homemade tagliatelle

After watching a new TV programme on Italian cooking and not having enough bread to make two packed lunches, I've decided to make pasta to go with my jar of red pesto. I've followed the recipe from the programme by mixing 1 egg with 100g plain flour and a pinch of salt. The dough was kneaded until it formed a smooth dough. Then it was wrapped in clingfilm and rested for 30minutes before rolling and cutting into the shape of tagliatelli. They only took 2-3 minutes to cook in boiling salted water. Finally, drained the pasta and mix in a few spoonfuls of red pesto. It was so easy to make and I'll definitely will try to make some more soon.

Recipe from: Channel Four's new programme Simply Italian

lemon shortbread

I didn't have any passion fruit so I've omitted it and added a few drops of vanilla extract to make this shortbread. The first batch had to be thrown out as they were burnt, so I had to reduce the baking time for the second batch. These shortbread taste crumbly and not too sweet.



Recipe from: BBC Food

peach melba cake

Since we had some fresh peaches and frozen raspberries, I've made peach melba cake following a BBC GoodFood recipe. The cake is very moist because of the ground almonds. It tasted good on its own as well as being served with vanilla ice-cream. There is quite a lot of sugar in it but the cooked peaches and raspberries can balance it with their acidity.



Recipe from: BBC GoodFood

fruit scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam

Freshly baked scones from the oven served with clotted cream and strawberry jam. It's heaven! It's the perfect cake/bread (not quite sure which category scones come under) for afternoon tea.

Recipe from: Mary Berry's Baking Bible

poppyseed bread

This is my all time favourite bread to make. The recipe is from a Chinese recipe site called Leisure-Cat. My brother loves eating this and the bread normally disappears within an hour from leaving the oven.

Recipe from: Leisure-Cat Recipe

croissants take two

My second attempt at making croissants. I've learned my lesson, this time I've followed the recipe word for word. The result was much better with the croissants having a more flakier texture. I definitely need to make them many more times in order to perfect the technique.

afternoon tea

Nice afternoon tea at the Tea Terrace in House of Fraser. I love the crockery they use. The two little scones were fruit ones with the perfect texture, served with strawberry jam and clotted cream. I had them the Cornwall way - jam first, cream second. Delicious!

palmiers take two

Palmiers are one of my favourites and I had to make them again. On this occasion, I followed the recipe word for word to make the puff pastry. The result is much better than my first attempt. They turned out to be more flaky and crispier. It won't be long before "take three"!

cheese crackers

Crispy cheese crackers are a great way to use up leftover cheddar. This recipe was given to me by my primary classmate EH. They require very little effort to make. These little crackers are very moreish and irresistible. Once you've started munching on them you will have great difficulty to stop. Yum!

croissants

I should have followed the recipe exactly. The croissants have turned out not flaky enough. My fault! I shouldn't have made more folds than needed. This has caused the butter to be absorbed by the dough instead of having layers of butter sandwiched in between. A lot of time and effort are needed to make these croissants. I now understand why artisan bakeries charge so much for their pastries and bread.




Recipe from: Richard Bertinet's Crust

baked raspberry cheesecake

With over 600 good reviews on the BBC Good Food website, I had to try making this cheesecake. It'll be our friend's birthday on Monday so I've decided to make him this as his present. It was a fairly easy cake to make, with the usual digestive biscuits base and with lots of full fat cream cheese for the filling. Yes, it has to be full fat. I don't see the point of using reduced fat or light version. If you are really worried over your fat and calories intake, just eat a smaller piece.

I was worried that it might collapse on our way delivering it. Luckily our friends only live a few minutes' drive from us so the cake arrived in one piece. Our friends offered both of us a slice of the cake to taste. It is quite a 'heavy' cake to eat, so a small slice is enough. The filling isn't too sweet and the raspberries made it slightly lighter. Maybe next time I could try making this with other soft fruits such as blueberries and blackberries.




Recipe from: BBC Good Food

madeira cake

Madeira cakes are not originated from the Madeira Islands, they are an English invention. It was named Madeira cake probably due to the fact in the good old days that this cake was served with the Madeira Wine. Madeira cake has a firm but light texture unlike the normal pound cake. The home made version tastes a lot better than the pre-packed supermarket ones I had when I was little. It is such an easy cake to make. However, this cake is not one of my hubby's favourite, so it might be a very long time before my next attempt at making this.




Recipe from: BBC Good Food

palmiers

I always thought Palmiers are easy to make. They are indeed very easy to make if you don't have to make your own puff pastry. I wouldn't label this post as Home Baking if I haven't attempted to make the puff pastry from scratch. :)

I have always been put off from attempting to make puff pastry as I have read how difficult it is to produce one that gives you the multi-layers of flaky pastry. But after making them for the very first time, I am no longer scare of making pastry, partly due to a very good recipe book that explains clearly the steps needed to make good pastry. I think I might make these Palmiers again next Saturday for my sister-in-law when we visit her next Sunday. She loves Palmiers a lot. Most importantly, hubby has approved this recipe worthwhile to be made again.





