Lemon curd

Quite simply this is a simple super easy method for making your own lemon curd. It really is so simple and absolutely delicious, you wont want to buy it again.

I made it and gifted it to 2 friends for christmas in cute little jars, and I think it will definitely make regular appearances at Christmas now that I know how delicious it actually is


To make my version of lemon curd you will need:

250ml fresh lemon juice
Zest of 2 lemons
170g cubed butter at room temperature
6 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
4 level tbsp cornflour
200g caster sugar

• Start by mixing the cornflour and sugar together
• Add in the lemon juice & zest, stir well together
• Crack in all the eggs and the separated yolks
• Place over a ban marie on a low heat, and keep gently                whisking till its thick enough to coat the back of a spoon
• Remove  from the heat and stir in the butter until                        incorporated well.
• Pour into sterilised jars, refrigerate once cool, will keep for      upto a month

lemon meringue pie

Anyone that knows me well will tell you I am a sucker for meringue based desserts, especially when it's paired with sharp citrus flavours.. and my absolute favourite has to be the classic lemon meringue topped with fluffy swiss meringue that's lightly torched giving it a slight crisp finish.

Making my own lemon meringue pie has been on my baking bucket list for such a long while, and since I made some Lemon curd to gift at Christmas this year, it was the perfect chance to make one whilst I actually had every ingredient at hand.

To make a 9 inch round pie you will need

1 batch of my Sweet short crust pastry

Lemon curd*

For the swiss meringue topping:

300g caster sugar

6 egg whites

Pinch of salt

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

• Preheat your oven to 180c ( fan)

• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to about 1/2       an inch thick

• Line a 9"/23cm loose bottom tart tin with the pastry, and place in the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes

• Line the pastry case with baking paper, and fill with baking    beans/ dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from the        oven, remove the paper and beans.

• Place back in the oven for about 5- 8 minutes or until the          case is lightly golden all over. Remove from the oven and set    aside

• To make the swiss meringue topping, place all the            ingredients in a bowl, and place the bowl over a ban marie      ( a bowl of simmering water)  and stir together until the sugar has completely melted, and the temperature reaches 71c.

• Remove from the heat and with an electric whisk or free standing mixer, whisk the egg whites until thick and fluffy, they should hold their shape and form stiff peaks.

• Pour the lemon curd into the cooled pastry case* making sure it's level and smooth.

• Spread the swiss meringue all over the top of the curd, ensuring it is all covered, use the back of a spoon to make peaks all over.

• Use a blowtorch to lighlty torch the meringue all over, alternativley, place under your grill - but stay close as it will brown quite quickly.

• Carefully remove from the tart tin and serve.

* For the lemon curd i used my home made curd, but you can always use shop bought, i filled the tart with the curd almost to the top of the case- i left about 1/2 gap for the merigue topping

To make mini lemon pies, cut out 12 circles using a cookie cutter just slightly larger than the holes .. line each hole with with a pastry circle,  add 2 tsp of curd into each case .. pop in the fridge for 15 mins 

Bake for 8-10 mins until the pastry is lightly golden. Leave to completely cool before finishing off with the meringue topping 

Vanilla latte macarons

Macarons have got to be one of the trickiest, fiddliest but oh so pretty little looking things in the world of baking. I have to be honest and admit that these have been my absolute most testing bake so far.. from failing to perfect the batter itself to having the patience in letting them rest for the required time so that they end up with their smooth outer casing and their defining characteristic- the feet

I have lost count of how many attempts it has taken me but I think I have finally *touch wood* got them worked out.

For the flavours for this batch I decided to go with a vanilla latte filling and I kept the shells white to contrast with the ganache filling

To make my vanilla latte macarons you will need

For the macarons:
175g icing sugar
175g ground almonds
150g egg whites
200g caster sugar

For the ganache:
300g dark chocolate
150ml double cream
1 tsp coffee powder

• Start by making your ganache as you want it to cool and thicken to a pipeable consistency to fill your shells with. Break up your chocolate and place into a bowl. Heat up your double cream in a saucepan with the coffee powder over a low heat till it just about starts to simmer, and pour all over the chocolate. Let it sit for a minute, then stir the mixture together until you have a smooth chocolate sauce. Set it aside covered with cling film to firm up.

• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz together for a minute. Take out of the food processor and then sieve them into a separate bowl. Discard any large bits left in the seive, and set aside (these lumps are what will prevent the smooth shell for the macarons)

• Pour the egg whites into a bowl, and using a freestanding mixer or a hand held electric whisk, whisk the whites on a medium speed. When the whites start to form a few bubbles, turn up the speed very slightly and whisk till the mixture has soft peaks,  ( it will look like cotton wool ) and then start to add in the sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time

• Once all the sugar has been added, turn the speed up to full and mix the egg whites for 7-8 minutes until you get stiff peaks - the meringue should hold its shape if you turn the bowl upside down. At this point, add any food colouring and give the mixture one last whisk to ensure the colour is incorporated fully*

•Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Add the sifted almond mixture to the meringue, using a spatula to gently fold until combined. Continue to fold slowly until the batter falls into ribbons when you hold the spatula up or you can make a figure 8 with the spatula without it breaking. Do not stir any more at this point

• Transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a round      tip. Pipe 4 dots of the batter in each corner of ths        baking paper and flip it over, gently pressing the paper down, this will help the baking paper stay in place whilst you pipe the meringue mixture

•Pipe the meringue mixture onto the baking tray , in 3-cm blobs, spacing at least an inch apart. Tap the  baking sheet on your work surface a couple of times to release   any air bubbles.

