LEON book 3: Baking & Puddings
by Claire Ptak and Henry Dimbleby

Bet you thought I’d forgotten this challenge, huh? It was never really forgotten, but I have completely failed for too long to make time for it. However, in celebration of Easter I thought I’d do a little baking.

This is actually one of the books that inspired the challenge, because about a year ago we bought a set of three gorgeous LEON cookbooks, which we pored over all the time but didn’t use.

Well, in the past couple of months I have used the third book in the set, this one on baking, three times. I have made cranberry and oat cookies, honey bread and simnel cake. I seem to keep picking recipes that include lots of awkward ingredients and adapting them quite a lot to fit what I have available or can buy from the corner shop, but all three experiments have been successful. Possibly not great looking (I figure that’s a skill I’d develop if I baked more often than once a month) but definitely tasty.

The books are artistically beautiful, with quite a lot of frontis material on baking techniques or ingredient groups. Most recipes are prefaced with a brief story about their origin, with several staff of the LEON restaurant chain featured heavily. Seeing as it’s their healthy fast food that initially attracted us, I shall have to crack open the main meals book at some point.