Honesty and emotion on Lena Dunham's Girls and the much-needed comfort of cookies

I've been a fan of the TV series Girls from the very beginning. There have been many moments when Lena Dunham's (sometimes brutally) honest depiction of just how self-absorbed and unaware young women can be struck a chord and made me realise how much I've grown up since my early twenties.

I haven't enjoyed this latest series as much. Or at least I wasn't enjoying it until I watched episode 5.

{SPOILER ALERT}
This is the episode when Hannah returns to New York to find that her boyfriend Adam has moved in with another girl, that she has been replaced in his heart and that his life has moved on without her in it. She reacts in typically over-dramatic Hannah fashion (although, to be fair, I think we'd all be just as dramatic if we discovered that our boyfriend was living with someone else and hadn't bothered to tell us that our relationship was over).

This episode culminates with Hannah and Adam having a heartfelt conversation where they discuss their past relationship and where they now stand with each other in a very open and rational way. They talk about what they had and how it's gone and how they both need to leave it behind and move on to something new - although Adam is obviously more ready to do this than Hannah is.
This entire conversation felt so real to me (though it must be acknowledged that life rarely affords us the opportunity to say exactly what we feel and think at exactly the right time as it does on TV). It touched upon the sadness we all feel when letting go of something that was special; how difficult it is to recognise when the moment is right for us to do this; the loss and heartbreak we feel when someone is no longer a part of our lives; and yet how vital it is that we make that break and move on to better and happier times.

These feelings lived on in me long after I finished watching the show and I needed the comfort of cookies. So I made these almond and ginger cookies.

They're adapted from a Lilly Higgins recipe. (She's a Cork lady and a great baker.)

Makes 10 regular sized cookies
50g olive oil
60g light muscovado sugar
75g almond butter
100g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bread soda
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
40g ginger nuts (stem ginger)*, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons of the syrup from the stem ginger
40g almonds, roughly chopped
30g sesame seeds 

• Preheat the oven to 180 C/350F.
• Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
• Mix the olive oil, sugar, almond butter, flour, soda and ginger in a bowl until well combined.
• Add the chopped ginger nuts, syrup and chopped almonds and mix again.
• Roll teaspoons of the dough into balls and then roll the balls in the sesame seeds until they are coated.  
• Place on the baking tray and flatten slightly. (These cookies don't spread out much while baking.)
• Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Allow to cool on the tray and then dig in.

Episode six of Girls shows in Ireland tonight and I've only got one cookie left. Perhaps I need to get baking?

*Some of you have expressed confusion about ginger nuts/stem ginger. They are pictured on the spoon in the photo above and are essentially preserved, candied ginger bottled in a sweet syrup. You'll find them for sale in an increasing number of supermarkets but I often find mine in Middle Eastern stores (where they are cheaper too). 

Cake banishes all woes

Life has been difficult lately. Like many others here in Ireland, my boyfriend and I have started to worry about money. Our incomes have fallen as prices have risen and we can't help but feel anxious about paying our ever escalating bills.

It's hard to stay positive when faced with money worries. It's hard to stay open to the many possibilities of life when you're focussing on how you're going to pay the mortgage...

There's one thing that always helps me when I find myself overwhelmed by worry, one thing that can always be relied upon to banish all anxious thoughts and instantly make me feel better.

Can you guess that that one thing is? If you know me at all, you are sure to guess correctly. It simply has to be cake.

I found the recipe for these 'Summer Bakewells' in this week's Sunday Times Style section. Created by London's wonderfully-named Lily Vanilli, their sweet citrus-infused pastry, melt-in-the-mouth frangipane and smoooth vanilla buttercream instantly banished all thoughts of woe.

Here are the ingredients and instructions for making 12 of these lovelies. (Don't be put off by how long the list looks: these are actually easy to make.)

For the pastry:
250g flour, plus extra for dusting
50g icing sugar
125g cold butter, cut into cubes
1 large egg, beaten
Zest of 1 orange
A splash of milk

For the coulis:
200g frozen mixed berries
50g caster sugar
50ml water

For the frangipane:
85g unsalted butter at room temperature
85g golden caster sugar
85g ground almonds
Zest of 1 oraange
1 egg

For the vanilla buttercream:
55g unsalted butter at room temperature
250 icing sugar
4 tbsp ground almonds
125ml double cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Toasted flaked almonds and berries to decorate

Make the pastry. I made mine in a food processor, combining the sugar and the flour, whizzing in the butter, adding the egg and the zest and then the milk until I had a dough. If you don't have a food processor, all you have to do is sieve the flour and sugar into a bowl and rub in the butter until you get a fine, crumb-like mixture. Add the egg, zest and milk and work it into a ball.

