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Or is it Lemony Cream Pasta? Working with what we had in the fridge, this is what came out. We have a teething baby (why already at 10 weeks old? I thought we had another couple of months!) and a toddler who refused to nap today and was overtired, so it had to be quick and easy. We've all been sick so the more places I can include vitamin C, the better. This was the result this evening, and it seemed good enough to share, so here it is. Ingredients: 500g tagliatelle 1 1/2 - 2 c slab bacon, cubed 2 onions, chopped 1 c mascarpone 1 c cream 1 lemon, peel strips and juice 1 tsp sumac 6(ish) c spinach, or 6 large frozen cubes 1 tbsp vinegar - I used homemade lemon vinegar, white wine vinegar would work too. Salt and pepper Optional: Cured egg yolk grated over the top 1) Boil the pasta until al dente, as per packet instructions. Drain setting aside 2c of pasta water. Stir in mascarpone, cream, vinegar and lemon juice. Add sumac, salt and pepper. Add necessary pasta water to achieve enough sauce to coat the pasta but not have it swimming. 2) Meanwhile, brown the bacon bits in a pan over medium heat. Add onions and fry for a few minutes until translucent. Add spinach and strips of lemon peel, cooking until spinach is wilted or defrosted, depending on what you're using. 3) Stir the bacon and spinach mix into the pasta. Grate cured egg yolk over the top if using. Taste test and serve warm (optionally with a nice rosé.) We really enjoyed this. It came together quickly (the longest part was defrosting the spinach), it felt light but was flavourful. Little Bit objected to anything touching his pasta until he realised he was missing out on bacon. Definitely going to hold onto this one. Despite the cream, bacon and mascarpone, it was not overly rich or heavy. It would also have worked without the bacon (surprisingly, as I usually seem to think most things could be improved with bacon!), although it was certainly tasty with it!

Have I ever mentioned how much I like chestnuts? Ever? Maybe once or twice, with the Chestnut Cookies, Caramel Chestnut Risotto, or Chestnut Puddings... They are a seasonal must for me around Christmas, and I absolutely love them. The smell of them roasting conjures up images of Christmas markets, hot chestnuts in paper bags, burnt fingers and the delicious sweet earthy flesh warming you from the inside... For Christmas, we usually have pumpkin pie and mincemeat pie, but this year we decided to add in a new one, Chestnut Pie. Somehow, bouncing around ideas about something else entirely, and the idea of trying a chestnut pie came up. Other ideas are still pending testing, but the one we decided to make a reality is along the same lines as a pecan pie. However, those involved in the discussion agreed that pecan pie is generally too sweet, so we reduced the amount of sugar. I also don't like corn syrup, so instead, we used honey and citrus syrup left over from making Candied Peel. We also figured that the citrus would balance out the earthy flavour of the chestnuts. To address the sweetness, we also made a thin pie in a large dish rather than a deep one. For the first try, we used frozen chestnuts (defrosted, of course), but raw. I had thought that 40 minutes in the oven would be enough to cook them, but it wasn't. In the second try, therefore, I used cooked chestnuts, boiling some first (saving the chestnut water, we'll see what it will come in handy for. Oatmeal maybe?), some I roasted. For the pie crust, I used vinegar syrup from making pickled plums this summer. The added flavour was interesting, but a regular pie crust would work fine. Ingredients: Pie crust: 1 1/2 c flour 1/3 c butter, cold and cubed 1/3c milk/whey/plum vinegar syrup Filling 1 kg chestnuts 3 tbsp butter 1/2 c light brown sugar 1/2 c honey 1/2 c citrus syrup (use molasses or maple syrup if need be. Or more honey) 3 eggs 1) In a large bowl, rub the butter and flour together until you achieve a wet sandy texture. Stir in the liquid, gathering into a dough, manipulating as little as possible. Chill. 2) In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Stir in honey and syrup, then beat in eggs. 3) If using raw chestnuts, boil for about 10 minutes until tender. Then roast about half at 190°C for 15 minutes (alternatively, I did it in the air fryer). 4) Roll out pie crust, and line a pie plate with it. Pour in the chestnuts, and then the batter. Bake at 180°C for 40min. Allow to cool and set, then serve at room temperature. I really liked this pie! And even the pecan pie doubters (*cough* Hubby) enjoyed it. I liked it better the first time around, but the chestnuts were better cooked the second time around. I would merely use pre-cooked chestnuts or boil them next time, and skip the roasting. I would also deliberately use light brown sugar. The second time I used dark brown sugar, and I think that worked less well, although that opinion was not unanimous. The pie crust worked, but a regular one would have worked equally well. The citrus syrup definitely worked, and I may even add orange zest or candied orange peel to this pie next time. We also used double the amount of chestnuts the second time around, making it super chestnutty. I would maybe split the difference in future and use 750g. The first time we had it with whipped cream, and the second time with mascarpone. Both work, but I think I preferred it with whipped cream.

