Let’s just skip over the fact it has been nearly three years since I last posted on here, and straight into why everyone should have a good standard brioche recipe in their arsenal. This brioche loaf is absolutely delicious cut into slices with bread and jam. This is also my go to brioche dough for when I want to make baked donuts and French toast – I will get onto drafting up these recipes right now, so it won’t be another 3 years Babka Ingredients 300g Bread Flour 2g Salt 25g Sugar 80g Milk, warm 7g Dried Yeast 2 Eggs 75g Butter, room temperature Directions Grease a loaf tin and set asid ..read more

Wow, 2020, what a year. I actually can’t believe how much has happened this year. Everyone has been through the absolute wringer with the Coronavirus pandemic, and we have finally made it to the end of December. Where do I even start with this year. January, holidaying in New Zealand, visiting family and friends, having a panic attack when my flatmate back in London kicked me out, paramedics being called. A good time if I do say so myself. I joke, the beginning of the year was an absolute blast. I moved into a flat of my own in Croydon (don’t judge, I loved it), and decorated to my heart’s (an ..read more

Wow, 2020, what a year. I actually can’t believe how much has happened this year. Everyone has been through the absolute wringer with the Coronavirus pandemic, and we have finally made it to the end of December. Where do I even start with this year. January, holidaying in New Zealand, visiting family and friends, having a panic attack when my flatmate back in London kicked me out, paramedics being called. A good time if I do say so myself. I joke, the beginning of the year was an absolute blast. I moved into a flat of my own in Croydon (don’t judge, I loved it), and decorated to my heart’s (an ..read more

Hey everyone, what a week it has been. It is getting closer to deportation day as the end date of my visa comes ever so closer. A week filled with anxiety, stress, and a roller coaster of emotions. The to-do list for the next 4 weeks seems daunting. If having a flat to sort out, a job to leave and a future to plan isn’t enough, the NZ government has just barred all bookings on flights into the country. So who knows if I can actually get home! “Operation: Don’t become an overstayer” has commenced! I had a conversation with work about the possibility of working remotely from back home, but the l ..read more

Another week of hot Summer weather has flown by, and on the quest to get on track with this Summer body, my partner and I have been trying to cut down how much meat we have and move to a more vegetarian/plant-based diet. I for one, am an absolute lover of tofu and tempeh. But that is definitely a love that my partner does not share. I have managed to get him to fall in love with my veggie burgers though. I have definitely had my fair share of both homemade and bought vegetarian patties that have tasted like I have taken a cereal box and bit right into the cardboard. Thankfully, I think I have ..read more

Hey everyone! I hope your week has been a good one. Also, jealous if you aren’t in lockdown. The sun has broken through over here in the UK, and for the 27th year in a row I have packed on the pounds right before Summer. I have a viable excuse now though, I’m experiencing Summer at the time I would be normally in Winter. The problems of living in the northern hemisphere when you come from the southern. Saying that, talking to my parents the other day, I am much happier in the 25ºC weather instead of their frosty 1ºC. Thankfully I will be going from Summer to Summer when I go back to New Zealan ..read more

Hey everyone, So I know that it has been quite a while since I last posted and I had disappeared for a bit. This was totally unplanned. The UK is still in lockdown and I have been taking the time to really focus on mental health and life in general. By “taking the time”, I mean I had a week of breakdowns and got cabin fever. I definitely think everyone should be putting their mental health first during these times. Thankfully I have been able to continue working from home and haven’t been laid off. This has made me realise that 1) I really don’t like my job! and 2) August, and the subsequent e ..read more

Hey everyone, so I know that there wasn’t a post last week and I wish I had an explanation for that, but to be honest I was lazy and put it off, put it off and put it off some longer and now here we are! Procrastination is seriously a massive issue of mine that I need to work on. But what better excuse is there to procrastinate than lockdown? Well, I am actually still working from home but that isn’t going great either. Sitting in lockdown the other day got my mind wandering and out of nowhere the cravings started to come. I don’t know about you, but ham isn’t something I eat often so I am uns ..read more

So, hands up, I admit that this post was meant to go up on Thursday and it is now Saturday night, and I’m two glasses of wine in. I could say this is late up due to having a large workload, which is true, but we both know that I am not very good at this “working from home” situation. I was thinking the other day back to when I worked at a restaurant in Wellington. I used to make this bread and butter pudding, with caramelised poached pears, and I remembered how bloody good those poached pears where. I have also been semi into loaves recently, so thought “why not put them together”. The result ..read more

Lockdown Week? Day? I have honestly lost track of how long we have been in lockdown for, but it has just been extended for another 3 weeks, potentially until June. My waistline is not going to like this. My partner and I were on a good track with keeping our fitness up at the start of lockdown, but that has slowly decreased as time goes on, and our stomachs have slowly increased due to all the baking I have been doing. My lovely Partner has a massive sweet-tooth, and a love of cookies, so I had the great idea to make a large batch of cookie dough, roll out the cookies, and then freeze them. Th ..read more