The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
This recipe is from Diana Henry’s Roast Figs Sugar Snow. It reminded me of the amazing pastries I ate in Austria once and indeed it’s based on on they use at Cafe Sperl in Vienna. If you like Danish Pastries then you’ll love these for breakfast and they are much, much quicker to make. […]
If you like Tart Au Citron you will love this and it’s much much easier to make. This is a fabulous ‘bung-it-all-the-in-the-processor’ recipe. Literally! I have made this in a pie dish and 25cm cake tin. Either works well. What you’ll end up with is a soft, thin pastry layer, a lemon flavoured tart filling […]
This is one of my favourite recipes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I’ve made it so many times as a staple when we have a surprise guest come over for a meal. It’s quick, simple and bakes while you’re having dinner or lunch. We always have lemons in the house but it works just as […]
Every now and then I have a canape craze – especially when we have people over for dinner. I make mini food. ‘Pick-up-and-pop-me-in-your-mouth’ food. I suppose it’s an extra challenge to my patience but it’s so satisfying when the results are good. These little pies are a great example and are really very quick to […]
Whenever I have left over egg whites, I whizz up some macaroons. I know that sounds rather pretentious but once you’ve made macaroons a few times, you’ll get into the swing of it. I made these with the leftover egg whites from my Blackberry Curd recipe. YOU’LL NEED 250g icing sugar 250g ground almonds 220g […]
About the author This book is by Linda Collister who is an experienced cook and baker. She trained at L’Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris and the Cordon Bleu in London. There are also forewords from the judges of the BBC TV series – Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. My review Mary’s foreword starts […]
This is the same basic muffin recipe as the Blueberry version. It’s so quick and perfect for freezing. I freeze the blackberries as soon as we’ve picked them too – if there are any left of course! This way they retain their shape really well in the baking process and you get a nice juicy […]
I love the flavour of Rose. I think it’s the ultimate in feminine charm and so was a must make for the Naming Ceremony of my friend whose daughter’s name is India Rose. I’ve used a simple Rose flavoured buttercream in this recipe because I made some Rose Cupcakes on the same day but […]
This recipe uses ground pistachio nuts instead of almonds. It works just as well as long as you grind the nuts quite finely and remove any unground flakes. I’ve used a simple chocolate flavoured double cream filling but you could also use white or dark chocolate ganache, a buttercream or even Nutella. If you prefer […]
This is probably one the my favourite recipes from The Great British Bake Off. It got a a lot of airtime and the recipe below also got published on the BBC Food website! I’m really proud of that achievement! Honeycomb is brilliantly versatile. I use it to top these tarts but you can also dip […]
These bread rolls are a brilliant alternative to naan bread or chappattis when eaten with dhal based recipes. They are also great with one veg soups like tomato or broccoli. They also go well with hummus. I made these rolls in Episode 3 of the Great British Bake Off. Paul commented that you couldn’t taste the […]
These bread rolls are a brilliant alternative to naan bread or chappattis when eaten with dhal based recipes. They are also great with one veg soups like tomato or broccoli. I made these rolls in Episode 3 of the Great British Bake Off. Paul commented that you couldn’t taste the halloumi because of the chilli but […]