pudding

At the front of the house we have a bank of lavender, it smells wonderful as you brush past it, especially with a wheelie bin! I have seen recipes for lavender biscuits but have not tried them, today I rectified that. I chose a recipe from Meeester Nik it looked like the biscuits would be light and fragrant, and they were.

I followed the basic Rocky Road recipe from Nigella but changed some of the 'rocks'. I exchanged malteasers for amaretti biscuits, macadamia nuts for Brazil nuts and added crystallised ginger.

This recipe appears in Nigella's book Feast, published by Chatto & Windus.

I made Summer Pudding yesterday there's a recipe for it here . I have to say I have no shame, I cheated and bought frozen Summer fruits from Tesco only £1.29 a bag. I think they're perfect for this pudding.

Today I made the brown bread and marmalade version of the classic bread and butter pudding the recipe for it is here It's so simple but delicious! 

What a difference a day makes, yesterday I sat in the garden with Daryl chatting, drinking coffee, enjoying the warm sunshine. Today the weather is miserable, time to create some faux sunshine in the form of a lemon drizzle cake, bask in its warm lemony glow!

Lemon Drizzle Cake 

Ingredients

I made this tart today it was delicious

Chocolate Ricotta Tart with Mascarpone
By Ed Baines

Ingredients:
350g ricotta
85g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 lemon, juiced with zest grated
Half an orange, juiced with zest grated
60g almonds, blanched and finely chopped
60g mixed peel, chopped
4 drops vanilla flavouring
100g dark chocolate, grated
1 pinch icing sugar, to dust
1 tbsp mascarpone

Yesterday in the garden we had two foxes, out in the day time. Obviously food is difficult to find in the snow. Then a heron landed in the garden. He helped himself to the last fish we had in the pond. Even though we live in a city we still see lots of wildlife. I'm baking some apricot Bakewell tarts today.

This is the recipe

It's snowing here today. We live on a hill and vehicles are being abandoned because they cannot negotiate the hill. All this snow calls for comfort food and my pudding of choice is:

Bread and Butter Pudding

There is still an abundance of apples about so I made a Tarte Tatin. Here's the recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 3 to 4 dessert apples
• 30g / 1. 1/2 oz butter
• 30g / 1. 1/2 oz soft brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Sweet pastry
• 225g / 8 oz plain flour

• 110g / 4 oz butter
• 80g / 3 oz sugar

• 1 large yolk egg
• Milk

Pre heat oven 400 F / 200 C / Gas 6.

It feels like autumn now, the apples are starting to fall from the trees. The apple trees in the garden are old and the varieties are not the ones you find in the shops, except for one I know is a Bramley. To use the apples up we like apple crumble so here is my recipe with a twist!

Preheat the oven to 190 C/375 F/Gas Mark 5. 

I used about 900 g/2 lb  dessert apples. Peel, core and chop into chunky pieces. Put in a pan with a tsp of cinnamon, tbs of sugar and a tbs of water. Cook gently until apples look soft. Put in a dish.