Colour lovers: Nautical

These are colours of the sea side: Navy blue, the colour of water and the ocean and in combination with coral and white unmistakably nautical. colourlovers

Update from my garden: peas

Today I picked my first peas.

Palmiers

Palmier is a delicate pastry in the shape of a leaf or a butterfly made of puff pastry and sugar. The word is French meaning palm leaf but they are known under other names as well: pig's ears, elephant ears, prussiens or Cœurs de France. And now to the recipe:

PALMIERS

ready-made puff pastry
sugar
ground cinnamon
ground cardamon

Pre-heat the oven to 200° C . Combine the sugar and the spices. Roll out the puff pastry to 4mm thick. Sprinkle about half the sugar mixture onto the pastry and gently roll the rolling pin over the surface to press the sugar in. Turn the pastry over and repeat on the other side with more of the sugar. Now fold the sides in so they meet neatly in the middle. Flatten and sprinkle with a bit more sugar in between folding. Alternatively you could roll the sides up as well.
Cut the folded pastry into 1cm thick slices and place to chill in the fridge for about 15 min. Then take out and arrange on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper leaving enough space between them as they will puff up. Bake for 15 min.

Illustrations

Colour lovers: Wisteria lane

Wisteria has now finished blooming in most areas but this palette is a tribute to the amazing colour and fragrance this plant brings in spring. colourlovers

Raspberry dessert

RASPBERRY PUFF PASTRY DESSERT
This is my version of a mille-feuille (meaning "thousand-leaf" in French) with raspberries and cream. Super easy and so delicious. All you need is:

1 ready-made puff pastry
150ml whipping cream
fresh raspberries
sugar and vanilla essence to taste
icing sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C and cut the puff pastry into squares of equal size so they can be stacked neatly later. Put them on a baking tray with grease proof paper and sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake in the oven until puffed up and slightly brown. Take out and let cool down. In the meantime whip up the cream and add the raspberries, vanilla essence and the sugar. Then layer the dessert starting with the pastry. Add a couple of raspberries on top and dust with icing sugar. Voilà!

Put a smile on my face

David Sykes 'Light breakfast'

Golden raspberries

These golden raspberries were delicious and not very different to their red counterpart in terms of flavour really.