Bakewell is a town in Derbyshire, part of the Peak District. There is debate as to whether it’s the Bakewell Tart or the Bakewell Pudding that originated there and there are a few shops in the town that all claim to sell the “original” we tried a couple of them while we were there and they were all good!

The tart, be it an individual portion or a larger tart cut into slices, is either a puff or shortcrust pasty shell. I prefer shortcrust in this instance, and it’s less hassle to make. I actually keep discs of shortcrust pastry in my freezer to pull out as I need them. Make sure the tins you are using are well greased, you don’t want the pastry to stick.Technically a sweet paste is more often used for a tart but with the sweetness of the filling it would be too much.

The tins I used are actually a little shallower than I would have liked. Roll out your dough and cut to an approximate size. Gently press into the tin.

Since my tins are metal I run a rolling pin over the top to cut the dough to fit. A quick press fits the dough into the flutes, raises it above the sides a little and makes it look pretty. I like to chill them at this point so they don’t shrink in the oven.

While the dough is chilling make the frangipane. Frangipane is an almond filling, almost like a sponge, and certainly made like one. The butter and sugar are creamed together, eggs are added and then finely ground almond meal in place of flour.

Pull out the tart shells and spread a layer of jam into the bottom, raspberry seems to be traditional but really, you can use whatever you please (you can also add some lemon zest to the frangipane to compliment the jam). Fill with the frangipane mix and bake until golden and firm to the touch (again, like a sponge), a pick will come out clean but don’t use one of the probes that test temperature as it’ll be done long before it reaches the temperature a cake would be done at.

Once they are cool I like to top them with some icing. If you find that too sweet you can sprinkle with some flaked almonds before cooking so that they’re baked onto the filling. If you do do that then a light dusting with powdered sugar is a nice garnish.

Firstly a Happy New Year to you all, we’re back and ready to start 2011 with a bang! We hope your holiday season was everything you wanted it to be.

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As we have done the past couple of years we decided to treat our guinea pigs… er.. um.. I mean friends, with a selection of goodies for Christmas. It gives us a chance to try out some new techniques and recipes without the stress of them being for a customer. And we can get reviews on the items from a mix of tastes and preferences, a nice way to see what’s popular.

We started off with two chocolates. First up, a sesame square. Sesame brittle crunched up into chocolate for the base and a chocolate-tahini ganache on top, sprinkled with some toasted sesame seeds. The mix of chocolate and sesame caused some people to stop and think but overall it went down well.

The walnut bonbons were a definite success. A dark chocolate shell, nice and thin and consistent all the way around. The filling was almond, caramel and toasted walnuts, a wonderful mix. These really were the winners this year.

We made two different pate de fruit.. fruit jellies that is. We did a layered one, raspberry, basil and peach. I knew raspberry and basil worked together well although it’s a combination that some people don’t want to even try. I knew raspberry and peach worked so the only gamble here was peach and basil though we were fairly confident. The raspberry layer was thinner than I had wanted but the combination worked really well, nice and refreshing.

Then we tried our hands at some lime slices. These took a bit more effort and still came out a little soft and hard to cut accurately. They had a wonderful tangy flavour that was aided by adding some citric acid to the sugar that they’re coated in. Another winner!

Marshmallows are always a firm favourite so we decided to jazz them up this year with the addition of passionfruit.. It almost worked. They ended up with a hint of flavour, just not as strong as we would have liked. We’ll need to work on them some more.

Finally we ended the goodie box with honeycomb, also known as sponge toffee. Caramel with a hint of honey though the name comes from the honeycomb like structure.

And of course, the furry friends got some of our brew bones. Can’t go leaving them out now can we!

The name biscotti derives from the Italian meaning twice baked, telling us how they are cooked. Biscotti however is the English name for them, in Italy they are called Cantucci, with biscotti referring to any type of crunchy cookie, the way American’s say cookie and the English say biscuit.

Originally baked for the Romans to take with them on long marches, or for travellers, they were baked once to cook and a second time to dry out so they would last.

Biscotti re emerged in Tuscany during the renaissance where they were served with the local sweet wine, their dry crunchy texture perfect for soaking up all the liquid. Biscotti became so popular that every province developed its own flavoured version. Centuries later, many still agree that dipping biscotti into Vin Santo is a perfect way to end a meal, or to while away hours at a café.

Somewhere along the line, probably along the trip from Italy to America, people started using them as an accompaniment to coffee and cappuccino, and the American biscotti that I tried tasted stale. Dry doesn’t equal stale people!

So I decided to make a traditional almond biscotti, to show Michael how they should taste *grins*

The almonds were toasted first, that’s important, it makes them taste better! Then make the dough, it’s a soft dough and comes together easily. While I was mixing in the almonds I decided a few cranberries from the larder would make a nice addition. You know me, I can never stick to the recipe!

Then roll the dough out into logs, about an inch in diameter, mine were about 10 inches long. Place them on a baking sheet, at least 3 inches apart from each other.

Bake them for about 20 minutes or so, until they’re lightly brown. Pull them out and let them cool slightly then slice them up. Lay them out flat and bake for 10 minutes, turn them all over and bake for another 10 minutes.

Leave to cool then serve with a sweet wine.. or coffee if you must *grins* These came out sweet and buttery, with a light texture, you could even eat them on their own without dipping them. Now, they will technically last for a few months in an air tight container, personally I found that you could taste the difference in them after a week or two so I wouldn’t make too many in one go, just because you can eat them at three months doesn’t mean that you want to.

Once you have a basic dough you can experiment with flavours, switch out the fruit and nuts, try a pistachio or even a coffee or chocolate flavoured one. The biscotti world is your oyster!

Wanting traditional with a twist we gave them the classic cherry blossom cake but with the blooms in rainbow colours. The flowers are made out of gumpaste, with some on wires to give them more depth and movement. The branches are made out of fondant.