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What should a Sunday dessert be like if it is to disappear as soon as it has been served? In my home we need two things: chocolate and fruit. These ingredients usually ensure my culinary success. Recently I used them to prepare muffins with blueberries and white chocolate. They were yummy, fluffy inside and crunchy outside, and it was possible to smell the sweet, chocolate fragrance in the corridor outside our flat. As usual, some of them were packed in boxes for my children's packed lunch. Ingredients (12 muffins) 300g of flour 3 tablespoons of cocoa 150g of butter 170ml of milk 160g of brown sugar 2 eggs 2 flat teaspoons of baking powder ½ teaspoon of baking soda 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence 12 bars of white chocolate blueberries Heat the oven up to 190C. Put some paper muffin moulds into the "dimples" of a baking pan for muffins. Melt the butter in a pan. Leave to cool down. Mix together the dry ingredients of the muffins: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa. Mix together the milk, vanilla essence and eggs in a separate bowl. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix them in. Add the melted butter and mix it in again. Put the dough into some paper muffin moulds up to 1/2 of their height, and put 3-4 blueberries and one piece of white chocolate on top. Add some dough on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Hi everyone! I hope I'm not posting in the wrong section. I am looking for recommendations on where to find a used/economically priced climate controlled (low humidity and refrigerated, but not too cold) chocolate display case as well as a regular refrigerated display case (bakery style). Something like this, but it doesn't need to be too fancy looking. I am living in Canada on the West Coast, so the closer to local, the better. I'm finding it very challenging to find something. I found and excellent deal on a couple of used ones in the USA, but the seller doesn't want to deal with the hassle of having it crated and shipped. I'm trying to keep up to date searching on the Ecole Chocolat graduate forum as well as The Chocolate Life classifieds. Also, does anyone know if a smaller table-top type climates controlled chocolate display case exists? Or are the only options out there for larger models? Warm Regards, Christy

Strawberry dessert with chia seeds Ingredients (for 4 people) 300g of strawberries 300ml of milk (it may be coconut milk or whatever you prefer) honey or maple syrup 4 tablespoons of chia seeds fruit and peppermint leaves for decoration Clean the strawberries and remove the shanks. Add the milk and one tablespoon of honey or maple syrup. Blend it thoroughly. Try it and if necessary add a bit more honey. Add the chia seeds, mix them in and leave in the fridge for 4-5 hours. Stir once again. Put the dessert into a small bowl and decorate with the fruit and peppermint leaves. The inspiration for this dessert comes from "Smaki życia" ("Flavour of Life") by Agnieszka Maciąg

Plum tart with almonds Starting from the first half of August, in the shops and on stands appear the first domestic plums. In September there are so many of them that I have a problem deciding which kind I should choose. Small and big, round and more ovate, violet, red and yellow. You can eat them fresh or make a lot of preserves (jams, plum stew, stewed fruits, pickles, liqueurs, plum brandy). Our favorite are big and round greengage plums, or slightly firm violet plums. Plums have a lot of valuable attributes. They regulate digestion and protect us from free radicals. Dried plums are more valuable regarding vitamin and fiber content, but they have five times more calories than fresh fruits. Plums have quite a lot B vitamins, so for a long time they have been well regarded for having a soothing effect on the nervous system and improving our frame of mind. That's why you simply have to make a plum cake. Either now or when the dreary autumn days arrive. Their benign impact on the nerves could be a good excuse for putting another piece of cake on your plate. I don't like complicated cookery. In this recipe you will find a lot of ingredients, but even so, preparing this delicious cake is very simple. Ingredients: Dough: 250g of flour half a teaspoon of baking powder 8g of vanilla sugar 3 tablespoons of sugar 150ml of 18% cream 150g of butter Filling: 600g of plums 1 egg white 3 tablespoons of minced almonds 2 tablespoons of brown sugar 200g of plum stew 1 teaspoon of cinnamon Crumble topping: 50g of butter 3-4 tablespoons of flour 3 tablespoons of brown sugar 8g of vanilla sugar 1 egg yolk Mix together the dry ingredients for the dough: flour, baking powder, sugar and vanilla sugar. Add cream. Mince the butter and add it to the dry ingredients. Quickly knead into smooth dough. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for half an hour. Heat the oven up to 200C. Cover a baking pan (e.g. for a tart) with the dough, leaving the edges slightly raised around the sides. Whisk the egg white and cover the dough with it. Sprinkle with the almonds and brown sugar. Bake for 14 minutes. Take it out of the oven. Don't turn off the oven. Make the crumble topping when the dough is in the oven. Melt the butter, cool it a bit then add the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar and egg yolk. Mix it with a fork until you have lumps. Clean the plums, cut them into halves and remove the stones. Cover the baked base with plum stew, add the plums and sprinkle with cinnamon and the crumble topping. Bake for 20 minutes.

