Orange Angels

I made these Orange Angel cookies today for a friend of mine who is having some health problems. Hopefully fresh baked cookies can be part of the doctor's prescription!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I baked some Pumpkin Spice cookies using a recipe from All Recipes.com. It is amazing how sometimes the recipes you find online can be so much more tasty than the ones you spend lots of money on in the bookshop. It is a good thing to bare in mind next time you are toying with the idea of buying an expensive cookbook!

Apple Tart

I made my first French Apple tart yesterday, following a recipe from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I am wishing that I had arranged my apples facing inwards for a slightly more attractive effect. However, I am sure that it will taste good all the same. Underneath the sliced apples is an apple compote with apricot and cognac.

Pear Streusel Tart

There are few things that are more delicious in my opinion than the crumbly topping that can be found atop crumb cake, crumb muffins, and anything else with crumbs on it. The main problem with making these kinds of desserts is that my family has a nasty habit of eating the topping off of the baked good and leaving a sad and sorry topless dessert behind. This Pear Streusel Tart is exactly the kind of dessert that might receive this sort of treatment.

Carrot Muffins

I have been experimenting around with various muffin recipes trying to create a muffin with a perfectly formed top and cakey inside. Here are some carrot ones that I baked today from "Joy of Cooking!" The trick with making muffins is to barely mix the batter at all. Over mixing the muffins will develop too much gluten in the batter and the muffins will be tough. You want to stir the batter just until all of the dry ingredients are moistened.

Creme Brulee

There are few desserts that I like better than a good Creme Brulee. I like the caramel topping to be very delicate and the custard beneath just room temperature. Just the slightest tap of one's spoon should produce the familiar crackle of shattering caramel. Many say that drying brown sugar in the oven is the best way to get a crunchy caramel top. I found superfine sugar a bit easier and it still produced the same delicious results when attacked by the heat of my blowtorch!

Scone Baking

My quest for the perfect scone is all about the mixing. Scones I have read are best if hardly mixed at all. The dough should be crumbly and loosley patted together before shaping. In the oven the scones puff up to be deliciously tender and flakey. These scones are brushed with heavy cream, and I finished them later on with a simple lemon glaze. Yum!