Freckled Kirsty

Hello friends, This week on the Great British Bake Off it was pastry week, and the signature challenge was Frangipane. Cue a multitude of different fruits glazes and delicious looking treats! I couldn't remember the last time I had a frangipane, so I skipped into town and went to my local bakery to sample one. Deciding it was indeed delicious I resolved that this would be my challenge for the week. When you are making a frangipane there are a few big decisions - Should you blind bake the pastry before filling? What fruit should you put on top (if any)? Should you coat the pastry base with a jam? I don't like soggy bottoms, so opted to blind bake for 20 minutes (although a lot of recipes skipped this step), I wanted a jam on the base for extra fruitiness and my topping of choice was cherries because the combination of cherry and almond is pure yumminess. An extra decision you can make is whether to make your own shortcrust pastry, or buy a ready made pack from the supermar...

Hello friends, I haven't blogged or baked for a while, as I have been pretty busy travelling and working, so today I decided to bake myself a little Friday treat - Malibu Chocolate Brownies. I am obsessed with coconut, and Malibu in any drink is a good thing - I saw this idea on Bakingmad.com, and it is a cracker! If you don't want these to be adult brownies you can just leave out the Malibu and the recipe will make a very fudgey moist brownie. Ingredients: 230g dark chocolate 2 eggs 170g dark muscovado sugar 30g self raising flour 6 tbsp Malibu Method: Preheat your oven to 180C/ 170C fan assisted. Line either a square brownie tin, or if you want slightly deeper brownies a loaf tin with parchment. Melt the chocolate over a simmering pan of water, taking care not to let it burn. Beat together the eggs and sugar until fluffy, then pour in the chocolate and mix well. Add in the alcohol if using, and finally sift over the flour - fold this in ...