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A few years ago I needed rose petals or rose water for some recipe and didn't have it. I had intended to use my sister's no-churn recipe, but then forgot that I was going to do that and added

As Mentioned in Day 42 of The Challenge We made baking powder biscuits ( sort of non-sweet scones, very tasty if not strongly flavoured despite the unflattering name) for our Pork Shoulder Roast, and then decided to have the rest for dessert with a blueberry and port sauce and a chocolate sauce. It was very tasty, with the sauce melting the dollop of crème fraiche over the top, although possible not strictly speaking necessary after the pork roast. A beautiful way altogether of celebrating our last night of holiday before going back to work. Ingredients: For the biscuits: 2c flour 4 tbsp butter 2/3 c milk 2 tsp baking powder For the Blueberry Port Sauce: 2 c blueberries 2 tbsp sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 c ruby port 1) Mix the flour and baking powder together and then cut the butter into the flour in small pieces. Rub the butter into the flour with fingertips until it forms a crumby dough. 2) Add milk and mix it into a light, soft dough, then knead briefly until smooth. 3) Roll the dough out to 1-1.5 cm thick on a floured surface. Cut with a floured cutter or glass into rounds and place these on a greased baking sheet, leaving a little room for the biscuits to expand. Bake 12-15 minutes at 230°C, until golden brown on top and risen. 4) To make the blueberry and port sauce, place berries in a saucepan with 1/4 c water. bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 10 minutes or so. Add the sugar, cinnamon and port and stir, cooking until the desired consistency is reached. Taste test and adjust sugar or spicing. 6) Serve the biscuits hot with the sauce drizzled over and a dollop of crème fraiche. Decadent but quick and easy, this was beautiful for a lazy evening.

As mentioned in Day 40 of The Challenge This was an experiment. We have made the bloomer before, but as it requires you to roll out the dough into a rectangle the roll it up into a loaf, we decided to try it with nettle pesto spread on it. With black sesame seeds sprinkled on top it was a tasty snack but might need some tweaking. Certainly an idea to pursue though. Ingredients: 6 c flour 15 g cake of yeast 1 tsp sugar 1 1/5 -2 c lukewarm water 1/2 c pesto/nettle pesto 2 tsp salt water 2 tsp black sesame seeds 1) Dissolve yeast and sugar in the lukewarm water. Place flour in a bowl and make a well in it. Pour in the yeast and water mixture and gradually incorporate the flour into it. 2) Knead the dough for about 10 minutes to form a smooth elastic but heavy dough. Leave to rise covered with oiled cling film in a warm place for 4-5hours or until doubled in size. 3) Knock back and then knead for 5 minutes then leave to rise for 2 hours again, until doubled in size again. 4) Knead briefly, then roll out into a rectangular sheet about 1/2 cm thick. spread pesto on it up to 3 cm from the edge, then roll into a loaf. Preheat the oven to 230°C. 5) Leave to rise again for a half hour, and then seal the edges. Brush the top of the loaf with salt water and sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top. Cut slashes into the top of the loaf. 6) Bake the loaf on an oiled baking tray for 25 minutes then lower the temperature to 200°C and bake for a further 20 minutes. This was tasty, and an interesting idea, but the nettle pesto had too strong a flavour for the bread. It was better once the bread had cooled and the pesto's flavour had mellowed. The bread itself is tasty, but the pesto spread idea needs tweaking. Maybe a regular basil pesto, or a red pesto? PS: We used some of this loaf to make a savoury pesto bloomer French toast for dinner with kale and onion salad and some cheese and it worked surprisingly well. I do recommend trying this. This was the first time I've made a savoury French toast, but I will do so again! We had it with various condiments, both sweet and savoury, ranging from maple syrup and rhubarb jam to BBQ sauce and mustard, and they all worked delightfully well. If you try the bloomer, I do recommend trying out the French toast as well!

I made Jerk Chicken for the first time recently, from a recipe in my Spice Bible cookbook, and it worked One of the next recipes in the book was for sweet cardamom mango. I liked the idea, but instead of sticking with the recipe and having it for dessert, I took the idea

As mentioned in Day 2 of The Challenge I grew up with cornbread. It is a comfort food, a good staple. Usually it was a breakfast food, served in bread or muffin form with eggs and jams. Sometimes my father baked in pieces of bacon. For years though, that was all it was, until I started cooking for myself. Then gradually other things made it in, like cheese or jalapeños. I started baking it over chilli and experimenting with it in different ways. This loaf is one of those ways. It is endlessly versatile. This time I put in brocoli and spinach because I had them on hand, other times it is other vegetables. I find that feta works well as the cheese, but so do others. The red curry paste was because I had some in the fridge and it felt like the right palette. Quick, easy, adjustable to whatever tastes, cravings or stores you have, and super tasty. Ingredients: 1 cup flour 1 cup cornmeal 1/4 cup sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 cup milk 1 egg 2 tsp red curry paste 2 tbsp jalapeños 1 onion, diced 6 sundried tomato halves, sliced 1/2 suçuk or other spiced sausage, in chunks 1 red chilli, sliced 1 handful of spinach, wilted 1/4 head of broccoli 1 disk of feta, cubed/crumbled 1) Preheat oven to 220°C. Combine dry ingredients, then add wet, stirring just enough to mix. 2) Add all other ingredients, reserving half the feta. 3) Prepare a loaf pan, and pour in the batter. Sprinkle the reserved feta over the top. 4) Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown on top and a knife comes out clean. Serve as is, as a main or a side, with or without sauces or spreads. On Day 2 we had it as a main with different sauces. My husband liked it best with BBQ sauce, I preferred it with whole grain mustard. Butter, mayo and hot sauces worked too. Take your pick and enjoy!