Inherited, I think, from my grandmother, one of my favourite flavour combinations is maple walnut. As I have been playing around with making bagels, I decided I wanted to try to apply that flavour combo to bagels, although I have never seen that before. I didn't however, want to make a sweet bagel, so rather than using maple syrup or maple sugar to impart the maple flavour, I decided to use ground fenugreek, often used as a maple substitute. Ingredients: 2 c whole meal flour 2 1/4 c white flour 1 1/2 tsp fenugreek powder 2 tsp maple syrup 1 1/4 c water 1/2 cube yeast 1/2 tbsp salt 1/2 c walnuts Cornmeal Maple Syrup 1) In a small saucepan, heat the water to about body temperature - it should be warm, but still cool enough that a (clean) pinky finger dipped in it is comfortable for 10 seconds. Dissolve the yeast in the water with the maple syrup and leave for a few minutes. 2) Combine flours, fenugreek and salt in a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Add yeast and water and stir together, gradually incorporating flour from around the well. When the dough has come together, knead on a clean, floured surface for about 10 minutes until the dough is homogenous and elastic. Towards the end, knead in the walnuts as you go. 3) Place in a clean bowl and leave to rise, covered, in a warm spot for an hour, or until doubled in size. 4) Knock back the dough and divide into 8 roughly even balls. Here you have two options. Either: roll into snakes, then join the ends of these to make rings or: Roll into balls, then poke a thumb through the balls. With your thumb in the hole, gradually widen it, working the dough around so as to have an even, uniform thickness to the dough with a round hole in the middle or: create a ball and push it down over a bagel mould. 5) Place rings on a baking tray sprinkled liberally with cornmeal, cover and place in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight to proof. 6) Remove the rings from the fridge. Fill a heavy-bottomed pot with water. Stir in maple syrup. There should be enough maple syrup for the water to look like moderately strong tea. Place a test ring in the water. If it floats, you are ready to go. If not, dry it off and allow the bagels to come to room temperature. 7) When the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat to bring the water to a simmer. A few at a time, poach the bagels for about half a minute on each side, then fish them out and drain on a wire rack. 8) Sprinkle the baking tray with fresh cornmeal, then place the drained bagels back on the tray and bake at 240°C for 15 - 20 minutes until golden. These came out very nicely, and I was very pleased with the way the flavours came out. This is definitely one to make again, especially with homemade cream cheese and honey, or even just butter, to melt into hot bagels... I was channelling my grandmother and must thank my sister for getting me into making bagels with a gift of moulds for Christmas last year. (I forgot to take a picture of the baked bagels, so here are some everything bagels instead).