Pineapple and coconut – the ideal couple Today, inspired by the recipes from the book "Zielone koktajle. 365 przepisów" ("Green cocktails. 365 recipes") I prepared a light coconut-pineapple dessert. You may make it without sugar if you have enough sweet fruit. If your pineapple isn't very ripe, add a bit of honey to your dessert. Ingredients (for 4 people)fruit mousse 1 pineapple 300ml of coconut milk 1 banana 150ml of orange juice 2 tablespoons of desiccated coconutdecoration 50g of butter 1 tablespoon of caster sugar 4 tablespoons of desiccated coconut 4 slices of orange fruit Blend all the ingredients of the fruit mousse. Put it into some glasses and leave in the fridge. Put the desiccated coconut, sugar and butter into a pan. Fry constantly, stirring on a low heat until the butter is melted. Leave to cool down a bit. Put 2-3 tablespoons of it on top of the desserts. Decorate with a slice of orange, fruit and some peppermint leaves before serving. Enjoy your meal!

I finally found a place better than Molly Moons. In Seattle Washington for Ice Cream. I was actually not very found of Molly Moons. It is to cloy for me. Has anyone here been to Sweet Alchemy?(They don't have a website yet...so here is a blurb about them) It is on 43rd and University Way. I thought it was Haagan Daz still because they haven't changed the banner. It is really good! They just are slightly expensive...3.80$ for their cheapest cone. I forgot to check if they have a children's scoop. They do a lot of fun and solid flavors. A tale of two teas, butter beer, Blueberry Lavender, Chai Tea, etc. They even have a very good vegan option called Monkey Berry Bash! It is made with coconut milk and really is quite good. Besides the price. I think it is worth to go once!

Yesterday I made my familiar go-to simple lime/cream cheese pie with one egg, some milk, lime juice & zest, etc, covered with a dark chocolate ganache: heavy cream, a dollop of butter. It's in the fridge covered with a plastic topper but I can cover it with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Today's lunch guest is not coming...onslaught of sleet, freezing rain, and now snow...oh goodie...winter's here... Now she is slated for next Thursday. Is there any possibility that the pie can last that long and not poison or at least revolt us? Thanks.

Chocolate cake with plums The first cake I ever dared to bake by myself was a chocolate cake. I have since baked it many times, always using the same recipe, and many times I have spoiled it at the beginning of preparation. It is necessary to cool down the chocolate mixture before adding the rest of the ingredients. On a hot summer day this process is very long, so I accelerated it by putting the pot with the mixture into some cold water in the kitchen sink. Many times, by mistake, I turned on the tap and poured water onto the cooling mixture. In hindsight these situations were amusing, but at the time it wasn't funny. This chocolate cake is excellent without any additives. You can enrich it with your favourite nuts or butter icing. Today I added some plums to the top of the cake. It was great and its sweet chocolate-plum aroma lingered long in my home. Ingredients (25cm cake tin): 200g of flour 150g of butter 3 tablespoons of cocoa 120g of brown sugar 15ml of almond milk 100g of dark chocolate 1 egg 1 teaspoon of baking powder plums Heat the oven up to 180C. Smooth the cake tin with the butter and sprinkle with dark cocoa. Put the butter, milk, sugar, cocoa and chocolate into the pan. Heat it until the chocolate is melted and all the ingredients have blended together well. Leave the mixture to cool down. Add the egg, flour and baking soda and mix them in. Put the dough into the cake tin. Wash the plums, cut them in half and remove the stones. Arrange the plum halves skin side down on top of the cake. Bake for 50 minutes. Sprinkle with caster sugar before serving. Enjoy your meal!

