Challenges

I promised myself I would not knit anything new until I had finished my Titanic Sweater.  But - broken promise - I just had to cast on some beautiful Manos yarn and challenge myself to knit a short sleeved sweater in a week.

I failed at that too.  Although it's nearly finished, I just need to decide how I am going to finish off the neck but I got diverted by the Twitter Food Challenge.

This is not a national sport, nor even some new twitter hash tag but something between friends.  On Sunday when my friend Lizzie Speller tweeted...

@TheFlowerFarmer @Bosleypatch We need to ask @cehopkins2. When in Greece she has proved herself to be ice cream inventor to the gods.

I had to find out what they were talking about and respond, they were talking about  BAKLAVA FLAVOURED ICE CREAM true food of the Gods if there ever was such a thing

Now The Flower Farmer and Bosley Patch are wizard gardeners and usually have better, horticultural things to chat about but  Lizzie and I often tweet about food.  Perhaps this is because we spend a fair amount of our time trying to avoid it when hoping to fit into THAT DRESS.  But Lizzie and I also spend a couple of weeks in Greece every year, and while we are there we eat a lot of baklava (Lizzie also eats what she calls tiny apple turnovers too but that is another thing).

And drink iced coffee (why does cold instant coffee with lots of sugar and milk froth taste good on holiday but wouldn't pass ones lips at any other time?)  Once I made ice cream with oranges from Lizzie's garden, plus eggs, sugar and Greek yogurt.  So I suppose I could make baklava flavoured ice cream.

THE (approximate) RECIPE

• Chop a couple of handfuls of walnuts or pecans add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and toss in melted butter and honey till slightly caramelised.  Leave to cool
• Whisk two whole eggs and the rest of half a jar of honey (what's left from caramelising  the nuts) in a bowl over simmering water until it becomes a thick foam.  Leave to cool
• Beat about a cup of double cream till thick and stir in a cup of full fat Greek yogurt
• fold all the ingredients in together (keeping back a small amount of the chopped nuts).  Taste, it should be sweeter than you think necessary as some of the sweetness goes when the ice cream is frozen
• Freeze - turning over a few times with a fork to stop crystals forming - eat while still soft set.
• Meanwhile make filo baklava wafers.  
• Lay out two sheets of filo pastry and brush with some of the butter and honey mixture left from caramelising the nuts.  
• Cut each sheet into two lengthwise and place a small scattering of the nuts on one end.  Fold up like samosas into triangular parcels, makes 4
• cook at 200 deg C for 5-10 mins (just watch till they are nicely browned)
• cool and cut each triangle in two

EAT AND ENJOY

xx

c

PS - This led to a small twitter debate.  Who can lay claim to the recipe?  The one who had the idea or the one who made it work (Daedalus or the Wright brothers).  What do you think?