flour

Bagels, step-by-step

March 23, 2011
Peter Reinhart's bagels

People often talk about bread making as a bug of some sort that people catch. Well, I’ve definitely caught it, and in an effort to move up a rung on the artisan bread making ladder, I made a batch of bagels. This isn’t a quick recipe. You need to time things carefully so that you’ve [...]

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How to bake bread

January 9, 2011
Baking bread at home

A lot of people are scared of baking their own bread. There’s a lot of misconceptions out there: It takes too long – not true.  A very decent soda bread can be made in under an hour, start to finish.  Granted, a proper loaf needs time for the yeast to work it’s magic, but even [...]

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A very good chocolate brownie

March 17, 2010
Thumbnail image for A very good chocolate brownie

There’s nothing quite like a good chocolate brownie. It’s not quite a cake, not quite a biscuit, but more of an indulgence than either.  A good chocolate brownie recipe is one of those things every cook should have up his or her sleeve. This recipe is excellent, a straightforward brownie recipe with an extra flourish [...]

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Wholemeal apple and orange cake

March 6, 2010
Nigel Slater's Wholemeal Apple and Orange Cake

Every now and then, I have to make a cake. The urge often strikes at this time of year, with the indulgence of Christmas a fading memory and no sign of the rotten weather passing soon.  This cake provides a hint of what’s to come, using last autumn’s fruit. Line the bottom of a 20cm [...]

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Fifteen’s Hazelnut Torte

October 8, 2009
Fifteen's Hazelnut cake

This is a traditional Italian torte, loaded with hazelnuts and poppy seeds, rich with ricotta cheese. It goes well with a cup of good, strong coffee. First butter and line a 28cm tart or cake tin, one with a removable base, with greaseproof paper. Toast 125g of hazelnuts in a dry frying pan over a [...]

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Tarte aux Quetsches, or Plum Tart

September 5, 2009
French Plum Tart

I posted some photos last week from a small café and bookshop in Becherel, France. It was an amazing place, a bookshop with a café attached as a sideline rather than the other way round.  This is the way these things should be. It was how I imagine my bookshop will look and feel if [...]

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Pinenut and honey tart

April 26, 2009
Pinenut and honey tart

This nearly didn’t happen. There were too many things that could have gone wrong, and most of them nearly did. Toasting pinenuts, blind baking a pastry case, the wrong type of honey… To my surprise, things turned out well, and we had a delicate and delicious dessert, sweet and balanced with a deep honey flavour, [...]

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Crunchy peanut butter biscuits

March 11, 2009
Nigel Slater's crunchy peanut butter biscuits

We were supposed to be outside digging over the allotment on Monday, but as the weather took a turn for the Siberian, we decided to give it a miss. The broad bean seeds will have to wait until next week. There were biscuits to make instead, peanut butter ones.I detest peanut butter. I think it’s [...]

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