Retrospective; Hooking

In terms of chronology, this seems the right point in the retrospectives to introduce crochet. It was at this time in July 2011 that I turned to my friend Tom (the wildly talented Tokyo Tombola of http://tokyotombola.wordpress.com/ and various other onlinery) and asked him to teach me to crochet. Over the course of one afternoon of dc (US: sc), I was, no pardon requested for the pun, hooked. I went home, raided my mother's sewing kit for her ancient 6mm hook and made myself three bookmarks in an evening. By the end of my lunch break on the following day at work, I had patterns for simple amigurumi dolls and instructions on new stitches to practise. I headed straight from the office to a fairly local craft store and bought more wool and hooks, and by the end of my first week I could do pretty much everything I wanted to do- doll making, more complicated stitches (triple and quadruple crochet (in US terms anyway- Tom taught me in English but I learnt on my own in American. I am fairly good at translating now), even beginning to be able to plan my own simple patterns. I was pleased, and proud, beyond belief, despite teasing from my brother that I was becoming an old lady. Though polish and finesse would come with practise, clearly I had a knack for this.

I had tried knitting in the past, and whilst it is very relaxing, I never felt like I was getting anywhere with it. I can knit, and purl, and that is about it. I can't read knitting patterns and I find that a quick payoff is more likely to tie down my butterfly mind to a hobby. With crochet, I picked it up fast, and I went home from my first lesson with Tom with a bookmark. I had made something, and I could see my errors melting away, my stitches becoming beautiful and even. Within weeks I had made my first doll, and my first scarf. A gift and an item of clothing. I never got anywhere near that far with knitting, not even after months. I don't know why. Perhaps that is the next request I'll send Tom's way. Please, Tom, teach me to knit even a little like you!

Around this time, my current employers contacted me to offer me my current job, so I handed in my notice at work, and was counting the days until my new, exciting career (from a PA in a small firm to part of a team in for a huge global company, working on vastly interesting clients). My boss' wife, who was my occasional coworker, was heavily pregnant at the time with their son, and with my new found talent, I decided to make them a present as a thank you for the employment (I entered that job from poverty, after a year on benefits after being made redundant- a quite low period of my life), and as a way to congratulate them on their future son. A quick rummage online found a booties pattern on Lion Brand (lionbrand.com/patterns/70225AD.html if you are interested), and got to work.

Now, whatever you think of Lion Brand, they have a lot of material available for free, though some of it has errors. For an experienced crocheteer (hooker? I don't think either of these phrases are correct, but I am going with them, dangnammit) it is probably a bit simple and plain, and the errors that crop up altogether too often are down right infuriating, but for a beginner it is a good place to start. There are some fabulous tutorials on stitches and reading patterns based on their patterns online (my first and the one I would highly recommend can be found here: http://www.visualcrochet.com/how_to_crochet_a_giraffe.html (please note this is in US crochet, as are the patterns at Lion Brand)).

Back to the booties. I sat down to watch the grand prix with my mother one Sunday and finished one. Now I could churn one of these out a lot quicker, but at the time this was one of my first crochet projects and I was still getting used to the different terminologies, and really any crochet that didn't involve basic horizontal rows. The second took several days in shifts; lunch breaks, while waiting to xollect an order from the printers... Finally they were done, and on time, so when I took my boss' wife home for the very last time, I handed over a pair of homemade machine washable booties, and wished her my best. She was touched. Homemade presents really are the best.

Retrospective; Ugly!Cheesecake

In July last year, a friend of mine celebrated a birthday I will mention no further (as he is very old (ohohoho)). I offered to bake him something and asked what I should bring. He said cheesecake.

Having never made a cheesecake, (I know, isn't that tragic?) I sat down a researched and bought my ingredients (whipping cream, marscapone, biscuits and butter for the crumb base) and pondered flavours.