Afternoon tea with finger biscuits. With my children in mind I prepared an extremely simple dessert using natural yoghurt and biscuits as basic ingredients. It was supposed to be for children. By default, though, I prepared a bit more and we were all able to relish it. Ingredients (for 4 people) 400g of natural yoghurt 200g of finger biscuit 200g of raspberries 2 teaspoons of caster sugar Put aside a few nice raspberries and four finger biscuits. Crush the rest of the raspberries with a fork and mix them with the caster sugar. Crush the finger biscuits and blend them with the natural yoghurt. Put the raspberry mousse and then the biscuit mixture into a cup. Decorate the top of the dessert with the raspberries and peppermint leaves.

Hello, hoping someone can help me with some workflow questions. I've recently taken over the pastry role in a small tasting menu restaurant and we'd like to produce molded chocolate truffles for either mignardise or take-aways. We have 5 poly trays of molds that hold 40/tray and we'd like to produce roughly that many per week (200). Time and space is tight so I'd like to do this in one go, once per week. The problem I'm having is I don't know the proper workflow for creating this many candies at once. We do not have a tempering machine so it would be stovetop tempering. Is it possible to do that in one go with one big bowl of chocolate? In the past I've made truffles, but always discarded the chocolate after filling the molds. Is it a bad idea to put chocolate from the molds back into the large batch of tempered chocolate? (i.e. fill the molds with chocolate, let the shell set (1-2 mins) then when tipping the chocolate out, can that be tipped back into the large batch?) Also, any tips for large batch tempering of chocolate? We don't have a marble slab so the seeded method is really the only one. The real question is how can I keep a large batch of chocolate tempered for the time it takes to produce 200 molded candies? We have minimal equipment for this kind of operation and I'd be tempering over a double boiler then using ambient heat from a frenchtop to maintain temperature. Is this too much to do without a tempering machine? I'm worried about maintaining the temperature of the tempered chocolate during the time it takes to fill 200 molds with filling. I know I can retemper if I lose it but I really need to work fast and efficiently to get this done in the timeframe that I have (~1hr). If anyone has some insight into a workflow it would be much appreciated. Thanks, Jesse

Granary pancakes with bilberry mousse Today I would like to share with you the recipe for "slimmed down" pancakes. Luckily, I don't have any problems with fruit in my children's diet; they like all kinds of fruit. But I know that for other parents pancakes could be the best way to sneak some vitamins into their food. I found the recipe for the pancakes at Polish "wegepedia.pl", and it appealed to me instantly because of the easy and basic preparation and the yummy look of the pancakes. Ingredients: 200g of granary flour one teaspoon and a half of baking powder 4 tablespoons of brown sugar 1 flat teaspoon of cinnamon 300ml of vegetable milkOther ingredients 100g of bilberries 30ml of water 3 dates Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour the milk in and stir until you make a smooth dough. Put small portions of the dough into a pan (with a non-stick surface) and fry on both sides until the pancakes are golden. If you have another pan, use a bit of oil for frying. Use a handful of bilberries for decoration. Blend the rest of the clean fruit with the dates and water. Leave in the fridge for a while. Decorate the hot pancakes with the fruit mousse and bilberries. Serve at once.

