CANDIED FRUIT BISCUITS

My perception of reality must have got packed by accident into a Wilson box last week, bubble-wrapped like my Vancouver mug, and my cake tins, and all the sugar sprinkles, as I woke up one morning to find myself in a tiny, sunny town by the foothills, with no going back. Until I get that delivered to me (after it's been taken to a very spontaneous trip to Venice; or Belarus, for what we know), I really won't have a clue on what to get used to first, whether it's the 30+ degrees or not being invisible or the nice food or cheap coffee; nor an alternative to being reverse-culture-shocked (why is the icing sugar sold in 100g envelopes only. Where's the imported Asian flour. Ooh look at the colourful candied peel), or making recipes up with random, yet pretty, and pretty delicious, baking ingredients. If I get my discernment back, I will let you know; either way, I have done great with the baking. The Italians approve.

ORANGE BLOSSOM BRIOCHE

It might be that I had a very challenging week, and I'm just going to name a few happenings to give you the picture, such as blocked-off roads, car crashes, buses dropping me off twenty kilometres from my destination (let me get to work will you?), next-door buildings on fire, fifteen million leaving parties on school-nights, and some good old drama, but I was on a roll already. So I thought I might as well face the challenge of yeast once again, this time going the brioche way. Because, to make up for all the apocalyptic incidents of the past 6 days, this week we also booked our Eurostar tickets for a quick trip to Paris in August. Celebratory yummy brioche in my belly.