For those of you who don’t know what lactation cookies are, it’s pretty simple. No, they do not cause you to lactate. They’re just a cookie packed full of really good ingredients that can help sustain you for a long time. They’re called lactation cookies because breastfeeding moms are burning a lot of calories, so it can be handy having something nice like this on hand – kinda like protein balls. Richard and I would often grab one on the way out of the house in the morning when we didn’t have time for breakfast. The oats and protein in them help sustain you for a while.

The original recipe that I based my version on is How Sweet Eats. I converted it to grams and then tweaked the ingredients a bit. Her original recipe called for ‘brewer’s yeast’, which was the only thing I couldn’t find. My local health food store doesn’t stock it, beyond some pricy capsules. It’s not an essential ingredient but adds some nutritional value (for those of us actually lactating). If you can find it, feel free to add it! Oh, and please don’t confuse this with nutritional yeast. They are very different and the latter will make your cookies taste like cheese.

One of my favourite things about this recipe is that it can be tweaked so much. I tend to call this my ‘kitchen sink’ cookie recipe since I see it as an excuse to use up leftover ingredients. (Hence, everything but the kitchen sink).

Don’t have almond butter? Use peanut! Don’t have enough oats? Substitute some shredded coconut instead! No chia seeds? Throw in some sesame! I’m pretty sure I’ve never made the exact same batch twice. These cookies are pretty darn forgiving, so go nuts. And I mean that literally, add nuts!

The only thing I definitely use each time (besides some portion of oats) is cranberries. There’s just something about the tangy flavour that helps cut through the sweetness of the other ingredients, which I think is wonderful. I’ve tried other things but always come back to cranberries.

As for the review from those who are breastfeeding and not? Well everyone who has tried these loves them. Honestly, Richard asks me to make these all the time. He’s even brought them into his work (back when offices were a thing) and I’ve shared the recipe with friends of mine who are actually breastfeeding. Thumbs up all around!

So whether you’ve just had a baby or not, why not try making some lactation cookies? Have them with a glass of milk… just don’t tell me where it comes from

You can bake this cake in a simple 9×9″ tin, and cut it into squares. Serve it warm, adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream – it’s the perfect end to a meal! Or, you can fancy it up a notch like I did here – baking it in two round tins to make a layered cake. I used a vanilla German buttercream between the layers (and a thin layer on the outside for a ‘naked cake’ look), then topped it with caramel sauce, poached pears and some candied nuts.

Now, I made this once before with the same amounts used in Justin’s original recipe – and found that it didn’t taste quite as strong as the cakes sold in Justin’s bakery (Bread Ahead). So this time, I increased the amount of chopped stem ginger and ground spices. It’s such a great cake – sticky and full of ginger flavour.

For the caramel sauce – I really wanted to use a recipe that only had a couple of ingredients. Caramel sauce isn’t complicated – just sugar and a fat (butter and/or cream) that has been heated to a specific temperature for the consistency you want. I adapted this recipe slightly, using a dry caramel (I can’t be bothered adding water only to then boil it away) to make a sauce with the right thickness to top a cake. Not too runny, but you can still get some nice drips on the edges. Of course, I accidentally boiled it too long (distracted) and it was super thick, so I just thinned it a bit with some hot water! You could also add more cream instead.

As for the buttercream? Well, I decided to go for a German buttercream, as I dislike the traditional stuff. I was always that kid removing the icing from her cupcake because American-style buttercream is either sickly sweet or just tastes like butter. German buttercream is pastry cream that has been whipped with butter. And it is delicious! I used inspiration from this recipe, whipping the butter first, and adding the pastry cream in increments. I didn’t have any issues with it splitting, so perhaps it’s the new way to make buttercream?

And to top off the cake? Spiced poached pears and candied nuts! I used Jamie Oliver’s recipe for the pears, which is just so simple! The candied nut recipe makes waaaay more than you need – but they taste great so who cares! I had hoped to get some gold leaf to finish everything, but they sold out Maybe next time!