•Let the macarons sit at room temperature for 30 minutes     to 1 hour, until dry to the touch. They will form a skin whilst resting and this skin is what you need for the smooth crisp shell, and as they rise, the feet will then form whilst baking

•Preheat the oven to 150˚C, and bake the macarons for 12-13 minutes. You'll know that they are done when they have their 'feet' and peel away from the baking paper without sticking. If they still stick a little, give them another minute and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before filling

• To fill the macarons, take one shell, and pipe a little blob of ganache into the middle of the shell, almost to the edges and carefully place another shell ontop. Repeat this process until you have used all the shells and have your completed macarons


* For the food colouring, gel colours work best, and the colour will lighten once the macarons are baking so add a little more than the shade you like for a vibrant colour

* I like to match up the shells size wise before filling them that way tou know which ones fit together as they won't all be the same size unless you are using a macaron mat or draw the circles onto the paper using a cookie cutter 

Choux pastry

Choux pastry is something that I always thought was super difficult and for the first few times I made it, I could never get if right when using it for eclairs or profiteroles.

My pastry would either sink every time and I would end up with flattened choux pancakes or they would rise only the tiniest bit and end up rock hard.

But those that know me will tell you I'm not a quitter so as I wasnt having luck with just reading recipes from books, I turned to YouTube to watch the process and I've succeeded after watching a few of the basic  "do not  break rules" I think it's safe to say I've cracked the basic  choux pastry and can now share it on here with you.

 The "do not break rules" are listed at the bottom of the page after the recipe

For this batch of choux I made up some creme diplomat filled profiteroles topped with milk chocolate ganache and I got almost 30 profiteroles, or you can use this same recipe for my classic eclairs.

To make 25-30 profiteroles you will need :

225ml water
150g plain flour
115g unsalted butter at room temp and cut into cubes
4 medium eggs at room temp
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

• Start by preheating your oven to 180c fan. Line 2 large baking sheets with greaseproof paper and set aside.
Place the butter, salt, sugar and water in a pan. On a low heat melt the butter, stirring frequently, once it has melted turn up the heat very slightly.

• As soon as the water comes to boiling point  ( don't actually let it boil) take the pan off the heat, add in all the flour and stir together vigorously with a wooden spoon. It will look all clumpy and may not look like it will combine but keep going and you'll end up with a sticky and wet dough.

•  Place the pan back on to a low heat, and continue stirring until the wet dough starts to clump together and comes away from the sides of the pan and is all glossy and smooth

• Take the pan off the heat and transfer to another bowl, and leave to cool for a few minutes. Whilst the dough is cooling, crack the eggs into a separate bowl and whisk together well

• When the dough has slightly cooled, take the eggs and beat them into the dough a little at a time. Each time you add a little of the egg ensure it's all incorporated and the dough turns to a smooth batter.

• To check that the batter is the right consistency, hold up your wooden spoon with a little of the batter, if it's really stiff and clumpy then you need to continue adding the egg. Once the batter droops and forms a "V" shape and doesn't fall off the spoon and holds its shape that is the perfect consistency.

• Mix together one final time for a minute to ensure you have a smooth glossy batter

• Transfer the batter into a piping bag and pipe round blobs onto the trays. I managed to get 28 blobs. Dampen the tip of you finger with a little water and gently press down on any bits of the batter that are sticking up on the top

• Bake the profiteroles for 20 minutes at 180c, then turn down the heat to 160 and bake for a further 5  minutes till crisp and golden.

• Remove from the oven and leave them to cool completely before filling them with your choice of fillings. You can also freeze them if you wish to have them made up ahead of time, just pop them in the oven to crisp back up and fill once they've cooled

Below are my " do not break rules " and honestly as long as you follow them, you'll ace choux pastry. 


1  As with all baking ensure that your eggs and butter are at room temperature as this just helps ensure they mix easily and efficiently 

2 cutting the butter into cubes means that the butter should all melt at the same speed so that when  the water reaches boiling point you shouldn't have odd clumps of butter floating around

3 When waiting for the water to reach boiling point, you don't want to let it boil as this means the water will begin to evaporate which means less steam once choux is in the oven and it's the steam that helps them puff up and rise 

4 Whisking the eggs beforehand means you can control how little or much egg you add in as well the egg whites and yolk being combined fully as I've found that just adding  whole eggs straight in means clumps of egg in the batter and also it can result in over mixing the batter which will result in tough choux pastry

5 However tempted you are, do not open your oven door as all the heat and steam will escape and your lovely choux will collapse