Summer 2011 saw and incredible fruit yield due to the favourable spring conditions bringing on fruit early and in abundance. Blackberries that would have normally still been unripe at that time were in full fruit, laden with sweet, ebony berries just begging to be picked and guzzled in handfuls.

Upon dropping my then boss' heavily pregnant wife home at the end of the work day, I parked up near a large patch of blackberries I had spotted often on the same journey into south London. Being non-native, she was always fascinated by the wild fruit I would point out on our journeys, trees drooping with fat, ripe plums, early aples and those still ripening. It sometimes feels like all our ancient english orchards were made into A roads, and the landscapers forgot to tidy up around the edges, leaving these beautiful forgotten bounties to smash, overripe, pulpy and unwanted onto the road side year after year, to be picked over by birds or pulverised by speeding tires.

I digress.

Within fifteen minutes, with only a few bramble scrapes, I had a healthy haul of blackberries, more than I really needed for the coolis to flavour to the cheesecake. Once home, a quick clean and a sort left me with about 150g of free, wild fruit. Blended with two tablespoons of golden caster sugar, it made a florally fragrant, mellow and fruity deep blue purple sauce, ready for greater things.

A few pulverised digestives later, mixed with melted butter and a teaspoon or so of spice (cinnamon, ginger, clove and nutmeg) and the base was done. The main part of the cheesecake was the whipped cream, marscapone and sugar, mixed together lovingly, which kept the filling light, which I found delightful, as cheesecake can be over dense for my tastes. I pored this in in quarters, at each interval spooning in a quarter and muddling it with the coolis/sauce/delicious blackberry goop. When cut, the cheesecake was full of ribbons and swirls of purple. Yum.

On the top, I just let the coolis drop with as much artistry as possible.

All in all, it wasn't the prettiest cheesecake there has ever been, nor the tidiest. But it was bloody delicious. Num.

New Year Bakesolutions (which are like resolutions about baking)

Dearest, darlingest Internet.

How are you? It's been a year since my last proper post. A year. There's really no excuse for that kind of slovenliness. It isn't even that I've been off the brownies, or have sworn off sponge cake. Developed a phobia or fondant, or nixed the nougat. I'll stop that now, and be straight up with you.

This past year has brought many changes to my life; two new jobs, new hobbies and larger scale life changes including the selling of my current house, and the arduous, stressful task of looking for a new home I could bear to live it, i.e., does it have a kitchen I could bake in?

I would say I have baked less overall in the last year. The difference between being able to afford to bake (now) and having the time to bake (then) is a difficult balance to weigh up. It is now very unusual for me to bake on a weekday evening, for example, as I don't get home until half past seven, by which time I need feeding and to feed my pets, and a little rest time, ready to get into bed and be up again at six to make quarter past seven coach. I know this differs very little from anyone else's commuter lifestyle, but there we are.

Funnily enough, I think this blog helped me get my current position; it came up in all my interviews, as apparently even the slenderest londonites are total cake heads. And I hasten to add, my work has very little to do with baking or creativity in its wider form; I work in business recovery, handling internal compliance. Have some jargon, Internet. I hope you like it. It's fresh!

Having said all this, I did win my first ever baking competition this year, and began to dabble in sugar past decorating, which have been great fun, challenging, and yet very rewarding. I've made a lot of money for charity and non-profit organisations this year via auctions, bake sales and bake offs, and I hope to do more of the same this year.

In this new and shiny year (year of the dragon!) I hope for many things. I hope I can get my offer accepted on the dreamhome I found yesterday (Internet, you should have SEEN the kitchen. And it had real fireplaces!) I hope I can afford my mortgage. I hope my parent's divorce goes through soon and with as little further emotional trauma to my mother as possible. I hope my elderly cats see 17 and 18 respectively. I hope my pet rats have a healthy happy year and don't find the move too stressful. I hope my friends will have happier years. I hope for progression, creatively and in the workplace. I hope I find time to breathe.

In terms of resolutions, well, those which are pertinent to this blog, I have a few.

