Posts Tagged “baking”
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…
I am a travel book reviewer and a cookbook reviewer and How Do You Measure Up? falls into neither of those categories …but on the other hand (the hand is a non-SI unit of length, now used only for the measurement of the height of horses) it fits nicely into both. Shirley Bond has penned a…
A Passion for Cheese is another classy book by Paul Gayler. The visual delight is supplied by, once again, Gus Filgate and his camera. The book offers us more than 130 ways to cook with cheese but it also enlightens us about cheese making, choosing and storing cheese and what wine might work best. I…
Well, I guess there are a couple of interpretations of the title, Love Food. That could be food to make for those you love; it could be recipes for those who love to eat food. Indeed this book offers dishes that fit the bill on both counts. Love Food is written by Tina Bester who…
This is another one of those foods that crosses the divide between vegetable and fruit. We have that same complication with the tomato, which is technically a fruit but which is more often than not served as a savoury. Rhubarb is classified in the UK as a vegetable but in the US it’s a fruit….
Ginette Mathiot was one of the most celebrated French food writers. She was so respected that she was awarded Officier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government. She was into her 90s when she died after a long and celebrated career. Ginette Mathiot wrote over 30 books including the famous Je Sais Cuisiner –…
As a kid I didn’t have The Golden Book of Desserts but I would sit next to the radiogram (yes, there were such things and yes, I am that old), listen to Two-Way Family Favourites and leaf through my Mum’s big old cookbook. It had thousands of pictures but all of them in black and…
It’s just the time to start getting anxious about Christmas. All that shopping …and all that cooking and baking. It’s a special season, when we want to make an extra effort for family and friends; our usual delicious food but with a little more care taken over presentation. Sweet things and large cakes can provide…
Food, like clothes, has fashions and trends. We have had cupcakes and macaroons and now it’s the era of the Whoopie Pie! The name is amusing and nobody is sure where exactly that name originates, although it’s said to mimic the exclamation of joy as lunch boxes containing the aforementioned cakes were opened. They are…
I confess that I had not heard of author of One More Slice, Leila Lindholm. She is a celebrated TV chef and author …but in Sweden. Good to see that a few publishers are looking further afield for good cookbooks. A different slant is refreshing and now all we have to do is persuade Food…
It’s a time of belt tightening and financial gloom, and it’s said that we are all hankering after old-fashioned lifestyles. We want to be wafted back to more moderate times where riots only happened “over there” and we all knew for sure that we would have a job next week. A time for The Cookiepedia!…
This book should have arrived a few weeks ago. One is always advised to bake bread when the estate agent is bringing viewers around. It’s that tempting aroma that makes a house seem like a home. It’s said that bread-baking is an almost dead art but I believe it’s enjoying something of a revival. A…
Sue Lawrence came to prominence in 1991 when she won Masterchef – those were the days when I actually watched it and the programme was more about the judged than the judges. She has made numerous TV appearances since then and has received awards for her writing. Eating In is a very personal cookbook. You…
There cannot be many who would not enjoy a luscious slice of cake. Cupcakes are popular even as replacements for wedding cakes, and macaroons seem to have taken the world by storm. We all love something sweet to help down a cup of tea or coffee, or to finish a meal. Baking is enjoying something…
They are becoming ubiquitous. Those colourful chubby discs are showing up in smart patisseries across the land. They have long been popular in France and we are all very ready to state that French food is best. Well, I would not go that far (although I am driven to admit that the French make the…
Here it is. The Golden Book of Baking. A chunky golden ingot of a book. A gleaming brick of a tome. Another metallic and gift-quality edition in this series from Apple Press. A Christmas pressie that hardly needs wrapping. Gold edges, silken book-mark and gleaming belly jacket all shout “Pick me” …and you probably will….
Just the name Aga conjures a fine chocolate-box picture of a cottage kitchen, butler’s sink, geraniums in pots, and a big ginger cat. Where would that cat be? Well, toasting his substantial fluffy paws by the aforementioned iconic stove. An Aga not only looks good but it’s the stove of choice for many, and those…
This book goes right into my end-of-year Top Ten cookbook reads for 2010. No deliberation and no waiting in case another contender floats through the letterbox. The Great British Book of Baking is, in my opinion, everything that a good cookbook should be. This chunky volume is the companion to the BBC series of The…