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What to do when a lovely friend gives you a whole bagful of delicious fresh plums picked from her garden? Decisions, decisions! Of course we ate lots of them just straight from the bag, and they are really good ones, sweet as can be and no little wriggly worms like the ones we had from our old tree. I do love any variation on flapjack, so I thought I would make a something not quite the same, but similar and with plums in the middle, making them nice and squidgy.  This is how I did it:   Method for making Plum Crumble Squares Ingredients: 500gRead More →

whole tomato and pistachio tart on blue and white table cloth

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In: Savoury

We have had an absolute abundance of tomatoes this year! I know this is primarily luck, as when you grow them outside as we do, tomatoes are very dependent on the weather. We’ve made tomato soup, tomato passata, tomato chutney, tomato ketchup – in fact it’s not a meal if we’re not eating tomatoes! They are coming to an end now though. We’ve pulled the plants up and are just ripening off a few green ones on trays.  So now is a great time to make the most of these last Borghese and Merrygold tomatoes to make Tomato and Pistachio tart. This is absolutely deliciousRead More →

Uncooked croissants on a baking tray

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In: Sweet

Although I regularly make different types of bread, as well as buns and rolls, croissants are something I had only made once and quite honestly they weren’t anything to write home about! I think because of that I had begun to get a mental block and to think I couldn’t make them. It’s not something you can do in a hurry, as the folding, rolling out, refrigerating and rising needs to be done slowly and carefully. However, current conditions mean this a good opportunity to master a new skill, so I had another go.  With no expertise in this area, I faithfully followed the recipeRead More →

kiwi fruit cakes

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In: Sweet

Like many people, I have been sorting through the cupboards to find all those forgotten things hiding at the back. I was hoping for some wine but what I actually found was a few tiny little bottles of liqueur, including some Kiwi fruit liqueur. So I thought I don’t want to waste it and yet I don’t really want to drink it, so what else to do but make cakes with it! Fortunately I’ve still got plenty of the Wessex Mill large bag of plain flour I got last month and I managed to get hold of some fresh kiwi fruits. It’s a very straightforwardRead More →

Almond and cranberry caramel shortbread cut into squares on a checked cloth with a knife

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In: Sweet

What better way to take my mind off everything going on at the moment than baking! It’s still a difficult and confusing time, although great that the Coronavirus statistics are looking better in UK (as I am writing this on 9th June 2020). Supplies of baking ingredients, particularly flour and yeast are not always easy to come by, so I was really pleased to be able to order a massive 10kg bag of plain flour from the lovely Wessex Mill in Wantage, Oxfordshire. That should keep me going for a while! So, today I’m going to tell you how I made Ori Hellerstein’s Florentines, fromRead More →

small jar of carrot marmalade with 3 scones with carrot marmalade on and green background

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In: Sweet

In these strange times when Coronavirus has necessitated lockdown, it’s a great time for trying something new and rediscovering previous joys. So I’m really enjoying having more time for baking and making new recipes. It’s also a time when sometimes I need to be a bit creative because, not being able to just pop out to the shops means supplies can be a bit intermittent. With this in mind I made sure I stocked up on carrots, because we love carrots, they are a regular staple. But then I ordered a salad box and it came with carrots and suddenly I found we had wayRead More →

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In: Sweet

It’s summer and the fruit is ripening! Lots of luscious blackcurrants, gooseberries, loganberries, with raspberries coming soon. It’s so inspirational and I can’t wait to start baking. I think blackcurrants must be one of my favourite fruits, they are so flavoursome. In fact I have already made blackcurrant jam, and I might post the recipe here if anyone would like that. Looking back over the period of my A Teaspoon of Jam blog, blackcurrants may actually be my most-used fruit ingredient. See recipe for Blackcurrant ice-cream here. So here’s another one, Nectarine and Blackcurrant cake – it’s just a shame I can’t grow nectarines inRead More →

Dandelion and honey cake with yellow tulips in background

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In: Sweet

I read an interesting post (thank you Robin) about dandelions, saying that every part of the dandelion is edible. That is something I didn’t know that before; I knew about the leaves, which I have had in salads, but not the flowers and leaves. If there is anything that grows brilliantly in our garden it’s dandelions and they are all coming out in their bright yellow glory in this sun. Someone else commented that they had a great recipe for a dandelion fricassee and it would be good to try that at some point, but I was inspired to make a cake:- it doesn’t takeRead More →

Gingerbread biscuits at Christmas by Helen Green Photography

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In: Sweet

It’s feeling really Christmassy here, now the tree is up and I’ve made gingerbread biscuits. They smell divine! Somehow I always associate them with Christmas, although if you are reading this at another time of year, do go ahead and make some, in suitably seasonal shapes, of course.    Whilst you could experiment with different spices, I have kept to the classic recipe as I like them that way! You don’t really even need to decorate them and they’re pretty quick and easy to make if you don’t. Plenty of other decorating to do at the moment! They go really well with a cup ofRead More →

Ginger, rum and lime cake with sunflowers in the background by Helen Green Photography

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In: Sweet

With the late summer sunflowers blooming and the weather turning chilly, a warm, seductive ginger cake spiced up with rum and lime seemed just the thing. Then blow me down but the next day #GBBO comes on and the first challenge is exactly what I had made the day before! Must admit mine didn’t look quite as impressive as Rahul and co.’s though: I kept it simple and left it undecorated, so no icing and unfortunately no miniature gingerbread house! (wasn’t that stunning! Kim-Joy’s Pear and Ginger Cake ). I’m not sure what Paul and Prue would have said about it, hopefully not that itRead More →