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Here is the recipe that worked best, although I might try it over with a couple of tweaks at some point Trying to compare different versions of a recipe, I definitely wish I had access to a test kitchen!

As mentioned in Day 39 of The Challenge Pancakes are an easy classic. For whatever reason we decided to have pancakes and bacon for dinner, but to give it a veneer of respectability we made the apple cinnamon pancakes. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 3 tbsp sugar 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 3 tbsp melted butter 2 eggs 3/4 - 1 c milk 1 apple, grated 1) Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add wet ingredients one by one, mixing after each addition. 2) Melt butter in a heavy bottomed skillet, and drop a large spoonful of batter into the skillet. Wait until the bubbles have come to the top of each pancake and popped, then flip them. When the second side is golden brown, serve up. We had ours with bacon and maple syrup, quark and cinnamon sugar, and a fresh cheese on the side. I've never tried this before, and was happy with how they turned out. I highly recommend trying these, both with the apple and with the cheese, but step up the amount of apple. It was more prominent in the batter than in the cooked pancakes. It made a tasty, very adult dinner.

I wanted to play around with using fresh rose petals and thought a risotto might be a way of playing around with the flavours. It didn't come out quite as well as I had hoped, and the rose flavour was fainter than I had intended, but it was a tasty dinner and an interesting experiment, so I thought it worth sharing. Interestingly, the flavours came out more once I added some honey. Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil 1 onion, chopped 1 sweet potato, chopped 3 c fresh rose petals, mostly yellow 1 1/2 c Arborio rice 3/4 c whey 2 1/2 c rosé wine 1 c parmesan 1 tbsp honey 1) Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a saucepan and add the Arborio rice. Sauté until translucent then add the whey. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. 2) Meantime, heat the remaining oil in a frying pan and sauté onion until translucent. Add sweet potato and cook until tender. 3) Gradually add the rosé to the rice as the liquid is absorbed, and continue stirring. 4) When sweet potatoes are tender and just beginning to brown, add rose petals and cook, stirring, until they wilt. Set aside. 5) When the liquid has been absorbed into the rice and it is tender, add parmesan and stir in. Add honey and then vegetables. Serve hot. This one had mixed results. It may be that the combined whey and rosé were too acidic. Or it may be that the parmesan was too strong a flavour for the poor rose petals. Either way, initially, it was a little disappointing. Once we added the honey, it tasted nice, but not spectacular and the rose flavour was not very strong. I'd like to try rose petals in a water-based infusion next as they don't seem to be very lipophilic. In neither the oil nor the milk have they given up particularly strong flavours when fresh. Still a tasty dinner though, and as far as failures go, very definitely edible, although not what I had been aiming for.

EDIT: I have now worked out a recipe where these taste more like roast chestnuts. Check it out here!

As mentioned in Day 20 of The Challenge There are a number of different ways of doing this recipe, but

I was invited this week to take part in a collaboration on Instagram for International Tea day on the 21st of May and to put together an Afternoon Tea. In planning this, scones seemed almost a prerequisite. Continuing my earlier quest for scones that rise well without self-raising flour, at some altitude and without the taste of baking powder, I decided to try the use of some baking powder and some baking soda. Soda needs an acid to activate it, and without whey on hand this time, I decided to try using honey, which somewhat surprisingly is acidic. I didn't use any sugar and instead used about a tablespoon of honey, and my scones came out quite well. They didn't rise as much as I would have liked, so I will try again, increasing the quantities of soda and honey accordingly, but as a first attempt at this, they came out nicely and had a lovely flavour. Given the absence locally of clotted cream, I used Double Crème de Gruyère instead which worked delightfully. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 1/2 c butter, cubed 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 tbsp honey 1/3 c milk 1/3 c raisins 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1) Place dry ingredients in a bowl. Add butter and rub together with the dry ingredients until they form a crumb-like consistency. 2) Add the honey and milk and stir with a fork, forming a thick dough. Mix in raisins and press dough together without kneading. 3) Roll out on a floured surface to about 1 1/2 cm thick and cut out rounds of the desired diameter. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 180°C for about 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with butter or clotted cream and jam or honey for best results. These were very tasty and had a very nice crumb. I would have liked them to rise by about another 1/2 or 1 cm, but I was quite pleased with them doubling in size. They had a taste almost of cinnamon raisin bagels and were particularly nice with homemade Plum and Apple Jam. Book Pairing: I made these while listening to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. it is one of the few of hers that I had not previously read. My sister started reading it aloud to me a year ago on skype but we didn't get very far, so I decided to listen to it on my own instead and wrap it up. I found it thoroughly delightful, if a little frustrating in parts, and Austen's biting satire is as entertaining as ever. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

made them take rather longer than planned as I had to cook off the water so as not to drain the miso (recipe

We were having a games night with some friends recently, so I decided to make nachos, as an easy finger-food nibble. Instead of fully loading them, I mixed the tortilla chips only with the Meat Sauce and cheese, and on the side, I had several dipping sauces - guacamole, Carrot Top Pesto, sour cream and this Roast Pepper Dip. Initially, I made this one really simple, with only peppers, garlic, some Kashmiri chilli and some olive oil. The taste test proved it to be rather bland though, so I added some bits. The taste came out quite interesting and unexpected - but tasty. Ingredients: 2 red peppers 1/2 head garlic 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder 1/2 tsp cacao powder 1 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp Black Sesame seeds Squeeze of lime juice Salt to taste 1) Roast the red peppers and the half head of garlic at 200°C for about 20-30 minutes, until they are soft and the skin of the peppers is beginning to char. 2) Leave the peppers and garlic to cool for a few minutes, then peel the peppers and remove the cores and the seeds. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin and place these and all the ingredients in a blender. Blitz until smooth. Serve with dippables. I was in a hurry before people arrived and tweaked the dip without giving it much thought, or having time to do it properly, so the dip came out a little differently than I had thought, but tasty nonetheless. It is even better a day or two later once the flavours have married. I might make it a little hotter in future, but didn't want to carpet bomb my friends' tastebuds. Then again, as it currently stands it is tasty too, so pick whatever suits your mood!

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...