lapin d'or

The recipes I have in my older baking books are all made with a mixture of butter and lard (or just lard), and minimal or no sugar. One describes the dough as similar to a croissant but a different shape. The proportion of fat to flour is high in all of the recipes I could find.

This summer I had a very good Spanish tapas meal at Iberico, which is quite central and relaxed.

Here is another review of top 10 afternoon teas in London, just published by Hardens http://www.hardens.com/uk-london/16-12-2016/top-10-london-afternoon-teas-2017/?inf_contact_key=1312a1be7b8272006422f35c4507baf882af01f93cb2c9bb51b4d077d3fe1c5a. There is a tea academy in London, but I cannot see any 1 day courses just the longer ones http://www.ukteaacademy.co.uk/

This recent article has some ideas for afternoon tea in London http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/Londons-ten-best-afternoon-teas/ Hope you enjoy your stay in London

Diana I saw that promotion but thought the best by dates on the product info looked very short. Do you know typically how long the dates are on the Valrhona chocolate that Vent Privee supply? I do keep dark chocolate well beyond the manufactuer's best dates but I am not selling my products. I have far less confidence in white chocolate keeping well over a long time but I guess I could freeze it.

All of my scone recipes call for cold milk, and to keep all of the ingredients as cool as possible.

Let me know if I can help, pretty sure this is just a silicone mould, not polycarbonate.

Hi, Could you tell me what the butterfat percentage/content would be for the cream you use in this recipe? In the UK the fat content of creams available ie single, whipping and double are very different. Thanks Jill

Hi Lee Re food culture and history you could do a lot worse than take a look at the proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery. The volumes are available for free download from their site http://www.oxfordsymposium.org.uk/proceedings/downloads/. Good luck with your course.

John, I use self raising flour most times but if I am working with plain flour I would add baking powder; This ratio is taken from the Nigella Lawson website: Just add 2 teaspoons of baking powder for each 150g/6oz/1 cup plain flour. Many VS recipes use self raising and some baking powder but if the SR flour is fresh it should have enough raising agent in it in my view.

I made this Victoria sandwich cake with apricot jam and custard filling for a recent twitter Sunday bake-off @SundayBakeClub I use a stand mixer to cream the butter and sugar, arms getting old now! I always weigh the eggs and then use that weight in flour, sugar and butter. This book http://www.louisejohncox.com/book.htm published earlier this year in the UK has a lot of recipes for old fashioned UK cakes and lovely stories about the bakery they come from.

A little Drambuie drizzled over hot porridge is delicious. Makes a very special Sunday breakfast.

Basic crepes served with mango chunks that had been sizzled in a pan with maple butter. Good way to use an unripe mango.

Chocolate Fig cake from William Curley's book 'Couture Chocolate'. The cake has a mousse like texture almost and contains chopped figs that have been soaked overnight in a spiced red wine syrup. The recipes garnishes the mini loaves with hazelnuts but I only had pecans. The recipe seemed complicated but the result was good.

For dessert a rhubarb and strawberry fool with crushed pink praline garnish

Hi Chris Thank you so much for the update. Love this forum, everyone is so helpful, Many thanks!

If you are sourcing the Geerts book from the UK also look here: http://www.keylink.org/productlistings.php?altCats=23&catCode=33, £45 plus delivery, still expensive mind.

The food and craft festival in Boscastle is on 6th & 7th October. Paul Ainsworth is one of the chefs doing a demo, lots of food to try, including pasties last time. http://www.boscastlefestival.co.uk/ Chough's bakery in Padstow do a good pastie; I think the chef at Margot's likes them too.

Make sure you go to Paul Ainsworth's Rojanos and No6 in Padstow and you will get a superb flat white and shortbread at Relish in Wadebridge and they have a good deli next door. Had lunch today at the Seafood & Grill, Rock. The Haddock Scampi starter was amazing. If you are near St Ives I have had 2 good meals at Alba. Also had a good meal at Driftwood Hotel, Port Scatho.

I would second the use of duck eggs to make brioche, I have 3 girls who lay most of the summer and their eggs make superb brioche. Love the look of the savoury brioche posts, must get baking!

Hi cmflick The cream you are using is a little lower in butterfat than standard UK whipping cream. The ganache recipes you mention all specify whipping cream which in the UK would ususally be nearer to 39% butterfat. The difference may be small but I think it would better to have a slightly higher than lower fat content if your ganache is too soft. Lapin

Hi cmflick I have made the passion fruit and mango ganache from Couture Chocolate and it did work for me. I used a hot knife to cut the slab, as he recommends, and cleaned the knife between each cut. The coat of chocolate and cocoa butter on the top and bottom of the slab enable each piece to be dipped without the fork sticking to the chocolate piece. You do get a fairly soft ganache but that is how I remember all of the chocolates I have tried from the shop. The liquid caramel is very fluid but I think I remember each of the chocolates being quite small so not such a problem to eat. What is the butterfat content of your cream? Lapin

If you have his book I would have a good read of it, especially the notes on matching different chocolate types to different flavoured foods. He does some very inventive combinations. I would guess he wants his staff to have an excellent palette as much as technical skills. Anyway GOOD LUCK lapin

In the UK you can get 'Decorations' from HBingredients.co.uk, about £40 plus postage. They list all of the Wybauw books at the moment. Postage can be quite high as they charge a flat fee. They ship by next day mind so you get a good service. The Cocoa Barry website has quite a few techniques video clips, worth a look.

Punk Patissier, You may find a class at the Callebaut centre in Banbury worth attending website. They run courses aimed at professional level as well as introductory. Some of the courses take place in London. Valrhona have just published a book which I have not seen yet but could be worth a look Amazon link