If your summer is anything like mine it’s hectic with most weekends taken up with either visiting or hosting friends and family and just trying to make the most of the very limited weather that we have, so much so that I always seem to get to autumn and realise I’ve been missing an old friend, baking,And there seems to be something so perfect about autumn, as the nights start to get a little darker, the weather cools and the garden is full of pears, apples and blackberries that makes me really want to be in the kitchen mixing something up to pop into the oven.
Bread I must admit is my nemesis but something, which I insist on trying to conquer and with the help of a very good bakery course I am slowly starting to get there. As the constant stream of visitors through summer starts to slow and I chance a slight gap in my diary, bread is the first thing that I want to make. There is nothing more pleasurable or more cathartic than nurturing something all day and then ending with the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread spreading throughout the house, assuming of course that it’s edible!
Whilst the summer chaos dies down the work in the garden to prepare it for winter ramps up and in my book no day spent gardening is complete without tea and cake in the afternoon. Autumn offers such a wonderful abundance of flavours it would be a shame not to make the most of it. Beautiful moist apple cakes bursting with sultanas and spice, squidgy pear and almond, plum or blackberry cake scattered with a crumble style topping and nutty slices.
Whatever your preference, enjoy your return to baking this autumn and the long haul before the bikini body is required to be back on show.
Katy