ORANGE CREME BRULEE WITH MILLET GROATS One of our friends said recently that he doesn't cook for himself. He eats what his wife prepares: sometimes it is something healthy and other times something yummy. It was a joke, of course, because his wife cooks really well, but this sentence is now in our friendly canon of jokes. Inspired by our talk about groats, flakes and healthy food, I prepared a dessert which combines excellent taste and healthy ingredients. The original recipe comes from the Lidl cookery book. I would like to share with you my version of this dish. I recommend Crème brûlée with millet groats to everybody who counts calories. It is mild, not too sweet, wonderfully creamy inside and with an incredible crunchy crust on top. That's why we love crème brûlée, don't we? I prepared a cranberry-orange preserve to offset the sweetness of the dessert. The whole dessert looked beautiful and tasted perfect. Ingredients (for 4 people)crème brûlée 100g of dry millet groats 350ml of almond milk 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar (3 additional tablespoons for the sugar crust) juice and skin from one orange confiture: 150g of fresh cranberries juice and peel from one orange 4 tablespoons of brown sugar Put the millet groats in a sifter, clean them with cold water and then douse them with hot water. Put the groats, almond milk, sugar and vanilla essence into a saucepan with a heavy bottom. Boil it with the lid on without stirring for 15-18 minutes until the liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool down. Add the orange juice and peel, mix it in and blend until the mixture is perfectly smooth. Put the dessert into small bowls and leave in the fridge for one hour. Wash the cranberries. Add the orange juice and peel and the sugar and boil for 10-15 minutes. Try it and add some sugar if you think the dessert is too sour. Take out the bowls from the fridge. Sprinkle them with the sugar and burn it with a small kitchen burner to make a crunchy caramel crust. Decorate the dessert with a small teaspoon of the cranberry preserve. Serve the rest of the preserve separately in small dishes.

Feather-light chocolate whip with aquafaba There wouldn't be anything special in this dessert if it wasn't for its main ingredient. It was aquafaba - i.e. the liquid which is left after straining chickpeas from a tin. Up to now I have poured it away. From today I will never make this mistake. Joël Roessel, a French chef, was the discoverer of aquafaba. He wanted an alternative to eggs when preparing meringues. Protein and starch are the only ingredients of aquafaba. It doesn't have any other additives. Cold aquafaba can be whisked like an egg white. Next time I will try to prepare some meringues with aquafaba, but now I would like to share with you the recipe for an extremely simple chocolate whip. I served it with the sub acid from an apricot mousse. My children were delighted, and so were we. Ingredients (for 4 people) 200ml of aquafaba (from one tin of chickpeas) 2 teaspoons of caster sugar 150g of dark chocolate 6 apricots 2 tablespoons of lemon juice 2 tablespoons of brown sugar Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and leave it to cool down a little. Whip the aquafaba in a very clean glass bowl. Add the sugar spoon by spoon and whip constantly until the foam is stiff and glossy. Add the chocolate and stir thoroughly but gently. Put the chocolate whip into some small bowls and leave in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Wash the apricots and remove the stones. Put them into a pan with the lemon juice and sugar. Boil until the apricots are soft and the juice has evaporated a bit. Blend the fruit. Leave to cool down. Put the apricots onto the chocolate whip and decorate with some peppermint leaves.

Millet groats cookies with tahini and chocolate. This time I prepared millet groats cookies with tahini and chocolate. They are not so sweet, have lots of sesame seeds and are crunchy with a beautiful, homely smell. Ingredients (30 cookies) 3 tablespoons of tahini 120g of brown sugar 100g of butter 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence a pinch of salt 1 egg 130g of millet groats flakes 75g of flour ½ teaspoon of baking powder ½ of baking soda 100g of dark chocolate Heat the oven up to 180C. Cover a baking sheet with some baking paper. Pulp the butter with the brown sugar, vanilla sugar and salt to make a fluffy mass. Pulping constantly, add the tahini and then the egg. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and millet groats flakes. Break up the chocolate and add it to the dough. Mix it in. Make little balls from the mixture, around the size of walnuts. Put them on the baking sheet. Keep the cookies separate. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Leave to cool down. Enjoy your meal!

