad few that do it.  Having said that, we’ve just had 5 between us with Izzie, who now says “more cake please”, so they will certainly not go to waste.

I used 180 g of icing sugar, 100 g of ground almonds, 3 egg whites which I whipped with 40 g of sugar, added food colouring and that was all.  Piped them onto the trays and shoved into the oven warmed up to 160 degrees. Michel recommends baking them for 7 minutes, mine were not baked after 7 minutes, mine took about 11.

Nice little experiment, but next time back to fancy stuff. 🙂

I still have a headache after making those.  I thought this morning that if I want to have a go at making them for a living, I better get practising.  Made the shells the same method as always, but instead of 150 g of ground almonds I used 105, the remaining 45 g were ground hazelnuts. And no food colourant, 115 g of icing sugar, 35 g of cocoa.

It’s the freaking filling that was a pain in the butt. If I kept it simple, mascarpone + very strong instant coffee, it might have worked hours ago. But I diluted it with Baileys and spent forever waiting for it to thicken. It didn’t.  Gelatine didn’t help.  Freezer didn’t freaking help. At last, the cornflour did, but before I discovered it did, I was heading for the fridge determined to send it all down the bog, if still runny.

It will be stressful, having to make them perfect for a customer, but I will perfect macaroons. Is the plan.