Obsession

We have some leftover apples and they remain one of my favourite ingredients even though I'm supremely lazy and hate prepping them. This one is heavily adapted beyond recognition from one of my favourite cupcake books Divine Cupcakes (Tamara Jane). The original makes 24 Orange and Poppy Seed Cupcakes... neither are a featuring ingredient! Makes 12 mini loafs (Lakeland mini loaf pan) or 12 cupcakes. Ingredients: 150g plain flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 125g unsalted butter zest of one lemon 112g caster sugar 2 eggs 125g ground almonds 1/4 cup milk 1/4 cup apple juice 1 peeled and diced apple Optionals: - scattering of flaked almonds or pine nuts - apple juice (half cup or so) - mascapone frosting (below) - sliced apple dipped in lemon juice to decorate Method: Cream butter, zest and sugar together. Add the eggs gradually (and add spoons of flour to prevent curdling.) Fold in ground almonds. Add flour and milk and apple juice in turn...

There's no reason to call this a Chiffon bread other than it's baked in a tin typically used for Chiffon cake. Chiffon cake is significantly more popular in Asia and you can see these cakes in supermarkets, typically with this chimney shape and often flavoured with Pandan. I digress. This bread is very similar to a panettone, it's sweetened with condensed milk which is a popular choice in Asia and a somewhat frustrating choice in the UK where you have to come up with ways to use the rest of the can (key lime pie, fudge) whereas in Asia it's a popular choice to spread straight on toast or can be used for bubble tea. Source recipe video is here , I've adjusted it a little and written out as below. Some people like adding some honey and as the bake is not too sweet, you could even decorate it with a drizzle of icing. Other than that, this is a really easy recipe with a little bit of entertainment as you arrange the dough pieces at the end in the 6inch chiffon pan w...

Whilst I'm a fan of the sourdough-like texture artisan no-knead bread has, the extremely long proves are somewhat irritating and sometimes you just want the machine to do the work. I also had this love for an onion bloomer M&S used to do before they took it off the shelves. Enter this recipe from a soon to be defunct Great British Chefs website . I sent in my list of comments including the excess amount of salt in the recipe, but just in case they take it off the site, here it is below with my adjustments. It fits nicely into the rather large IKEA loaf tin (29x10x7cm), but any tin would do really. Texture wise it's like a soft farmhouse loaf thanks to the inclusion of oil. It also lends itself to making a picture bread (see pictures below where I sectioned off the dough, coloured with various natural food powders and baked off.) Ingredients 1 onion, finely chopped and dried in the oven for 20 mins at 170ºC 500g Strong bread flour 50ml Oil (sunflower/vegetable) 10...

Despite eating everything (bar sourdough), I seem to require vegan, egg-free or gluten-free cakes quite regularly, usually because of other people's allergies and if you want of get rid of (almost) everything, vegan is a good option which everyone can eat. I did it for my wedding dessert table. Actually the best thing I did was jelly and lots of it. Guaranteed not to have kids reaching for their epipens. Well, highly, highly unlikely I should say. Previously though, I've always either used the "with vinegar" option and these cakes tend to be chocolate or apple based. This year I've been asked to make a vanilla cake for my friend's son who is allergic to eggs. Thankfully he is now a little older than the first time I baked for him (so dairy products are now IN!) The following was adapted from the following site , I actually made it in its coffee form as a part of a hospital drop off and it turned out well hence I adapted it to vanilla. Moreover though, as i...

Apple cheesecake In a short on ingredients world everything for this cheesecake has remained readily available. It serves two generously, four if you’re being restrained, and one if you’re just having that kind of a day. This recipe is hugely adaptable to what you have in the house, any fruit, any biscuit, any sweetener or fats (the texture might be a bit different but it’s all delicious). If you have some yogurt, sour cream or an extra lemon, the extra tartness would be good but not essential. Whipped cheesecakes are the mother of all inventions. Add anything you fancy. If it tastes good on it’s own, it is rarely going to taste bad combined with all the other lovely ingredients. If you want to save yourself the washing up, make it directly in your serving bowls as a deconstructed kind of dessert (call it a parfait!). Officially you would chill the cheesecake to help it firm up and hold its shape which is essential if you’re using a tin, however I’m just fine eating it when the c...

This recipe is so easy. It is unbelievably easy. And it tastes AWESOME. Severe overuse of that word but I swear it's true. Do you know those almond macaroons you get at the supermarket or at the chainstore bakeries? Or at the occasional artisan market stall. *snorts* I love these. My sister loves them more. We're not talking french macarons and if you're not a fan of those, these are definitely not the same as the guy at work hates those and loves these. These are, in the shop bought form, large round cookies stuck to rice paper, delightfully chewy, with a fat almond stuck in the top. If you made these a bit bigger, you'd get that. Anyway, my recipe came from Alldessertrecipes.com  based on a google and ignoring any that forgot to tell me how many eggs I needed. Technically these make 12 if you make a decent size. I made 18 and they were reasonable hershey kiss cookies sized. They don't spread too much either, easily just larger by 1cm in diameter max after. Ing...