Make the perfect pavlova every time with this easy pavlova recipe with step-by-step photos. Tips on how to make a pavlova with a crisp meringue shell and soft and chewy marshmallow centre. Australian Pavlova There is nothing which reminds me more of Australia than a classic pavlova. This was something I grew up eating at parties and celebrations, and a backyard BBQ was never complete without a pavlova dessert standing proud and tall
A delicious Lychee & Pomegranate Pavlova which would be perfect to celebrate the Lunar New Year or any celebration. Recipe with step-by-step photos. Flower Pavlova With the Lunar New Year around the corner, I’m always thinking of creative ways to serve dessert. First and foremost, fresh fruit is usually the dessert of choice in many Asian households. Alternatively, there is an array of sweet Asian desserts which, unless you have grown up eating
A stunning Christmas Pavlova Wreath for the festive season! Recipe with step-by-step photos. Pavlova Wreath If you are a regular here on my blog, you may have noticed several pavlova recipes. They are possibly my favourite dessert to make because they are so easy to prepare, you can make them ahead of time, there are a million ways to decorate them, and they always taste delicious.
This Cardamom Babka Wreath is a stunning centrepiece for Christmas brunch, or any time of the year! Recipe with step-by-step photos. Cardamom Babka Wreath If you’re looking for the perfect centrepiece for Christmas brunch, may I suggest this Cardamom Babka Wreath? This beautifully-braided bread, heady with freshly-ground cardamom, will fill your home with the most wonderful scent as it bakes, perfect for getting everyone into the mood for a day filled with festive
Fun and delicious Grittibänz, traditional sweet buns which are eaten at Christmas in Switzerland. A great recipe to make with the kids. Follow my delicious Grittibänz recipe with step-by-step photos. Christmas in Switzerland As soon as the Grittibänz start appearing in the bakeries and supermarkets here in Zurich, my children get very excited because, for them, it is a sign that Christmas is around the corner. Gingerbread Men are not exactly common here
Kugelhopf recipe with step-by-step photos. A kugelhopf is a yeasted bread, similar to a French brioche, which is perfect at breakfast or morning tea. Make this kugelhopf plain, with raisins or other dried fruits. What is a Kugelhopf? A kugelhopf is a yeasted bread which has been baked in a special mold, and it is typically served at breakfast in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The taste and texture of a kugelhopf is quite similar
Make the best Crispy Roast Potatoes with the following tips and tricks. Recipe with step-by-step photos. The Best Roast Potatoes For me, the best side dish would have to be a generous serving of roast potatoes. Whether I am making a Roast Chicken, Duck Confit, or even just plain grilled sausages, roast potatoes just makes the meal a bit extra special.
A spectacular and easy Yule Log (Bûche de Noël) to make at Christmas time. Tips to make a gluten-free Chocolate Yule Log Cake. Recipe with step-by-step photos. Yule Log My family in Switzerland has always celebrated Christmas with a Yule Log (or Buche de Noel), and when I realised that it was essentially a Swiss Roll rearranged to look like a log, I thought it was worthwhile trying to make my own one
No party is complete without a batch of sausage rolls, and these classic Pork & Sage Sausage Rolls will be a hit with your friends and family! Sausage Rolls As an Aussie, sausage rolls have been in my food memory for as long as I can remember. My parents ran a busy suburban bakery throughout my childhood, and I can still remember the sight and smell of the gigantic tray of freshly-baked sausage
Everyone will love these adorable chocolate Reindeer Cookies at Christmas. Christmas Baking As someone who painfully lacks culinary artistic skills, I have been having a lot of fun in the kitchen lately making novelty cookies, like the Peanut Butter Spider Cookies which were a big hit at Halloween. It is worlds away from making something spectacular like a pristine-looking fondant covered cake with beautifully piped buttercream roses, but I have accepted long ago
A Chocolate Gingerbread Bundt Cake for the festive season. Christmas Tree Bundt Pan In between all of the preparations for Christmas Day, not to mention the last minute shopping and gift-wrapping, I snuck in some time to use my Christmas tree bundt pan once more this year, thus making me feel a tiny bit more justified in purchasing this seasonal piece of kitchenware.
Gingerbread Sablé Cookies, a Christmas twist on a traditional French butter cookie. Tips for using cookie stamps and embossed rolling pins. Sablé Cookies It’s that time of the year again to get out the Christmas cookie cutters and, this year, I’m having much fun with my newfound cookie stamps and cookie moulds. I love the old-fashioned Swiss-style Christmas cookies, and I thought it would be fun to replicate them using a favourite family recipe.
