The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
Now I thought I would be the absolute last person in the world to be writing about Starbucks on my blog. Having run an independent coffee shop for a number of years I really do try to avoid Starbucks like the plague. The coffee is usually very badly made in the UK and far too […]
There is something rather therapeutic about baking pastry. It’s the stages I think. Making the dough, chilling the dough, rolling out the dough and finally baking. The stages fit rather well with my running schedule. I’m running for Action Against Hunger in the 2016 Virgin London Marathon. I’ve started training now because I’m a slow […]
A couple of weeks ago I met two really cool gents who are half of a really quirky, new coffee company – Black Sheep Coffee. They are hoping to delight coffee connoisseurs and ‘shake up the coffee scene in the UK’ where cool independent coffee outlets are springing up faster than the weeds in my allotment. […]
This is a recipe I tried from the Great British Chefs website by Vineet Bhatia. Instead of the walnuts, I used pecans. I’ve made this a few times now with different coffees. Last time I used a Union Coffee Espresso as I’d been to the London Coffee Festival. I’ve also tried it with Cafe Direct […]
A whole 3 days dedicated to tea and coffee? How fabulous I thought and indeed it was! Tucked away on London’s Southbank was a maze of boutique coffee and tea companies all with their stories to tell. First off, the gorgeous light, nutty coffee from The Ethiopian Coffee Company which I used in my Hazelnut and Coffee Biscotti. (Sssssh don’t tell […]
Biscotti is know to have come from the Tuscan region of Italy but the word is derived from Latin. Biscotto derives from “bis,” Latin for twice, and “coctum” or baked (which became “cotto,” or cooked). The first bake is in a loaf, then sliced and toasted. This second trip to the oven draws off moisture, and leaves […]