Post more often; despite baking less overall, I still bake often, so there is little reason I shouldn't let you all know about it.

Buy a new camera; my old one finally gave up the ghost mid rat photoshoot in October this year. I have been shopping around for a new one ever since; it is finding the one or two hundred pounds for the outlay that's the trouble.

Keep pushing the boundaries; this year I have made some famously difficult things, including macarons (they ain't so tough), and tried a vast number of new things (sugar paste modelling, cheesecakes, custards...). I can do more, and better.

Use my cookbooks; I spent at least £60 on cookbooks last year, ranging from healthy soups, to cupcakes, to traditional british baking, to Nigella. I look forward to the challenge of living alone and feeding myself. I've done it before, but now perhaps, whilst still endorsing thrift, I will have the chance and drive to try to vary my palate a little more. Though my standard fare is bloody delicious all the same.

In the meantime, I have a collection of pictures I intended to write full posts for and never did, so I will stick them up and annotate, and if any should interest you, please let me know and I'll do my utmost to get a recipe or method online.Today will be all about writing workshops and baking, as a wind down from yesterday's house hunting... And a treacherous amount of cheese and wine. Oops.

Hate to see you go, Internet, but love to watch you leave.

Natasha x

Slap my wrists and call me sally...

*casually blows dust off the blog*

Dearest darlingest internet! Where have you been all these months?! Or rather, where have *I* been... for shame, for shame...

The answer is somewhat convuluted, full of pitiful excuses about job changes, lack of time and general slovenliness, which I will spare you, because I am inherently kind. What is more important is that I am here now, with a backlog of blog entries to post, all filled with delicious produce and lovely crafts. Are you excited, dear internet? I know I am.

So sit back and relax, and soon I will spam you with goodies and gluttunous gossip. Huzzah! But until then, enjoy this adorable Origami crane I made not so long ago on a whim.

Ugly!Truffles

Hello my dearest darlingest Internet. How are you this altogether abysmally grey morning?

...What a miserable note to start on. Quickly, let me allay your S.A.D with a great big hugsome wallop of chocolate goodness!

Following on from my festive trufflemaking, I've realised/remembered how much I adore making chocolates. Before I became so into baking and preserving as I am now, my passion was being a Chocolatier. I even considered throwing in the towel of trying to find a job in a more conventional way, and training to become one. I still do. My sensitive skin and food allergies, including the fateful peanut, are my main preventatives. Being able to play around at home, however, brings me great joy, and, as with baking, destresses me utterly.


Ganaches/Truffles (I'm not geeky enough to really know the difference) are my passion, though, as I beleive I have afore mentioned, I love to make fudges, and to do 'enrobed chocolates' also- gingers and marzipans are christmas staples, and cake truffles (a method I will surely share when I recycle my christmas cake and possibly pud) are a great thrifty treat.

After my christmas efforts (the pink and glitter truffles, which I believe are the previous post), i was eager to make some ganaches with a bit more boozy oomph. I've had a wealth of praise and thanks for the gifts I made of them at christmas- how light and floral the P+G truffles were (they were made with a dash of forest raspberry brandy- AKA Magic Potion), for example. But as nice as they were, I wanted to work with the recipe and make something really special of them.


I did two varieties this time- a milk chocolate and Bailey's concoction, and a boozy white chocolate and Cointreau. I am going to write this as a method, rather than a recipe. The digits are all in there if you want to give it a whirl.


For both batches, I used 250g of a high quality chocolate (the waitrose branded belgian chocolate from the confectionery section rather than the baking aisle- it tempers beautifully and tastes divine). For the truffles over christmas, I used 180ml of double cream. This time I cut back the cream to 150 to attempt to make it thicker, as I would be adding more alcohol liquid later.


The cream and knob of butter were brought to the boil, then poured over the chocolate and set aside to melt. After 3-5 minutes I whisked the mixture in glossy perfection, before adding the chosen spirit. At christmas, those just 'perfumed' truffles had 2 tbsp per mix. This time I added 5-6tbsp. The result was a fragrant, flavoursome, boozy delight. I don't think you need to add any more than this to a mixture.


