Jane’s Patisserie Easy Favourites by Jane Dunn

I love Jane Dunn’s recipes, her books are great, her website / blog is great and her recipes are so lovely. This book is her fourth one, Jane’s Patisserie Easy Favourites.  I’ve started cooking from this one in Lent, so I’ve made a couple of savoury recipes and one sweet.  If it wasn’t Lent, there would definitely be something chocolate-y like chocolate orange cookie dough desserts, mint chocolate brownies or banana bread Blondies. There is also a beautiful sticky ginger loaf cake, speculoos fudge and banoffee trifle that all look divine - to mention but a few. 

Like her previous book, this one is well laid out, beautifully pictured with easy to follow recipes. As well as the usual sweet chapters, there are a couple of savoury ones too. Which I like to see, as a) I’m nosey and like to see what bakers cook and b) supper always needs to be made and inspiration is welcome.

The things I’ve made are Baked Gnocchi, which was lovely, sort of like a Caprese salad except hot for winter and bolstered with gnocchi. Definitely doable on an exhausted night.

Cheesy Ham and Leek bake, this is a bit like a pie filling but instead of mash or pastry on top there is cubed Brie! Another quick and easy supper. My hubby was thrilled with there being lots of leeks, one of his favourite vegetables. 

Finally on the sweet side, I made Berry Crumble Pots. 

I doubled the recipe so used a small pink baking dish (a new fave I recently bought from Anthropologie!) instead of pots or ramekins.

I really like a berry crumble and this blueberry raspberry one was very good. I know blueberries are good for us, but I really struggle with them raw, cooked however they are delicious.  

Sweet Tooth by Sarah Fennel

 Hello hello, long time no see! I’m still here, still a cook book obsessive and still cooking. I buy fewer books now, which is a matter of space, pickiness and money too to some extent. Good books are more expensive than they used to be, unless you are as good and famous as Mary Berry, in which case the cost still seems reasonable due to economies of scale.  I digress though, I’ve missed writing about and sharing good cookery books. So just like that I thought I’d start once again.  

So where to start? Well, this one came out last year, from Broma Bakery website founder Sarah Fennel. I’ve followed her for years online, and always thought she should indeed have a book. So it came to be and Sweet Tooth was born. It’s a brilliant baking book. It has everything you’d want including a Holiday / Christmas chapter - joy of joys! 

I made the Cosmic Cookies, my daughter loves a soft cookie, and these were just perfect. Super chocolate-y with yummy ganache topping  and I sprinkled with hearts and dried raspberry pieces.  In the book Sarah used multi coloured candy coated chocolate, that I’ve not seen in the UK, but then Cosmic Brownies are not a thing here either! Have a look at Sarah’s picture if you buy or have the book, the picture is gorgeous. It’s definitely what drew me in to make this recipe.