A New Year begins at the Bakery!

WOW! It seems ages since my last Fudge’s family blog; where to start? So much has happened at home and here at the bakery, which is probably why I’ve not settled down to write this blog sooner…

The bakery had an amazingly busy Christmas, all the changes we made during 2011 to improve our facilities proved worthwhile and the festive period was confirmed to have been a huge success. It was like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory, with all our bakers working like trojans (or oompa-loompas!) to make sure our customers got all the biscuits, Florentines, wafers and straws they wanted.

At home – the Fudge’s family Christmas was just brilliant! The builders left the day the family arrived for Christmas – not a lot of time to get things ship shape.

My lovely friend Christine arrived presents in hand, but instead of a sit down and a jolly good natter, I hiked her up the stairs to help make beds (and have another natter). Now that’s what I call a friend!! For the first time in six months I felt I had a home and not a building site. I could turn the music up loud and run around the house naked!! Okay maybe not with a house full of guests, but it so was nice to feel the house was our own at long last.

My grandson, ‘Big’ Harry, weighed the same as our turkey, a whopping 15½ pounds. We sat them together on the table when the turkey was all dressed up and ready for the oven and took photos (we’ll embarrass him with the evidence in a few years time!) Don’t worry; we made sure the right one went in the oven! This year I cooked the turkey overnight in the Aga’s simmering oven. The result was amazingly juicy and created with so little fuss it meant I could concentrate on the rest of the meal and entertaining my guests.

“Stuff the neck of the turkey with a mixture of breadcrumbs, sausage meat, herbs, onions and cranberries. Pop an orange and onion in the cavity and cover the whole turkey with smoked bacon. Seal inside a roasting bag to help keep in the flavour and juices!! Ta dah!!”

As always it was a very relaxed day, the grandchildren were impeccably behaved. Isobel, 2 ¾, helped me make mince pies for Father Christmas, it was such a joy. A lot of licking the spoon went on, but she did a brilliant job. We made enough to offer everyone a morsel and had four left over for Father Christmas. It was very special to watch her put her stocking (made by her mummy, Sarah) by the fireplace and carefully place her carrot for Rudolf and the four mince pies together on the plate. It’s memories such as these I’ll always treasure.

Well, now that I’m lucky enough to have a new kitchen and garden room I’m catching up on entertaining. We hosted New Year’s Eve and had friends over for supper. My favourite starter is Leslie Walters’ recipe for ‘Salted and Black Pepper Pears’, roasted in the oven. I served them on a bed of mixed herb lettuce with Woolsery Goat’s Cheese Fiesta Feta (you can use Greek) which I marinated in olive oil along with bruised sage leaves and garlic cloves (another Leslie recipe). I served them with Fudges Cheese and Black Pepper Flatbreads. Delicious and so simple.

All attention is now on Easter at the bakery; we’ve already started to make our yummy, spicy, buttery Easter Biscuits. These traditionally over-sized biscuits were originated (as all good food does) in the West Country and given to guests on Easter Sunday. Make sure you start looking out for them in store or online. We are very excited to have lots of our customers making big orders already!

Our Florentines, chocolate-dipped biscuits and flapjacks make a great alternative gift for your friends and family at Easter. All are crafted by hand, with extra special care to make sure they are properly coated in as much Belgian chocolate as possible!

Plans are coming together for the year ahead; keep up to date with all our news, information and chances to win goodies by signing up for our newsletter. Or for a lovely journal that’s packed with great ideas of places to visit and things to see and do with your family and friends, delivered direct to your inbox, just visit our website. Why not curl up by the fire, with a cup of steaming hot chocolate and dunk your favourite Fudges biscuit into it? I like Milk Choc Chip, mmmmm – very naughty, but gorgeous! Don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook and “follow” us on Twitter too.

I always like to have to have a project on the go and it’s the garden that is the priority as we near spring. My Niece Becky is getting married in our local church and has asked to have the reception at our house. Just the thing to keep me busy, I have until September to make the garden beautiful. She has requested “Sunflowers everywhere”. I’ll keep you updated with progress and share all the news from Fudges Bakery and family again soon!

Sue x

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