And that’s it! Maybe a good cake for New Year’s Eve? I had hoped to post this before Christmas, but time got away from me… but hey – what else is new?

One of the many things that is hard to find in the UK is pumpkin purée. Unlike in North America, where “pumpkin spice” is in practically everything come autumn (seriously – it’s insane), the UK doesn’t really do pumpkin desserts. Suuure, you can get a pumpkin spice latte now at Starbucks, but pumpkin desserts are a quintessentially North American thing. Which makes sense – no Thanksgiving, no pumpkin pie.

So in the past, when I have come across canned pumpkin purée, I would buy a couple just for the future. You never know when you might need it! Update – my local little Waitrose has it in stock right now… whaaaatt?!

And of course, when I got the inclination to try these cupcakes, I was out of pumpkin and with nowhere to find it. So I thought about it and realized that spiced sweet potatoes (yams in Canada) taste a whole lot like pumpkin pie. So I figured I could simply use some pureed sweet potato instead of pumpkin! And you know what? I couldn’t tell the difference!

The original recipe for these cupcakes called for a graham cracker crust. Again, not something you can find here in the UK. However, my mom had sent me a box a while back, and I had juuuust enough left to crush up. You could substitute it with digestive biscuits, but I don’t think it’s worth it. The graham crust is more flavour than texture, and without the honey graham taste, I don’t think it’s necessary. You could just omit that part.

Of course, then they wouldn’t be very “s’more” but hey, you do what you can! After all, s’mores are a very North American thing, just like pumpkin pie. Which makes finding graham crackers nigh impossible. Why do I suddenly get these inclinations to bake things with hard-to-find ingredients?!

Anyway, if you’re not yet in the mood for Christmas (I am soooo excited for Christmas!!) and want something a bit more fall-appropriate to make – why not try these? They make a great mini cupcake too! Oh, and if you don’t have a kitchen torch (like me) you can use your oven broiler! Just make sure to keep an eye on them so that they don’t get too brown!

Okay, it’s time for a really simple recipe. I’ve meant to post this for ages, but haven’t made them often enough, and keep forgetting to take a photo. These are one of Richard’s favourite things that I make – they’re a softer cookie (unlike the crisp biscuits that people tend to make here in the UK), with lots of peanut flavour.

Now, the most important part of the recipe is the peanut butter that you use. If it’s one of those cheaper brands, with tons of added sugar and palm oil, then you won’t get as strong of a peanut taste. I only ever buy 100 percent peanut, peanut butter. Surprisingly, Morrisons has a really good one, which is waaaay cheaper than all the health-food ones, but still tastes great. Trust me, I love this stuff. It’s great in a banana smoothie too!

These are really simple cookies, where you just have to cream together the butter and sugar, add some eggs, and then mix in the dry ingredients. Nothing fancy or complicated here!

And you can totally leave them plain, or dunk them in some chocolate like I did here, and top them with some chopped peanuts. But then, I actually prefer the taste without the chocolate, as it can kind of mask the peanut butter. It’s completely up to you! Oh, and the more you spread them out before baking, the crispier they will get. If you want a really chewy cookie, leave them as balls, and allow them to spread in the oven. They’ll end up really soft in the middle.

So for me, one of the saddest things about having to leave my Kitchenaid mixer in Canada was the lack of the ice cream attachment. It’s kind of hard to make my own ice cream without one

Enter the no-churn ice cream method! Now, I experimented with this a little last summer, with my No-churn Piña Colada ice cream and the No-churn Strawberries + Cream. But the big problem I have is that almost all no-churn recipes out there use only double cream and condensed milk. And that, my friends, tastes as rich and heavy as it sounds! It’s waaaay too rich with only double cream, but it’s the only way to whip the mix prior to freezing. You dilute the fat content too much with milk, etc. and not only will it not whip up thick before freezing, but it may even separate in the freezer – ending up with a layer of soft cream on top, and hard frozen milk below.

