We have been fortunate enough this season to have been inundated with the most glorious varieties of apples from our lovely customers. It’s great, they come in spits and spades over the season, from Lottie Lin’s apples early in the season to Mrs. Sangster’s crop in the middle, and the most recent delivery came from Charlie, Darcy and Hector’s vet’s parent’s garden all the way from Kent. They are all different varieties – some local Suffolk varieties and some the more mainstream bramleys. We don’t mind as it’s an apple taste sensation and educates us, giving us the inspiration and ultimate cooking pleasure and we long for.

I have been toying with the idea of making apple snow for quite some time now. It’s a traditional recipe, one that is very simplistic however the quality of the apple is what makes this recipe a taste sensation. Choose your apple carefully, remember the apple must be the hero - I recommend a fairly acidic apple as the “snow” is sweet, adjust the sugar levels to compliment  your choice of apple’s natural sweetness.

The warm honey madeleine is a delicate but lovely touch to set this pudding off nicely. I love a madeleine, I think it’s the rich nutty flavour from the burnt butter along with almonds, honey and lemon that makes me go all googly eyed over these little cakes. I do refer to them as mini me, and while I do not think the world could cope with more than one Madalene, a freshly baked honey madeleine is a different matter all together.

They are simple and easy to make however do not make them if you are in a rush! The secret to the success of a perfect madeleine is that it must rest at least 12 hours. If you try and fast track this process you’re in for a disaster. This recipe is the proven practice and is the definition of patience as a virtue! To make a madeleine into a true madeleine not only involves the preparation of the batter, but it’s all about the all important shell shape. You can get different sizes, please note that I have used a standard size, for mini madeleines reduce the cooking time accordingly. The perfect cooked madeleine has a crisp, even, golden brown exterior with a fluffy fine crumbed interior. They are best eaten from freshly baked. I make the batter and cook them fresh every day for the best results here at the restaurant.

They are on a special puppy diet and I made these fabulous dog biscuits especially for them. I know exactly what is inside, no additives or preservatives, and they contain ingredients that I would personally eat.

When we moved to Suffolk we wanted to get a dog – well now we have two. I also had great intentions to bake special doggy biscuits to sell from the bar… well those intentions took 9 months to materialise and finally here we are. Scrumptious Sutton Hoo Chicken Liver, Carrot and Oaty Biscuits; yes they are rather posh, but then only the best for these uber cute doggies!

This takes me back to our last visit to the States. We stayed near Time Warner Center, New York, home to the fantastic Bouchon Bakery. We were obsessed with Bouchon and every morning went there for a cup of coffee and a pastry. It’s also the perfect place to people watch, and one of the items they sell is dog biscuits laced with foie grass and chicken stock, very posh! We got chatting with the lady behind the counter who told us how some dog owners not only buy a biscuit for their dogs but that the owners are rather partial to a doggy biscuit too! Well it made me giggle and remained in my memory.

There is no foie grass for our pups but instead, the best chicken livers our money can buy! The chicken hearts could also be a great substitute or addition to use alongside the chicken livers. I have chosen carrots as these two boys love carrots and a carrot has entertained them for hours on end, so I thought it better make its way into their yummy treats. Remember not to add any salt or sugar! Even though these biscuits are technically good for them remember not to feed your dog too many, it’s only a treat.

These biscuits are perfectly good for human consumption too if you wish, however if you are baking them for your own enjoyment add a salt to the mixture otherwise it’s a bit bland. I thought they would be super delicious as a canape with a bit of chicken liver parfait on top…. more ideas.

I teamed up with Twinings Tea to bake these two delicious afternoon tea delights – Royal Wedding Blend of White Earl Grey & Rose Victoria Sponge, and Twinings Royal Wedding Blend of White Earl Grey and Rose, Rhubarb Cupcakes with a White Chocolate Frosting, to celebrate Kate and William’s special day.

These recipes are perfect if you plan to host a traditional British street party. Here at the British Larder Suffolk we will definitely be baking both recipes and will serve them with this delicious Royal Wedding Commemorative Blend. My objective was to create two interesting recipes using the Royal Wedding Tea Blend, combining it with a traditional recipe with a slight British Larder twist.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

All credit for the images and videos goes to Twinings Tea Shop and I would like to thank Twinings for this fantastic opportunity to bake with this wonderful Royal Wedding Commemorative Blend Tea.

Most of the time medlars are mixed with apples to be turned into wine or jellies. As we had a large quantity of quinces donated to us I thought I’d give it a go mixing the two, and actually, the result is perfect. When you cook quinces for a long period of time the syrup turns pink which gives this jelly an attractive colour.

The theme of the quinces continue by turning more quinces into a curd, the buttery curd compliments the sweetness of the jelly and the acidity of the crème fraîche balances the dish.

