Posts Tagged “baking”
Flour: A comprehensive guide to grains and pulses, nuts and seeds: recipes from breads and tortillas to pancakes and pies was bound to be a good read. I have reviewed another of Christina McFadden’s books: Pepper – the spice that changed the world, and it was a lovely volume. My expectations were high, and they…
This is another in the series from My Kitchen Table, offering good-value volumes of easy-to-make recipes, and in the case of 100 Cakes and Bakes those recipes have been penned by none other than the queen of cakes, Mary Berry, who has inspired a generation of would-be home bakers. We have a royal wedding approaching…
From BBC Food Empanadas are perfect for picnics or pop a couple of these creamy corn pasties in your lunch box. Ingredients For the pastry 450g/1lb plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 60g/2¼oz butter, diced into 1cm/½in cubes 60g2¼oz lard or vegetable shortening, diced into 1cm/½in cubes For the…
From Delia Smith For this recipe – ideal for vegetarians – I use a 7 inch (18 cm) metal pie plate with a rim which is about 1½ inches (4 cm) deep. Serves 4-6 Ingredients For the pastry: 1½ oz (40 g) wholewheat flour 1½ oz (40 g) plain flour 1½ oz (40…
From Delia Smith When we made these tartlets for the photography, we couldn’t stop eating them! Crisp, light pastry with such a luscious filling – and also lovely as a first course at a supper party. Makes 24 Ingredients For the pastry: 6 oz (175 g) plain flour 3 oz (75 g) butter,…
From Delia Smith The long, slow cooking of red onions and balsamic vinegar gives a lovely sweet, concentrated caramel consistency. These are then spooned into crisp cheese pastry cases and topped with melted goats’ cheese and sage. Serve them as a special first course with some balsamic-dressed salad leaves, or 2 tarts per person…
From Stop and Shop Enjoy as an appetizer, or a starter, these crescents can be prepared in advance, frozen and thawed as convenient. Perfect for the holidays! Ingredients: 1 7-ounce President Brie cheese 1 8-ounce package crescent rolls 2 pears or apples, cored and sliced Method Unroll and spread out crescent roll…
From Sainsbury’s Basic all-butter shortcrust pastry recipe for pies and quiches. Serves: 4 Preparation time: 10 Minutes Cooking time: 20 Minutes Cooling Time: 30 Minutes Ingredients 125g plain flour 50g chilled butter, diced 1 tablespoon iced water Method Sift the flour into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine…
Baking is, thank goodness, enjoying something of a revival. We are reconnecting with some old-fashioned culinary values – the kitchen filled with tempting aromas, a cake on a glass stand, some home-made chocolate treats. But much of the appeal of the candy is the fact that it is also eye-candy. They look beautiful. Perhaps these…
Portugal is on the very edge of Europe and often overlooked in favour of its more vocal neighbour, Spain. But this country has so much to offer to the visitor. Striking landscapes of Alentejo flatter the eye, generous hospitality warms the soul, and gastronomy seems to be a well-exercised hobby practised by all. The Alentejo…
You might think that cooking with flowers is pushing the culinary envelope. It’s perhaps reminiscent of the long-gone hippie era and its ethos of peace, nut loaf and free love. Well, consider this: we often eat flowers and don’t think of it as one bit retro or bizarre. Cooking with Flowers is a floral introduction….
For years it was referred to as Mei Ren Wu (Mei Ren Wo) or “den of beauties” in Chinese, as many rich men housed their mistresses in this rather stylish 1930’s estate. This is one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore. It was the first project undertaken by the Singapore Improvement Trust and is…
America’s PBS TV channel has offered America’s Test Kitchen to its US viewers for decades. Now we can find PBS in the UK and it’s well worth investigating its programme schedule, to discover America’s Test Kitchen for yourself. The Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2013 is a paper version of he series. This book is…
If you love cooking you will likely have wanted to try baking your own bread but it’s equally possible that you lost your nerve and didn’t bother. It’s baking and that is culinary alchemy; and then you add yeast into the equation and, well, how does that work? No Need to Knead tells you how…
Pierre Hermé is the fourth generation of a family of bakers from Alsace in France. He has been working and learning his trade since he was just 14 years old, when he started as a lowly apprentice. He was in Paris with the celebrated pâtissier, Gaston Lenôtre, who was to become Pierre’s greatest professional influence….
We in the UK can now watch America’s Test Kitchen, hosted by Chris Kimball, on PBS. That’s a non-commercial TV station from the US and they are famed for their quality broadcasting. Yes, they offer programmes that will appeal to American viewers, but so much of that is equally pertinent to us on the right-hand-side…
It’s a feel-good cookbook in every regard. It’s in support of The Ben Kinsella Trust, which was set up to raise awareness of knife crime after the death of young Ben. It has the comforting feel of a good old-fashioned cookbook with attractive and slightly retro graphics and simple recipes for things that one would…
It once was a flavour or, more honestly, a non-flavour that harked back to my now-distant youth. Vanilla was the ice cream you chose when it was going to have a pile of garnishes and sauces on top. Vanilla was the cake for the non-special occasions. Vanilla was even the paint colour which was, ironically,…
Surely we have all licked out the bowl after mum has made cookies. But let’s make it clear what we mean by a cookie. A cookie is a biscuit if you are an American. A biscuit is a cookie if you are British. Something like a scone is a biscuit if you come from the…
It’s no surprise that I love cooking. I bake bread, make pies, curries, casseroles and roasts but, to tell the truth, I have never managed a great repertoire of desserts. Perhaps it’s because I don’t want to spend hours and hours in the kitchen confectioning a fiddly sweet creation. I might have a passion for…