Looking into fenugreek a while back, I came across a description of it comparing fenugreek's taste to that of maple and the fact that fenugreek is sometimes used as a maple substitute. That gave me an idea. What about if I used fenugreek in something that often has maple syrup added to it, like pancakes. The idea niggled for a while until I finally tried it. The pancakes worked really well. They were missing a little richness to the maple flavour, but with butter or yogurt they were really tasty! Less sweet obviously, than adding maple syrup to a dish, and the flavour was more delicate, but very tasty. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp fenugreek powder 3 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp melted butter 2 eggs 3/4c milk 1) Combine dry ingredients, then gradually add wet ingredients. Add an additional splash of milk if necessary for the batter to be just thin enough to pour. 2) Melt butter in a skillet then cook the pancakes in two-tablespoon-dollops (or bigger if you want) over medium heat until bubbles appear and pop on the surface and it goes from shiny to matte, then flip. Serve hot with butter, jam, syrup or fruits. Or anything else you fancy. I really enjoyed these. They had a definite maple flavour but without added sugar. I enjoyed mine plain with butter, which gave them an extra richness that brought out the maple flavour. These are definitely coming back out! The only aspect I wasn't delighted with was the texture. They were a little heavier than usual, and I don't know if fenugreek requires a little additional liquid or rising agent, or if there was a mix-up somewhere. To be tried again I guess, and I will see. If you try them, let me know what you think!

The creation of these is a bit of a saga, so buckle up (or skip straight to the recipe). The recipe calls for quite a lot of oil and sometimes the dough can be oozy. I started out keeping the recipe exactly the same, just replacing the oil with apple sauce. I made the cookie recipe as per usual, just cutting the sugar and adding a little cream and some extra

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.

As mentioned in Day 79 of The Challenge This was a hunch that I decided to follow and I am delighted I did. Both rosehips and pumpkins are in season just now and we have quite an abundance of both at the moment, so I decided to pair them up. I love traditional pumpkin pie (and will be making one soon), but wanted to try something different first. We had this with a dollop of plain yogurt and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. Ingredients: For the crust:(you can use a store bought crust if you want, but this is also very quick and easy, I promise! It is better if you have a half hour to let it chill before rolling it out, but it still works if you don't) 3/4 c flour 1/2 c cold butter, cut into pieces 1/4 c (approximate) milk 1 tsp of cinnamon sugar 1 small pumpkin, cut into 1.5cm thick arcs 2 c rosehip purée (made by simmering in boiling water then passing through a food mill or a sieve) 2 tbsp honey 1 tsp tandoori powder a pinch of salt 2 tsp cocoa spice 2 tsp of cinnamon sugar 1 tbsp butter, cut into pieces 1) To make crust, mix flour and salt. Cut in pieces of butter and mix together with fingertips until it forms a crumb like texture. Add water and mix with a fork, then knead into a soft dough. 2) Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. 3) Roll out the pastry and line a pie dish with it, and stab it with a fork. 4) Mix the rosehip purée with the honey, tandoori powder, salt and cocoa spice. Spread on the pastry base. 5) Arrange the pumpkin on the rosehip mix, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar and dot with the butter. Bake at 200°C for 35-40 minutes. This came out very well and just as I had pictured, except for the pumpkin I picked. It was less sweet than many of the others we have had recently. With the non-sweet pumpkin, the tart was tasty but it couldn't seem to decide whether it was lunch or dessert. My husband declares though that pumpkin or no he would eat an entire tart of the rosehip mix. It is quite an adult flavour (Not for a kid's birthday party, nor, it would seem, for my little sister), but a subtle and satisfying interplay of flavours.

As mentioned in Day 77 of The Challenge These were experimental, and came out very well. I wanted bread to go with our lunch. But we were out of bread, so I was going to make baking powder biscuits. But I was out of butter, so I decided to make corn muffins, but then realised that I had used the last of the eggs and milk already. So I made corn muffins with what I had - Apple sauce and apple juice instead of the eggs and milk. They were a bit sweeter than normal, and a little moister, but they worked! Ingredients: 1 c flour 1 c cornmeal 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 c sugar 2 eggs 1/4 c sunflower oil 3/4 c apple juice 3/4 c apple sauce 1) Mix together the dry ingredients. Gradually add the wet ingredients, mixing well to prevent lumps. 2) Spoon into muffin cups or into a prepared cake tin. 3) Bake at 200°C for 25-30 minutes. These worked very well? They are certainly more sweet than savoury, and worked best with just butter, no jam or chutney really did justice or had its own justice done on these muffins, but they were tasty never-the-less. In future, I might use a little less apple sauce, and probably cut the sugar a little. Definitely worth a try for a bit of variety though!