I am a Baker and Cake Decorator in India. India has a huge Vegetarian Population that does not even eat eggs/gelatin. So I am constantly looking at finding vegetarian options. Issue at Hand: Regular Butter Cream - American Butter Cream ( Icing Sugar 10X + Butter + Milk/Lemon Juice / Cream) is an option ..and a lot of decorators use this as it sets hard, and they also add shortening into it ..and I am like , Nope I can't eat that , much less serve it. Its too Sweet /Gritty and Crusts and just tasteless. It has also made sure that people in my country to completely throw out any butter cream cake . You say Butter Cream and they say - too Sweet/gritty. I have been successful in the last two years to break that impression by making European Meringue based butter cream - I love Swiss Meringue Butter Cream . It is smooth, just sweet enough , takes colour well, pipes well , and is mostly temperature stable. But I can't serve it to people who don't eat eggs. I have so far been making a substitute - Ermine/Rue/Cooked Butter Cream - a Flour + Milk+ Sugar custard (AKA Pastry Cream minus the eggs) and whipping butter into it. It tastes good - people like it ..nut its a misery to work with - will not hold shape , will not colour well , and most of all weeps and weeps some more when we chill the cakes. So I am looking for suggestions on finding a starch that will not weep when frozen in a custard? And my second approach is to move to Aqua Faba to build the meringue and make SMBC. The starch custard option is easy and economical and does not leave me with mountains of Chickpeas . would love to hear thoughts . Thanks

One of my friends is leaving for Spain next week, and I’m planning to surprise her with a party before she leaves. Since she’s a huge lover of sweets, I decided to buy her a cake. I don’t know where to start looking, but my brother suggested that I buy from this online provider of custom cakes. I checked their website, and I think they have cakes that my friend will love. I haven’t bought anything yet because I want to be 100% sure that their cakes are truly excellent. Do you have any idea how I should examine cakes through the Internet? What are the things that I must take into consideration? Thanks!

My Irish Coffee Today the children will have to forgive me, but adults also sometimes want a little pleasure. This is a recipe for people who don't have to drive a car or work, i.e. for lucky people or those who can rest at the weekend. Irish coffee is a drink made with strong coffee, Irish Whiskey, whipped cream and brown sugar. It is excellent on cold days. I recommend it after an autumn walk or when the lack of sun really gets you down. Basically, you can spike the coffee with any whiskey, but in my opinion Jameson Irish Whiskey is the best for this drink. If you don't like whiskey, instead you can prepare another kind of spiked coffee: French coffee with brandy, Spanish coffee with sherry, or Jamaican coffee with dark rum. Ingredients (for 2 drinks) 300ml of strong, hot coffee 40ml of Jameson Irish Whiskey 150ml of 30% sweet cream 4 teaspoons of coarse brown sugar 1 teaspoon of caster sugar 4 drops of vanilla essence Put two teaspoons of brown sugar into the bottom of two glasses. Brew some strong black coffee and pour it into the glasses. Warm the whiskey and add it to the coffee. Whisk the sweet cream with the caster sugar and vanilla essence. Put it gently on top so that it doesn't mix with the coffee. Enjoy your drink!

