Obsession

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...

This one I got from a friend's mum a long time ago when I saw the picture. This was like inception of facebook, pre Instagram and I've never seen anything as good since. Here are mine, packaged up and ready to go to friends before I consume far too much. They're pretty angerous, especially when warm. My own skills being limited, but every time I want to go back and try egg tarts I search for this recipe. I've expanded some on the original recipe although it is as flexible as old school recipes seem to be. Lard can be replaced with shortening. Cake flour can be used instead of Plain flour. Eggs are medium or large. Where it says liquids as ounces, I literally weigh ounces of liquid out rather than fluid ounces. No idea if they're any different. I'll update the pictures when I make nicer ones. Trimming the pastry would probably make it nicer to look at, but I'll take the extra depth of filling any time. Ingredients: Oil Pastry: 150g Plain fl...

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...

I spent years using the french macaron method and accepted a certain element of crackage. It was just the expectation that the basic meringue is the simpler option, but then I bit the bullet and tried Italian meringue and never looked back. Yes it requires more washing up. But the "hit" rate as such is much higher. The cracks are not all blameable on hot spots. Sometimes it's just the mix. This recipe is from Pierre Herme as per the Telegraph. I do not use liquefied egg whites because it's never made a difference to me, and I'm definitely not buying mineral water, the remaining adjustments are just shortcuts to avoid over complication. The ones made here I decided to decorate (first time) by mixing up a little food colouring with vodka and just paint it on. MAKES around 72 macarons (or about 144 shells) Ingredients Part A: 300g ground almonds 300g icing sugar 110g egg whites Food colouring (gel or paste) Part B: 300g caster sugar 75g cold wate...

We've been watching Zoom cooking sessions with Michelin starred A Wong during lock down and absolutely loving it. Possibly we've been giving him a bit of grief on the side, but all in good humour! My friends and I are big fans of Chinese food but it's a fine balance between great Chinese food, and doing what it takes to be Michelin - his needs to have the bells and whistles on it, but at the same time charging £8? for a Bor Lor Bau (pineapple bun) which goes for a standard of around £2 in Chinatown bakeries is shocking. In line with normal restaurant dessert prices scarily, but it better be the best bor lor bau ever. In line with that, he served his egg tart on the show with a scoop of clotted cream on top. *shields eyes*. Giving it a good shot here (see the picture) but just as an FYI, usually butter does not feature in chinese egg tarts, and usually the water pastry is...flour, egg and cold water. Having made them I only conclude that I prefer the recipe I had before. W...

I attempted to start a lock-down bakeoff online and for the first challenge I set swiss roll or babka. It may die a prompt death if no one joins me but at least I tried. There's something addictive about designing challenges and I have a shedload. Geeky bake idea queen - and out there I'm guessing some frustrated producer of Bakeoff is dreaming of filming a football documentary or something. Here was my swiss roll anyway. I have previously made the Tokyo Banana recipe from here and whilst it makes the best sponge, the custard flowed straight out. It tasted really nice though and I need to work on that, but for this I wanted an actual banana custard and therefore I turned to this site for a creme patisserie recipe which I adapted to my ingredients. Decopaste: 1 egg white 30g caster sugar 40g plain flour 20g butter Food colouring. Method: Mix everything together in the order above. Divide into bowls and colour with food colouring or in my case, some cocoa ...

Once upon a time we went to San Sebastian and there was a restaurant which sold pretty much only cheesecakes. They sold other things, but San Sebastian is a town where each restaurant has one or two items for which they are known for, and when the walls are covered in cheesecakes, it's fairly obvious what this place sells. Now it seems basque burnt cheesecakes have reached a new kind of cult status so naturally I had to try.  The recipe I used was from Bon Appetit , which for a 10 inch cake pan was far too big for me to contemplate. Instead, I reduced it by half and used a 7 inch pan. Also because I made it on the same week as a guiness cake we discovered the two are very palatable eaten together. Ingredients: 480g cream cheese (room temperature) 150g caster sugar 3 eggs 240ml double cream 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla paste for some nice flecks) 20g plain flour Method: 1. Blend the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and cream in order. (...