So I tried experimenting with some old recipes (that I had made before I got an ice cream maker) – but ended up with the problems described above. That’s when I saw a little video on Pinterest, of a recipe from Co-Op. It was a Balsamic Strawberries + Cream no-churn recipe, that used an ingredient I hadn’t considered before – yoghurt! I mean, I use it to make popsicles, but never thought to try and use it in my ice cream mix. So, I made a small batch, with no strawberry or anything in it, just to see what the base flavour tasted like. And it was nice! I mean, you could definitely taste the yoghurt, but it wasn’t as rich and heavy, while still being soft. I figured that if you added a strong enough flavour to it, the slight tangy yoghurt taste would fade to the background, or you might not even notice it at all!

Which brings me around to this recipe! (Finally, right?)

Richard’s favourite ice cream in the world is Pooh-Bear (now called “Poor Bear” because of some Disney legal woes) from Maud’s Ice Cream in Northern Ireland. It’s literally one of his first stops after getting off the plane in Belfast. It’s a vanilla ice cream with chunks of honeycomb, which partially melt in, creating little ribbons of caramel and crunchy bits. And ever since I started playing around with ice cream recipes – I knew I’d have to make it for him.

Quick note – when I first heard him talking about “honeycomb” ice cream, I thought he meant real pieces of honeycomb from a hive. I thought it was a weird ice cream inclusion, as you’d end up eating beeswax. See, honeycomb in the UK is what we call “sea foam” or “sponge toffee” in Canada. It’s what’s in the middle of a Crunchie bar! It’s also been known as cinder toffee in certain parts as well.

Honeycomb may sound a bit hard to make, but it’s really not. And it’s kind of awesome to make too! I’ve got the recipe here. It’ll make a bit more than you need for this recipe, but you can use the extra for garnish, or you can coat them in chocolate for homemade crunchie bites! (And if making your own honeycomb seems like too much work, you could always break up crunchie bars!) Of course, I thought that just honeycomb ice cream felt a bit boring, so I decided to add some swirls of melted chocolate so that you’d end up with little flakes when you scoop it. Richard wishes I hadn’t, so any future batches will stick to the traditional pooh-bear taste. The choice is yours!

And as for our verdict on the yoghurt taste? Well, I asked Richard to try it without telling him, and he couldn’t detect it right away. I could taste it, but in all fairness, I was looking for it. The honeycomb taste is strong enough to mask a lot of the yoghurt flavour, but not all. Oh, and I even used zero-fat Greek yoghurt for half the amount! It still whipped up just fine! (I just used a mix of what I had on hand – but it seemed to make no difference). Maybe even choose a yoghurt with a subtle flavour? I didn’t taste mine before using it, and perhaps there would be one that doesn’t taste so yoghurt?

So if you’re looking to make something a little different, and don’t have an ice cream mixer – definitely try this one! It’ll have a subtle yogurt taste, but won’t be as rich as other no-churn recipes out there. Why not give it a shot?

I grew up loving crunchie bars, and what I then called sea foam. I remember learning how to make it myself and dunking it in chocolate to make my own little bite-size crunchies. It looks complicated, but it’s really not – once you understand it, that is.

All you need (besides the usual things) is a candy/digital thermometer which can get up to 150°C (~300°F) and liquid glucose. Now, you’re local store (if you’re outside the UK) may not sell liquid glucose, but any speciality cooking/baking store should, and even DIY brewery places. If you still can’t find any, substitute white corn syrup, but make sure to evaporate off the water sufficiently. It’s a similar product (both are inverted sugars) but the water content tends to be higher. If you’re unsure what I mean, read on, it’ll make more sense later.

