welcome to yumblog.co.uk

There’s nothing finer than getting up at 05:00 on a Sunday morning, amassing on Clapham Common with 27,000 other Lycra-clad humans, and pedalling off on a six-hour ride to Brighton. To help us reach our destination we packed the traditional sausage and Branston sandwiches, a bunch of bananas, 2 gallons of Lucozade and, for the […]

[Read more →]

Regrettably, and I feel unreasonably, Tower Hamlets Council won’t let us keep sheep on the balcony so making our own feta cheese is out of the question. We do however have a healthy and ever-expanding mint plant and so at least were able to locally source half the ingredients in the title.

[Read more →]

… or at least it would have been if I’d had any molasses sugar. However there was something similarly brown and sweet at the back of cupboard and this seemed to work just as well.

[Read more →]

I knocked up these whimsical little critters one Sunday morning partly because I was in the market for a bread product less brown and worthy than the usual, and partly because it was an effective way of delaying various foreboding DIY chores. Four of the five fancy shapes are illustrated below. The fifth, a curly […]

[Read more →]

Somewhere round the end of March I saw my friend Hazel for the first time in nearly three years. She married an Australian chap back in 05 and opted for a warm climate and good standard of living over London - crazy but true. Anyway we had lunch and talked about food and then she […]

[Read more →]

Now it seems it’s no longer middle class enough to simply bake your own bread. To be a fully paid-up member of the bourgeoisie takes more time. We have to allow our dough to slowly ferment overnight to encourage friendly bacteria which will protect our delicate constitutions from bloated, irritable bowels and leaky gut-type conditions. […]

[Read more →]

According to Babel Fish couronne is French for crown, and according to the title this loaf is meant to be couronne-shaped. But it was snowing, I got over excited, couldn’t concentrate, and failed to read the recipe properly. As a result I missed out one small, but essential, step and by way of punishment the […]

[Read more →]

I’ll tell you what bugs me, people who travel to work in the morning drinking their tea/coffee from those aluminium thermos mugs. They’re designed for camping in the woods, not commuting from Forest Hill. Are we supposed to look on enviously and wonder at the cool, impulsive, incandescent lives led by these urbane creatures? Probably. […]

[Read more →]

Working until 7 on a Friday is never what I would class as fun. And when there’s a gig to go to then even less so – a gig with a 10pm curfew too. So I got to the pub at 7.30, inhaled two pints of Pilsner Urquell and then to the gig. The Only […]

[Read more →]

Well, we’d done a spot of shopping down the road and as we passed the local baker - Percy Ingle - I thought of Scotch Pancakes, it was, after all, tea time on a Saturday in the rain. Then I thought of that being a greedy thing and simply walked on by. Then I got […]

[Read more →]

If you came here in search of an American-style muffin to accompany your tall caramel macchiato, then you’ll be disappointed. They’re not muffins, they’re cakes. If however you are in search of an English muffin which is light and yeasty and perfect for toasting and smothering in butter, then you’re in luck. A word of […]

[Read more →]

We had guests so there would have to be pudding. The day before the Guardian magazine had featured a rhubarb and custard tart and it sounded so lovely and looked so pretty that I just had to give it a go. And so to Borough Market where the pricing on rhubarb varied wildly from £4.50 […]

[Read more →]

If your experience of a Cornish pasty is eating a near frozen Ginsters in the car park at Heston services, then refresh your palate by giving this recipe a go. Actually Ginsters pasties contain plum jam and are very good … but give this a go anyway.

[Read more →]

As well as being very tasty, Soda Bread is also great when you need a loaf in a hurry or can’t be arsed with all that kneading and proving. Unfortunately on such occasions you’re unlikely to have soured cream (a major ingredient) and a desperate trip to your local urban Costcutter is guaranteed to prove […]

[Read more →]

Searching through my book of breads I came upon black bread. It brought back fond memories of the rush to join the throng following the bread van as it arrived with fresh warm supplies, back in the pre-Lukashenko Minsk of 1993. And then I had to get rye flour which meant another trip to Holland […]

[Read more →]

A lunchtime trip to Holland and Barrett for sundry dried fruits and seeds meant there were now things to put in things for extra flavour/texture/goodness - I believe the term is ‘value added’. And so to my value added loaf. Not merely a humble malthouse loaf but one now boasting bonus tasties such as pumpkin […]

[Read more →]

Another recipe from the much used ‘The Bread Book’ by Sara Lewis. This time I turned towards the back where the more fancy bread-based products can be found. Essentially this is a loaf which can magically be torn into individual rolls. We live in exciting times.

