Fold in the Flour ...

I had one of those moments the other day. The boys and I were out shopping and popped into our local Cadbury shop. We hadn't been in there for a while, and usually buy a treat when we do go, so had a good look around. I was absolutely amazed to see a blast from my past there. Jameson's Raspberry Ruffles. I hadn't seen these anywhere for years . They are, if you don't know, little chocolates made from raspberry-flavoured coconut fondant enrobed in dark chocolate. They taste (to me, anyway), sublime. One of my grandfather's favourite sweets, too, a fond childhood memory of mine is of him and I going on expeditions to his allotment, and returning, his bike laden with home grown veggies for tea. Of course, what he didn't tell my nan, was that we had had a brief detour via his bookies, and my reward for silence was a few of his treasured raspberry ruffles. Not that I'm easily bought, of course ... Aanyways, I hadn't seen them in ages and so just ...

As you can see, I've been having another go at macarons. This time, I wanted to move away from chocolate though, and decided to try something, for me, a little bit different. I've had a bottle of rose water in my cupboard for some time. I can't remember why I bought it - probably for some creation that had caught my eye which I then didn't make. Rose water, though, always reminds me of Turkish Delight. This was a Christmas treat in our house as my Nan loved it. I remember being fascinated by the exotic packaging and contents with the colourful box. But it didn't just come in a box, it had tissue paper! And icing sugar! And the heady perfume when the box was opened. The best bit was taking one of the cubes - the hesitation: which one? Pink or white? And then, after cramming it in my mouth, licking my fingers of the dusty, sweet sugar. A definite treat but you could not eat more than a couple of lumps at a time. These macarons remind me of that Turkish Delight. The...

For the first time in quite a while last week, I had a quiet day all to myself. Sam was at nursery on a long day for the first time, and with no one else around I had the luxury of being able to spend hours in the kitchen on a baking session. I really wanted to give macarons a second attempt, after the success of the Pistachio and Dark Chocolate ones the other week. Don't get me wrong, my first time macs were in no way perfect, but I was still pretty pleased with them. I must admit, though, I was pretty nervous. What if the second time turned out to be a disaster? What if I couldn't recreate the magical alchemy?  Well. As you can see, these didn't turn out too badly. Although there were some differences. I used toasted hazelnuts to replace the pistachios in the pistachio-almond mix. I thought that using toasted hazelnuts would give a more intense hazelnut flavour, and it did work well. In trying to find something that would pair with the hazelnut, I was i...

Today has been a Good Day. The sun is shining and the sky is a bright, clear blue here in Cardiff. Sam  - who turned 6 months yesterday - and I have been baking, the house is quiet while the rest of the boys are at work or school, and all seems very right with the world. It seemed like a day to try something new. I have wanted to try my hand at macarons for some time now, so today  felt right to be  the day. These pistachio macarons with a dark chocolate ganache were inspired by a little trip to the village Sam and I had yesterday. We stopped at our local deli for a coffee and a little something, and to sit in the sun. The little something turned out to be their version of these. They tasted so lovely, I knew I wanted to try my hand at them. I did some macaron research, and became a little confused by which was the best method to try. I know they are notoriously difficult to make, and so I wanted to make it easy on myself for my first time. But the...