Where it happens...& giveaway results!

What a week it's been so far...although the last one really didn't end for me until yesterday afternoon! It was a 9 day week, strictly speaking. That's because yesterday was my monthly Farmer's Market day, here in Aylesbury. I've had a stall on this market for almost 8 years....and I love doing it, although it means a lot more work than usual. I start baking on the Saturday before (earlier in Winter, when it's cooler & I make more items that benefit from maturing, like fruitcake and sticky parkin..)

 And of course, it's not just brownies on the stall...so I get to be really creative and try out all the recipes that I find or devise & ache to bake! This was a divine Saffron Lemon Cake, from the book I told you about a couple of posts back...Honey & Co ...

 those are tiny strands of saffron above...they add such flavour & colour to this gorgeous confection. In the book, Sarit Packer (whose recipe it is) describes it as glowing..and it truly is!

 The cake above was a Fresh Apricot & Hazelnut one....I replaced almost all the flour with roasted ground hazelnuts. I love to be seasonal in my choices for the market, and in my opinion apricots are one fruit that tastes so much better cooked than they do raw, when they can be disappointingly 'woolly' in texture. I sell these cakes by the slice...and they sold out by lunchtime, I'm happy to say (the market runs from 9am-2pm.) I always have big towers of bestselling Double Chocolate & Walnut Fudge brownies for sale...but I l have always also had a 'Brownie of the Month' for regulars who like to taste something different. July's flavour was Fresh Raspberry Meringue....here is a tray before baking...

 that's freeze-dried raspberries on the top, which gives a beautiful 'zing' of pure berry flavour. They were a hit!
I'm happy to say that Sugar Moon Brownies are proving very popular already, even though it's early days...one recipient of a birthday gift pack (the 'taster' option, which offers 3 random flavours to try) posted this wonderful montage on her Twitter feed...

 It made me very proud...& thrilled that she enjoyed them so much!

As it's been so hot here in the UK, I thought I'd show you how delicious a brownie can be, even on a sultry day...

 ...this was a Toasted Pecan, slightly warm...with clotted cream ice cream & homemade caramel sauce....who could resist that?!

I wonder whether you might like a glimpse of the kitchen where I bake these delights? Many people assume that I use our kitchen at home. This would be virtually impossible! I bake so many trays that my domestic oven, great as it is, would just conk out...

No, this is where it all happens! I am very lucky to be able to rent a beautifully equipped kitchen unit that has everything I could possibly need, including storage for my essentials...including the chocolate that I use in vast quantities (it comes in 25kg sacks!)

 This is the view...farmland...& LOTS of rabbits!

 Outside is calm & peaceful...red kites nest in these trees...

 The unit is based on a former WW2 airfield...it's a heritage site, and although there are many businesses based here (including a rocket testing facility!) you can still see many fascinating traces of the history of this place...

 Bunkers, mess rooms, even the control tower still stands...

 ghosts everywhere! Recently, a memorial was unveiled to commemorate a US bomber crew who crashed on this site...the pilot bravely diverted to avoid coming down onto a nearby town, and therefore saved many lives. Stories all around me as I work. It makes it even better, I think.

 Plenty of space to fill the trays...(they are made in batches of 4)..

 And a brilliant oven that can hold 16 of them at a time. However, once I have made the 16th I usually find that the first 4 are ready to come out...

 The oven is a Unox BakerLux ...an amazing piece of equipment that injects steam or dry heat...whichever is appropriate for the recipe...

 brownies need dry heat. Then they are cooled, before the worst part of my job....

 putting the lids on the trays! Tedious & wrecks the finger pads. But my hands are terrible looking anyway after 20 years of professional cooking...and the radio eases the boredom!

Then they are labelled with flavour & baking date and stacked for (brief) storage.

So, a glimpse at where it happens!

And now, those giveaway results - apologies that they are a little late due to the market preparations. My approach is very unscientific...I write out all the names on strips of paper, put them in a large mug & pick one out! For the brownie pack, there were only 3 eligible entries....& the winner is ANNE HAMILTON! Anne, if you email your address (or the name & address of your recipient if you would like them sent as a gift, together with any message you would like to include) to me at hello (@) sugarmoonbrownies (dot) co (dot) uk ...(obviously I have doctored the address to prevent spammers!) then I will send out a box of 12 brownies in 3 assorted flavours asap!
The winner of the 2 beautiful books (lots of entries for these...I'm so sorry there's only 1 winner, I will hold another International giveaway soon!) was SYLVIE who is in France! Sylvie, please email me at the same address & let me know yours!