Growing up, sahlep, ground orchid root used in a Turkish milk-based hot drink, was a special treat, only after my dad had been on a trip to Istambul. I have discovered a shop here in Switzerland where I can find it now though, so while I like it as much as ever, it is less special and no longer a scarce commodity. Since discovering this, I have decided to start playing around with Sahlep as an ingredient in my cooking (Sahlep pancakes for example). As part of this, I decided a while back that I wanted to try Sahlep puddings. I tried a first iteration of these months ago, without baking. I simply chilled sahlep infused custard before serving. It was tasty, but the flavour needed some work, it was too sweet, and it never set. Summer was then crazy busy, and then there was the whole episode with the arrival of the Littler Bit, so I only revisited the idea in the last few weeks. We had been making macarons so I had egg yolks to use, so it seemed the logical thing to do. This time I decided to try baking the custards and tweaked the flavouring and sugar combo to boot. I also included whey, leftover from making ricotta to help balance out the sweetness. Ingredients: 2 tbsp flour 2 tbsp sugar 2 c milk 1 c whey 1 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp sahlep 2 1/2 tbsp maple sugar 2 tbsp butter 6 egg yolks 1 tsp mix spice 1 tbsp maple sugar 1) In a small saucepan, heat 1c of the milk over medium-low heat. stir in the sahlep, cinnamon and maple sugar. Stir until combined and thickened slightly, never allowing the milk to come above a simmer. Set aside. 2) In a saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and flour. Stir and allow to cook for a couple of minutes, then stir in 1c of the milk and the whey. Bring to a boil and immediately lower to a simmer. Cook until thickened so that a finger dragged across the back of a spoon dipped in the pot leaves a trail. The Parting of the Milk! 3) Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks in a bowl. Once the milk mixture has thickened, stir in a spoonful of it into the egg yolks to temper them until about 1 to 1 1/2c of the milk mixture has been incorporated into the eggs. Turn the heat off and stir the egg-milk mix into the pot. 4) Add the sahlep mix from step 1 and stir. Add the butter, allowing to melt and incorporate. Taste test, and add milk or cinnamon as necessary. 5) Spoon the resulting custard into a shallow baking dish or ramequins. Sprinkle over the remaining maple sugar and the mix spice. Bake at 180°C for 45-50 minutes, until set but still slightly jiggly. Serve warm or chilled. We all very much enjoyed this, but even more so on day 2 when it was cold, with lekerli (Swiss German gingerbreads) dipped in the custards. Definitely pleased with this, especially as it is quick and easy to make and can be prepped ahead if entertaining.

So this one is from a while back when we were preparing to move. I needed to use up food from the freezer, and found a container of pumpkin from when they were in season last autumn. Being in the mood for lasagna, this is what I came up with. Given the nature of pumpkin, I went for warm flavours. It was going to be vegetarian, but then I figured that bacon makes everything better, so threw some on the top. Ingredients: 4c roast pumpkin 1 red pepper, chopped 2 onions, chopped 1 carrot, diced 1/2 head garlic, minced 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp sage 1 tsp thyme 1 tsp basilic 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1/2 tsp herbes de provence 1/2 tsp cumin Salt and pepper to taste 2 tbsp butter, melted 1 1/2 - 2 c ricotta Lasagna sheets 1/2 c Gruyère, grated (Optional: 6 ish bacon rashers) 1) In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Sauté the onions until translucent, add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds, then add the carrots, red pepper and herbs and vinegar. Cook for a few minutes then add the pumpkin. Reduce heat and cook on low for about 15 minutes. Add a little water if needed. 2) Brush a deep oven-proof dish with melted butter. lay down a layer of lasagna sheets, brush with butter then spoon over a layer of sauce then ricotta. Begin with a new layer of lasagna sheets and repeat. When you have gotten to the top of the dish or the end of the sauce, whichever comes first, lay the bacon over the top (if using), and then sprinkle over the Gruyère. 3) Bake at 180°C for about 30 minutes. Serve hot. Very tasty, and less heavy than a traditional lasagna. I was also very happy to have decided to add the bacon. It would have been tasty without, but the addition took it to another level. I was particularly happy with how this all came out, and I am very tempted to make it again this week... hmmm...

Still on our baking kick with my sister, we were playing with more Christmas cookie ideas. We decided to play around with the flavouring of sugar cookies, adding some cocoa and some Christmas Mix spice. We tried it a first time and found that the chocolate came on too strongly and the spice not strongly enough, so we tried it a second time, tweaking the amounts a little bit. To deepen the flavour and add a festive note to it, we swapped out some of the sugar for maple sugar. On the second go, we decided we liked the balance. Here it is: Ingredients: 1/2 c butter 1/2 c sugar 1/2 c maple sugar 1 egg 1 tbsp milk 1 tsp baking powder 1 tbsp mix spice 3 tbsp cocoa 1 1/2 c flour 1) In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Beat in egg and add milk. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix well. 2) Roll into balls 1 inch in diameter and place spaced out on a greased baking sheet. Alternatively, chill for an hour, then roll out to just shy of a cm thick and cut out with cookie cutters. (in the picture above, Little Bit tried out his Christmas profiled roller - repeatedly so the shapes are a bit unclear, but lots of fun!) Flatten with a butter knife dipped in cold water. Bake at 190°C for 8 minutes. 3) (Optional: decorate with icing and sprinkles!) These came out very tasty! We talked about brushing them with melted butter, but forgot to do so while they were hot. They are also probably rich enough as it is, but maybe I'll do so at some point. It may be nice to add nuts or maybe orange, whether dried or candied, next time... Something to think about. Definitely best had hot, but they were still good the couple of days afterwards too! Don't forget to leave some for Santa with a glass of milk.... or some grog, if you have a sea-shanty-obsessed toddler. Just beware jolly fat men flying a sleigh on too much grog! Ho ho ho and a bottle of grog, and to all a goodnight!