You can find recipes out there for making honeycombs without the glucose, but this recipe is my favourite. I’ve tried a few in the past and found that their candy instructions weren’t always adequate. They often resulted in flat soft honeycomb or burnt-tasting stuff. Which isn’t exactly ideal; I adapted this recipe from my work, until it was perfect. Just stick with me kid 

There are three key things for making this work well – patience, temperature, and the right container. For patience – you have to let the solution boil slowly (to evaporate off the water), instead of turning up the heat and rushing it. Candy temperatures are less about the actual temperature, and more about what they represent. Since water boils at 100°C, for a solution to climb above that, it needs to evaporate off water. The higher the temperature, the less water is present (until you hit 100% sugar and caramelization occurs). If you boil too quickly, it may read a certain temperature, but there is still too much water present. So let it boil slowly, and the temperature will climb with the reduction in water.

As for the temperature, you need an accurate thermometer. It’s one of my main faults with a lot of honeycomb recipes out there, as they use colour descriptions instead of temperatures. For honeycomb, you want to get to what is known as the “hard-crack” stage. Anything below that, and your honeycomb will be too soft and chewy, and may even deflate entirely. The hard crack is between 149-154°C. I generally like to get to at least 150, to ensure it’s reached the right stage, but be careful as it’ll climb quickly once it gets past 145ish. Anything above 154°C and you’re in caramelization territory – sounds nice, but too much caramelization ends up tasting burnt. In fact, despite the fact that honeycomb is caramel in colour, we don’t actually caramelize the sugar! It’s the chemical reaction with the baking soda that creates the colour as well as the taste (and sudden increase in size).

For the container – you want to ensure you don’t pick one too big. Having the right-sized container to pour the honeycomb into will ensure it stays nice and tall. I actually used one waaay too big when making this trial batch (see above). I’m used to making this recipe 8x as big, and wasn’t sure how large a pan to use. What ends up happening is that without it reaching the sides, it’ll fall quite a bit and end up sort of flat If you put it into a nice-sized container, the sides will support it while it cools, and you’ll end up with tall chunks of light honeycomb. For this amount, I’d recommend a small square pan (like 8×8″), but maybe put some parchment paper underneath in case it overflows a tiny bit.

And that’s it! If you follow those three things (and the recipe below – obviously), you should end up with a great honeycomb! I’ve taught quite a few people to make it in the past, so hopefully you’ll have no issue. Use it to make my No-Churn Honeycomb Ice Cream, coat it in chocolate, or just eat it! Just make sure to store it properly, and quickly. Honeycomb will absorb any moisture present, so if you were to make it on a rainy day, with a window open, you might not have as great success as a drier environment. Once your honeycomb is hard, break it up and store it in an airtight container. I worked at a restaurant where we would vacuum-seal little bags of it so that we only had to open a small amount during service. Just don’t let it sit around in the kitchen too long after you make it, or it’ll get all sticky. (Like cotton candy! That stuff practically melts if left outside…)

It’s such a fun thing to make – the baking soda creates such an instant reaction (which is why I have no photos of it). It’s a fun thing to do with older kids, as long as they are careful. It’s like a science experiment you can eat! Yum!

So when we had a glut of rhubarb in the allotment, I could think of one thing I wanted to make with it! Well, I could think of a ton of things I wanted to make, but this was first on my list.

Pies aren’t as big here in the UK as they are in Canada and the US – most people would be quicker to make a crumble with rhubarb. Or maybe even a tart, but not pie. I, for one, love making pies as they leave so much room for creative decoration! Crumbles are good and all, but they leave little to be done artistically. Pies are sooooo much better to play with!

In this instance, I opted to make little strawberries out of excess dough and added them to some leaves and a braided edge. I love braids on pie crusts! Even though this pie can be made with a single crust, I almost always make a double so that I have more to play with, or sometimes swap the crumble for a lattice top. I love a good lattice…

Of course, you can also make a double batch of the dough to freeze one half, and make another pie later! Since the dough recipe requires a single egg to make a double batch, it’s easier to just make the double batch than divide it into two. This recipe was another one that Laura introduced me to, and I’ve used it for every pie I make, ever since._

One other thing that I always include in my fruit pie recipes is pearl tapioca. Or more specifically Minit Tapioca, which my mom sent me from Canada, because I can’t seem to find it in the UK.

