Category: Autumn/Winter

Spiced pumpkin & maple rolls

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I think I’m being trolled by a season.

Spiced pumpkin & maple rolls | The Littlest BakehouseOn Monday morning, I stepped out of the front door and it smelt like the summer finally turning to my favourite season. There was an edge to the air, the temperature a little cooler. “At last,” I thought, “Autumn’s arrived. Not long till I can crack out the tweed jacket again.”

And by 1pm I was cursing wearing three quarter sleeves and trying to convince myself that it wasn’t really obvious that my entire face was sweating. What the hell, autumn? You’re teasing me. Continue reading →

Carrot, orange & ginger soup

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As part of Operation Eat on a Slim Budget (catchy name for it, huh?) , I’ve been working carrots into a lot of my food – they surely win the prize for most versatile vegetable. Although I love them for being a super cheap way of bulking up other foods, right here they deserve to be the star of the show, kicked up a notch and nudged into the spotlight. Continue reading →

Christmas gifts: salted caramel sauce

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Next up on my Christmas gift to-do list is this salted caramel sauce. Salted caramel has been a big food trend this year and I’m really hoping that continues, if only so that my tummy needs never be without Hotel Chocolat’s salted caramel chocolates (which are probably pretty easy to make, using a chocolate mould and this sauce).0

JarupdatedWhen I was looking for a recipe for it, there seemed to be a lot of fancy temperature measuring and potential burnt sugar. That’s not what you want on a Sunday morning, not at all. It was a case of Nigella to the rescue. The recipe calls for a bit of measuring, a bit of stirring, and a lot of deliciousness. Easy peasy. You barely need a recipe, to be honest.

Click here for more Christmas gift ideas. Continue reading →

Christmas gifts: gingerbread man kit

ginger

With only 17 days to go until Christmas, I’m starting to get a little panicky – especially as a lot of what I’m going to give to my loved ones this year is homemade, and so needs a bit of planning. Planning is not necessarily my strong suit. This gingerbread man kit is a last minute kind of gift that can be easily assembled from things you have at home, but also shows a bit of thought and is pretty cute. Especially if you throw in this little guy…

The original idea came from this month’s issue of Waitrose Kitchen. It’s one of my favourite food magazines  – it focuses on seasonal food, has amazing photography in it, and at £1.20 is a lot cheaper than other food magazines. It’s a winner. Continue reading →

Apple cake with pecan and cinnamon crumble topping

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I have a confession to make: I’m one of those really annoying people who just will not follow a recipe. I can’t help it. There’s creativity in my bones, and I’m drawn to changing things in an effort to make them even better.

So naturally, I couldn’t leave this apple cake recipe alone. It could have swum on through the internet, living out a successful life on the Pinterest boards of many, untouched by my meddling fingers. But thank goodness it didn’t. Continue reading →

A little bit of anything (but mostly butternut and bacon) risotto

This is a dinner that melds a few of my current obsessions perfectly. First up, the butternut squash – technically, it’s not in season any more, but still I can’t get enough. When I went to London’s Borough Market (more on that later), there was squash everywhere, which I feel totally validates the fact that I’m always thinking of new ways to use it. It’s a classic autumn vegetable, and great for veggie dishes too in place of meat. Continue reading →

Homemade pumpkin spice syrup

A few weeks ago, something I’ve  been waiting for for years finally happened, much to the delight of not only me, but a lot of the UK – the pumpkin spice latte finally showed up in our green and pleasant land.

syrup-for-web-2The autumn pumpkin phenomenon is maybe not one that sits comfortably in the UK. We don’t really do pumpkins. We don’t eat them – they show up in supermarkets for a couple of weeks a year, ready for us to carve them and fawn over them as if we’re celebrating Halloween just like true Americans. An American Guardian writer even warned us off the orange spheres of autumn.

So of course, despite my excitement, I was also a little cynical. 

It was warming. It was spicy. It was like a disco on your tongue. The next day, I wanted another one, but I know first hand that even a mild Starbucks addiction ain’t good for the old bank balance.

So instead of buying it…I made it. My inner cheapskate is leaping with joy.

Although it’s not so easy to get hold of in the UK, Libby’s canned pumpkin is available – recently, selected House of Fraser stores stocked a range of American foods. You can also order it online from a variety of sources, listed here. When you compare it to how much you’d pay for even just one grande, it seems a lot more reasonable! Continue reading →

Butternut squash, honey, and sage soup

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Bnutupdate

There are some weeks when you just need to give yourself an easy life, weeks when the best thing you can do is make enough food for five nights of dinners and then forget about cooking for a while. The kind of thing that you can put in the microwave, safe in the knowledge that by the time you’ve kicked off your shoes and unwound your scarf, stashed your handbag away and eaten a cheeky biscuit, that microwave will ding! at you and deliver something delicious. Continue reading →