Thanks so much to all who entered and to all who read and enjoyed the posts and left such great comments. They are all very much appreciated!

Until next time.....x

Cookbooks to cherish....Part 2, the vintage selection..

As you probably know if you've been to my website, Sugar Moon Brownies, I come from a long line of bakers...at least back to my 3 x great grandfather. Above is the original auction document, dating from 1880, when my great-great-grandfather Robert Adam Took bought the family bakehouse, shop & restaurant. He had rented it for some years before the sale, so was already established in business. The bakery remained in the family until my grandad decided to change careers in the 1960's and give up the 4am starts...understandable, but I often wish he'd just rented it out again so that our family still owned it! All that history...it had been a bakery right from the 1500s...and still is, of sorts (a well-known chain now..)

I was very close to my grandfather, and I learnt so much from him. Through the years he gave me many of his treasured books and baking equipment...and the rest came to me when he died. He was especially skilled at sugar work (which I am not!) and made his own wedding cake in 1934...

which was probably almost as tall as my tiny grandma! I love to look through the books and paraphernalia that came from him and those before him...they are an insight into another world, and of course they bring him back to me too...

 Can you imagine anyone now making...or paying for...a sugar omnibus?? An amazing piece of history, though...as are these...

 beautiful line drawings of 'fancy ice moulds'....fancy doesn't really start to describe them, by our standards! Both these beauties are contained in this wonderful publication...

one of a series of 6 volumes that I own, they cover every aspect of the subjects...even down to equipping your own bakery and how to price the goods therein!

Grandad loved to collect recipes and wrote many of them down...

 This is from his formal recipe book...he was very neat & meticulous...as you can see, he inscribed it to me the year before he died...

 Remember that these were commercial bakery recipes, hence the huge quantities!

 the book is full of scraps written on envelopes, torn from newspapers and magazines...

 His other notebook is much smaller and scruffier...this was the one at his side in the bakehouse, to refer to and scribble in..

 Stained by age, grease and the heat of the ovens...they are amongst my most prized possessions...

My most special & precious book is very beautiful, even though the binding is showing clearly the fact that it's now 206 years old...

 At the front is a series of very detailed illustrated suggestions for laying out the dessert table...

 a hundred years before 'Downton Abbey'....

 they are an absolute testament to the skill of the cooks and bakers back then...working with rudimentary ovens where the temperature control consisted of moving items further from or closer to the fire...

 and the 'Two Guinea Cake' has mesmerised me from childhood...some poor little kitchenmaid whisking 54 eggs for ten minutes! But still...it's really a historical document now, rather than a cookbook....I am very lucky.

 I have used 'All about Gateaux' many times...it contains great ideas and templates for all sorts of fancy cakes...

 and some brilliant adverts at the back...

 This 1920s beauty is really comprehensive...

 even if I think many of the recipes sound & look rather vile! And I have a good selection of pamphlets and booklets, mainly distributed by various ingredients salesmen...

 Still beautiful, though! The last book I wanted to share with you wasn't my grandfathers, and isn't British at all...although this is the British edition, printed in 1938...

 If you can search out a copy of 'The Country Kitchen'...( you could try here )....you are in for a complete treat..

It's mainly a memoir of growing up in the USA in the countryside of the late 19th century...but there are recipes and some hilarious characters, too. It's beautifully written and utterly charming!

So, that's a little look at some of my vintage gems...I hope you've enjoyed it...there are more but I'll save them for another time! There is still nearly a week left to enter my two giveaways (details in the last post) and to do so just leave me a comment after either that one or this...

The afternoon is beautiful...time to grab a cup of coffee and plan the rest of the week! I hope that yours is wonderful and thanks for reading!

Cookbooks to cherish...Part 1

Because of my job, I have bought an incredible number of cookbooks over the years...in fact, my love of food began so early that I used to spend my pocket money on them, too. I remember the cover of the Penguin edition of the first volume of 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' piquing my interest (I think it was the red of the lobster, alongside a beautiful copper pan full of bright green mange touts!) I still use it...the same copy that I bought, aged 12, for £1.95...my name carefully biroed on the first page in case anyone doubted that it was mine! It set a pattern because even today I gravitate towards cookbooks with lots of written content...in fact some, like Nigel Slater's original 'Fast Food', contain no illustrations at all. I think that some of the choices I've made for this first of a two-part post reflect that...although I didn't realise it when I chose them!