The thing I will try with this is perhaps cutting back the cream more, as it is still a little too loose to roll. Instead I used my chocolate moulds. Now, these are made of silicon, and you can buy them from any good cookery shop. For the milk chocolate ganache, I lined a square mould with milk chocolate. The best way I have found of doing is this:

• Melt the milk chocolate.


• Pour a little into the mould- about twice what is needed to just cover the bottom.


• Using a very clean paintbrush (preferrably unused), paint the chocolate up the sides of the mould to begin to form the shell. Do this a few times, and gently, to try and make it stick.


• Repeat for the rest of the moulds.


• Before putting it in the fridge, go back and repaint the sides from the chocolate in the moulds. This is like a second coat, and as the chocolate will have begun to set it will set thicker on the sides now.


• Refridgerate from 20 mins or so.

The next part is fairly simple. It's just a case of spooning out of the ganache into the moulds- not too full, and then topping and sealing each little chocolate shell with more melted chocolate. Once set in the fridge again, they should be ready to eat. They should last at least a fortnight with all that booze.
It may seem fiddly, but it is the best way I have found of getting good results.



For the milk I did just a simple milk chocolate shell. For the whites, I painted each mould with a smear of milk, let it set, then made my shell. At the end, I topped off with milk chocolate instead of white, to make a 'viennese' truffle. Technically the chocolate should have been combined from the start, but hey, I'm a rebel.

Pink and Glitter

I will be the first to admit that I am way, way behind on updating this poor blog. Know that it is because I have been having a fabulous christmas time, Dear Internet, and I do so hope you have been too. As it is, most of the festive recipes will be going up in the new year, ready to be called upon next yuletide.

I make ganaches and truffles several times in a year, but since Christmas is a feast, it seems incomplete without them. That and they make lovely gifts. And, well, if you can make them look as festive as the season, well...

This year I made two different flavours of truffles; Milk Chocolate with a hint of cointreau, and White Chocolate with a hint of Forest Raspberry Brandy (A.K.A Magic Potion). That sounds terribly chic, doesn't it? Like most of my recipes, I wish they were more complicated, so I could pretend to be culinarily gifted. Ah, well.

This is the recipe I use, which seems to work with any chocolate.

Chocolate Truffles

180ml Double Cream
30g Unsalted Butter
230g-250g chocolate.

Regarding chocolate, before I go into method. The better quality the chocolate, the better the flavour. Belgian chocolate is particularly lovely. If using dark, go for something around the 70% cocoa solids mark. For milk, anything over 35% is going to be a bonus. For white, it really seems to be more about quality than content for flavour, but the belgian chocolate I used was 28% and is divine. For a bittersweet chocolate, I have used half dark and half milk too; you get the heady cocoa colour and tang, but it melts creamily away into sweetness. But then, I am a heathen, and I do so love candy-sweet white and thick creamy milk. Yum.

Whatever chocolate you are using, break it into pieces in a heat proof bowl and set aside.

Heat the cream and butter over a medium heat in a good pan. Once the butter has melted and been combined by whisking gently, bring to the boil. Take off the heat as soon as it has boiled, and pour it over the chocolate.

Leave the cream-chocolate bowl alove for a few minutes, then whisk it through. The hot cream will have melted the chocolate. When ready you with have an even, glossy, sumptuous chocolate ganache liquid.

If you wish to make boozy or flavoured truffles, this is the time to add your flavouring. For spirits, 2 tbsp will give it a hint, a fragrance and a slight taste. 4-5tbsp or so will give you a kick. For non alchoholic flavourings like vanilla, lemon etc, 1 tsp of extract should be enough. You can use lemon juice, but in my experience and basic kitchen technology, it has always curdled somewhat, yeilding a less smooth finish. If you do choose juice, you will obviously need more. The mixture pre-chill is completely palatable, so 'season' to taste. I would 'season' it a little too much, if you get me, because the flavour will lose edge as it cools.

