Crumbs to Crunch

Tomorrow, it's Shrove Tuesday and who doesn't love a day dedicated to pancakes? While sugar and lemon on your pancakes is a classic, it's fun to mix it up once in a while! This year I have been inspired by my trip to Japan to make okonomiyaki, a savoury pancake made with cabbage and drizzled with special okonomiyaki sauce. Okonomiyaki is delicious and really easy to make. I used the recipe from the Japan Centre's website . It can be a little tricky to get your hands on all the ingredients. I used ordinary plain flour and it turned out well. For the okonomiyaki sauce, you can find it in Asian supermarkets or substitute it with Worcestershire sauce as it tastes similar. Okonomiyaki If  Okonomiyaki is not your thing, we did a series on pancakes from different countries so it's time to crack out those recipes again to have the best ever pancake day! For savoury ideas, check out Korean vegetable pancakes or galetttes which are thin pancakes made out o...

Savoury pancakes taste better than sweet ones. Controversial I know but I just love the crispy texture of Breton galettes!They are so easy to make and will make a great main before you get to the good old sugar and lemon pancakes for dessert. I made spinach, cheese and ham galette. Ingredients 300g Buckwheat flour A pinch of salt 2 eggs 300 ml milk 300 ml water Method Serves 6 1. Pour the flour in a bowl. Make a well and crack the eggs into it. 2. Add some salt and start whisking the eggs and flour together. 3. Gradually add the milk and water and keep whisking until you get a smooth batter. 4. Leave to stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour (if you can wait that long!) 5. Melt butter in a frying pan. Make sure the pan is really hot and add a ladle full of batter. The galette should be really thin. When it starts turning crispy, flip over and crisp the other side. 6. Put your favourite toppings on the galette and fold the edges to make a parcel shape. ...

I love Le Moulin Vert's fairy tale themed décor. As Shrove Tuesday is coming up, there is no better place to explore the world of pancakes than Brittany.  The Bretons are kings of crêpes. The meal starts with galette - a savoury pancake made with buckwheat flour. The result is a crispier and more textured pancake. The toppings are endless such as the  complète   (ham, egg and cheese) to andouille, a pork tripe sausage. For dessert, there is also a huge range to choose from, my favourites include apple and salted caramel as well as poire belle-hélène (pear drizzled in dark chocolate). Of course all of this pancake goodness is washed down with a hearty cup of Breton cider.  However, I have discovered a new mouth-watering take in the galette at the  Le Moulin Vert  in Lannion. This beauty is called a galette gratinée which is basically a rolled up galette cut into pieces and sprinkled with cheese and crème fra î che. It is then popped into the ove...

As I was strolling through the cobbled streets of Quimper, I chanced upon the quaint  Les Macarons de Philomène . Never have I ever seen so many macaroons in my life. They were displayed beautifully and looked so inviting. As Oscar Wilde once said "I can resist anything except temptation", the same goes for me so I went straight in there! It was a difficult task picking which flavours to try. In the end I chose caramel, coffee, chocolate, raspberry and strawberry macaroons. I particularly enjoyed the the fruity flavours as they actually tasted like fruit instead of artificial flavourings. All the macaroons just melted in my mouth and I was in paradise! If you want to make your own Macaroons, don't forget to check out our  handy hints.

Have you ever wanted to experience a scene from a film? I love the moment in Tangled when Rapunzel arrives in the kingdom, dances to folk music and lights a lantern.   My dream came true yesterday in Lannion. I heard that Santa was in town and as I am full of Christmas cheer, I went to find him. I did not realise that Santa's possy would be a Breton bagpipe marching band!  To celebrate Christmas, the whole town was given a lantern and a free cup of mulled wine or hot chocolate. Fuelled with hot beverages and festive cheer, we marched through the medieval streets, clutching our lanterns and following the sound of the bagpipes. It felt so special to be part of a tradition so different from my own.  The festivities did not end there. The next morning, I got up bright and early to watch the Trail Urban - a 5km fun run. I loved seeing so many runners dressed as Father Christmas. They had to run up some very steep steps which lead to a church o...

I recently rediscovered how much I love drawing with crayons. You might be wondering how are crayons related to cake. Well, while I was waiting for my Chocolat Gourmand (more on that later), the owner of Crêperie Le St Glinglin slammed a pot of crayons down on the paper tablecloth. He said very seriously "No joke!" and waited for me to start drawing. I must say that I have absolutely no idea why he insisted that I do some colouring as none of the other customers were given crayons. However,  I gladly picked up my first crayon in years and started drawing. I found that it was very relaxing and wondered why people stop stop using crayons past the age of six. When my Chocolat Gourmand arrived it was magnificent. My hot chocolate was placed on a chopping board accompanied by lots of mini desserts: Crème brûlée ice cream A salted caramel and apple muffin A brownie Melted Chocolate and banana A Canelé (a mini sponge from Bordeaux) This marvellous ...

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." but what do you do if you don't have a fireplace? Nothing feels more cosy and festive than chestnuts so I was very happy to discover the delights of chestnut moelleux at  Le Bistrot à Lire  in Quimper.  You may be wondering what moelleux are and how on earth to say this peculiar French word. A helpful waitress coached me on the pronunciation - mweh-luh . I felt oh so very French attempting to say such a foreign word! These little cakes are baked for a couple of minutes so the centre is all gooey. The result is a silky smooth hot chestnut treat.  My moelleux was accompanied with the Italien Thé des Ecrivains (fig and quince tea)  as part of the cake and hot drink deal for €6.10.  Le Bistrot  à Lire is also a bookshop so I felt perfectly at home polishing off my chestnut dessert while thumbing through books from all over the world. You can't get more cosy than that! 

There has been a Great British Bake Off shaped hole in my life since the show ended last month. I could no longer follow the dessert related triumphs and meltdowns from the comfort of my sofa until I discovered  Le Meilleur Patissier . This is the French version of Bake Off and is pretty much exactly the same but in French. Instead of Paul and Mary, they have Cyril and Mercotte. The contestants do the same type of challenges but the only real difference is that the cakes are mainly French. In a way, Le Meilleur Pattisier is more interesting to watch as I have not heard of at least half of the cakes.  Last week the contestants had a particularly difficult challenge to make their own Bavarois . This is a mousse made out of different layers of mousse and fruit with a sponge base. When the judges cut through the middle, the inside was stunning with the different colours of each layer.  After I watched this episode, I knew I had to try some. I found a salted...

We heard that Brittany produces a lot of butter and salt so we were intrigued to try some of there salty buttery desserts. A slightly salty cake may sound strange but is actually quite nice, if not a little heavy! We bought some  Far Breton which is a type of flan with prunes. We are not huge fans of prunes so this cake was not our favourite. However, we  were also curious to try Kouign Amann which is a flaky buttery cake that featured on Great British Bake Off.  Slices of Far Breton and Kouign Amann The Kouign Amann caused many problems on the Great British Bake Off as nobody had ever heard of this breton cake. However, in Brittany, you will find this cake in every bakery. Having tasted the local boulangerie's Kouign Amann, we were inspired to make our own . We knew it would be a challenge but if they can make it on the Great British Bake Off, so can we!  We wanted to use an authentic French recipe so we used this excellent recipe  fr...