Recipe from: Richard Bertinet's Pastry

wild honey

This was my second visit to Wild Honey. On my first visit it has not achieved its one michelin star status. Wild Honey is the sister restaurant of Arbutus, another French Brasserie style eatery. It was a last minute booking to take my cousin to dinner who was visiting London. Originally I want to book another restaurant near Green Park but with the Jubilee concert taking place, it was best to avoid that area.

The food was very pleasant. Starter was okay, but I was surprised by how succulent the rabbit was with the subtle flavour of the cumin bringing the dish alive. The Clafoutis was delicious served with vanilla ice-cream, although I was expecting it to have the same texture as the traditional style of Clafoutis. We also had a nice bottle of Chardonnay to go with our meal. Overall it was a good meal even though the service was a bit sloppy.

Starter: Razor clams


Main: Saddle of rabbit


Dessert: Clafoutis

pear bourdaloue

Poached pears turned into pear bourdaloue (a.k.a. Tarte Bourdaloue aux poires)! These pear tarts are named after a Parisian street called Bourdaloue - where a patisserie was located had invented them. It took three and a half hours to make these tarts from start to finish. First, the pears were poached in syrup, followed by making the almond cream and finally the sweet short pastry. The recipe calls for pear liqueur for the almond cream but I couldn't find any in supermarket. It did say rum could also be used but there are so many varieties of rum and I have no idea which would be suitable. So I've omitted the liqueur to avoid ruining the outcome.



Ta dah! Here are the final products! They've turned out really well, much better than what I've expected. The tart bases don't need to be blind baked, so I was a bit concerned that they may end up with soggy bottoms. But they turned out to have a crisp tart with soft frangipane filling and moist poached pears. They taste so good that I wouldn't mind spending another three and a half hours to make them again. Hopefully next time it would take less time now that I know how to make them.

Recipe from: Richard Bertinet's Pastry

roast duck rice noodles

What a tasty bowl of roast duck rice noodles for lunch!

lemon meringue pie

I finally get the chance to use the tartlet tins my friends gave me for my birthday this evening. I made lemon meringue pie but hubby didn't like it at all as he finds the filling too milky. He never likes hot milk taste.

Recipe from: The British Larder

coffee

A nice cup of coffee to start the working day. This coffee is made from an espresso capsule machine. The capsules themselves are made by Lavazza. Surprisingly the taste of the coffee is comparable to what you get from a proper coffee bar (not *$).

report on nutella cupcakes

Sweet...very sweet... that's how cupcakes should taste like. The cake itself is still very soft and moist and the icing is still fluffy. My conclusion of this cupcake is the same as my hubby - "it's okay".

nutella cupcakes

Nutella tastes good on its own, but how does it taste in a cupcake? Well, I have no idea...I was too full to try one but my hubby thinks it tastes okay. I'll carry out the taste test tomorrow and I'll write a full report on it.



Recipe from: The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

continental breakfast

What a great way to start the day with freshly baked pastries and freshly brewed coffee! No, they are not home baked, the mini croissant and pain au raisin are frozen ones from Waitrose. I'd love to learn to make these, but judging from the recipes I've read they are extremely difficult to master. Perhaps one day I will attempt to make these, so watch this space!

zesty madeleines

Soft, buttery and zesty... I didn't have a madeleines mould to bake these in, so I had to use my bun tray instead. They have a slight crispiness to it but with a soft inner centre. I made twelve of these out of the batter but perhaps next time I should make less to create a thicker texture.

Recipe: http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/m/madeleines.html

book catalogue

I found an android app that allows me to catalog my cookbooks. It is called Book Catalogue. Okay...not an app with a cool name, but it does everything I want. It has the ability to scan the bar code to search for the correct details as well as the option to search by entering the ISBN. I'm very impressed with how it can find information on my "Chinese" cookbooks! 14 scanned so far and many more to go...I think I'll leave that for the weekend!

what to bake next...?

I finally bought a flour dredger. Now I need to think which recipe I should attempt next. But before I do that, I must decide which bookcase to purchase so I can move all my cookbooks to the lounge instead of cluttering the shelves in the kitchen. I also need to catalog all my cookbooks as I have no idea how many I have in my collection!

hmm...coffee and walnut

Coffee and walnut... what a great combination in the form of a cake! My second attempt at making this recently was far better than my first attempt. On this occasion, the cake was moist (I've reduced the baking time from the recommended 35 mins to 15 mins) and the icing was a lot fluffier. The recipe came from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.

little french delights

Chouquettes - one of my favourite pastries from PAUL. I've finally managed to make them successfully last Sunday using the recipe from Rachel Khoo's book - "The Little Paris Kitchen".