B is for Bagel... A year ago for Christmas, my sister gave me bagel moulds (also known as witches` hats) and a recipe. Growing up in Switzerland with family in New York, bagels were always a treat, something we couldn't get here but would look forward to on trips to see family. Family coming over here would also bring us bagels in ziplock baggies, bringing a taste of New York to us for a few mornings after their arrival. And, aside from one woman who made homemade bagels that we bought occasionally, they were not available. Somehow, it never occurred to me to try making my own until my sister gave me those moulds last Christmas. Since, I have tried a few different recipes and methods, getting better and nearer the mark with each attempt. The real trick seems to be the slow proof of the dough overnight in the fridge, and the boiling before baking. Having come up with a recipe that works, I have now enjoyed playing around with flavours. Changing what goes in the water to boil the proto-bagels as well as what goes in the dough is a fun way of altering them. I haven't come across cranberry and almond ones before but wanted to try the flavours together. They also seem particularly appropriate to the season! Ingredients: 2 c whole meal flour 2 1/4 c white flour 1 1/4 c water, body temp. A pinch of sugar 1/2 cube yeast 1/2 tbsp salt 1 c dried cranberries 1/2 tsp almond extract Cornmeal Molasses 1 tbsp malt extract 1) In a small saucepan, heat the water to about body temperature - it should be warm, but still cool enough that a (clean) pinky finger dipped in it is comfortable for 10 seconds. Dissolve the yeast in the water with the sugar and leave for a few minutes. 2) Combine flours and salt in a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Add yeast and water and stir together, gradually incorporating flour from around the well. as the dough comes together, add the almond extract and knead on a clean, floured surface for about 10 minutes until the dough is homogenous and elastic. Towards the end, knead in the cranberries as you go. 3) Place in a clean bowl and leave to rise, covered, in a warm spot for an hour, or until doubled in size. 4) Knock back the dough and divide into 8 roughly even balls. Here you have two options. Either: roll into snakes, then join the ends of these to make rings or: Roll into balls, then poke a thumb through the balls. With your thumb in the hole, gradually widen it, working the dough around so as to have an even, uniform thickness to the dough with a round hole in the middle. 5) Place rings on a baking tray sprinkled liberally with cornmeal, cover and place in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight to proof. 6) Remove the rings from the fridge. Fill a heavy-bottomed pot with water. Stir in molasses and malt extract. There should be enough molasses for the water to look like moderately strong tea. Place a test ring in the water. If it floats, you are ready to go. If not, dry if off and allow the bagels to come to room temperature. 7) When the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat to bring the water to a simmer. A few at a time, poach the bagels for about half a minute on each side, then fish them out and drain on a wire rack. 8) Sprinkle the baking tray with fresh cornmeal, then place the drained bagels back on the tray and bake at 240°C for 15 - 20 minutes until golden. These turned out well, with the right chewy, bagely texture. The flavour was a little plainer than I had hoped though, so I might try increasing the almond extract next time, as well as maybe putting flaked almonds on top. I may also try fresh cranberries instead of dried, but that might involve trading stronger flavour for altered moistness, so we'll see how that works out. A good combo on the whole though, especially with cream cheese! (In B is for Bagel, Little Bit's alphabet book, X is for EXtra schmeer, never make it less!)