Refridgerate for at least 4 hours, but prefferably overnight.

And that really is it. Once the ganache has set, spoon out teaspoonfuls and roll into balls in some sort of coating. For milk, dark or bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder is a simple and classy finish. For white chocolate, you can achieve a similar effect with iciing sugar, or a blend of icing sugar and cocoa sieved together. I think white chocolate truffles are so sweet that the icing sugar can kill them somewhat, but that's jsut my point of view.

For more 'exciting' coatings, this year I used for my milk chocolates:

bittersweet melted chocolate
chocolate sugar strands
chocolate curls
chocolate sprinkles.

And for the white chocolates (which is where the title becomes apt):

various pink sprinkles
hundreds and thousands (non pareils) in pink and multicoloured themes
pink sugar strands
pink glitter sugar

There are no words for how festive these looked. In a cut glass candy bowl, they looked like shining baubles.

I must apologise for a lack of pictures in this post. I shall add some later. I am having a little camera difficulty at the moment. That and since a large number of these have been snaffled, I may have to make a whole new batch to photograph. What a pity... wink wink.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Christmas and the festive season means something a little different to everyone. Whether you are a perpetual winter bachelor or bacheloress, or someone who dives headfirst into gluts of quality family time, you will have some sort of ritual that comes in to play once a year; traditions that your play out, often as your parents played out for you too.

To me, something which is uniquely and absolutely Christmassy is the food. Sumptuous feasts aside, Christmas is the season of nibbles and canapés and sweet treats and cakelets. It is the season of baubles and trinkets, where no one can judge you on your frankly outrageous overuse of non pareils and what not.

I don’t know whether it is simply because I am a glutton, or because I am from eastern European stock (sometimes I believe the two are more than related) but Christmas to me just isn’t Christmas without baking; filling the besparkled and bejewelled house with spiced clouds of aroma that help defrost even the frostiest of unfestive humbuggers.

I bake pretty much everything in our house when it comes to Christmas. We often buy posh continental biscuits, and the obligatory tin of chocs, and real german pfeffernusse, if we can, but the house (as it should be at this time of year) is well stocked with homemade mince pies, lebkuchen, Christmas cake, brownies, sugar cookies, tarts, chocolates, petit fours, cheese savouries and pretty much any other festive recipe that tickles my fancy.

Money is tight this year, so my ingredients fund is tighter. Therefore, bakes are coming in dribs and drabs, but already my cranberry sauce is stashed in jars in the cold store. In the ’pantry’ cupboard I’ve stored cranberry and homegrown tomato chutney from the summer, and range of homemade spiced jams (perfect for making tarts for those who don’t like mincemeat, or Christmas presents). Last week I gleefully threw together my cranberry mincemeat (a faithful Nigella recipe I simple couldn’t do without) and mince pies (sadly now mostly gone- I make must knock up another batch!). This week I must resist the Christmas cake completely, ready for it be dressed up next week. More immediately I have planned a tart citron (which is rapidly becoming a speciality!) to appease my gluttonous but frosting hating brother, and a cranberry bake well (another Nigella I have discovered) in order to appease my a) adoration for cranberries, however terribly unbritish they may be, b) my love of almonds and c) my chronic, incurable sweet tooth. There is nothing like a festive twist on a traditional, sweet and filling pastry to chase away the winter blues.

However, most pressingly, and most Germanic of me, I must make up my first batch of Lebkuchen!

