One of the few sweet cocktails I like is the Old Fashioned, which is basically just bourbon with sweetened, orange flavoured melt-water. This is a cocktail that is “built”. A teaspoon of sugar is put in a glass followed by a couple of strips of orange peel (just the zest), a few shakes of bitters […]

The Guardian just simplified my life. Most Saturdays I read their weekly cocktail only to be frustrated by the number of (to me) obscure and expensive ingredients. But this week they did what they call a “clean margarita” from Shop Cuvee in London which deducts the Triple Sec from the standard ingredients. This helps because […]

Sometimes, like now when the weather turns colder, an extra little boost is needed. The only heated alcoholic drink I like is a proper Hot Whisky (the worst of all is Mulled Wine – yuck!). You need a robust tumbler that is not going to crack with the thermal shock of boiling water and a […]

The Negroni is probably my favourite cocktail. I don’t like sweet drinks and there doesn’t seem to be much point to a cocktail unless it’s strong. The Negroni is bitter and strong and has the virtue of being simple – just three main ingredients, Campari, Gin, and Vermouth (plus a good shake of Angostura). I […]

Well, after all the trial runs and prepping, this week Vladbread went live (or at least undead). Rick & Maggie (Mair’s Bakehouse) suggested their cheesey short-crust pastry for the Skull & Crossbones because the unleavened dough was too tough. The pastry was really nice but a bit too fragile. Had to keep cleaning the skull’s […]

Avast Behind! What a motley crew! Adjustments continue as Halloween approaches This is more or less what I’m after. This time I made the skull & crossbones from a pâte morte (unleavened dough) and baked them in advance. Too hard – might try shortcrust pastry next time. Also made a few tiddlers at 80g. The […]

With Halloween fast approaching, in the quest for a way of weaponising my prototype Vladbread so that it actually looks a bit scary, I pulled out my trusty skull and crossbones biscuit cutter. This week’s customer flatbread is Courgette & Parmesan so I hijacked a spare and cut out the shape from a bit of […]

Not sure I really want to get involved in this. Halloween is an American thing that has been imported into the UK to provide yet another of the commercial Feast Days our economy has come to depend on now that we don’t produce things anymore – except for acres of black plastic tat and pumpkins […]

Grrrr… Brrrrd will bite your bum! Oat & Honey – Black Olive & Caramelised Onion Focaccia Never mind the Rofco – Bake your bread!

I “inherited” a pile of Brefu Bach from Carrie Rimes maker of superb ewes cheese – Cosyn Cymru. She had some that were turning blue so she suggested I used them in breads for the local bank holiday food fair. I made cheese and grape foccaccia and packaged them in quarters, £1.00 a time. What’s […]