Baking

Sumac and Pomegranate Molasses Cookies

Do you sometimes find yourself in a supermarket or delicatessen holding a new-to-you ingredient in your hands, maybe even a quite pricey one, pondering whether to buy it or not and asking yourself how often you are likely to actually use it before it will go off? Admittedly I try not to let such rational thinking interfere with my buying what are surely the key constituents of future delicious food. But then the other day Alessandro decided the day had come to find a new home for all our pasta.  I counted and we currently have over 10 different shapes of pasta – that might seem a lot to most people but is in fact fairly modest to what I have seen at some friends’ places here in Italy.  While the door of our pantry still closes without forcing it shut Alessandro could be right in saying that my baking supplies have taken over our pantry.  As much as I

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Orange Mocha Marble Cake

While I am researching different eclairs recipes and different methods and ingredients for making pastry cream for a new recipe (which I am already very excited about sharing), I baked an Orange Mocha Marble Cake the other day to have on hand for easy breakfasts at home and to nibble on during the day. But before we talk about the Orange Mocha Marble Cake, I wanted to say that I was super excited to hear that my recipe for Toasted Rice Blancmanger was featured in the Guardian’s Cook section under the theme ‘WOBBLY’ last weekend! I absolutely love creating recipes and it is even better when others like my creations! Back to this marble cake – chocolate and orange is one of my favourite flavour combinations but the addition of coffee was new to me until very recently. I first came across this in the form of a Chocolate Orange Tiramisu at Jamie’s Italian which opened fairly recently in my

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Could this be the best carrot cake?

Like many other food bloggers, homebakers and homecooks, I shy away from calling a recipe the “best” ever recipe for whatever it is I have concocted – tastes, preferences and favourite ingredients are liable to change over time. Besides, what do people even mean when they say that something is the “best” ever cake/muffin/cookie recipe? Surely such judgment is highly subjective. Take brownies for example, some people have to have nuts in them, ideally walnuts, others abhor any kind of nuts in their brownie, most people want their brownies to be perfectly fudgy, while others find fudgy brownies cloying. What constitutes the perfect brownie for one person can be miles away from the perfect brownie for someone else. With that said, below is what I would call “my” best carrot cake recipe – “my” in the very loose sense of the word since the recipe is not my recipe at all – I think it was my sister Helena who originally discovered the recipe

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Fresh Peach and Fennel Tart – Mastering the Art of Baking

As I have mentioned before, my time in the kitchen is pretty limited (and more limited than I would like). I try to make the most of the time that I have by making No Knead Bread or preparing pizza dough before work. However, being pressed for time also means I tend to stick to tried-and-tested recipes. Yet, I long to learn new baking skills and become more adventurous in the kitchen. As much as I like baking brownies, muffins and cupcakes, I have made them a dozen of times. Yes, they are quick, easy and tasty, but other than coming up with new flavour combinations or making the most of seasonal ingredients, the thrill of baking these is gone. So yes, I have found myself in a bit of a baking rut lately. Thanks to watching the Great British Bake-Off I now have new found motivation to step outside of my comfort zone and try and master those recipes

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Cooking according to Julia Child and I secretly wish I lived in San Francisco

While mindlessly browsing the internet the other day I again landed on the blog for Pot and Pantry, a cute kitchen ware store in San Francisco’s Mission District (definitely adding this to my ever-expanding list of places I would like to visit in San Francisco when Alessandro and I are going in September). A few pages in I came across the below picture of their storefront: Admittedly I had not come across Julia Child much before the Julia and Julia movie (which I have a love and hate relationship with – I adore Stanley Tucci and I am positively envious of how loving the relationship between Julia Child and her husband appears on screen (although this is quite likely largely due to some talented screenwriting), but I found the other Julia’s character at times unbearable). But I have been admiring her ever since, what she set out to do and what she achieved, making a mark for herself as a

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Baking with olive oil

I found a brief post on baking with olive oil and how olive oil can be used to replace butter in baking. Although for some recipes butter plays an important role in the flavour of the finished product, I have been meaning to experiment a bit with olive oil – in case you also have nothing better to do than daydream about adapting recipes for no particular reason, here is the article: http://en.julskitchen.com/dessert/olive-oil-cookies-some-notes-on-the-use-of-olive-oil-in-confectionery