Recipes

My inspiration for this bake comes from my local bakery in Glasgow.

With the recent election ferocity, it’s about time we focused on harmony. Muffin harmony. There are flavours that go well together and flavours that don’t. Or at least, they don’t seem to at first glance.

Mille Feuille is the pretentious, French title for what had a perfectly brilliant name in English already: the custard slice. Literally, the French words mean ‘1000 leaves’, referring to the countless crumbly layers of the puff pastry used in this recipe.

Who says a sandwich needs to be made with bread? Biscuits work far better!

Whenever I’ve done demonstrations that involve getting the audience up on stage to bake something from scratch, I’ve used madeleines. There’s a reason for this: they’re easy and they’re fast. Real fast!

This recipe is an example of what I call modular baking. To see how relaxed these little tarts are to make, all you need to do is break the recipe up into wee parts. The pastry. Obviously, you can buy it if you don’t want to make it. Go for the “all-butter” stuff if you can. And ready rolled? Even lazier, even better. If you do decide to follow my recipe and make your own, good on you. It’s nothing more than flour, butter and water. The lemon filling. This is actually just a really good recipe for lemon posset, and doesn’t require any extra baking once you’ve filled your tart shells. If you’ve got some left over, you can pour it into wee glasses and leave it to set in the fridge for an alternative, pastry-free dessert. It’s just cream, lemon juice and sugar. The candied lemon. An optional flair, but a nice one nonetheless. You could just top each tart with a little raspberry or blackberry, but I like canided (or ‘confit’) lemon. It’s as simple as sugar, water and fresh lemon slices. Please feel free to take any of these aspects and use them in other dishes, and on their own. They’re great wee recipes in their own right.

The posh French alternative to Scottish coconut macaroons. These indeed are the little, delicate things that everyone thinks are really hard. Well, let me tell you, they’re not. They’re ridiculously easy, in fact.

Surely the world isn’t in need of another Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe? Uh, it definitely is. Especially this one!

A really simple, no-knead bread recipe.

This tart is as simple as tarts get. The key here is seasoning.

A delicious citrus tart, perfect for any summer’s day!

This recipe doesn’t require any actual baking – it’s just biscuits, butter, cream and chocolate.