Cinnamon Rolls

In Game of Thrones… they utter the words “Winter is coming” time and time again, well my friends, it is already well and truly here and my tonsils took quite the battering last week thanks to it. I didn’t even feel like baking. But I am feeling a lot better now and made these cinnamon rolls – which are perfect when eaten hot with a cuppa. They aren’t too sweet, which I like – i love sugar, but sometimes it can be too much. These have a subtly sweet taste – one fit for a chilly winter.

I often get put off by recipes with yeast in – because of the time it takes to wait for it to rise and knead it. But as part of my new “stop being so impulsive thing” I’ve decided to give them more of a chance. I’m glad I did because these are freaking awesome. I played around with the shapes quite a bit because you can and my flat My new favourite thing to bake will be yeasty bready sweet stuff – as yet undefined but I will keep you updated.

Other weekend activities include watching Philomena – it’s such a good film! If you haven’t heard of it yet, it stars good old Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. Dench plays the role of an older Irish woman who was forced into a home for ‘fallen women’ during the 1950s in Ireland when she was young and now Coogan, a journalist and ex politician, and Dench are on the hunt for the son that was taken from her during that time. Its beauts! Pretty sad but also amazing.

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Banana and Double Chocolate Strudel

This is without a doubt one of the easiest and most warming autumn desserts I have ever made.  I did it in my lunch break yesterday and it is simple sweet perfection. All you will need is a roll of puff pastry, some white and dark cooking chocolate and some bananas and one egg for browning.

Chocolate and Banana tart

Hello lovelies!

The other day I was browsing a lovely blog called Citrus and Candy and noticed her warm chocolate and banana tart. I adapted the recipe and changed it a bit – mainly because I didn’t have a lot of the ingredients! I bought this really cool rectangular tart tray, and I have had it for months and never used it. It is another tray from Cynthia Barcomis awesome collection.

The pastry is slightly different to the normal shortcrust sweet pasty I use. This time I use icing sugar (powdered sugar) instead of caster sugar and it really gives a MUCH lighter consistency, which I prefer in a dessert. As it is a bit less elastic, I would definitely recommend leaving it in the fridge for at least an hour. Otherwise it will get too hot and will just break when you try and place it in the tray.

I am finding taking photos after work more and MORE challenging, because the light is fading quicker. I hope this hasn’t effected the photos!

Sugar Thumb on Poppytalk!

Thanks so much to Jan from Poppytalk – she just featured my delicious Apple and Caramel profiteroles! For the recipe and the story behind this recipe.. check out her page .

Happy Weekend Lovelies!

 

Trisha x

Eclairs: Classic Chocolate, Mango or Rosewater

My sister is visiting me in Berlin at the moment. So I had a day off and we went swimming in Badeschiff.. which on really hot days is a paradise for smug hipsters and their possies.. but on moderately hot week days.. it is a nice place to chill and swim outside. We got the latter.. thank GOD!

We also decided to make eclairs of all different kinds… We did the classic chocolate glaze with creme patissiere. Then we made rosewater glaze… for some others, and finally, white chocolate glaze (with pink food colouring) with mango creme patissiere…. THOSE ONES WERE FANTASTIC…!

If you are going to try and make these.. I would say just clean up as you go along… you are going to need a LOT of pots and pans and having a partner in crime is also great. Sloj (my sister – photographed below, her real name is Selina) was so helpful and a great baker!

Almond pastry Apple & Strawberry flats

Last night I made chicken stew with dumplings… the english kind stuffed with thyme and mustard. Not the kind with potatoes in… I think my body would have died of carb overload if I had eaten potato too.  As always, the stew began as a healthy affair. Lots of onions and garlic, broccoli, spring onions, stock and very little oil. But then came the dumplings… and the CREAM. I find when I have put too much vinegar or salt into a dish, a bit of cream and water helps a lot. But it doesn’t help one in being healthy… which was my failed goal last night. But oh well.. I will have a salad for lunch and get the hell over it. It was delicious.. and I think dumplings should be made more. I like to think of them as England’s answer to soul food.

Anyway, moving swiftly on to the topic at hand – these are my latest recipe – I didn’t really know if they were pies or not.. so I would like to call them flats. Or pie flats if we must. I made some shortcrust pastry and added ground almond, then stewed some apples and strawberry with a dash of sugar. And taddda! I like the rustic look as you all know by now – making things look perfect doesn’t make them appetizing for me. I like a bit of a rough finish!