Though I’ve baked all my life, I’ve really come into baking blossom in the last few years. This also coincided with our local delicatessen no longer stocking traditional german biscuits at Christmas. I once travelled to Colchester and back for some, but really, that’s a little excessive, even for something so delicious as Pfeffernusse. I found, around this time, my Lebkuchen recipe, and I have loved it ever since. There is nothing quite so Christmassy for me as a hot steaming pot of honey and lemon for the mixture, and the joyous burst of spice; ginger, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg and black pepper, as they fill your lungs and heart, released when the batter is mixed, and more so when baked. Every Christmas Eve I bake a fresh batch of lebkuchen and sit up, watching terrible television, or sometimes more wholesome carols and services, surrounded by the Christmas lights as I ice them, ready for Father Christmas, and then my family, to enjoy.

When I say bake, it means just and only that. Lebkuchen, like many Christmas recipes, needs time refinishing, for the flavour to develop. As delicious as it is, it is not something to be rustled up in a couple of hours, or even really a day. I leave my dough in the fridge to develop for two to three days. The minimum, really, should be 24 hours after mixing, though I suppose a few hours would suffice. Not only does it allow the spices to infuse, but this dough is very wet compared with many biscuits doughs, and the time allows it to firm up at least a little. Also, this dough makes A LOT of lebkuchen! You could easily divide it into three parts, using one after a day and so on.

Lebkuchen

200g honey (I use a lovely local honey, but really any honey will do)
200g muscovado sugar
50g unsalted butter
Juice of a lemon
Zest of one orange and one lemon (if you only have clementines and they are being zest resistant, just squeeze out a little juice with whatever zest you manage to get)
2 free range eggs
550g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp cinnamon
2-3 tsp ginger (depends how hot you like your ginger biscuits!)
1/2-1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4-1/2tsp mixed spice

To decorate:
Royal icing
Silver and gold balls and dragees, non pareils or really whatever you like.


In a large saucepan (large enough to be used as a mixing bowl later in the recipe), combine honey, lemon juice, butter and sugar over a low heat until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved. This takes about 15 minutes, but stay with it to stir as it goes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool until lukewarm.

Zest the orange and lemon (I hate this part but it’s important for flavour) and whisk into the cooled honey-lemon mixture, along with the eggs.

Stir in all the dry ingredients (flour, bicarb, spices) bit by bit. If you’re fussy you can sieve or whisk the dry ingredients before adding, but I’ve never had a problem just stirring them in.

Spray the inside of a large plastic freezer bag with oil. Frylight is fine for this. Alternatively rub with some oil with your hands. Place the dough in the bag, squeeze out the air as best you can and twist to secure it. Chill in the fridge for as long as you are going to.

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 180/170 (which I believe is Gas Mark 4). Line baking sheets with parchment.

Roll out the dough as you like. Traditional lebkuchen are quite thick and puffy and slightly soft. If you like really crisp gingerbread, roll it to about 4-5mm thick. Otherwise, about 8-9mm is good, or you can thicker.

Cut out your desired shapes and place on your sheet. Small (>3cm in diameter) cookies will take only 7 minutes or so, but check at 5. Medium biscuits (around 5cm in diameter) will take 8-9 minutes. Larger biscuits or gingerbread house pieces could take as much at 12 or so. I would check small ones at 5, medium at 7 and large at 9. The desired colour when done is a light gingery golden, though even when browned as the thinner biscuits often get, they are delicious.

Can you tell which corner of my hellfire-powered oven is hottest?

Once cool, you can ice as you like. I either draw outlines or stars at each corner, and top with a dragee or silver/gold ball. On reindeer, however, I give them an eye, and either draw a saddle, or give them a my little pony style bum patch! If you want to use these as Christmas decorations, use a drinking straw to punch a hole prebake, and thread a ribbon through before icing, or once the icing has set (about 12 hours). You may need to reopen the hole a bit with a skewer because they do rise up a bit, but the biscuits are tough enough to take it. You can also make attractive stained glass cookies, or windows for a gingerbread house, by smashing boiled sweets, and placing them in holes cut in the cookies prebake. These melt in the oven and set as the biscuit cools to create a stained glass effect. Very attractive!

A hamper I made up as a gift. You can see the iced lebkuchen at the back. Unfortunately I overlooked taking a picture before I packed them!