Easter is such a lovely time of year. The scorching heat of summer is gone but the days are still pleasantly warm. In my life, Easter also means lots of baking time. In previous years I've gone the route of making many cute decorated Easter cake pops, cupcakes, and cookies. This year, I decided to go a little more...
Raisins are not really my thing. Hot Cross Buns however, are. A bit of a dilemma for me. My solution to this problem in the past has been to pick each and every raisin out of my hot cross bun before I can enjoy it. A better solution of course is to make my own hot cross buns. I've been keen to do this for ages, and naturally thought of going the chocolate chip direction. Eventhough I'm not mad about raisins, I think Hot Cross Buns need some kind of fruit to compliment the spices. I was thrilled to discover dried sour...
I have many favourite sweet treats, but cinnamon buns are right up there. In the top 5 at least! Not much compares to sinking your teeth into a warm, soft, cinnamony bun, getting sticky icing all over your fingers (and face in my case - I don't hold back when it comes to cinnamon buns). Variety is the spice of life as they say, so I mixed things up a bit. I kept the delicious cinnamon and sugar filling, then added some buttery apple pieces and drenched the baked buns in a decadent salted caramel sauce. The result is these irresistable...
The sight of figs in the shops always signals the end of summer to me. Which is sad, but not really, because figs are amazing! I felt that this Roasted Fig and Walnut Maple Ice Cream would be a perfect dish to cross over from summer into autumn. The warm, caramelised figs and toasted walnuts hint at autumn, the cool ice cream refreshing enough for a late summer evening. It’s really worth splurging on a bottle of real maple syrup for the ice cream - the flavour is incomparable! Use what’s left to make some Pecan Pie Granola or drizzle over...