Delicious homemade French Cookies with Chocolate, also called Pétit Beurre or Pétit Écolier. Pétit Beurre and Pétit Écolier As a child visiting my family in France and Switzerland, I always loved snacking on Petit Beurre cookies, especially those made by the French brand, Lu, and especially the ones which came with a bar of chocolate on top, called Petit écolier.
How to make the perfect Beef Wellington. Beef filet mignon coated in mustard and wrapped in a mushroom duxelles, prosciutto and puff pastry. Served with a delicious Green Peppercorn Sauce. Beef Wellington If you are looking for a show-stopping recipe which will wow your family and friends at your next dinner party, look no further than this Beef Wellington with Green Peppercorn Sauce.
Easy gingerbread man cookies with step-by-step photos, including tips for making a gingerbread man garland. These gingerbread cookies are perfect to give as gifts or to decorate around your home! Gingerbread Man Cookies For me, no Christmas is complete without at least one batch of gingerbread man cookies. I say “one batch” but what I really mean is “one baking session” with maybe a triple batch! As a child growing up in Australia,
These fudgy and chewy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are a delicious treat at Christmas! Christmas Cookies We bake a lot of cookies in the lead up to Christmas, and whilst we tend to recreate old favourites like Gingerbread Sablé or Swiss Walnut Christmas Cookies for the sake of tradition, I always try to sneak in a few new recipes to keep things fresh and exciting. My Reindeer Cookies have proven to be quite popular already,
A moist and mild Christmas Gingerbread Cake which is easy to make and looks fabulous! Recipe with step-by-step photos. Christmas Tree Bundt Pan I had been holding off on buying a Christmas tree bundt pan for many years, especially after first seeing it on one of Nigella Lawson’s Christmas shows. Why would you buy something which you could only use once a year? Well … why not?!
Make these delicious Aebleskivers (Ebelskivers) or Danish Pancakes which are lightly scented with cardamom. A classic Danish recipe with step-by-step photos. Aebleskivers On a recent trip to Copenhagen, I spent a quiet morning on my lonesome cycling around the city, visiting various kitchenware stores where I filled up my bike basket with fragile Scandinavian-designed teacups, Nordic bundt pans, and chunky crochet dish cloths.
These Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts and Pancetta take only 15 minutes to cook, making it the perfect side dish! Recipe with step-by-step photos. Brussels Sprouts For me, Brussels sprouts is an essential side dish at Christmas. It happens to be an ingredient which is abundantly in season from about autumn and well into the late winter, and I try to cook with it often during this time of the year, although it really
A delicious chocolate pavlova with sweetened chestnut purée. This dessert is the combination of a Chocolate Pavlova and Mont Blanc dessert. Here is an easy chocolate pavlova recipe, plus a homemade chestnut purée recipe. Chestnut Desserts As soon as the weather in Switzerland starts to take a dip, the roasted chestnut carts magically appear and I know that my favourite dessert will soon be in all of the pâtisserie shops. Roasted chestnuts alone
Jamie Oliver’s Get Ahead Gravy is the perfect accompaniment to any roast. Make it ahead of time for maximum flavour with minimum stress! Christmas Gravy When it comes to roast dinners, I think the gravy can make or break the meal. And as someone who needs lashings and lashings of hot gravy with her roast potatoes, I take no chances in this department and always try to make my gravy ahead of time.
A quick and delicious recipe for cranberry sauce using fresh or frozen cranberries. Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson. Homemade Cranberry Sauce No Christmas feast is complete without some cranberry sauce, and considering how easy it is to make cranberry sauce from scratch, I would highly recommend doing so instead of reaching for the shop-bought kind.
