pudding

Picking up a few windfalls in the garden and having bought a tub of stem ginger 'shavings' from the local market I thought the two ingredients would compliment each other in a crumble.

APPLE AND GINGER CRUMBLE

900 g/2lbs  dessert apples + 1tbs water + 1tbs sugar

1tbs or more chopped stem ginger

225 g/8 oz plain flour

115 g/4 oz butter

115 g/4 oz caster sugar

1tsp ground ginger

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

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.