This garibaldi recipe has been with me for many years. It can be fairly temperamental and behaves best during the winter. If the dough gets a bit warm it sticks and makes a bit of a mess. My top tip is to wrap it into sausages and let it chill well for a minimum of 6 hours. Then, take it from the fridge when you’re ready, cut it into disks and bake immediately. Do not hesitate or leave it to come to room temperature, it might just misbehave. I know I had a few “sticky” moments in the past. If you have baked a few too many of these delicious biscuits keep the baked biscuits in an air tight container, or alternatively, bake what you need and keep the remaining dough in the freezer. Defrost the dough in the fridge overnight and bake as per the recipe below. I sprinkle the warm baked biscuits with caster sugar to give it even more of a homemade look.

It’s not as simple as counting in the in-laws and hey presto cooking for a family of six, no, it’s a bit more complicated than that. It’s true as the expression “finger in the wind” guess work. I had to guess how many turkeys we will need. I have now finally made all the Christmas puddings. After a panic I baked a few more…. I now have 102 individual Christmas puddings soaking and 24 large ones for Christmas day itself! As for the mince pie mixture I made 40kg and I hope it’s going to be enough. I have now documented all of this information and hopefully next year the calculations will be easier….I hope!

I did contemplate for a while weather or not I should put Christmas puddings and mince pies on the Christmas menus at all. I decided at first to try and be different and not to, but now the big doubt is setting in and I made it after all. Making these one bite mince pies is very time consuming but when people eat them and you can see them enjoying them, you realise that the hard work was all in the name of ‘being festive’.

Along with the Warm Ginger Spiced Cider, these little mince pies will be served slightly warm with a jar of brandy cream from the beginning of December.

I so desperately tried to be different last year and made this delicious mince pie mixture into various other mince pie delights such as Festive Power Bars and Luxury Mincemeat Biscuits. They are all good but you simply cannot beat the good old classic mince pie. Saying that, if I do have plenty of the mixture left these recipes might just come in handy after all….

We stayed in the glamorous Hudson Hotel with it’s beautiful minimalistic but striking interior and super tiny rooms. You need to be a size 6 to stay in the rooms because there is no room to turn around, Philip Stark did a good job and designed a beautiful hotel but boy oh boy did he not allow any space for ones suitcase. Anyhow we did not spend that much time in the room as we were busy testing out all the foodie establishments.

The hotel is situated near the foot of Central Park near the Time Warner Building and home to Bouchon Bakery. Thomas Keller is a very creative and clever business man. We visited the bakery every morning for a coffee and a different treat every time. We loved sitting at the high tables, close to the counter to watch the chefs at work through the hatch. We found the perfect spot and sometimes found ourselves there for too long observing them. They were superb craftspersons and produced the most stunning and beautiful goods.

Mr.P became partial to a biscuit fairly similar to this salted peanut brittle biscuit. He had the ideas in his head for quite some time to recreate that indulgent buttery salty taste of those Bouchon Peanut Butter Biscuits. The recipe is entirely a development of our own and after a few attempts we finally recreated a recipe that we feel represents the taste sensation of the biscuits of New York.

Watching the world go by in New York City is wonderful and sometimes very amusing too. At Bouchon they baked Foie Grass Dog Biscuits as the early joggers with their posh pooches stopped off for a skinny de-caf, a slice of watermelon and a delectable treat for the dog. We struck up a conversation with the ladies behind the counter as they eagerly told us a tale about a chap that came in regularly to buy himself one of these doggy treats. He was constantly told that the biscuits were for his dog and not for  him but he insisted that  it was delicious and continued nibbling away. Well that story left us giggling all day, typically a tale of New York.

We discovered Arabica Food and Spice at Borough market about two years ago and fell in love with the range of quality products that they sell. We got hooked on their spices Ras-el-Hanout and Wild Sumac, these are available elsewhere but nothing beats the quality from Arabica Food and Spice. Ever heard or used the phrase “you get what you pay for” well that is definitely so with these ingredients.

We met up with James Walters from Arabica Food and Spice and went for a “jamming session” in his kitchen. It was a fun day cooking on James’ house boat, we were perhaps slightly over ambitious attempting to do too many recipes and perhaps got a bit  drawn into the chore of cooking and  forget about the enjoyment factor. But all in all it was a fantastic day, the main aim was to use as many of Arabica Food and Spice’s ingredients and we certainly achieved that.

We used the wild sumac in the orange polenta shortbreads to compliment the citrus undertones from the orange, and  we also sprinkled some sumac over the mango and orange salad inside the pudding. We made  orange blossom air, by adding the orange blossom water to yoghurt and then dispensed it from a cream whipper which was charged with nitrous oxide. The gas injection expanded the volume of the orange blossom flavoured yoghurt and created the most delicious and fragrant mousse texture.

