savoury sweet month2

It can be subtle. It can be extreme. The injection of savoury ingredients into typical sweet dishes.

It is not a new trend, but I was intrigued by an article a friend sent to me a few months back. Though no stranger to adding savoury ingredients into my baking – salt to chocolate and caramel, pepper to biscuits and cookies, savoury herbs into sweet pies and slices — I was curious how far I would experiment.

As a conservative baker, I am not a huge experimenter and resolutely adore the classics. I recognise the value of solid, timeless dishes. They are tried and true. They have stood the test of time. They are like the white shirt and blue jeans of the baking wardrobe. But sometimes you want to jazz up your jeans and your plain white shirt. And on those occasions, I am happy to accessorise …. a little.

Since publishing Mélanger, I have created my own solid basic recipes for things like macarons, cakes, breads and the like. My baking interest in the past would always flick from random recipe to random recipe. I would embark on a new baking adventure with an always frenetic enthusiasm to try something new, every single time. But now, with my own basic recipes for classic recipes under my ever conservative tan coloured belt, I am eager to explore subtle twists to ultimately expand my own repertoire.

So this month is a challenge to take some classic recipes and twist them to introduce some unusual flavour combinations – and hopefully combinations that work – without compromising the original style of dish.

There are a few ingredients I am mulling over.  Fingers crossed they work!