round white loaf helen green

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What better way to start the new year than learning how to make bread: all those new year’s resolutions about eating more healthily and experiencing new things rolled into one. So, last Saturday I went on a bread course with Danielle Ellis of Severn Bites, who trained in France, so is really knowledgable about classic french bread. (We originally met whilst doing a Charleston workshop, but that’s another story.) I love making bread and thought it might be a good idea to find out how to do it properly. Some of you will know that I make my own bread on quite a regular basis,Read More →

Spicy orange apple cake

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In: Sweet

After a hard day wandering around Wells recently, taking in the sights and exploring the cathedral, I felt the need for tea and cake. In the cafe they had plenty of choice, most of which I had tried before, but I couldn’t remember having spicy orange cake. So I tried it. I really liked the classic flavours of orange and cinnamon, but it was a little too sweet even before taking into consideration the layer of butter cream in the middle and on top. So, my version is a Super Spicy Orange Apple Cake, which is less sweet, has apple, more spices and no butter cream at all. Method forRead More →

helen green apple and honey cake 3 images

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In: Sweet

The clocks have turned back, the rich warm-toned leaves are falling from the trees and it is time to find things to do with all those apples! We have 3 apple trees in the garden, two were there before we moved in, so I have no idea what type they are. The smaller one has developed a massive hole in the trunk, and I keep thinking it is going to die, (which is why I planted a new tree) but seems to have grown around the hole and stoically carries on. The other is one of those triploid trees with 3 branches of different types of apple,Read More →

helen green jaffa cakes chocolate

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In: Sweet

I just love making new cake recipes, so when I saw the contestants make jaffa cakes on the Great British Bake Off, I couldn’t resist having a go at making them myself. It is surprising that it reignited the debate about whether jaffa cakes are cakes or biscuits, though. Even if you have only ever seen a jaffa cake, let alone eaten one, it is clear that the base is a light, airy (if you have baked it right!) cake and not a biscuit. This was proved in 1991 when McVitie’s won a VAT tribunal case that jaffa cakes are cakes and should therefore notRead More →

Pistachio and Cardamom shortbread Biscuits

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In: Sweet

It’s biscuit week on the Great British Bake Off and I made Pistachio and Cardamom shortbread Biscuits, so I could sit and munch them while watching. If you like shortbread biscuits (and who doesn’t!), pistachios and cardamom you will love these. They really are crunchy and crumbly and delicious all at the same time. I had forgotten how interesting pistachios are, with their pale coats, purple-tinged skin and that surprising brilliant green hiding inside. Method for making Pistachio and Cardamom shortbread Biscuits I made these using the recipe from Ottolenghi, The Cookbook  which has many fabulous recipes that I would love to make. The recipeRead More →

helen green not great british bake off lemon tart with raspberries

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In: Sweet

The waiting is over, only one more day until the Great British Bake Off! Apparently it will be very similar to the previous series, with all the same presenters, which is more than fine in my book. Mary Berry is of course the essential element in the show, and knows a thing or two about baking (I have a very well-used cookery book by Mary called Mary Berry’s Complete Cookbook that I bought years before GBBO was even conceived), but she is so gracious and kind in her criticism, even when there has been a baking disaster, she still manages to say something positive. Did anyoneRead More →

loganberry cake by helen green photography

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In: Sweet

Loganberries are brilliant to have in the garden, because not only do they taste luscious, but due to their bramble heritage, they are relatively easy to grow. For those who haven’t come across them, loganberries are a hybrid of raspberries and blackberries; apparently created accidentally by an American judge who was trying to improve his blackberries. They look like a longer, darker raspberry and taste a bit sharper. You don’t often see them in the shops, I think this is because they ripen on the bush at different times, so you can’t pick them all at once. I also find them tricky to pick atRead More →

helen green gooseberry and elderflower ice-cream

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In: Sweet

Lovely balmy summer days, roses and lilies blooming, sandals and skirts, strolling on the common and sitting outside. What could top it all off except home-made gooseberry and elderflower ice-cream? The gooseberries having turned from green to translucent yellow, are plump and ripe for picking. Gooseberries are such a perfect match for the light fragrant taste of elderflower. At this time of year the elder bushes are developing their berries, the flowers mostly gone. Another year I will try making cordial from the flowers of my black elder, the Sambucus nigra, as I have read that these are equally as nice as the wild elder youRead More →

cranberry and caraway seed cake

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In: Sweet

There’s nothing I like better than tea and cake in the garden to cheer me up, as long as I can manage to dodge the rain. I have memories of my grandma in her dark silk dress and furry slippers making seed cake. Never chocolate or ginger or fruit cake, it was always caraway seed. I don’t think I enjoyed it at the time, as I think caraway seed is quite an adult sort of flavour, slightly spicy and interesting and really not like anything else. I must confess, this isn’t really Grandma’s recipe, I have no idea what recipe she used. I like to imagine that it wasRead More →

helen green millionaire's shortbread

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In: Sweet

Aah Millionaire’s Shortbread! Is it healthy? Is it even remotely good for you? Of course not! But hey, sometimes a little bit of something lovely is just what you need. Now there seems to be some debate about why it is called millionaire’s shortbread and people have written quite long blogs on the subject. But I have always assumed it is because shortbread itself is luxurious, buttery, crunchy and sweet; include a type of delicious caramel made with condensed milk and you have added a further layer of luxury, top it off by pouring on some rich dark chocolate and you have a treat so luscious, so scrumptious, so self-indulgentRead More →