I know, I know. I post a lot of tarts. That is because we genuinely eat a lot of tarts though. They are quick and easy to assemble, (especially if you use store-bought crust, although I rarely do), endlessly versatile, and make a great light lunch or side for something... and I like them. This one was a case of "what do we have in the fridge?" and taking as little time out from decorating the Christmas tree with the family as possible. I also liked that, completely by accident, the colours were Christmasy. For the crust, I used some of my home-made lemon vinegar instead of water as the liquid, feeling that the flavour would go well with the courgette. Ingredients: 1 1/4 c whole wheat flour 1/2 c butter, cold 1/4 c vinegar 1 tsp zaatar 1/2 leek, cut in rounds 1 courgette, sliced 1 red pepper, sliced 1 1/2 - 2 c ricotta 2 tsp sumac 1 tsp thyme salt and pepper to taste 1) Place flour in a large mixing bowl and cut the butter into it. Rub the flour and butter together with fingertips until a crumby consistency is achieved. Add vinegar and mix, without kneading, to form a dough. Chill for about a half hour. 2) Roll out the crust and line a pie plate with it. Spread with a layer of ricotta and sprinkle with half the sumac. Lay rounds of leek over the ricotta, then arrange courgette and pepper over that. Spoon the remaining ricotta over the whole, and sprinkle the remaining sumac, thyme, salt and pepper over the tart. 3) Bake at 180°C for about a half hour. This made an excellent, easy and tasty lunch. I didn't have as long as I would have liked to drain the ricotta, and was worried that the tart would come out too wet as a result, but it didn't. It was lovely and light, with beautiful distinct flavours, all playing nice together. Definitely a keeper!

My sister is visiting to help with the arrival of the Littler One, and we've been on a bit of a baking kick. Well, cooking of a variety of kinds, really. We decided we wanted to do some Christmas baking, with a little flavour experimentation, as well as making old favourites (like Cinnamon Stars, Basler Christmas Cookies, or Christmas Butter Balls). One of the Christmas flavours we wanted to play with was cranberry, After some playing with ideas, we settled on these. The last few blondie recipes (Pear-Ginger and Apple Rhubarb) I've come up with were all a caramelised brown sugar base, so we thought this time we'd try out a white chocolate base instead. Ingredients: 4 eggs 1 c light brown sugar 1/2c butter 200g white chocolate 1/2 c oats 1 1/2c flour 1/2c cranberry juice 1 c dried cranberries 1/2 c walnuts, chopped Zest 1 orange 1) Over very low heat, melt the butter and white chocolate in a saucepan, stirring almost continuously to prevent burning. (The right way to do this is probably over a Bain-Marie, but this works too, and I couldn't be bothered). 2) Beat the eggs with the sugar until light. Add dry ingredients and combine. Stir in the juice, cranberries and zest, and finally, fold in the melted chocolate. Scatter nuts over the top. 3) Pour batter into a brownie tin and bake at 180°C for 25-30 minutes. These came out very tasty. Interestingly, although we enjoyed eating the blondies hot, the flavours had developed more and were better balanced on the following day. There are however a couple of tweaks we might try next time. Firstly, the cranberry flavour didn't come out as strongly as I would have liked. next time I will try starting with double or even triple the amount of cranberry juice and cooking it down to a half cup, thus intensifying the flavour. Secondly, we found the flavour profile very high, lacking in deeper notes. To balance this out, there are a couple of things I want to try. Toasting the nuts and the oats, and maybe increasing the proportion of these might add the deeper note that I am looking for. Another, perhaps subtler way of doing this would also be to melt the white chocolate in the oven, caramelising it a bit and deepening the flavour profile. I feel that this is an advantage to brown sugar blondies over white chocolate ones in that they have this incorporated as a matter of course. . Finally, I found these to be a little on the sweet side, so I might cut the sugar a bit next time, to three-quarters of a cup perhaps. They were also a bit cakier than I like, so I might add a dash of milk and/or reduce the flour by a bit, and pull them out of the oven that little bit earlier. With so many changes and tweaks to try, and so many ideas to try, I wish I worked in a test kitchen!

So, I'm a little late in sharing this one. It is from when my rhubarb compote was fresh in the spring, not a defrosted one from the freezer, but this year has been a bit busy, and I thought it worth sharing anyway. It was a flavour hunch and it worked out. Ingredients: 1 tart crust 1/2 - 3/4c custard 1/2 - 3/4 c rhubarb compote 4 apples, sliced 2 tbsp brown sugar 2 tbsp oats 1) Line a tart pan with the crust. Swirl the compote and custard together and spread on the bottom of the crust. Arrange apple slices on top, and sprinkle with the oats and sugar. 2) Bake at 180°C for 30-40 minutes. Enjoy warm. This came out very tasty, but a little on the wet side. Next time I would reduce the compote a little on the stove to thicken it and avoid the problem. Tasty enjoyed with whipped cream or ice cream. I especially liked the extra texture added by the oats sprinkled on top.