Week 5 of Bake Off saw Pastry Week come to the tent and the bakers showed off their Signature Pasties, went all sophisticated with Salted Caramel and Raspberry Eclairs and tried their hand at intricately decorated tarts topped with a pastry cage! I tried my hand at the signature challenge of making pasties and tried…
Tag: shortcrust pastry
Piña Colada Custard Tarts (or Pies)
The fifth signature of Bake Off 2019 was to make 4 elaborately decorated custard pies. We saw David impress with his simple but perfect custard pies which saw him earn the second Hollywood Handshake of the series meanwhile Helena and Michelle left the tent in a highly controversial decision. I decided to combine the showstopper…
Quick Apple Lattice Pie
With the clocks going back last week, the winter nights are coming and nothing sounds more ideal than a slice of pie warm from the oven with cream or custard. I think that my Quick Apple Lattice Pie would make everyone happy!! I’m rapidly finding that this first term of my 2nd year of uni…
Exploring Chocolate Tarts: Cremamocha Tart
The final chocolate tart in my series ‘Exploring Chocolate Tarts’ is my Cremamocha Tart; a shortcrust pastry base filled with a coffee flavoured smooth chocolate ganache. The coffee flavour comes from the addition of Camp Coffee, a chicory-based coffee flavoured essence which can be used in baking to produce a coffee flavour as well as…
Exploring Chocolate Tarts: ‘Nuts for Chocolate’ Tart
You might have seen my recipe for Dark Chocolate Teacakes using Mr Toms but I chose to reinvent the way in which I used it in a bit of an experiment to make my Nuts for Chocolate Tart. Mr Tom is essentially a peanut praline bar and so I decided to crush it up into…
Exploring Chocolate Tarts: Bitter Chocolate Tart
The second of the chocolate tart recipes in my ‘Exploring Chocolate Tarts’ series is my Bitter Chocolate Tart. The shortcrust pastry base is filled with an intensely flavoured chocolate ganache-style mixture and is baked in the oven to set, giving it a smooth texture. The foundation of the filling is a ganache made with milk…
Exploring Chocolate Tarts: Chocolate Brownie Tarts
I’ve been wanting to do a series of different versions of the same bake and everything seemed to come together all at once. I found another one of my reduced bargains from Marks and Spencer and it was ready rolled shortcrust pastry for 80p and it tied in perfectly with the arrival of my Food Thoughts…
My Thoughts on Pastry Week
Pastry Week of Bake Off is always my favourite because I love making pastry and I always get inspired by their bakes. Despite some foul smelling spices and a few soggy bottoms, it was Mat’s turn to be Star Baker and the tent said goodbye to Alvin. The Signature Challenge was a Frangipane Tart, a…
Pizza Scrolls
There’s a debate when it comes to pizza; which is the ultimate pizza, thin crust or thick crust? If you love pizza so much that you can’t decide which is better, I think you should definitely try my Pizza Scrolls. Instead of using a yeasted dough for these Pizza Scrolls, I switched it up and…
Guest Post: Star-topped Mince Pies by Rebecca Herd
I loved having Rebecca write posts for my blog so much so I asked her to write a couple more Christmas-inspired posts for me. You can check out Rebecca’s last post here: Ginger and Fudge Cupcakes After writing my last post, Andrew asked if I would mind writing a Christmas post for his blog. As…
Cornflake and Almond Tart
I managed to get myself, somehow, hired to make a couple of new twists on some old classic desserts. I took the opportunity to widen my baking repertoire and delve into the world of 1980s school dinner desserts. I came across a cornflake tart which I’d never heard of before. As I read the recipe,…
Andrew in the Kitchen 