Lots of pie recipes include flour and cornstarch, to thicken the pie filling and prevent it from becoming too liquid. This recipe includes a bit of flour, but I tend to find that there isn’t enough to accommodate the amount of liquid in the rhubarb. Tapioca absorbs the excess liquid, and adds a nice texture to the pie filling, while I find that flour can be a bit stodgy. Feel free to adjust the amount, or not include it at all.

Now, the crumble topping is up to you. I personally could take it or leave it (I prefer the look of the lattice top, so perhaps I would leave it more than take it) but I know that some people love the taste/texture. This way, you can have your pie, and eat your crumble too! Since Richard had been talking about making a crumble with the rhubarb, I figured a pie with a crumble topping would be the perfect bridge!

So if you’re like us, and have more rhubarb than you know what to do with – perhaps you should give this recipe a shot! Maybe you’ll love it just as much as Laura?

However, the first couple of recipes that I tried never lived up to their pictures. It sort of bummed me out, and I put off finding a good recipe. That is until I was asked to make scones for someone’s wedding. That sort of put the fire under my butt that I needed!

So I decided to try Mary Berry’s recipe for classic Devonshire scones. Well, they had the same problem as the ones before, but this time, I decided to tweak them until they came out the way I wanted! Scones tend to fall into two camps – slightly dry and crumbly, or softer and layered. The first time I made this recipe, they definitely fell into the first category. And I’m not the biggest fan of the crumbly kind of scones.

on the left are the scones from the first attempt – and on the right are the scones after I tweaked the recipe I started thinking about it – crumbly is because of a lack of gluten development. Most scone recipes tell you not to work the dough very much – just press it together a couple times and cut it out. But that’ll end up with crumbly scones. If you want them to hold together better, you’ll have to knead the dough briefly – like 10-15 turns of kneading. By working the dough a bit, you’ll end up with a softer, fluffy texture – just the way I like them! Oh, and be sure to roll them out thick! If they’re less than 1/2″ in height, then they won’t rise as much. The thicker you roll it out to, the more they grow!_

Oh, and the original recipe said to use a mixture of egg and milk to wash the scones, but I found a whole egg worked best. I tested a few different options (egg + milk, egg white only, etc. etc.) and found that the best colour and shine came from a beaten whole egg. Feel free to sprinkle the scones with a bit of sugar if you want as well!

Now all you need is some clotted cream and fresh fruit jam! Of course, then you’ll need to decide if you’re the type who adds the cream first or the jam. Apparently, it’s a bit of a controversy over here. You can make your own clotted cream really easily if it’s not something your local grocery store stocks. All you have to do is cook heavy cream (whipping) in the fridge overnight! Serious! The slow heat separates the fat from the rest of the cream, and it rises to the top. Just scoop it off and whip it if you like yours fluffy (or not).

I used this recipe to make some myself! It’s so simple and just takes time. You don’t need to make as much as the recipe says, but simply fill your dish with heavy cream until it’s about 1-2″ high. It may only take 8 hours until the skin turns yellow on top, but longer (about 12 hours) if you’re making a big batch. If you’re not able to get some locally, it’s a great way to get proper clotted cream, no matter where you live.

So why not treat yourself to some proper clotted cream and scones, and have a mini high tea at home?

One of the first things that came to my mind was rhubarb doughnuts! Someone at my work had actually tried to make rhubarb and custard doughnuts before, but the acidity in the rhubarb jam he made caused the cream to curdle. Ever since then, I’ve always thought that if I were to do it, I would turn the rhubarb into a curd instead, as it would prevent any curdling. After all, you can mix lemon curd with cream and it’s fine – and lemon is even more acidic!

So I went back to my tried and true recipe for crème patissière, which is the same recipe I use for making lemon curd! I simply swap the milk amount for lemon juice and add as much zest as the amount of lemons I juice. I figured I could do the same with rhubarb purée! However, once I had stewed the rhubarb, and blitzed it – it wouldn’t press through a sieve like raspberry or some other kind of puree. Too much fibre. In the end, I didn’t see it and simply reduced the amount of cornstarch in the recipe to account for how thick the puree is to start with. I figured that the rhubarb purée was about halfway between how thin milk is, and how thick I wanted the final curd – so I halved the amount of thickener (cornstarch) to just 10g.

