Last year there was a day at work where we sat around the common room table and discussed our favourite biscuits, as thrilling as that topic is. My choice was Griffin's Hundreds and Thousands biscuits, which are evocative of fairy bread, another childhood favourite. Maybe it is the childhood association which is making Whittaker's new limited edition Hundreds and Thousands chocolate flavour so popular. I have wanted to try it all week but it has been sold out everywhere. This afternoon I happened to come across a supermarket worker unpacking boxes of the bars, but not to go on the shelf - they were selling too quickly.

The chocolate is not as pink as it looks on the packet. It's white chocolate with biscuit pieces and hundreds and thousands scattered through. It does manage to taste just like the biscuits, but in a concentrated, sweeter form. The best thing about it is probably the texture, melting chocolate with crunchy bits of biscuit and little rocks of coloured sugar.

Whittaker's definitely have the most creative flavour range out of the main supermarket brands. Their kiwifruit chocolate and white chocolate raspberry are other unique offerings - Cadbury's fruit and nut doesn't stand up to these fruit flavours in my view. I hope Cadbury will be inspired to come out with some more creative flavours. Their berry panacotta from their desserts range a couple of years back could do with a return.

Rainy Saturday afternoon following a week-long headache with a 160 page case to read for work on Monday. Fortification in the form of Great Expectations and soup.

Saturday afternoon soup

Following the Revive Cookbook 2 soup template. makes truckloads.

You will need:

• 2 onions
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp panang curry paste
• 4 potatoes
• 3 carrots
• handful kale
• 2 bok choi bulbs
• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 litre chicken stock + 2 cups water
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp honey
• coriander

Directions:

1. crush garlic cloves with side of knife, peel and roughly chop. Add to large pot on top of stove and heat with a splash of oil.
2. peel and dice onions and add to pot.
3. allow onions and garlic to soften for 5 minutes.
4. add curry paste to pot
5. grate carrots, dice potatoes and roughly cut kale and bok choi.
6. add all vegetables and lentils to pot.
7. add liquid and simmer for 45 minutes.
8. add salt and honey, check seasonings.
9. blend if desired.
10. serve with coriander.

Still job searching.

I'm sitting watching House of Cards. I haven't been out today, I have been plagued by a sinus headache. It seems too late in the year for it to be getting cold (still comparing seasons to Dunedin), but it finally is - my beanie isn't just because of my headache for once. I have been pecking at a baguette all day, slathering it with marinated feta. I don't know what's for dinner, haven't got anything out except a packet of defrosting pita breads which could lead me in one of two directions - pizzas with pita breads as the base, or some chickpea concoction. Some days dessert is easier.

Feijoa and Apple Crumble

adapted from Gordon Ramsay's apple crumble, and utilising Alison Holst's infallible crumble topping. Serves 6.

You will need:

• 3-4 granny smith apples, cut into chunks
• 6 feijoas, skins cut roughly off (peeling is such a tax) and cut into thirds
• 6 tbsp white sugar
• pinch cinnamon
• a scattering of dried cranberries (maybe half a cup)
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 3 cloves
• 1/2 cup water

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 75g butter, cubed
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• white chocolate buttons

Directions:

1. Place apples, feijoas, sugar, cinnamon, cranberries, lemon zest and juice along with lemon skins, water and cloves in saucepan and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes.
2. With a slotted spoon, remove apples and feijoas to the dish you will be using to put the pudding into the oven, which you should at this point begin preheating to 180 degrees celsius.
3. Boil the remaining liquid for a couple more minutes then (after removing cloves) pour over the fruit.
4. To make the crumble, measure the dry ingredients except for the rolled oats into a bowl.
5. Rub butter into dry ingredients until incorporated, then mix in oats.
6. Spread crumble topping on top of fruit and stud with white chocolate buttons.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until crumble is golden.

This went down very well with my friends (so much going on - "are there feijoas in here??" "what are the red things?" "is there chocolate in it?"), who I served it to while we watched Game of Thrones. In the interest of complete honesty, I originally tried the crumble topping which was in Gordon Ramsay's recipe in Ultimate Cookery Course which was a total failure of sand like dust. The dish was saved by taking the fruit out of the oven, and putting Alison Holst's crumble on top. Feijoa and apple worked well, and the cranberries added interest. If you don't like tart fruit (granny smiths are my favourite) you might prefer to use a sweeter apple to counteract the also tart feijoas and dried cranberries.

I'm not big on Easter. My family never did egg hunts (I don't even know if they are called egg hunts?) or made coloured eggs or anything like that. I am a fan of hot cross buns, though, if I manage to forget about my time working at a bakery during Easter standing outside the shop yelling "hot cross buns, get your hot cross buns". Having a chocolate hot cross bun, fresh out of the oven, pressed into my hands by a baker for my morning tea was something special though.

This year I decided to try making my own, and who else would I turn to but Nigella?

Nigella Lawson's Hot Cross Buns

from Feast

You will need:

• 150ml milk
• 50g butter
• zest from one orange
• 2 whole cloves
• 400g plain flour
• 1 8g packet instant dry yeast
• 125g mixed dried fruit (including dried cranberries, dried blueberries, and sultanas)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp white sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp boiling water

Directions:

1. heat the milk, butter, zest and cloves in a small saucepan just until the butter melts then turn heat off.
2. measure the 400g flour, yeast, dried fruit and spices into a bowl.
3. by now the butter-milk mixture will have cooled, beat one egg into the saucepan. Remove cloves.
4. pour liquid into bowl of dry ingredients. Mix together with a wooden spoon.
5. knead the dough with your hands until elastic.
6. form into ball and place in a buttered bowl. Cover bowl with gladwrap and refrigerate overnight.
7. the next day, take the dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
8. punch the dough down, and knead again until smooth and elastic.
9. half the dough so that you have two pieces, then half those pieces so you have four pieces and so on until you get 16 clumps of dough of roughly even size.
10. form the clumps of dough into smooth round balls and place on an oven try lined with baking paper, close to each other but not touching.
11. scour the tops with the back of a kitchen knife to make a cross.
12. cover with a teatowel and leave for 45 minutes.
13. in the meantime, heat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.
14. beat one egg with a small amount of milk and then brush over top of the buns.
15. mix together 3 tbsp plain flour, 1/2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp water to form a thick paste. Use this to make crosses on top of the buns. I used an icing pen.
16. bake for 15 - 20 mins.
17. mix together 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp boiling water, then brush over hot buns for a glaze.

These are time consuming to make, but the process is oddly satisfying, particularly kneading the dough. It is a very tactile process. I would make them again, or possibly even see about making the dough as some kind of big loaf.