Flour the ball lightly. Wrap it in clingfilm and refridgerate for 30 mins.

Make the coulis by placing the fruit, sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed pan. Bring it to the boil, stirring continously. Reduce the heat and simmer until it has thickened. Leave to cool.

Make the frangipane by beating all of the ingredients together until they are smooth. Spoon into a piping bag. (Don't worry if you don't have one. You can also use a spoon.)

Make the buttercream by beating the butter for 5 mins. Add the sugar, ground almonds and half the cream and beat slowly until incorporated. Add the rest of the cream graduallly and finally add the vanilla extract to taste. Beat well for 3 mins or so or until smooth and light.

Heat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5/370F.

Roll out the pastry and cut into rounds to fit a cupcake pan. Press into place. (As you can see, my attempt was a bit of a patchwork affair.)

Spoon in some coulis.

Pipe in the frangipane (spoon it in if you don't have a piping bag).

Top with flaked almonds and bake for 25 to 30 mins.

Allow to cool then pipe with the buttercream and top with the berry of your choice.

Regulars at Dingle Farmers' Market: I'll be tweaking this recipe a little and these cakes will be making an appearance on my stall. This means that you too will be able to banish your woes while indulging in decadent cakes!

Foodie friends come bearing fresh almonds and figs

Don't you love having friends who are foodie? Friends who know how much you you enjoy food and who sometimes surprise you with delicious treats.
Some of those very friends recently called by bearing fresh figs and almonds. 'Yum' was my first thought followed immediately by: 'now what can I do with them?'



I flicked through some cookery books and found the perfect recipe in Jamie's Italy: a sweetly aromatic fig and almond tart.

Don't be put off by the amount of ingredients in this tart or the amount of time it takes to make. It's not actually that complicated. It's just that it some stages take time. The pastry needs to spend time in both the fridge and the freezer. The pie needs at least half an hour in the oven. But it's not as though you'll be slaving away all that time. Nope. If you're anything like me, you'll be reading the paper, reading a book or catching up with 'Come Dine with Me' on the TV.

Ingredients:
15 whole figs, washed
30g caster sugar
2 tbsp water
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
zest of one orange

For the shortcrust pastry:
125g butter
100g icing sugar
a small pinch of salt
255g plain flour
Zest of half a lemon
2 larg egg yolks
2 tbsp cold milk or water

For the frangipane: 285g blanched whole almonds
55g plain flour
255g unsalted butter
255g caster sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 vanilla pod
1 tbsp grappa

(I didn't have any grappa so I left it out)









1. Grease a 28cm tart tin with a little of the butter.

2. Make the pastry by creaming together the butter, icing sugar and salt. Then rub in the flour, lemon zest and egg yolks. You can do this by hand or in a food processor.

3. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold milk or water. Pat and gently work the mixture together until you have a ball of dough and then flour it lightly. Don't work it too much or it will lose its lovely flakiness. Wrap it in clingfilm and place it in the fridge for at least an hour.

4. To make the frangipane, blitz 255g of the whole almonds in a food processor until you have a fine powder and transfer to a bowl along with the flour. Next, blitz the butter and sugar until it is light and creamy. Add to the almonds along with the lightly beaten eggs, the seeds from the vanilla pod and the grappa (if using). Fold this mixture until it is completely mixed and smooth. Place in the fridge for at least a half hour to firm up.

5. Remove the pastry from the fridge. Roll it out and line your tart tin. Place in the freezer for another hour.

6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake the pastry case for 12 mins or until it is lightly golden. Remove from the oven and turn the heat down to 170 degrees.

7. Remove the stems from the figs and cut them in half.

8. Spoon the chilled frangipane mixture into the pastry case, then lightly push the figs into the frangipane.

9. Heat the sugar with the water and drizzle the syrup over the figs.

10. Roughly chop the remaining almonds and sprinkle over the top along with the leaves from the thyme sprigs and the orange zest.

11. Bake in the oven for about 40 mins or until the mixture has become firm and golden on the outside but is still soft in the middle.

12. Allow to cool for about 30 mins.

If you can bear to wait, this tart is actually much better the following day but if you can't resist, it's delicious with some mascarpone cheese and a dusting of cinnamon. It really brings out the flavour.