Honey fudge/ toffee

Another recipe from the River Cottage Family Cookbook but this time, not so foolproof.

This seemed so easy, but despite having my sugar thermometer carefully in hand, I made two batches - one that turned out as fudge-ish, one that turned out as toffee, neither of which were the same colour as in the book...

In fact, I think I nearly burnt the stufff that turned out fudgy. But I don't understand how I did that, and indeed how I got tofee, when according to my thermometer I hadn't even reached 116 degrees Celsius. According to the recipe, that's what I was aiming for and I'd have to get to 200 or so to hit toffee levels, but that's not what happened so...

My reliable fudge-making friend tells me that I overcooked the milk. I suspect I could've done with a deeper pan (so as to be able to do it all in one batch), with a heavier bottom and on a lower, less impatient temperature.

This one definitely requires further experimentation.

I haven't taken pictures of it chopped proper because...well, let's just say it wasn't pretty.

But here it is in a tray.

Delia's iced lemon curd layer cake

Ah cake! This particular one I've made once or twice before, and I recently recreated it as a house-warming gift for two of my lovely friends who have just moved in together for the first time.

It's a great house-warming cake - gooey and filling, yet light and lemony. I can't put my finger on what specifically makes it a cake capable of warming houses and cockles, but ah it does. Maybe it's Delia's magic touch! Except it was my magic touch, because I made it. So there.

I have to say, I never thought it'd be so easy to make lemon curd. I seem to remember that when I made it once before, I accidentally got lumps of egg white in it because the water below the bowl was too hot. So I had to sieve them out and it was a bit of an eggy palaver.

However, it all went smoothly this time...apart from the fact that my all-in-one cakes never seem to rise particularly well. I don't know if it's because of my particular electric whisk or what, but for this cake it doesn't matter too much.

Oh, and in cutting the top layer horizontally in two, I daydreamed a little bit and one side of one layer was very thin, hence the crack across the top (it was too wonky a layer to go precariously in the middle).

This cake is super tasty with the lemon curd freshly spread between the layers, but the next day (or the day after!) the curd will start to absorb into the cake - which is fine. It's still moist, lemony, forgiving cake!

You can find Delia's recipe here - maybe try a lime or lemon and lime version and let me know how it goes!

Profiteroles!

Having a snog in the oven.
A deceptively easy-to-make dessert! And universally taste-bud pleasing.

Perhaps I will make some more of these soon and take you through in a more step-by-step fashion. My trusty recipe is from the days of Home Ec. lessons at secondary school.

Christmassy cupcakes

I made these for a lovely Christmassy gathering last year - along with the sparkly brownies below.

They weren't my best cake ever, but they did look suitably festive!

Beer and cake. What more do you need for Christmas?

Chocolate Brownies

Mmmmmmmmm chocolate brownies. This is one of the best and most fool-proof recipes I've ever used (from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Fizz Carr in their River Cottage Family Cookbook ) and I've seen similar recipes from Nigel Slater and the like, so it must be good!

Now, for several delicious brownie pictures. One lot from September and one lot of sparkly brownies from Christmas last year.

Crumbles!

Yes, not a crumble but crumbles.

We seem to have acquired quite a store of ramekin dishes thanks to various M&S and Gu (where do I find an umlaut on this keyboard??) desserts.

So, with continuing abundance of apples and pears in hand, I set about making simple crumbles.

That means no cinammon and not much lemon juice. Partly, I've never had a pear crumble, so I wanted to see what it tasted like untainted.


I made some apple crumbles, some pear, some apple and pear, and toffee variations on those three.

I should've put more toffee in the toffee ones, but all-in-all they weren't too bad. Either warmed them and had them with cream, or with custard.

Yumalicious.

Toffee Pear Galettes

These were gobbled before I remembered to take a pic of them, but I had an abundance of apples and pears and this looked SO easy.

For the proper recipe on the Good Food website, follow the link above - essentially you require a sheet of ready rolled puff pastry, peeled and halved pears (or apples) and toffee sauce....resisting urge to say "DONE".

Halve and peel your pears (or apples - I used one of each) thinly slice, but keep joined at stalk end. Take your circles of puff pastry, spoon on your toffee sauce and fan your fruit out on top - glaze with a whisked egg. Put in a hot oven for 20mins, et voila.

Serve with cream or ice cream and devour.

Click on the title of this post for the recipe.