This week was swimming along quite nicely, I felt pretty confident that it was going to score a solid 7/10 on my weekly rating scale which, let’s face it, is toweringly high for me… then Wednesday rocked up in all its grey, puddle-y glory and reminded me not to be so cocky in the future. Grey, dark, wet… GRIM. How the weather has such an impact on my mood, I’m not sure… but it seems to.
My cosy, upbeat bubble was unceremoniously burst, and I spent the majority of Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday feeling suitably soggy, bedraggled, and that hibernation would be my best bet.
Nevertheless, I have a fair amount to report from the week, including some enlightening moments from burrowing away in my culinary laboratory, and a number of miscellaneous discoveries from the past 168 hours since we last chatted, so let’s get cracking (I’m bullet pointing to keep things succinct).
Things catching my attention this week:
LOVELY MESSAGES – firstly just a quick note to say thank you - thank you from the bottom of my heart - for the support for last week’s newsletter, it seems I’m not alone in this comparison pickle I end up in sometimes. I was SO grateful to hear from some of you personally about your experiences and just wanna send another hug to all those who need it at the moment… keep swimming, we can do this!
EGG-STATIC – got my first double yolk-er (egg) this week, I’m taking it as a sign that great things are on the horizon… it’s got to be a good sign, right?
INSECT INVASION – the biggest wasp (specifically, a European hornet I believe) I have EVER seen rocked up in the garden on Sunday, I took a picture (see below), but I don’t think it illustrates just how huge it was. You know when you look at something through a magnifying glass and are like BLIMEY, that’s big and defined? (yes, I’m a simple soul for finding this quite such an astounding experience). Well, it was like that when I saw this wasp, I felt like my eyes were zoomed in on life… somewhat terrifying if I’m honest.
FREEZE YOUR CHOCOLATES – Ok, this is niche and a little unseasonal - you might want to archive this memo for the festive season (permission to shoot me for mentioning the festive season in MAY). I saw a suggestion that we should be freezing our After Eight mints at Christmas and I only wish I’d thought of this idea sooner. I rate a lot of things that have enjoyed a bit of freezer action - blueberries, cheesecake, tahini stuffed dates covered in choc (OMG TRY DOING THIS PLEASE) to name a few – thus, freezing this legendary Xmas chocolate also seems like a SUPERB idea – crunchy minty chocolate-y joy, yes please - I might have to try this sooner than December, are After Eight mints available year round?
INDEX UPDATE - Guys I got round to updating my recipe index, GO ME! I’d neglected it for a few months (apologies if that’s been painfully annoying), and the longer I left it without amending it, the more daunting the thought of doing so became. This week, however, I got my act together and I think it’s all up to date! Yay!
ELDERFLOWER – so it’s elderflower season and I love the flavour of elderflower so in theory, this should be a good time for me… but 1. I’m never 100% sure what elderflower is - the flowers of giant hogweed look remarkably similar, and let me be clear, this is NOT the same thing, and 2. Google informs me that elderflower and elderberries have chemical compounds that can cause mild toxicity if eaten raw and in excess. “Cooking ‘usually’ takes care of this problem” is the message we're given - the word ‘usually’ doesn’t sit that well with me, it implies ‘not always’ which feels like unstable ground. That being said, I think I may have stumbled across some earlier in the week, and OMG it smelt fantastic, so I’m going to do more research and try to nab some because I feel like I need to put this wonderful flower to good use - elderflower drizzle cake? YES PLEASE!
JELLY - I made two types of jelly this week and felt like a child and wizard all at once. I can remember my grandma buying the Hartley jelly sachets and making them up when I was a kid – making my own with real fruit juice and sugar and gelatine genuinely felt like I was performing some sort of sorcery! I’ll have to note down what I did and share the recipe with you, it’s so simple and so fun!!
… and PANNA COTTA – also made a crème fraiche panna cotta that was INCREDIBLE.
STRAWB JELLY & CREAMMY PANNA COTTA – and then I sandwiched some homemade strawberry jelly and crème fraiche panna cotta together and just LOOK at it (see pic). I’m thinking maybe my ratio is a bit off… more jelly required I reckon, what do you think?! I’m going to give it another go following a couple of tweaks - do you fancy the recipe if I get it perfected?
CHIFFON SPONGES – I’ve been on a wild chiffon sponge voyage this week which has been equal parts thrilling and bewildering. Once I feel confident about my discoveries, I’ll report back to you but in the meant time, I can confirm the following:
Toasting a portion of flour to use in your sponge is a genius idea – it adds such a great depth of flavour to sponges.
NEVER swerve a cake that lists chamomile as an ingredient again… ok, maybe swerve it if it looks a bit of a rubbish recipe but the flavour of chamomile in sponge is MEGA.
Slowly whisking your egg whites is paramount for uniform sized bubbles and a more stable structure to your final cake.
Now this final point I still need to clarify but I THINK that using a cake tin that is too deep for the amount of batter you have is likely to cause some unfavourable sinkage to your sponge… I’m going to have another go in a shallower cake tin and I’ll let you know if this is correct.
Chiffon sponges are a bit trickier to master but, in my opinion they’re some of the best sponges you can make – defo worth trying – they’re also really fun to watch bake - yes, I stare at my oven while my cakes bake!!
RECIPES-TO-TRY LIST – so I mentioned last week that there were a number of recipes I wanted to try and OMG the list has grown… it gets me so excited. I can’t wait to share my discoveries with you over the course of the next few weeks! SO MUCH FUN. As for this week, I have iced fingers for you - and they’re an excellent dose of cosy comfort.
OKAY… I think we’re up to date… I hope you’re all bumbling along ok. Sending so much love as always,
Steph X X X
Iced finger buns (a dose of NOSTALGIA)
For this week’s recipe, I took inspiration from pastry chef extraordinaire Darcie Baker. I was scrolling through her Instagram pictures - go check out her page if you haven’t already, it’s an art gallery - and stumbled across a photo of her buttermilk brioche iced finger buns, I was so mesmerised by how perfect they looked. The sight of these buns filled me with warmth and childhood nostalgia- so much so that I was like… I HAVE TO HAVE ONE! Given that I wasn’t going to be making a trip to Edinburgh in a hurry (gutted), I realised it was down to me to recreate the vision I had witnessed.
I’ve been on an iced bun journey before and shared a recipe here with you - they’re great by the way, but they’re not fingers and so I felt I had to lock in a more authentic recipe for this English classic. These iced fingers are the epitome of comfort; an unassuming, soft, enriched sweet bread, slicked with puddle of icing. I added some citrus zest to my bun dough because I’m obsessed, but you could leave them plain or add a drop of vanilla/a pinch of spice if that’s your preference. Similarly, the icing is totally customisable - choose your fruity flavour and add this as juice, or keep it simple with just icing sugar and water - maybe sprinkles too?
If you’re feeling extra flashy, you can slash them down the middle and load them up with cream and jam. Y-UM!
Right, Let’s go make them…
Recipe
Makes 8 fingers
Ingredients
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