
So, it’s Christmas again, and that means it’s time to bake something fittingly seasonal and rich. This year, that’s panforte di Sienna, an Italian dessert loosely resembling a cake that’s packed with fruit and nuts. Panforte originated in Sienna in the 12th century, and is supposed to contain seventeen ingredients, to reflect the number of districts [...]

It’s said of Vienna’s cafés that you consume time and space, but only coffee appears on the bill. These are places to think and contemplate, to sit and read, to discuss the weighty matters of the day over a cup of coffee and a slice of cake. One cup is enough. The waiter will not hurry [...]

Here’s a ridiculously simple dessert for two: Make two cuts in the shape of a cross in each of eight figs, plump them up a little so that they open up slightly, and fit them snuggly into a small ovenproof roasting tin or dish with a lid. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of honey over the top [...]

The quest for ever weirder ice cream flavours continues … After the olive oil ice cream from the other week, we’ve now got coconut, and it’s actually quite good – coconut intensified through a little gentle roasting to bring out its essential nuttiness, then used as an infusion in a standard ice cream base. Couldn’t [...]

There’s no getting away from it, so I might as well just get this over with straight away – olive oil in an ice cream sounds downright odd. Perhaps it’s the idea of an oily dessert, or maybe the combination of oil and cream that does it, but there’s something about the very idea of [...]