savoury

Christmas preparations part 1

| Too busy to make

It may seem early but Christmas preparations are well under way at Too busy to make. I have a stall at the Chiddingstone Castle Christmas Fair on Saturday 23 November (10.00am to 4.00pm) so I am making various Christmas foods to sell.

This cranberry and orange compôte is not as sweet as most commercial cranberry sauces – it is made with fresh cranberries, oranges, red wine, port and spices with a small amount of sugar. It is an excellent accompaniment to your Christmas dinner and also goes well with gammon, nut roast and baked Camembert.

If you can’t get to Chiddingstone Castle on Saturday, I will be holding more open house sessions in December – dates will be available very soon.

Please keep reading these posts and if there are any foods you want to buy, get in touch by Facebook, Instagram, phone or email.

Thank you for reading

Advertisement

Biscotti and roasted almonds

| Too busy to make

I have been baking biscotti this afternoon, getting ready for the Penshurst Farmers’ Market this Saturday, 7 October. These are pistachio and flaked almond flavour with mixed spice – try them with a cappuccino or a cup of tea, or with a creamy fruit fool.

They keep well in an airtight tin if you can keep them out of reach. I usually find they evaporate – how else would I explain the tin emptying so quickly!

As well as these biscotti, I will have wheat free oat and walnut biscuits (try with some blue cheese), gluten free seeded biscuits (great with cheddar) and gluten free very cheesy biscuits (great with a dry sherry or g&t before dinner). Also good as a pre-dinner nibble are the roasted almonds with smoked paprika.

The Farmers’ Market is open from 9:30 until 12:00 this Saturday in the car park by Penshurst Place – I hope to see you there.

Back to biscuit baking

| Too busy to make

This week I am back to baking biscuits to sell at the Penshurst Farmers’ Market this weekend, on Saturday 5 August.

These biscotti have flaked almonds and pistachio nuts – great for having with coffee or with dessert. The oat and walnut biscuits can be eaten with cheese – try with a blue cheese or ripe Brie – or with a morning cup of tea. The seeded biscuits go well with any cheese board. Both the oat and walnut and seeded biscuits are made with buckwheat flour so are fine for gluten-free and wheat-free diets.

Having baked all these biscuits, I now need to spend the evening weighing, packing and labelling them ready for selling on Saturday.

Parmesan and walnut wafers

| Too busy to make

P1040347

 

These delicate wafers are gluten free but full of flavour. I had been reading through various recipe books, looking for gluten free savoury snacks to make for a friend’s birthday but could only find ones using flour substitutes which were not in my larder; so these were an experiment using what I had to hand. They were very popular and I shall keep making them regularly as well as trying out new variations.

Savoury muffins

| Too busy to make

P1040475

Today I though I’d make some savoury muffins – these are good to have in the freezer to add to packed lunches for school. They would also be great with salad for my lunch at home or on the move. These were made with sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese but I will be trying other combinations over the coming weeks using olives, goats cheese, raisins, nuts and seeds.