Pumpkin muffins with chocolate Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a dessert which was made with internet inspiration and the combination of two other recipes: carrot cake and pumpkin muffins with fruit stew. These muffins were an immediate hit at my Halloween party last year. I had to use baked and blended pumpkin for them. This time I used raw, grated pumpkin. I prepare carrot cake in exactly the same way. One of the ingredients in both desserts is cinnamon. It gives baked goods a slight taste of gingerbread. Thanks to the juicy vegetables, the muffins are moist and yummy even the next day. Ingredients (for 24 muffins) 210g of grated pumpkin 2 eggs 200g of flour 180ml of oil 180ml of milk 130g of brown sugar 1 teaspoon of baking powder 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 100g of chopped dark chocolate 150g of white chocolate Heat the oven up to 180C. Put some paper muffin moulds into the "dimples" of a baking pan for muffins. Mix together the dry ingredients of the muffins: flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix together the grated pumpkin, oil, milk and egg in a separate bowl. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix them in. Put the dough into some paper muffin moulds. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie. Decorate the muffins with the chocolate.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for swift autumn cookies with French pastry and a sweet ginger-cinnamon-pear stuffing. Served with afternoon coffee they warm us up brilliantly and dispel the foul autumn weather. Ingredients (8 cookies) 1 pack of chilled French pastry 1 big pear 1 flat teaspoon of cinnamon 1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger 2 tablespoons of brown sugar 1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar 2 tablespoons of milk Heat the oven up to 190C. Cover a baking sheet with some baking paper. Wash the pear, peel and cube it. Add the grated ginger, cinnamon, vanilla sugar and one tablespoon of the brown sugar. Mix them in. Cut 8 circles out of the French pastry. Cut half of every circle into parallel strips. Put the pear stuffing onto the other half of each circle. Roll up the cookies starting from the edges with the stuffing. Put them onto the baking paper and make them into cones. Smooth the top of the pastry with the milk and sprinkle with brown sugar. bake for 20-22 minutes. Enjoy your meal!

Small stracciatella cheesecake with fruit. Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a dessert which I prepared for the beginning of the holiday. The last school tests are behind us, the school reports received, the suitcases almost packed, so now it is time for a reward. My little stracciatella cheesecake isn't that healthy, but sometimes we can overlook one small culinary peccadillo. After all, it is supposed to be a reward. For sure it was light as air, fluffy and melted in the mouth. And the pieces of the dark chocolate were so nice and crunchy. Try it yourself and like me you will fall in love with this dessert. Ingredients (17cm cake tin) 100g of oatcakes 50g of butter 250g of mascarpone cheese 200g of 30% sweet cream 100g of white chocolate 100g of dark chocolate fruit for decoration Put the cookies in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin, and then put them into a small bowl and mix them with the melted butter. Cover a cake tin with the dough. Leave it in the fridge for an hour. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie and leave to cool down. Break the dark chocolate into small pieces. Whisk the cream and then add the mascarpone cheese. Add the white and dark chocolate and stir it gingerly and thoroughly. Put the mixture on the bottom with the oatcakes and leave in the fridge overnight. Decorate with your favourite fruit. Enjoy your meal!

As usual during the weekend I prepared a cake. This time it was a strawberry shortbread cake with blancmange and crumble topping. Everything fit together nicely. I think that this cake could be excellent with more sour fruit. Cherries, redcurrants or plums come to mind. I have to realize this idea. The idea for this cake comes from www.moniamieszaigotuje.blogspot.com. Ingredients: dough 0.5 kg of flour 1 teaspoon of baking powder 200g of sugar 200g of butter 1 egg 1 egg yolk 3 tablespoons of cream blancmange 2 packets of powdered blancmange 0.75 ml of milk 3 tablespoons of sugar additional ingredients strawberries Heat the oven up to 180 degrees C. Put the flour on a baking board, make a large dimple in the flour and put the other ingredients of the dough inside it. Chop it all up with a knife. When you have the consistency of crumble topping, you have to knead the dough quickly. Divide the dough into two parts – 2/3 and 1/3. Cover the pieces of the dough with plastic wrap and put them into the freezer. Prepare the thick blancmange. Stir the blancmange powder in 250ml of milk and the sugar. Cook the rest of the milk. Take the milk off the heat and pour the blancmange mixture into it. Boil for a while, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat. Clean the strawberries and remove the shanks. Cut the bigger strawberries in half. Grate the bigger part of the dough onto a baking sheet. Put the hot blancmange onto it. Arrange the strawberries on the blancmange and grate the rest of the dough onto the top. Bake for 50 minutes. Enjoy your meal!

