Home baking

With work taking up most of my time and energy these days, I really need to give myself a kick up the arse to get into the kitchen and do the odd bit of baking. I recently borrowed Rachel Allen's "Bake" from the library and was pleasantly surprised at seeing some interesting recipes in the book that I knew I wanted to try out when given the chance. To be honest, I haven't always been a fan of Rachel (Darina all the way for me) cos I found some of her TV shows pretty annoying (the D4/transatlantic accent kills me!) and the style of cooking reminded me of Nigella.....who really isn't a cook. However, having watched the latest TV series "Home Cooking" and reading her book have changed my opinion of her and after trying out a couple of her recipes, I can say that they work also which is always a good sign! (Ma Chan also told me that she was one of the helpers at the cookery school when she was there and she found Rachel was always super nice and a good teacher so I guess my pre-conceptions of her were wrong). 

I had already tried out the Sticky Toffee Pudding a few weeks back which tasted super yummy (the motivation for this was the fact this is one of my bro's favourite puddings) - unfortunately, I forgot to grease my moulds which meant I couldn't get the darn puddings out!! Have to try again another time :)

The latest recipe I tried out was Oatmeal Shortbread - strangely enough, I am not a fan of shortbread (the stuff you buy from the shops is generally very stodgy and has a greasy after taste) but was drawn to the recipe by the extra twist of using porridge oats (good way of using my extra oats which have been sitting in the cupboard for a while). I needn't have worried as they turned out perfect and were absolutely delicious and moreish - toot, toot to me, huh?

Simple to make, very tasty and the other great thing......they get better with time! Bon app :)