My name is Jude Barback and I'm a bake-aholic

Okay, so I know addiction is no laughing matter, but whenever there is a remote lull in the day (or night) I find myself gravitating towards the kitchen and reaching for the flour sifter. I started to recognise the symptoms when I discovered my birthday-new electronic scales were not working and felt mild panic wash over me. Even though I’d managed just fine without aforementioned scales for the last decade, I couldn’t imagine continuing my baking crusade without my scales (which are now working again, thank goodness).

So here are some of my efforts. I’ve had a concentrated effort on pastry over the last fortnight. My choux pastry, stuffed with a lemon curdy-creamy-white chocolatey filling was excellent. But I had hoped to drape it with spun sugar. Three attempts at making caramel, one whole bag of caster sugar and one rather disgruntled husband later, I was no closer to making spun sugar. I am still at a loss where I’m going wrong, even after consulting my epic culinary encyclopaedia (thank you Johanna and Aidan – I am so reliant on this now!) Anyway, dinner guests (and guinea pigs) Kylie and Harry appreciated the dark chocolate alternative.

The spun sugar-less profiteroles with Kylie and Harry looking on

I’ve also ventured into shorter pastry. Check out these tarts: unfortunately the photos don’t hint at the lemon curd and raspberry centre, topped with frangipane and raspberry drizzle icing. I know.

And these cute little tartlets with salted caramel and banana stars...

...and these lemon and chocolate tarts...

...and my first attempt at tarte tatin. After watching the current series of ‘The Great British Bake-Off’ (God bless i-player!) I decided to have a go at more unorthodox flavours. So this rather well-done looking specimen features pears with vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger and hazelnuts. With the British bakers constantly berated for their “soggy bottoms” I was nervous about under-baking my pastry and therefore perhaps lurked a little too close to ‘burnt’ territory. However, it tasted a-mah-zing.

Beyond pastry I’ve also ticked off another ‘first’ that has been hanging out on my baking ‘to do’ list since I started this challenge – macaroons. They turned out really well. Unfortunately the chocolate I dipped them in was the cheap stuff – next time I will not offend such perfectly baked coconutty morsels: it’s 70% cocoa or nothing.

And finally, bread. Focaccia, naan, even a rather disastrous attempt at a hazelnut, apricot and honey plait – I’ve been there, done all that. The naan (not a huge Gordon Ramsey fan, but this is his recipe – credit where credit is due) was probably the highlight.

That brings us up to date. Congratulations if you made it this far!

TTFN x