I wanted to use Alphonso mangoes for the pudding but unfortunately these were not available  but they will be coming in season very soon so they would be a great substitute for the normal mangoes that I used. The added floral fragrance alongside the orange blossom air, transforms this delicious pudding into something rather spectacular.

As a matter of fact these have been  on my mind and have featured on my “to do list” ever since and that is to recreate Simon’s Orange and Polenta Biscuits.

I remember the orange fragrance and grittiness of the polenta very clearly,so it was a challenge  but I finally  made the time to create and perfect my own version of my distant memory of last summer.

I made and tweaked the recipe a few times  before I decided that I have done Simon justice and I’m happy with the result. I wanted to capture the flavours and textures. These biscuits are very short and crumble easily but the radical contrast in the texture of the polenta grains and the shortness that the cornflour brings to this recipe makes it even more exciting. In order to enhance and compliment the sharpness and acidic level of the orange flavour  I garnished each biscuits with wild sumac.The sumac has a sharp sour twang and compliments and  magnifies the orange fragrance and the best of all is it’s all natural.

What is sumac? Sumac is a deep red purple berry that grows on a small tree like shrub and is one of 250 species of flowering trees from the genus Rhus and is in the family anacardiaceae. Edible wild sumac is not to be confused with poisonious sumac which also has red berries. The two varieties are related and are also distantly related to the mango and cashew trees. The purple red berry is dried, ground and often used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a lemony tang to salads and meats. In Arabic cuisines sumac is used to sprinkle over mezze such as hummus. In Iranian, Kurdish and Persian cuisines sumac is added to rice and kebabs. Sumac is also best known for its use in the composition of Za’atar spice mix as its the main ingredient.

The culinary world has gone into a macaron frenzy. It’s macarons wherever you turn your head. So it’s time that I jumped on the macaron band wagon and give it a whirl.

My recent visit to Pierre Hermé’s exclusive macaron boutique at Selfridges confirmed what a true master he is with funky flavour combination’s. My favourite must be the wasabi and strawberry.

I am also addicted to all pretty things in life, so my aim is not only to make my macarons as pretty as possible but also give it the professional look.

I achieved this with my macarons by using a garnish of  freeze dried raspberries, black sesame seeds and chopped pistachio nuts. I made one batch of macaron mixture, coloured it with one colour, used different garnishes and flavoured fillings. I made my own version of wasabi and white chocolate butter cream as well as a toasted black sesame seed butter cream and for the third flavour combination I used a strawberry and rose jam as a filling.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You might think that the wasabi flavouring is a weird combination, honestly I though the same but all I can say is WOW! The wasabi has acidic and citrus undertones and combined with a really good quality white chocolate, I chose one with floral notes,to provide an  absolute dream flavour explosion. It surpassed all my expectations. I even think it tasted more fragrant than the wasabi and strawberry one I bought at Selfridges. (Hope no one takes any offence to me saying that.)  You have to add the wasabi to suit your taste, I suggest you start with a little  and mix it very well. I used a butter cream made from unsalted butter as my carrier for the wasabi. I also used wasabi paste and not powder, it’s entirely your choice. If you only have powder then I suggest that you should first make it into a paste and then add, to taste, to the butter cream.

To add a bit of glamour and sparkle to your baked macarons dust with edible glitter. You can get all sorts of funky shades and colours.

What I love  most about macarons is that you can make as many interesting colour and flavour combination’s as you wish. I have listed only a very few in the recipe below. I hope this short video will also give every macaron lover the confidence to give it a go and crack the art of making macarons.

My grandfather experimented with most of these exotics and if it did not work  he would just pull it out and try something else. I loved his approach and have adopted a similar theory/ technique in my cooking and gardening. England does not have the right climate to grow pineapples so when they are in season and come from a fairtrade supplier then I’m more than happy to buy one.

You might think that I’m a hypocrite, in  as much I advocate using local seasonal produce and then use pineapples. I acknowledge that though we live in a country with a cooler climate this should not preclude us from using  ingredients grown in warmer climes. We all know that the economics and success of other countries depend on their exports. So with the regulated fairtrade scheme I believe it’s the right thing to support these countries providing I know it’s all above board and that the right people benefit from my pound.

Earlier this week I was chatting on line to Trish who asked a very valid question about gelatine. Well to be honest I was dreading this question as I think it’s absurd that there are so many different sizes and that manufacturers change things willy nilly. Anyhow the conclusion was that I had to put pen to paper and describe the various forms of gelatine. Fortunately my larder contained the whole range from bronze and platinum leaves to powdered versions. I set up an experimental laboratory in my kitchen and had plenty of fun at the same time. Please read about my conclusions on “how to use gelatine” under my new British Larder Tips section. I have to thank Trish to prompt me to do this as I have not only found peace of mind for myself but at the same time can help you to feel more confident in using it.