You need to make these biscuits.
They are melt in the mouth delicious (literally). Continue reading
Star-Topped Christmas Chocolate Biscuits
biscuits
Delicious Homemade Gifts
If you’re not sure that you want to go out and buy gifts for everyone this year, why not make them instead?
Something homemade is perfect to give to a host of a party, have your children make for friends or their teacher, or even to give to everyone in your family on the big day. And after all, who doesn’t love a gift they can eat?
Christmas Gift Guide – Food & Drink
Welcome to my fifth and final gift guide and I think I might have saved the best until last!
I’ve already shared my gift guides for people who love hosting parties, for those looking to make some eco-friendly changes in their lives, for those who love to cook or experiment in the kitchen and for those who love to travel. So if you haven’t seen those, and think they might be perfect for someone you know, then click on the links to take a look!
As I said in my last guide, for me, Christmas is not about the gifts. However, sometimes you do want to get somebody a special something, or perhaps you need to (like for Secret Santa or a December birthday), so I thought I would put together some little lists for inspiration. I find other people’s lists and recommendations so useful and even if I don’t purchase anything from them, they often give me an idea for something I hadn’t thought of before. Continue reading
Mint Chocolate Biscuit Bites
Mint and dark chocolate has to be one of my favourite flavour combinations.
Plus, peppermint and chocolate is everyone’s Christmas favourite, right?!
I love to buy chocolate mint creams all year round, but I feel like in December I just doubly love to have them in the house. They make me feel all festive. This recipe came about because I wanted to make my own mint creams, but then I got cravings for tiffin and rocky road, which are pretty biscuit-y, so I thought why not combine them (but in a much simpler way)? Continue reading
Melting Zesty Fork Biscuits
These biscuits are the cutest little things.
Christmas Spiced Biscuits
‘Death by Triple Chocolate’ Graveyard Sundaes
Happy almost Halloween everyone.
Peruvian Desserts – Lúcuma
Lúcuma.
Some of you might say “That’s not a dessert”, or even “What the hell is lúcuma?”, but I assure you that this is the main ingredient in some of the tastiest desserts here in Peru. So, yes, technically not a dessert in itself, but a major player in the dessert arena, and I could not make a list of Peruvian desserts without it.
Lúcuma is a fruit native to Peru and I have not noticed it to be eaten commonly as a raw fruit. It has quite a burnt taste about it, but when mixed with ingredients for ice creams or mousses, it lends a caramel note to the dish, which is just beautiful. The colour is a deep yellowy-orange, not that far removed from an egg yolk or a sweet potato perhaps. Which is a coincidence because a sweet potato also gives a sweet, caramel flavour to dishes when cooked. When sliced in half, the lúcuma looks like an orange avocado, due to its green skin and large brown seed in the middle.
The fruit is most commonly used mixed with dairy ingredients to make ice cream, smoothies and mousses, and it also partners very well with chocolate.
Where would I recommend in Lima to eat a lúcuma dessert?
Peruvian Desserts – Alfajores
Alfajores come in different forms in different parts of the world. Here in Peru they are most easily described as a sandwich biscuit, however they are so much more than that.
Two layers of plain biscuit filled with manjar blanco (as a norm), and then dusted with a fine layer of icing sugar. They are normally bitesize, so you can eat about 20 before you start to feel like maybe you shouldn’t have! I say normally, because they actually come in many different sizes, from a mere mouthful to a cake-sized sharing alfajor.
The biscuit is from a simple recipe made with a wheat flour alongside butter/fat and baking powder. I would describe it as a less rich shortbread, but neither as sweet or as buttery. This recipe does change to allow for a variety in alfajores. For example, the recipe alters when maicena (cornflour UK/corn starch US) is used in place of wheat flour, or when cocoa powder is added for a chocolate biscuit.
The recipe is also changed to make way for honey to fill the alfajor instead of manager blanco. These little guys are quite different from their manjar blanco brothers, and you will find that people often have a preference for one or the other.
Alfajores are perfect when you just need a mouthful of something sweet. Perhaps to serve alongside a cup of tea, or as an end to a meal. They are the perfect little ‘bocadito’.
Where would I recommend in Lima to eat alfajores?
This is a small chain with little shops and stalls through Lima – with a couple in other provinces. They are exactly what their name suggests and serve alfajores in a variety of flavours and sizes. I love their little box of 10 wheat alfajores, or their boxes of 8 maicena alfajores rolled in coconut (see picture above). They also sell ‘make-your-own’ packs (these are comprised of little biscuits, manjar blanco and icing sugar), which make for great souvenirs or gifts. As do their pots flavoured manjar blanco, ranging from the classic manjar to the flavours of lúcuma or coffee.
There are many stores throughout Lima. Check here for addresses and maps!
I love this little cafe in the neighbourhood of Monterrico, and they serve the best alfajores de miel (honey alfajores). They’re about the same size as a regular alfajor, but they have these little holes in each of the 3 thin layers of biscuit and in between these layers you find the sweet, sticky honey. 
It’s not a runny honey (could you imagine how messy that would be!), but instead a thick, syrupy honey that adheres the biscuits together. These are delightful, and the fact that the biscuits are not sugary means that the overall level of sweetness is just perfect.
Calle Torre Tagle 249, Miraflores
Av. El Polo 297, Santiago de Surco
What about outside of Lima….?
We need to go very far afield for this one and back to my homeland. Lima in London was started by the Peruvian chef Virgilio Martinez, who also owns the extremely successful restaurant here in Lima, Central. I was lucky enough to go to Lima when I was last home, and try their Sunday Lunch menu. The dessert came as a trio, and one of these samplings was an alfajor. I have honestly never tasted an alfajor quite like it. The biscuit quite literally melted in my mouth, and actually was much more similar to a shortbread than the ones here in Peru. It was as light as a feather and so delicate, but there was enough of the biscuit to not be overpowered by the manjar blanco. Absolutely beautiful.
31 Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia, London, W1T 1JH
The Little Edition 