I’m really fond of fougasse, southern France’s version of the focaccia. It’s fun to make and this Christmas tree version, while it departs from the traditional shaping, is a festive addition to the seasonal table. Continue reading
Light, fruity and spicy, these tangzhong hot cross buns are a pleasure to eat. Split them, toast them and butter them and enjoy them for breakfast, elevenses or an Easter tea. Continue reading
I’ve had to hide this in a cupboard because I can’t stop eating it. This spelt and honey tear and share bread is incredibly moreish and a good accompaniment to lots of different autumn meals. Eat it for breakfast or tea, split and spread with butter and honey; dunk it in a bowl of spicy pumpkin soup; or devour it with a good cheese. Continue reading
Panzanella is one of those excellent Italian recipes where frugality transcends virtue to become something greater. It marries stale bread with sweet, juicy tomatoes to give you the perfect summer salad, one with flavour and a bit of heft. Continue reading
Tangzhong, for anyone not familiar with it, is a Japanese bread-making technique which involves cooking a small quantity of flour and liquid like a roux, then incorporating that into the dough. It’s meant to make the bread softer and last longer. Continue reading
An Easter treat, these spicy, fruity yeasted buns are usually in the shops from oh, just after Christmas, but as usual home-made are better if you can spare the time. As so many of us are self-isolating thanks to coronavirus, making them is a pleasant way of whiling away an afternoon, and probably the only way to get your mitts on them with the supermarket shelves being so empty. Continue reading
Shop-bought crumpets can, as Elizabeth David said with characteristic disdain in English Bread and Yeast Cookery, be “terrible travesties…perhaps…delivered direct from a plastics factory”. Though I’ve eaten my fair share of those, toasted and slathered in butter, home-made are in a class of their own. However, they are tricky to get right. Continue reading
I love a well-made hot cross bun but I haven’t had much time this week, so if you find yourself in a similar position, you might like this fruity, spiced soda bread. It’ll feed a lot more people than a bag of HCBs from the shop. Continue reading
Pretty much every burger I’ve had recently that I’ve most enjoyed has been loaded into a brioche bun. This isn’t exactly fast food – you need to prepare the dough the night before you plan to bake – but I’d like to share the recipe because they are streets ahead of supermarket brioche. Continue reading
I love quince, it’s one of my favourite fruits and I’m always a bit bemused when people say they don’t know what to do with them, because they’re so versatile. I suppose it’s a lack of familiarity: because their shelf life is short, supermarkets tend not to stock them. Continue reading