I've decided to post in two halves, because the next part will focus on some of my vintage books...those passed down by my grandfather, who was an award-winning Master Baker...some date back to his grandfather's time...(pictured below outside his shop in 1884)

...and they are beautiful and fascinating, so I thought you'd like me to share them with you. But this time, it's contemporary books. Some of the ones that I turn to time and time again...not always for complete recipes, but for the inspiration they give me..here goes!

First is the newest addition...Honey & Co by Itamar Srulovitch and Sarit Packer...a truly beautiful book, one that I actually (sadly...) walked around hugging when I first got it! I have cooked so many recipes from it already, all to acclaim...including the Cherry, Coconut & Pistachio Cake three times in various guises...

the Pomegranate Molasses Chicken...

which has a meal-in-itself bulgar wheat salad to accompany it...and so many more. The writing, too, is funny and, at times, incredibly moving...I can't recommend it highly enough. If you want a real treat, then do buy it (& visit the restaurant too, if you can...it's a joy!)

Next...

Russell Norman's Polpo ...which was published a couple of years ago and continues to delight me. It is so beautiful & yet practical too...the recipes are eminently 'do-able' and the photography whisks me back to many happy times spent in unforgettable Venice...his love for the city shines from the pages and adds to my own. Also another (group of) restaurants that are fab to visit...

 Susan Hill is an incredible writer in many different genres....'The Woman in Black' is now a classic chiller of course...I really enjoy her 'Simon Serrailler' series of detective novels...and there are so many more (thankfully, she's prolific! Always a good thing in a favourite author...) Her countryside books may be less well-known (The Magic Apple Tree, Through the Garden Gate...) and are now very sadly out-of-print...but they are no less wonderful.

'Through the Kitchen Window', with gorgeous paintings by Angela Barrett, is really lovely. A collection of small essays, anecdotes, observations and recipes on subjects from marmalade to rhubarb to quinces...arranged in seasons.

I actually find it hard to choose just one of Nigella's books...or Yotam & Sami's ....all three ('Ottolenghi', 'Plenty' & 'Jerusalem' with a new one - 'Plenty More' in the offing, yay!) Ottolenghi cookbooks are brilliant and beautiful. Of Nigella Lawson's, I always turn first to the big, wordy ones...'Feast', 'Kitchen' and her first 'How to Eat'...great writing again, accessible recipes, stunning inspiration...

 Vegetarian cookbooks can be a bit 'hit or miss' for me...I need big flavours and interesting ideas (like those in 'Plenty' mentioned above, which is exclusively veggie) rather than the older style 'whole food' books which used to be the only real choice. Catherine Mason's 'Vegetable Heaven' is perfect...

doesn't that recipe title just make you want to cook and devour?? It's full of all sorts of delights from many cuisines...and has something for wintery days when you want something hot, cheesy & comforting as well as those fresh, zingy meals that you crave in summer. The vibrant ink paintings by Elda Abramson really make the book, too..

And finally...for this post...'Home Cooking'...such a special book. Laurie Colwin died 22 years ago, tragically young...and this, together with the second collection 'More Home Cooking' and her novels, make one mourn her loss all the more. A collection of essays, written so beautifully with humour and sparkle and truth...as well as recipes interspersed throughout. Her voice shines through and makes me so wish that I'd met her. Just a jewel. 'Home Cooking' is available in the UK but my copy is American, as she was.

So...do you want some good news?? I have giveaways! To celebrate the launch of Sugar Moon Brownies I will be sending two blog readers a wonderful gift.

The first (open to UK readers only, I'm afraid) is one box of 12 Sugar Moon Brownies - a tasting box containing 3 flavours which you can choose yourself - sent to any address in the UK. I'll let you know how to let me know what and where after the draw.

I'm so very sorry that I can't offer this giveaway to everyone, everywhere. But the second one is open to all and will be sent anywhere in the world, so I hope that makes up for it! I have a copy of both Susan Hill's 'Through the Kitchen Window' AND Laurie Colwin's 'Home Cooking' (US edition) to give away!

I'm very pleased and excited to offer these lovely prizes!
To enter, please just leave me a comment on this post...if you could indicate your country of residence at the end of the comment (just UK, AUS or whatever) it will enable me to exclude those ineligible from the first draw. But everyone will be included in the second!

The draw will be made in two weeks time...there will be another opportunity to enter by commenting on Part 2 of this post as well...but do be sure to check back on Monday 28th July to see if you've won!

Good luck...and thanks so much for reading!