My New Kitchen Gadget: Cookie Press and Icing Set

Having an appreciation for food means that I'm an obvious candidate for receiving food-related gifts for Christmas. Last year I got an Avanti cookie press and icing set from my Secret Santa and it has been sitting in my kitchen cupboard until last weekend when I decided to give it a test run.

The set includes a piping gun and a plethora of attachments for piping icing and making different cookie shapes - very swish!



Following the recipe included in the set, I made half a batch of buttery cookie dough which was used to fill the piping gun. Using several different cookie moulds, bits of shapely cookie dough were ejected onto baking paper for baking. This was incredibly fun to do.


The result: perfectly shaped cookies (that are even better dipped in chocolate).

My New Kitchen Gadget: The Blowtorch

The blowtorch. Every kitchen needs one. You can use it to make creme brulee, melt cheese really really quickly... make creme brulee...

The torch came in a set with four little ramekins, so of course I had to make use of them and make creme brulee.

The recipe I used required caster sugar for the crispy top but because we only had white sugar and brown sugar, I did a little experimenting.

So apparently, brown sugar burns quite easily and can actually set alight - oops!

White sugar was much better but took a little while longer to melt and caramelise.

I guess the recipe uses caster sugar for a reason... The creme brulee didn't turn out too bad but the texture wasn't very smooth. Hmm... I guess I just need more practice!