Yummy Chocolatey Goodness

I was looking for something to bake this weekend and having had previous success with Dan Lepard's recipes, I had a quick trawl through the archives of his series How to Bake on the Guardian website.

Among many good looking recipes the one for Chocolate Custard Muffins caught my eye. Ok, I'll admit it, they caught my eye because they flashed up a mental image of soft, warm choclate cake filled with chocolate custard. As it turns out the "custard" in the title refers to the base element of the muffin mix which is a chocolate custard to which flour and baking powder are added to give the necessary cakey texture.

What emerged from my oven were the most deliciously, moist, fragrant chocolate muffins I have ever eaten and I must confess to not really being a chocolate muffin fan. They were a delight and incredibly easy to make. Definitely one for the recipe file.

Weekend Projects

This was my weekend...

All photos by me.

Clockwise from top right:

• A quote designed and framed for my desk, a further copy in a different colour sent in pdf to a friend in the US.
• My first ever attempt at pillows was a roaring success using this tutorial and these photos as inspiration.
• A small stack of tissue holders which I have been making to practice my sewing skills.
• My Friday flowers - white tulips and pink hyacinths to encourage spring to creep a little closer.
  

I also made puff pastry for the first time, completely by accident. If this recipe had mentioned that the pastry was puff I would never even have tried it (too fiddly, I can't make puff pastry, I'll just buy it or substitute short crust etc.) But I did it and it was glorious. As suggested I served it with mustard vinaigrette doused green veg, but tender stem broccoli instead of beans as that is what I had in the fridge.

It was a good cooking weekend. Sunday night also saw a storming pasta in a creamy sauce of homemade pesto with chargrilled asparagus and a caprese salad on the side.

Roll on next weekend...

Coffee, My Love.

I was a late comer to the wonders of coffee. I didn't partake until I was nineteen, and only then because I knew I was moving to Italy for a year and thought it best to get a little practice in.

I like to think I have made up for it since then.

I love coffee, loooooove it. I fear anything that might mean I have to give up my daily cup(s).

Every day starts with a white coffee and most evenings end with a single espresso and one sugar. And no, it does not mean I am awake all night. I am one of the fortunate ones.

A year or so ago after many (ok, five) years of coveting one we finally acquired a Nespresso.

Love.

On a bad day, this would be the third item I would save from a burning building after my Husband and the Cat.

We have this model:

Nespresso Essenza by Krups (image from Nespresso)

It has been life changing. O knows this, and today he sent me this article. To which I responded...

"See. I think where this article (possibly deliberately) fails is not speaking to George (or one of his reps). Mr. Clooney is famously outspoken on human rights and environmental issues and doesn't need the money the adverts afford him so he wouldn't do them if he had a problem with the ethics.

Tick one.

All coffee, from all producers was rated on a scale up to AA until 2003 when Nespresso added a triple A (AAA) category exceeding world standards and requirements and brought 35% their coffee's up to that standard, as the article says 50% by next year. The extra A rating refers to sustainability, whereas previously coffee had only been rated for quality. Nespresson is, and I quote: "produced to the highest standards of quality balancing the creation of social and economic value for farmers and their communities, as well as contributing to the preservation of the environment."

Tick two.

Heston Blumenthal is a food science genius and he uses them in his restaurant. Enough said.

Tick three."

I would love to see recycling for the capsules here in Amsterdam but it doesn't mean I am giving up my Nespresso in the interim.

What can I say, it had me at hello....