Banana, honey, yoghurt and hazelnut bread

As usual when I make banana bread, it's to use up very ripe bananas which I've secretly been not eating for days so I've got just this excuse! Today I've added toasted hazelnuts, natural yoghurt and a mixture of honey and brown sugar, but for a plain banana bread recipe my old faithful one is here.

Pesto and cheese bread rolls

I recently posted my first proper attempt at bread, sundried tomato and rosemary focaccia rolls. Here is my second go at bread - this time for bread filled with pesto and cheese, rolled up into a log and cut into slices before baking. The smell that fills the house when these are in the oven is amazing! Tonight I'm serving them with another homemade, autumnal soup - roasted red pepper, sweet potato and chickpea (slow roasted for an hour or so with a little olive oil, honey, chilli and thyme, then puréed with some chicken stock). How to make a wintery evening yummy! 

Ginger and milk chocolate chunk cookies

This recipe is a mixture of the ginger biscuits I made a couple of days ago and my dark chocolate ginger cookies – this time adding chunks of milk chocolate and a little drinking chocolate rather than dark cocoa powder. These are a delicious combination of warm and spicy ginger with gooey, oozing milk chocolate. They disappear fast!

Blackberry, apple and almond crumble muffins

Some quick muffins - these don't need an electric mixer, they are so quick to mix by hand. A nice way to use some lovely blackberries that are in season at the moment, and a left-over bramley apple from the spiced apple, rum and pecan pie I made the other day!

Rhubarb and raspberry almond crumble (wheat-free)

Last night we had a birthday dinner for my mum at her house, using lots of fruit and veg from her allotment. I made a quick rhubarb and raspberry crumble, with a wheat-free topping made from ground almonds and rice flour, as my sister is coeliac. It was delicious! The quantities here are rough estimates really, as I tend to make crumbles by eye.

Ginger biscuits

It's my mum's birthday today and we're giving her a very cute ginger kitten. I decided to bring her a batch of ginger biscuits, her favourites. Happy birthday mum!

Sundried tomato and rosemary focaccia rolls

This is the first blog post I've done about making bread. It's not something I've done much of, and confess I've tended to be braver about using packets that contain all the ingredients and you just need to add hot water. Today I braved it, and made these sundried tomato and rosemary focaccia rolls from scratch - yeast and everything! I added garlic purée and tomato purée to the dough, and they came out a beautiful russet colour. Autumn has begun (although it's not felt much like we've had a summer) so I'm embracing it - let this be the first of many homemade bread making days, to go with lovely warming soup (this evening I've made  a roasted butternut squash one with chilli, roasted garlic and fresh ginger). Bring on long nights cwtched up by a roaring fire!

Spiced apple, rum and pecan pie

It's been a few weeks since I last posted anything here, partly because we've been away on a lovely Greek island holiday, to Symi. I have also had a couple of baking disasters since being back - a cake inspired by the holiday made with Greek yoghurt, olive oil and figs turned out just too gooey inside, and another made using a tin of mango purée tasted great but had a really rubbery texture. I was beginning to worry I'd lost my baking mojo - but then I made a fantastic chocolate sponge cake when I had an almighty hangover - I was just too hungover to remember to photograph or blog it! So here we are - I'm back with this deep dish apple pie, gently spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, full of chopped pecans and a dark rum and brown sugar filling. Baking mojo is well and truly back!