Baked Sea Bass, with Bok Choy and Bean Sprout Salad

So we just got back from an idyllic holiday in Barbados, where I felt like all I ate was yummy fresh fish. It was magical. Getting home, to the freezing north of England, I am trying to keep the holiday vibe going! It’s still cold here, but at least we can eat delicious food.

This recipe looks a bit fiddly, what with all of the different sauces for each step. However, a lot of the ingredients are common to all 3 sauces so it just takes a bit of preparing and mixing. Hand on heart – sesame seed oil is one of my favourite ingredients and I’d urge you all to buy a bottle. Mirin is easily sourced from any Asian grocery store, but you could sub in a little vinegar if you don’t have it.

Cinnamon Star Bread

Starting the year off correctly with one of my favourite things I’ve ever made! This cinnamon star bread is delicious and super impressive and once you’ve cracked the dough-making, it’s a fairly easy process!

This is the same recipe as my individual kanelbullar but with a different assembly at the end which just turns it into a show stopper. This would make a great centrepiece dessert, sliced up and served with a dollop of ice-cream or custard. 

Serves 8, realistically. But you will find no judgement here if you keep it all to yourself.

Some tips:

• It is really easy to overheat the milk and butter mixture at the start, so I reserve about 60ml of cold milk and add it after heating to quickly bring the temperature down.
• Making a miniature yeast “slurry” with some of the milk mixture and a little sugar boosts the rising. Too much sugar kills yeast, but a little will help feed it.
• A round baking tray makes this a lot easier – for example a pizza tray. Bonus – these are cheap and easy to find
• It’s fine if you don’t roll out perfect circles (I never do), everything kind of comes together ok in the oven.
• Cutting into strips is easiest if you cut into quarters and then cut each quarter again twice to get four strips per quarter, so 16 strips total.

Chocolate Peppermint Layer Fudge

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! It’s the season to be jolly, and part of that means there’ll be a ton of leftover chocolate hanging around. Perfect for making this easy peasy fudge recipe! This makes a very smooth, chewy fudge that is a rich treat! And bonus -it’s easy to make and absolutely delicious! Went down a treat in my household.

Side note, I’m notoriously terrible at fudge, and using marshmallows to bind it all together is a genius step. If you have left  it to the last minute to plan your Christmas dessert - I can suggest this as a quick, easy and quite impressive sweet treat!

If you don’t like minty chocolate (you’re a monster) you can always leave the extract out. Or substitute 150g of the dark chocolate for a terry’s chocolate orange and make orange flavour. The possibilities are endless with this amazing base recipe.

Lussekatter

So, I’m a little late to the party on these buns. These are traditional Swedish buns flavoured with saffron, and they are served on St Lucia’s day – December 13^th.

The name translates as Lucia’s cats – which doesn’t really seem to make a lot of sense. I read somewhere that they are meant to represent a cat’s face with the two raisins as eyes, but another source said that they represent curled cat’s tails.

Who knows. Anyway, they’re tasty and sweet and a little out of the ordinary Christmas fare for the UK, so I think they’d make a welcome addition to any table.

Marzipan In Blankets

Let's start a Christmas bake countdown!

If you have any Europeans in your life (especially of the German or Scandi persuasion) they will be all over this. It’s basically gingerbread wrapped around a big old chunk of marzipan.

As all good German Christmas cookie recipes go, this makes about a million little morsels and you won’t be disappointed. The spice mix is the one I return to again and again, you will recognise it from my spiced cupcake recipe. It's versatile, warming and deeply flavoured and one of my favourite ingredients in my pantry!

In Search of the Superior Babka - Cinnamon vs Chocolate

The two contenders, resting

Oooh I have a winter treat to share.

Chocolate babka

... and the cinnamon

One of my favourite “bits” in Seinfeld is where they get stuck in the bakery buying babka and lament that they don’t get the “superior” babka – aka chocolate (compared to cinnamon). I obviously had to test them both out. For science.

Did I need to make two full size babkas for two people? No. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

The superior babka really depends on your tastes. Chocolate is a really rich dessert-y treat, cinnamon is a slightly sweeter delight. Both are amazing fresh. Both are amazing toasted. If you wanted to toast a slice or two and dollop vanilla icecream on top I think that would be ridiculous.

… but sorry Seinfeld, cinnamon is the superior babka in my house.

Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookies

Oooh, autumn is here and these cookies are a lovely cold-weather treat. These are so chunky and fluffy and like something  you'd get in a decent hipster coffee shop. 

I made two versions, one with 200g flour and one with almost double, 350g. The ones with less flour were a lot more sticky and they flattened right out. I prefer them with a bit more risen, cakey texture.

I was keeping these nut-free but this recipe would be AMAZING with the addition of a little coconut. Or, coconut and dried cranberries and leave off the chocolate. Or walnuts and maple syrup. Yum yum yum. Lots of options.

makes about 2 dozen cookies