Mince Crumble Baked Apples - Bakemas Day 7

Almond & Brandy Christmas Porridge/Oatmeal - Bakemas Day 17

If there’s ever a time to sneak a little brandy in your breakfast it’s definitely Christmas.
Full disclosure: I'm not saying you should do this everyday, I do not promote breakfast drinking...I just promote Christmas...and eating...and recipes...and maybe they contain brandy...occasionally...when the season calls for it.

Mince Pie Marzipan Swirl - Bakemas Day 15

This recipe is a mixture of three things I love, scones, mince pies and these sticky almond buns I made a few years ago.

Spiced Almond Hot Chocolate - Bakemas Day 24

The 24th recipe, I made it! It really doesn’t feel like Christmas eve my panic still hasn’t set in and this is not good news. I have two presents left to finish and gift tags to make and its nearly 11pm I honestly think I don’t believe it’s Christmas tomorrow even though there’s presents sitting under my tree.

Christmas eve is about curling up on the sofa with a hot chocolate and a Christmas film, although I think that about everyday of winter it’s especially important tonight, not that I ever actually do that on Christmas eve because I’m always finishing presents off. This is a quick and easy hot chocolate recipe to accompany your Christmas film of choice that takes no more effort than making normal hot chocolate and is really yummy.

Anyway, no time to stay and chat, I’m off to drink this hot chocolate finish my presents and watch all three Santa clause films on repeat until I’m finished. Have a lovely Christmas.

Fruit & Yogurt Layered Desserts - Rhubarb & Ginger, Blackberry & Coconut and Raspberry & Almond - Bakemas Day 18

I’m being completely honest here, today has been one of those days where I just can’t bring myself to get stuff done. Every time I decided what to do I was missing an ingredient and then it got really late so this post is actually something I made a couple of weeks ago and never ended up putting up.
I made an apple, yogurt & breadcrumb layered dessert about a month ago which is something we always had as kids but it gave me the idea to try different flavours and use biscuits, nuts etc.

This is kind of a “world is your jellyfish” dessert! (psst, I do know its oyster!) You can add any fruit compote with biscuits, nuts, cereal, oats, breadcrumbs, chocolate, wafers I mean you can pretty much put anything in here and layer up with yogurt. I will say that the rhubarb is by far my favourite which I wasn't expecting.

Almond Biscotti

Take me to a coffee shop, offer me a cake and I will hands down bypass the cake offer and have biscotti. I actually have a very vivid memory of this. In the middle of a wedding in October going to a costa with my family (it’s a long story), they all sat down with a muffin or piece of cake and there was me with my biscotti.

Biscuits aren’t my favourite thing which is a little odd because I’m all about that crunchy food but they’re always a little too sweet or too hard or bland or get stuck in your teeth, and I am in no way a dunker, I DO NOT GET THAT! Is that just an English thing? A world wide thing? If you do that I don't think I'm living in the same universe as you.

Can I also mention THIS WAS NOT PLANNED!
Okay so I knew it was biscuit week on the great British bake off but it was a crazy coincidence that they were baking the same thing, although now mine seems awfully plain and boring. I’ve never made biscotti before and I do love the classic flavour and what’s a little ridiculous is I went through all my cook books and not one of them had a basic almond biscotti recipe. Now that I’ve finally made it, which might I say I found the process rather enjoyable, now I just want to make all the biscotti in all the flavours. I apologise now if that follows.

Lemon, Lime & Almond Loaf Cake and The Great British Bake Off

I took a mini mental health day yesterday, although it turned into me making lists, trying to sort out birthday presents and going shopping to try find some things I needed which was extremely unsuccessful. Actually I'm not sure you could really call that a mental health day, but the thought was there.

Yesterday was week 1 of The Great British Bake Off, it just snuck up on me this year. I saw an advert for it a few weeks ago and completely forgot about it until 2 minutes before the program, I saw a tweet and pretty much legged it down the stairs with a blanket and bottle of water in hand screaming mum! I was entirely unprepared with no cake and no time to make coffee and in the first episode they don't do the whole "history of baking" which is usually when I sneak out if need be. But the first week is usually always cake so I did a little post bake off baking because watching the bake off pretty much just means I'll be craving baked goods for an hour + every Wednesday night, although I'm not sure if that's any different than usual.

Sticky Almond Swirls

Twice last week my friend and I walked from the neighbouring town to where I live with coffee and almond croissants we spent the 3 miles nattering about anything and everything while people ran past us, we even saw a man with a prosthetic leg cycling with a friend....should we feel guilt about drinking coffee and eating almond croissants?...we did walk 3 miles. Anyway, a few days before we ate almost croissants I was craving marzipan and the croissants kind of pushed me over the edge. I wanted an alternative that was sort of similar but healthier? whether I achieved this or not I have no idea but I had the theory right, less fat in bread than pastry CHECK that's enough health-ifying for me for one day.

This is one of the easiest doughs I've ever made, so simple quick and easy. Theres no airing cupboard in this house so I'm lucky we're having a warmer than usual September so I can still put the dough on the windowsill instead of having to put it in the tumble dryer. Just to clarify I don't put the dough in their and leave it on. I'm quite new to the whole bread making thing but it may just be my new favourite thing.