Baked Camembert with Honey & Raspberries is a delicious addition to any cheese platter, and perfect as an appetiser for small parties. Easy to prepare with just a few ingredients, with tips on how to cook your camembert to perfectly. Thank you to Baer AG for sponsoring this post. Please note that the content and opinions are my own. Baked Camembert Switzerland is almost synonymous with cheese and, with the vast array of different cheeses produced in
A simple and delicious Celeriac and Chestnut Soup. Christmas is often a time for indulgence, whether it be treating yourself or loved ones to a special gift (or three), or enjoying the festivities with an abundance of good food and maybe too much champagne. After feasting on Duck Confit Parmentier and multiple serves of our favourite Chestnut Cream Pavlova for Christmas lunch, my husband asked for a simple vegetable soup for dinner later
A Chocolate Pavlova with Chestnut Purée, which is perfect at Christmas or any time of the year! An easy chocolate pavlova recipe which is a delicious twist on a Mont Blanc dessert. A great recipe using sweetened chestnut purée. Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas celebration with your friends, family and loved ones. Christmas in our home today started with a leisurely breakfast … until the children
A stunning and delicious Roquefort Cheese Ball to impress your guests! A lovely Aussie friend was recently telling me about her menu plans for Thanksgiving, and my interest was piqued when she mentioned that she would be making a cheese ball for the appetiser. Her cheese ball, if she was still in Australia, would have been comprised of cream cheese with cheddar and good ol’ Coon, sprinkled with curry powder and decorated with fried onions. I was
Gluten-free Chocolate Cinnamon Stars (Zimtsterne) which are perfect at Christmas. Despite the fact that I rarely bake cut-out cookies, I seem to have amassed a large cookie cutter collection over the years. And one person who seems to highly appreciate this part-time hobby of mine, is my little boy.
Merry Christmas everyone! It is a rare occasion for us to celebrate Christmas in Zurich, a rather welcome change as it has given me the opportunity to cook on Christmas Day, something which might prompt fear and dread in most people but has instead filled me with glee as the Christmas season started to approach.
Spice up the Christmas cookie jar with these Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Cookies. I love baking at this time of the year. With the scent of cakes and bakes heady with cinnamon and ginger wafting from the kitchen, you can really start to feel Christmas in the air. And what better way to kick off the festive season than with a batch of homemade gingerbread cookies?
Merry Christmas everyone! Wishing you all a happy holiday season with your families and loved ones. Thank you so much for your support and company this past year on Eat, Little Bird. 2014 looks to be an exciting year ahead and I look forward to sharing more of my favourite recipes and travel tips here on this blog. Eat, drink and save room for Christmas pudding!
My husband and I are delighted to announce the arrival of our first child, a healthy and bouncing little boy, in late November. He has inherited his mother’s love for sleep and eating, except, of course, his mother has been doing little of either in recent weeks 😉 In preparation for his arrival, I had lined up several posts in readiness for publishing on this blog in the coming months, but pregnancy is
Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings to everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful season cooking and baking your Christmas favourites, as well as being inspired by some new recipes.
I have never really been a big fan of Swiss biscuits, Christmas or otherwise. In all fairness, I haven’t really sampled too many because, quite frankly, they are not always the most appealing when lined up next to the fancy American cookies or British biscuits. When presented with the choice between a cookie oozing with morsels of chocolate and a Läckerli, the latter doesn’t stand a chance, despite the fact that Läckerli is derived from the
As soon as the street vendors start setting up their chestnut-roasting stations in Zurich, I know that Christmas is around the corner. I adore these roasted beauties, their sweet and fluffy interior making for the perfect street snack when you need something warm and filling. Sometimes when the air is bitingly cold, a little bag of roasted chestnuts is the perfect excuse to warm your hands while you are waiting for your tram.
If there is one cake which I always look forward to making and eating at Christmas, it would have to be gingerbread. Whether it is gingerbread in the form of beautifully iced and spicy biscuits, or the more sticky and moist sponge cake, I love them all. Anything which is heady with the aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger is something I would be happy to sit down to with a big mug
Easy recipe for White Christmas with Pistachios and Dried Cranberries, perfect for Christmas gifts. White Christmas Recipe If you are a fan of white chocolate, you will love White Christmas. I’m not sure where this recipe originated from and how the name came about, but it is ridiculously easy to make and serves well as a sweet treat throughout the festive season, not to mention that they are great as Christmas gifts too.
In a perfect world, my biscuit tin would be constantly stocked with homemade biscuits and cookies, ready for those moments when I sit down to my afternoon cup of tea or when friends and neighbours drop by unexpectedly. Unfortunately, my full-time job often prevents the opportunity for frequent baking during the week, something which I try to make up for over the weekend. I know that dried cranberries are available throughout the year, but
With Christmas looming around the corner, my thoughts have been turning to holiday baking and the return of seasonal favourites which make their annual (but much anticipated) appearance around this time of year. I always look forward to the first batch of fruit mince pies, which is a rather curious phenomenon for me considering that I am actually not a big fan of fruit mince. In fact, I loathe fruit cakes and traditional Christmas