The rhubarb taste is there, but subtler than I was expecting. I’m debating trying to make these without the custard next time. I would double the amount of rhubarb puree, and just flavour the whipping cream with vanilla and fold them together. I think the flavour would be amazing – but then I love rhubarb, and it might be too strong for some. But even without the strong rhubarb flavour – these still taste great!

For the doughnut itself, I used the same recipe from Justin Gellatly’s book Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding, that I used in the paska doughnuts. Except, as these weren’t paska doughnuts, I used his traditional recipe with water instead of citrus juice. If you want a few tips on how to fry them, check out the paska recipe! My key tip is always to prove the doughnuts on parchment paper, rather than trying to lift them off a floured surface. You can even pre-cut the squares before shaping so that you don’t have to try and cut around the doughnuts once proven.

When I was trying to decide how to garnish these (all doughnuts need a garnish, IMHO), I was torn between poached rhubarb and rhubarb curls! In the end, I think the poached stuff works better, as it looks more like rhubarb at first glance. It is a better colour. However, the fact that you can make ribbons out of rhubarb is always fun. I used this recipe to make them.

Which garnish do you think looks better?

Either way, if you happen to have a glut of rhubarb from your garden or just love doughnuts, why not try these? You could even try reducing the amount of creme patisserie in the recipe to see if the stronger flavour is better? Taste is always a personal preference. Or, you can just eat the rhubarb curd straight – ha! Pipe it into tart shells, or make a rhubarb meringue pie! Enjoy!

I could get all sciencey about it, but it’s similar to how yoghurt is made. Except, instead of having bacteria eating the sugars (lactose) and producing lactic acid, you add the acid yourself! The acid lowers the ph of the cream, which changes the structure of the protein strands, allowing them to hold more water. Originally, I was taught that possets require citrus to set (lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit…), but there are other fruits with a similar ph to citrus.

My original recipe idea, was to make an orange posset, flavoured with pomegranate (mostly because I just wanted the pink/peach colour). But as I was making the first batch I was having a hard time. Possets need the citric acid to set, so I couldn’t substitute pomegranate juice for orange juice. I could only add a tablespoon or so for flavour. Now, pomegranate isn’t as strong a taste as the orange, so it wasn’t coming through. Then, as I was tasting things, I wondered to myself if the bitter pomegranate juice might be acidic? Turns out, pomegranate has a lower ph than oranges, and is closer to that of lemons! That made me realize you could use pomegranate juice all on its own!

So I went back to the store for more cream and set about making three different possets – one solely orange, one 50/50 orange and pomegranate, and one solely pomegranate. I was curious about the different colours and flavours, and couldn’t settle on just one. The result? Well, the pomegranate one didn’t really taste pomegranate – it’s too delicate a flavour. I used pomegranate juice though, so maybe freshly squeezed would come through? With the 50/50 one you couldn’t really taste the pomegranate, as again, it’s too delicate. The orange one was the best, as the flavour really cut through the cream.

In my opinion, the best possets use the most sour flavours – like lemon and lime. They really come through the heaviness of the cream, unlike subtler flavours. Perhaps next time, I’ll try one with lime and ginger… doesn’t that sound nice?

So if you want to make a posset, experiment with flavours. Lemon is perfect, but you can also infuse things in the milk before you make the posset. Simply add whatever you want to infuse as you first simmer the cream. Then take it off the heat, cover with a lid (to prevent too much evaporation) and steep for 30 minutes. Bring it back to a simmer and continue with the recipe as before. You could infuse all kinds of spices, herbs, tea… just use your imagination!

Honestly, possets are so easy! My only advice would be to serve these in small dishes, as they are very very creamy… you don’t want to serve people too much. A double-shot of posset is all you really need!