WIN: a copy of Modern Baker

home made crumpets served with lashings of butter! Can’t be beaten

I really enjoy mum’s fresh Baked bread! When it’s fresh, and just barely out the oven we would enjoy it with a bit of butter and honey, or butter and mum’s homemade strawberry jam, and the jam was the type that we kept in the freezer (We always had this as a kid!) so it’s consistency was kind of like a sorbet, and the contrast of the Hot Fresh Bread juxtaposed with the Icy Sweet strawberry jam was top notch. I was lucky like that ; )

We Serbian call it ”sheets” and it looks like pitabread or naan…but when we make it than it looks like a mountain and everyone likes it

I discovered sourdough bread making from YouTube – the same place that I discovered more about Rachel Khoo, in fact. I am a new sourdough bread baker and it is the best bread in the world. The frustration of waiting at least two hours before one slicing into a newly baked loaf and spreading it with unsalted butter and taking a bite… It. Is. Amazing. Eating a slice of sourdough that I have made, makes the long process (from making the starter; to feeding the starter; to autolysing the dough; to folding ‘forever’) totally worth it. I have recently had the confidence to make a sundried tomato and basil loaf and it tasted delicious, even if it didn’t have the rise I wanted. I was more successful with my black olive sourdough; great flavour and great oven spring. For me, baking is bliss.

A great sourdough loaf, or some tasty danishes wouldn’t go a miss

Homemade cinnamon rolls, because they are soooo tasty, nice and soft 🙂

Had to be good old fashioned chocolate brownies with cherry compote and double cream 🙂

My favourite freshly baked good has to be cookies. Choc chip cookies that is. There are so many ways to eat them and so it is all in the art of baking. The cookie dough can be baked until barely cooked to create the most sumptuous inside and a crispy crust. Perfect with a dollop of creme fraiche. Mmmmm! 🙂

Homemade focaccia which everyone loves to spread spiced pork pate on top, yum!

A freshly baked loaf, warm out of the oven, with lashings of butter… you can’t beat it, pure comfort food!

I love fruit scones with butter & jam. They take me back to when I was a small child, kneeling on a stool & helping my Grandma bake

An iced bun bun with coconut from the local bakery – I used to pull out & eat the soft insides as a child and leave the iced shell for last, my favourite ritual after being allowed to pick a treat

Chocolate chip muffins- a classic

My favourite baked good has to be a tarte tatin. It reminds me of my home country and of my mum’s cooking. I can still recall waking up as a kid to the smell of caramel and apples cooked in lots of butter. I still cook it now following my mum’s recipe, filling my flat with nostalgia. That’s my comfort food.

Fresh custard tart! An egg custard heavily nutmegged or a fresh custard doughnut, heavy on the egg not the sugar. Sublime.
All and whichever going HEAVY on the custard -lashings, and a side-helping please!

If it’s to bake, then bread despite being more known for my biscuits. Temperamental and strong-willed the sough may be but it’s wonderful when things click.

Apple Strudel!!

My favourite baked product is Lemon Drizzle cake. It’s dingy and fresh in summer and comforting in winter with hit custard and perfect in mini loaves for afternoon tea

madeleines because there are so much understated complexity that goes into making the perfect one. they can be as comforting as a grandmother’s hug or elegant as french bakeries go. most of all they’re my father’s favourite.

Could you have asked a more difficult question? I have spent a silly amount of time thinking this over, lost in a land of crumpets and crumbles. After much deliberation I would have to say my favourite baked good at the moment is a classic fruit scone, light and packed full of fruit – the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea. Everyone loves a scone, you just can’t beat the classics!

Chapatis cooked at festivals with my father when I was a wee boy!! with lashings of butter and marmite!!
In fact I may just have them again tonight!!

Ooh it has to be homemade granary bread with lashings of salted butter.

Apple Cider White Crusty. Flat Apple Cider, chopped dried peaches or apples (I like peaches), roughly chopped almonds. Toast with Butter and a sprinkle of Cinnamon – Oh yum.
Or – Anzac Crusty White. Flat Fosters lager, Golden Syrup, Oates and Coconut.

No water in either of these 🙂 Beware, yeast, sugar and alcohol are best buddies.

My favourite baked good is most definitely bread. It’s so versatile and is there anything better then the smell of it freshly baking?

Irish soda bread with lots of butter and Natex, sounds strange but a brilliant alternative to marmite

Layered Carrot and walnut cake with cream cheese frosting in between layers and on top and down the sides!

Southern buttermilk biscuits – big & flaky & light as air crumbled in butter and molasses!

Fresh bread will always be my favourite… The pride and satisfaction of having baked it myself, the smell that invades the house and its glorious taste and texture are the reasons why.

Lemon drizzle cake because it was the first thing I learnt to bake and I remember helping my mum make it when I was really small

My (Swedish) gran’s cinnamon buns, because nothing beats the smell when they’re fresh from the oven and eaten still hot.

My dad’s típical galician empanada, is delicious!

Me and my Chloe Pearl enjoy baking rainbow cupcakes. She wants to become a baker when she grows up so I would be thrilled to win and so grateful!

A fresh warm Sourdough loaf. Warm with lashings of butter.

My Christmas spice biscuits, because it’s a tradition that I make huge batches of these every year and put them in tins and jars for friends and family. I love to bake with a purpose and to give something as a gift that I have made with love. (And they taste really good! )