681. Bread and Butter Pudding

Bread and butter pudding is one of my favourite desserts. The rich butter with the sweet custard and the spices and the crusty top… perfect combination. This was my dessert after an amazing Sunday lunch of slow-braised pork shoulder and I ate the whole thing despite being incredibly full because it was so delicious. 

682. Bara Brith

Bara brith is a traditional Welsh fruit bread and it was layered into the bread and butter pudding (the dark layers are the bara brith). This made the pudding even better as the bara brith was so wonderfully tasty that the flavours permeated through the whole dish, and it also added extra moistness because it was so packed with dried fruits.

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658. Lemon Meringue Pie

For New Year’s this year we kept it pretty quiet and just had a couple of friends over for dinner (and Xbox Kinect competitions). We made deep-fried brie for the starter, curries for the main, and this selection of little mini tarts for the dessert. I was tight on time so I cheated ever so slightly and bought pre-made tart cases, and then just made the fillings myself. I went with raspberry jam and clotted cream, chocolate ganache, and lemon meringue. I made my own lemon curd and then whipped up some meringue. I cannot wait until I can finally get my Kitchen Aid mixer because meringue will suddenly go from being the bane of my baking life to something which is just easy and involves me pressing one switch.

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643. Sachertorte

If someone decided they were going to make up a new cake just for me, they would probably come up with something along the lines of a sachertorte. Chocolate + either apricot or cherry (in this case apricot) is just one of the best combinations that exists in any foods, in all the world, ever. Sachertorte is also surprisingly light; the sponge is super airy and not too sweet and pairs perfectly with the thin layers of apricot jam and rich chocolate ganache. I had this in Wally’s Deli in Cardiff, which was opened years ago by an Austrian man, so their cafe is filled with lots of authentic Austrian cakes (and that country knows their cakes). I need to go back soon so I can give the linzertorte a try!

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640. Shortbread

Since starting this blog, I have lost count of the number of times I have eaten shortbread and not posted it because either I forgot to take a picture, or I did take a picture but the quality was terrible, or I took a picture which then got lost in the great iPhone Lion upgrade tragedy of 2011. Anyway, this has now resulted in me posting a photo of shortbread which is both poor quality, and of bad shortbread. I didn’t really want to post this one but frankly, with the luck I’ve had so far I didn’t want to risk it!

I’m a firm believer that shortbread needs to be made with all butter. Shortbread containing any margarine or oil at all is heinous and needs to be binned immediately. All you want to taste in shortbread is butter, and sugar. That’s it. Those two things are delicious and need to be left pure and untampered with, and so when you do have good shortbread it is melt-in-your-mouth amazing.

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620. Butter Tarts

When I went to my friend’s for Canadian Thanksgiving, there were not one but four different desserts - pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, date squares, and these butter tarts. Of them all these were my favourite and I still absolutely have to get the recipe so that I can make some myself. Basically they are slightly like a pecan pie. They are little pastry tart cases filled with a mixture of chopped pecans with lots of butter and sugar, and they taste fantastic.

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619. Carrot Cake

As much as I bake I’d never made a carrot cake before. However I decided to make a cake for my friend’s birthday and we found out that carrot cake was her favourite so I gave it a try. I used a recipe I found online for the cake, and topped it with loads of cream cheese icing and some fondant carrots that Pie and I made. The cake turned out much better than I expected and was moist and delicious, and even Pie liked it (usually carrot cake is his second least favourite cake).

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616. Comice Pear

Pears are not one of my favourite fruits; they lack the tanginess that I like in fruits and they also sometimes have a weird grainy texture. They get much better when they’re cooked though, so I decided I would put the comice pears in a crumble. I mixed the pears with raspberries and vanilla and then added my usual crumble topping before baking it.

Crumble is one of my specialities - I think it’s one of the best dishes I cook even if I say so myself. This is mostly because I use a much higher ratio of butter and sugar to flour than you find in most recipes. I hate when you have a crumble and the topping is loose and dry. My crumble is chewy and crunchy and caramelly. Basically, if you mix half and half flour and demerara sugar, then blend in butter until it looks like chunky breadcrumbs you will end up with an awesome crumble.

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600. Pumpkin Pie

So I totally dropped the ball on seasonably posting this one, but hey, pumpkin pie is delicious at any time of year so who cares if I forgot to write it up straight after Thanksgiving. I actually go to have two Thanksgiving dinners in 2011, which considering I live in the UK is pretty good going. First I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with friends in London cooked by my friend Mags, then I got to go to a US Thanksgiving lunch at Pie’s office courtesy of our friends Nate and Rhonda. I had pumpkin pie at both.

On the whole pumpkin pie is not a popular dish here at all. We actually don’t use pumpkin all that much at all, and certainly not in sweet dishes and baking. I love it though. It’s sweet and creamy and (hopefully) oh so cinnamonny. Mmm. I might have to make my own this year.

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596. Steak Tartare

When we first moved to our new apartment, we knew had to try out Pier 64, the fancy looking steakhouse that was just down the road, so we took my dad there as a thank you for him driving me and all my stuff up here. The main courses were all awesome - I had a sirloin with bearnaise sauce, my dad had ridiculously amazing lamb, and Pie had steak tartare. Unlike a lot of people my dubiousness over steak tartare was nothing to do with the fact it’s raw meat, and more just because there are gherkins and stuff in there that I don’t really like. The raw meat part is actually nice, it has a soft texture and an irony flavour (though I can’t help but think that I miss the delicious char you get on the outside of a nice steak when it’s grilled). It is super rich though, so I find that a few bites are enough for me and I can’t eat any more.

597. Summer Pudding

For dessert we decided to share 2 puddings between the three of us - a pear tart, and this summer pudding. Summer pudding is a traditional English dessert made with bread which is soaked in berry juices and filled with berries. It sounds slightly odd but it’s actually very tasty and pretty healthy too. I remember having it a lot when I was younger as it was my dad’s favourite.

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575. Candy Floss/Cotton Candy

Now this was much more like it. After my fish pie, my friend and I decided to share one of the Seaside Sweets Platters for dessert. We have never had a dessert like it; it was amazing, kind of like something Heston would serve up on his Feast shows. Basically it was gourmet versions of a bunch of traditional British seaside treats. From left to right: Mini toffee apple, champagne jelly, cotton candy, pirate punch, marshmallows with chocolate sauce, turkish delight ice cream, and fruit rock with biscuit sand in the front. It looked so pretty it was almost a shame to eat it.

I also had cotton candy in the more traditional way - sat on the beach whilst making a sandcastle and watching the donkeys walk by.

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