I have been eating a lot more homemade baked goods lately. I think I can call this the lockdown effect.
There were the chocolate chip and sea salt cookies, the banana bread (just like everybody else), more cookies, amazing cinnamon rolls with mascarpone cheese icing (E. baked them and I created the icing), financiers made with buckwheat, almond, ginger and honey, buckwheat chocolate mini muffins (both financiers and mini muffins made by E. too), New York bagels, a marvellous lemon cake from a french radio program (thanks to my lovely cousin C. for sharing it) and then, there was the delicious baked ricotta cheesecake. So good that I am sharing the recipe here today (if you don't mind a small story before scrolling down to the recipe). 

Welcome to a very original blog post where I am going to share with you a very unique and original recipe: banana bread.
Ha! Yes, yes, this is a joke, obviously. But I am not joking about the part where I am sharing a recipe for it. This banana bread is also made with delicious dates and roasted hazelnuts. 
I made this recipe before going on holidays (staycation) and since then, a flurry of more banana bread recipes have shown up on the internet.
​There are plenty of other delicious recipes on this blog. If you like one but don't have all the ingredients at home right now, reach out in the comments and I can try and help you with ideas for swapping to something else.

Do you know what would be great to have on Christmas morning? A big slice of hazelnut praline challah bread with a cup of tea or coffee before getting organised to cook the day's feast.
Something delicious that can be made ahead and enjoyed before tackling a big list of food preparation tasks? I am all for it.

It’s blackberry and hazelnut madeleines season! Well, it’s really just blackberry season but think about all the delicious things you can make with this delicious berry: jams, desserts, fruit salads, savoury sauces, etc. I have shared a few recipes using this wonderful fruit on the blog before such as this blackberry fruit salad or this blackberry and almond chantilly roulade.

​I cannot remember the last time I baked a whole cake. At least, I don’t think I have made one since I moved to Belfast. I definitely bake less during summer time and tend to privilege fruit salads, ice creams and sorbets for dessert. But I do like the scent of summer fruit cooking and bubbling in a crumble or clafoutis such as this cherry and dark chocolate one or this version with raspberries and white chocolate. 

​My fruit bowl on the kitchen counter has seen a serious rotation of raspberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, blueberries and strawberries over the summer. They have been mostly eaten as they are and sometimes added to a weekend smoothie with frozen bananas, almond milk or coconut water. But lately, I found myself wanting to bake a few things. It could be a combination of the weather cooling down and wanting to take advantage of all the wonderful produce before summer fruit season ends.

​In everyday cooking, I use a lot of my own recipes or ones that I know by heart and can make without opening a book or checking out the steps on the internet. And when making recipes I have shared here over the years, my favourite thing is to see if I can improve them a bit.
For example, I have tweaked the recipe for chocolate and hazelnut brownies many times until it reached the perfect texture and taste I wanted. This was actually one of the first recipes I shared on the blog nearly seven years ago.