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Ohhhhhhh my… these are good – even if I do say so myself. Mint chocolate brownies with a layer of after dinner mints nestling inside. The thought of these warm, with a scoop of ice cream is making me gasp. The thought of them cooled; fudgey and lip lick-inducing is making me swoon.
Yeah. they’re OK. In fact, they’re yummy. They’re minty and chocolatey and they’re brownies. All is well with the world.
There is an unmistakeable cinnamon and brown sugar warmth to this sweet, juicy apple pie made with flaky, easy to make, pastry.
Ian said that when warm, it reminded him of the apple pie that one gets from the Golden Arches. He then went on to say that he meant that in a good way.
I struck him across the face with my silk-lined muff, but I know what he meant – it’s that warm spicy sweetness and the slight firmness to the apple – just without the freaky fat-laden fried pastry. Cheeky swine.
It’s a good one, this recipe. You need a 9″ deep pie plate for this pie.
A quick word about the pastry. I have a little bit of a pastry avoidance issue, but the ease of this recipe has almost cured me. Freezing the fat and using ice cold water keeps everything cold. Cold is good for pastry. Using the processor keeps warm fingertips out of the way and works quickly to avoid over handling the dough. Honestly, it’s OK – have a go and channel your inner Grandparent who would faint if they knew you used bought pastry.
Chocolatey, moist, the most tender of tender crumb, rich, chocolate buttercream filling; the kind of cake you think about longingly at 9.30 in the evening. This is not a brown cake wishing it was a chocolate cake – this IS a chocolate cake, but not so dark and dense that it strays into dessert territory. It’s from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook.
This was the recipe that I chose to make for Tim’s birthday. His 69th birthday – but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Continue reading 'Chocolate Buttermilk Cake for a special birthday'»
Morning, steeping fruit and sugar! Sleep well? My, haven’t you grown? You’re looking a bit swollen, love.
Best make you into a tea loaf then.
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Cinnamon buns are a gift from the yeasted pastry Gods and this recipe, with cream cheese laminating the dough, is outstanding.
I first stumbled across this recipe whilst perusing Michelle’s blog. She had, in turn, got the recipe from Joy the Baker – just goes to show that a good recipe gathers a large fan base.
These cinnamon buns are remarkable, a tender utterly delicious dough swirled with dark sugar, pecans and plenty of cinnamon. I have been searching for THE recipe and this one is it. I thought I loved the sticky bun version of cinnamon rolls, but this is much nearer the kind of famous cinnamon buns that we, sadly, cannot get in the UK.
First of the offerings from our get together at the beach is a delicious chocolate fudge cake.
We had such a laugh; it was one of those days that leaves you smiling for ages afterwards, I keep giggling at the memory. Just perfect.
So, to the cake. This is very loosely ( hardly at all) adapted from a favourite book of mine – ‘Diner Desserts’ by Tish Boyle.
I hate games that involve things like ‘what is your favourite flavour’ because how are you supposed to choose? I reason with myself at times like that…what does it matter? No-one’s saying I can only ever eat that one thing, no-one will beat me with a kipper if I fail to mention something that I think of later, but still I fret.
So. ONE of my favourite flavours is maple.
I would like maple on everything please – that and cinnamon. See?! I’m doing it already! I’ll discuss cinnamon obsession another time.
Ian’s Mum is overloaded with windfall pears, so we helpfully brought a bag of them home with us. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them so poached them and had a think whilst they rested in the fridge. I also had 4 peaches that were looking at me with attitude.
What to do.
I had loads of recipes for what is in essence a sponge/pound cake hybrid with fruit chucked in, but they all had one thing in common – best served warm. Now anything is better warm; chocolate, bread, your dinner, your body….
… but if a cake is BEST warm, that indicates to me that as far as cakes go, it isn’t going to be a great recipe. Not only that, it also means that tomorrow, that cake is going to be soggy and that’s just unpleasant.
So I thought, well better do a dessert then. Couldn’t be bothered with pastry, had discarded the cakey-pudding concept, so that left me with crumble.
We like crumble. The best part about crumble is the crumble, but pears and peaches are pretty marvellous too.
If you’re not feeling a peach vibe, check out my Pear and raspberry Crumble…
Continue reading 'Pear and Peach Crumble'»
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