Smile of the summer – apricot-peach shortcake Fortunately, the summer is not only about the weather. There is also fresh, sweet-smelling fruit. Today I would like to share with you the recipe for an easy to make weekend cake. It is excellent for afternoon tea or coffee. A little work and a little baking and after that you may serve and eat, and serve and eat again and again ... I remind you that it should be a weekend cake, so if you eat everything at once, you will need to bake another one Ingredients:dough 200g of flour 150g of butter 75g of sugar 1 egg 1 egg yolk 1 teaspoon of baking powder fruit: 1kg of apricot 4 peaches 2 packets of powdered vanilla blancmange 4 tablespoons of brown sugar Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and butter onto a baking board. Chop it all up with a knife. When you have the consistency of crumble topping, add the egg and egg yolk and then knead the dough quickly. Divide the dough into two parts – 2/3 and 1/3. Cover the pieces of dough with plastic wrap and put them into the freezer. Wash the apricots, remove the stones and cube them. Put them into a saucepan, add a bit of water and boil until they are soft. Stir the blancmange powder in 150ml of cold water and add it to the apricots. Boil for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Turn off the heat. Wash the peaches, remove the stones and cube them. Add them to the apricots and mix them in. Heat the oven up to 180C. Smooth a 23-cm cake tin with some butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Grate the bigger part of the dough onto the cake tin, even it out and bake for 15-17 minutes. Take out the cake, but don't turn off the oven. Put the fruit mixture onto it and grate the rest of the dough onto the top. Bake for 50 minutes. Sprinkle with caster sugar before serving. Enjoy your meal!

I'm watching The Sweet Makers on BBC - four British pastry chefs & confectioners recreate Tudor, Georgian, and Victorian sweets with petiod ingredients and equipment. A little British Baking Show, a little Downton Abbey. Check it it out for a slice of pastry history. BBC viewer only available to the U.K., but on this side of the pond where there's a will, there's a way.

White chocolate whip with aquafaba with crumble topping and fruit. Today I would like to share with you a dessert fit for a king. It needs a bit of work, but it is easy, and so tasty that you won't regret the time you spent on it. I have already made chocolate whip with aquafaba. Today I added a bit of whisked sweet cream, due to which it is more creamy but it isn't suitable for vegetarians. You may use any fruit. In my opinion, bilberries, blueberries or raspberries are best. Cherries would also be excellent, but you may use your favourite fruit. Ingredients:crumble topping: 50g of butter 50g of flour 50g of sugar 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds whip: 200ml of aquafaba (from one tin of chickpeas) 150g of white chocolate 150ml of 30% sweet cream 30g of caster sugarother ingredients fruit caster sugar Heat the oven up to 180C. Cover a baking sheet with baking paper. Make the crumble topping. Make a smooth dough with the ingredients. Make a ball with it, roll it out flat and put it on the baking paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes until it is golden. Cool it down and crumble it. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and leave it to cool down a little. Whip the aquafaba and sweet cream with caster sugar in a separate bowl. Mix them together. Add the white chocolate and stir thoroughly but gently. Put the chocolate whip into some small bowls and leave in the fridge for 2 hours. Put the crumble topping onto the chocolate whip. Decorate with the fruit and peppermint leaves. Enjoy your meal!

I was cooking for a party last night at which a gluten free cake was served for dessert. I had a few bites and aside from the cake being dry and the frosting very sweet, there was that tell-tale grittiness that GF baked goods seem to have. This particular bakery uses a blend of millet, sorghum, tapioca and potato flours. I used some Bob's Red Mill GF flour to satisfy a customer request for GF shortbread and found the same grittiness - they use garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, whole grain white sorghum flour, tapioca flour and fava bean flour. Obviously some sacrifices of flavor and texture are made when trying to replicate the magic of gluten, but why can't these flour blends be softer? Can't they be milled more finely? Or is it just the way the particular starches or proteins in those other flours are felt on the tongue? It's like that chalky cold cooked rice texture, do you know what I mean? Why can't it be better? Almost every time I eat something made with substitute flours, it makes me sad and want to fix it.