It feels like everyone knows and yearns for good bread. Even if they don’t bake it, they have a supplier. And it’s because there’s something so fundamentally comforting about a good loaf – a combination, perhaps, of its mouth-watering aroma, chewy texture and thick crust.
He’s finally lost it. It’s far too late in the year to make the Christmas cake. That’s what you’re thinking. But it’s never too late. There’s always a way. My Simple Christmas Cake recipe proves that; it’s one of the most enjoyable I’ve had and can be made only days before the year’s main event. No. I challenge you to make it only days before.
There’s this little Italian coffee shop in my hometown. The coffee is superb. The food perhaps even better. But look more closely and you find a jar labelled ‘biscotti – 12p’. They’re only small. You might even want to order 4 or 5. But in biscotti lies the ability to bring forth the best from a strong black coffee. Orange and Rosemary Biscotti? Perhaps even more so.
Cookies come but once a year in our house. They’re oh-so-wrong, yet oh-so-right, in the sense that they’re worse for you than pretty much anything, but consequently also taste better. Of course, scarcity demands indulgence and my Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies are the culinary manifestation of such necessity.
Despite its name, Madeira Cake is a traditional British sponge cake. It has no connection with Portugal, except in name. In fact, it’s only gently flavoured with citrus – usually lemon – making it one of the simplest pound cakes in the repertoire.