[Read more →]

I had the yen to make some Cornish pasties, but not having all the necessary ingredients and not wanting to brave the ugly madness that is Bethnal Green on a Saturday afternoon to get them, I made these instead.

[Read more →]

Ah, the weekend of baking. It was the day before my first day at work for over two weeks. We’d sworn off booze for three weeks (soon to be somewhat foreshortened to one week) and the weather was its usual dull hue so the only thing for it was to cook like fiends. The dinner […]

[Read more →]

I realise the photo below looks like an unappetising plateful of deep-fried Spam fritters, however they are actually a tasty full-fat medley of oat biscuits heavily laden with blue cheese.

[Read more →]

And so to Sunday afternoon. The first of the new year. The first in a very long time not to come accompanied by even a hint of the previous night’s activities. Unless of course you count the ‘Nam flashbacks from watching The Deer Hunter. Sisisisi…sixth of January. We were going to go for a nice […]

[Read more →]

It seemed like everywhere you turned there was someone eulogising about the magnificence of spelt. They featured a farmer who had gone back to growing the stuff and was now coining it due to some middle-class fad of using an ancient relative of modern wheat in their constant search for the secret to life itself. […]

[Read more →]

Well I’d opened the packet of spelt flour you see and not wishing for it to sit in the cupboard forgetten and rapidly staling, the fate that had previously befallen the buckwheat flour, I sought out another recipe. And what do you know, my bread book (called The Bread Book, published by Hamlyn) had just […]

[Read more →]

Count them. Not one, not two, but three varieties of chocolate are involved in the creation of these aptly named triple chocolate biscotti. Not only that, but they are ‘Double baked for added crispness’ ™

[Read more →]

It must be Christmas soon. Walk past any eatery at lunchtime and you’ll witness the depressing sight of work colleagues sitting around tables self-consciously wearing party hats…having fun. Not having to suffer this annual humiliation is one of the benefits of being freelance. Speaking of Christmas, this year I’ve decided to make, or rather […]

[Read more →]

Every December Dresden holds its annual Stollen Festival. It is a celebration of all things Stollen and involves among other things, electing the Dresden Stollen Maiden (Dresdner Stollenmädchen) and baking the world’s largest Stollen in accordance with the standards laid down by the Stollenschutzverband. This is a recipe for a stollen of more modest proportions […]

[Read more →]

If the true meaning of Christmas is giving gifts which credit you with the greatest amount gratitude for the least amount of effort, then these truffles are a winner.

[Read more →]

Now I’m a big fan of Delia, although I appreciate that some people are less enthusiastic. Whatever your opinion, compared with the current crop of TV cooks whether they be two hairy geordies on bikes, a simpering goddess on prozac, or a Michelin starred narcisist on EVERYbleedinTHING, Delia shines out as a beacon of understated […]

[Read more →]

What to do with a surfeit of onions when there’s already a soup on go? A tart of course. But what if you neither have eggs and cream nor the wish to include them? Then the Onion Flat it has to be. Onions without Borders. Oignons sans Frontières. Wars without tears.

[Read more →]

There was going to be a gathering of girls (I say girls, that’s what we were when first we gathered aged 11 in our smart navy blue uniforms) and we were to gather at a friend’s house to eat takeaway food and drink vin ordinaire by the gallon. So I thought it would be nice […]

[Read more →]

It was Sunday and we’d stayed up stupendously late the night before watching England lose at rugby, going down the pub for post-match analysis, and then playing pencil and paper games with wine and beer and salty snacks, all of which meant that the nearly regular Sunday walk with pub treat was not an option. […]

[Read more →]

Obviously what with the world as we know it ending in 2012 and all that, it could be argued that time is too precious to be squandered on baking bread. However, life and food are about quality not quantity, and besides as the title says, this is a ‘quick’ light wholemeal loaf.

[Read more →]