Mary's Tarte au Citron

This is another "technical challenge" recipe and the challenge for me was working with sweet pastry which I always find difficult.  It's so fragile and this time was no exception!  Two or three years ago my husband treated me to a cookery day at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir and I remembered that the pastry chef said if we had a problem with the pastry breaking, to shape it in the tin just using fingers and thumbs - don't try to roll it out too much - so this is what I did.  Also my flan tin has quite high sides so I wasn't able to trim around the edges half way through cooking.

Tarte au Citron

The recipe takes six eggs - a lovely way to use those produced by my girls.  The end result was wonderful - good texture and nice and lemony.   I had cooked a lamb and apricot tagine this morning so we ended up having a gourmet meal on a Thursday evening!

Making Bread

This week I attempted bread-making.  Yeast cookery has never been one of my strong points and today was no exception!  Although the loaf rose perfectly and looked beautiful I did not like the texture - it wasn't light and fluffy, more dense and almost waxy.  I used fresh yeast so am going to have another go and see if I get better results with easy blend.  However, it makes fantastic toast and I am sure the chickens will enjoy the leftovers!

White Loaf

PS If you use cling film to cover the bowl whilst proving be sure to oil it (doesn't say this in the recipe but I have seen it recommended elsewhere) as my dough stuck to the film and I lost some of it.

Mary's Brandy Snaps

Yesterday I attempted this technical challenge and although I closely followed the instructions I didn't get that very thin lacy finish that I hoped for.  The brandy snaps tasted wonderful and had a nice crunch, not too hard, but didn't really have any holes in them.  I would love someone to tell me what went wrong then I could have another go at them sometime.  I decorated mine with milk chocolate (to please my husband, David) and toasted chopped hazelnuts.  I came home at lunchtime today to find there were only 2 left!  It seems David and his friend Ian had taken a fancy to them.

Brandy Snaps

I quite like the idea of making a batch of brandy snap baskets which could then be used to create a dessert by filling them with a scoop of ice cream, some summer fruits and a dusting of icing sugar.  You would need to oil the outside of some individual pudding basins or ramekins and shape the brandy snap mixture over them.

Ready, Steady, Bake!!

This is my second cook book project - a couple of years ago I cooked all the recipes in Delia Smith's Summer Collection and blogged the whole experience.  It took me about 18 months but I learnt a lot and hope to do the same with this project.

Victoria Sponge Cake

I started off the other day with the classic Victoria Sponge Cake recipe and all went well.  I usually do the all-in-one mix using soft cooking marg but this is the luxury version with a whole pack of real butter!  I loved Mary's tip on how to soften butter if you're a little short of time - she cuts it into cubes and pops them into lukewarm water for 10 mins and then drains them.  Hey presto - nice and soft and squidgy.