Obsession

Random non-food moment, I am trying to boycott Amazon at the moment. It's monopoly and ethics don't sit well with me. I'm not one who thinks Bezos should be lynched for his money for the greater good, nor do I think taxing the company is particularly effective as they do have choices of jurisdictions and in the case of France, a smile and a "pass it on to the supplier" approach. Instead I'm just going to do my part by not buying from them. Probably not the greatest protest on earth since I'm cutting down on purchasing anyway (minimalism, where for art thou? Buried under two rooms of baking equipment that's where.) Anyway, I still want books. My favourite place in the world is sitting in Waterstones Piccadilly with a pile of books. On a few occasions I have read them cover to cover over a number of weeks like using it as a public library. Much like the occasional homeless guy having a nap in a safe space. (I'd like to say one book was on minimalism

When you need chocolate, brownies are the answer. This one makes a relatively conservative amount. Perfectly acceptable to eat an entire tray by yourself and as an added bonus, it's ridiculously easy and you don't have to wait for the butter to soften because you just melt it! I usually don't buy brownies because usually they're disappointing. I have two exceptions: A place in Chapel Allerton near Leeds (way too far to go back to) and Konditor and Cook's Boston brownies, but specifically from the Chancery Lane branch. Don't ask why, the other branches don't get it right. The Konditor and Cook Boston brownie is squidgy with cranberries, and as much as I've tried the recipe from their book, it doesn't come out right. Therefore we go back to my favourite recipe from Katherine Hepburn which basically goes, less flour the better. Ingredients: 60g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder 113g unsalted butter 120g (3/4 cup) caster sugar 2 eggs 30g (1/4 cup) pl

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

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