Masthead header

This week’s recipe – Breakfast Brioche Bread and Pecan Pudding

Here’s the first in a regular series of recipe blogs from Green and Powell food photography & recipe development, a superb Breakfast Brioche Bread and Pecan Pudding with Maple Syrup. Chef, Rachel Green and I have produced and photographed over 1000 recipes together over the last ten years and published two recipe books. Much of our work is for food producers and growers who need unique content for PR, packaging and websites. Rachel develops recipes using the producer’s ingredients (in this case eggs) then she cooks and I photograph. Many of the shots end up published in national magazines such as Hello! Here is one such recipe. This was featured last month in Hello! as part of a four page spread on egg recipes (see the blog below for the tear sheet). Scroll down for the recipe with method. This one’s a stunner. As ever, I should know because once the pictures were in the can, I ate it! (Well, most of it. Thought I’d better leave some for others). For more on our work click here.

 

Breakfast Brioche Bread and Pecan Pudding with Maple Syrup. ©Michael Powell / www.green-powell.co.uk

 

Breakfast Brioche Bread and Pecan Pudding with Maple Syrup from Green and Powell food photography

Makes 6

5 large whole eggs

2 large egg yolks

500ml of whole milk

2tbsp of caster sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Zest of 1 orange

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

Pinch of salt

1 brioche Loaf sliced

 

Maple syrup and pecan topping

100g pecan nuts

75g butter

100g soft brown sugar

3 tbsp. of maple syrup

 

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4

In a bowl whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, castor sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt.  Whisk until the mixture is blended but not frothy.

Cut the brioche slices in half and arrange in a well-buttered rectangular baking dish, overlapping the slices. Pour the egg mixture over the bread slices; making sure it is all covered evenly.  Cover and refrigerate overnight if possible.

The next day, top with pecans.  Warm together all the remaining ingredients until the butter has just melted.  Remove from the heat and cool slightly, then pour over the French toast.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until puffed and lightly golden in colour, if the top of the pudding starts to go to brown, cover with foil.

Serve with extra maple syrup.

 

Another Hello! magazine spread by Green & Powell Food Photography and recipe development

Hello! magazine has featured another spread of work by Green and Powell food photography and recipe development. Five of Rachel Green’s recipes featuring eggs photographed by me are featured in the spread in the Hello! lifestyle section. They are all brilliant. I know because I tried each one when I’d finished doing the food photography. A particular favourite of mine is the Breakfast brioche and pecan pudding with maple syrup. I’ll be posting the photograph with recipe soon which will become a regular feature here on the blog featuring Green and Powell work. For more go here.

©Michael Powell / green-powell.co.uk

©Michael Powell / green-powell.co.uk

Leicester City star Shinji Okazaki in Sunday Times

The Sunday Times had used my portrait of Leicester City star striker Shinji Okazaki over a half page and online here. The only location available to me was a meeting room at their training ground and had to fit in with various interviews. My three lights were set-up in silence during  TV interviews which meant I had no opportunity to test everything before Shinji was ready to be photographed. In all I took just 20 frames of him before my time was up and having checked the file creation times on the first and last frames shot they both read 11:13am so I did the whole job in less than one minute. This is a brilliant example of having faith in technique and knowing equipment inside out. There was zero time to fine-tune  so everything had to work properly (including me) and thankfully no bits of kit proved temperamental. Editorial portraits against the clock like this are almost always a case of making the most of a situation and getting something out of what often seems like nothing. In this case I read somewhere that Shinji Okazaki enjoys being on the dance floor so decided to make a feature of my own lighting rig. I did consider using coloured gels on the flashes behind him but thought that would be pushing my luck with so little time available. Maybe next time.

 

STI.007.1GS.______.22jan.TPG

©Michael Powell / michaelpowell.com

Michael Powell on BBC One Show discussing photographing Donald Trump

Following on from my blog about the day I met Donald Trump (scroll down), the BBC One Show contacted me and asked me to take part in their feature about the new President. You can find it here. It’s the first feature on the show. I was filmed being driven around Gloucester in a custom Trump Cadillac limousine designed and built for Donald Trump in the late 1980’s while being interviewed on the time I spent with him at Claridges back in 1996. The car has an automated drinks machine fed by supplies of booze in the boot, fax, shredder, safe, NEC 9a phone and TV. Apparently Cadillac wanted him to order fifty but he stopped at just two. The interior is awash with varnished teak, leather, Trump logos and gold fittings. It has a 5 litre engine and unsurprisingly we had to stop for fuel while filming.

Weirdly, Donald Trump is not my family’s only link to the USA Presidency as my father found himself playing golf with Vice President Spiro Agnew in the early 1970’s. The President at the time was the infamous Richard Nixon. Agnew’s tenure was dogged by corruption allegations and he became only the second Vice President to resign from office. I don’t know if he ever cheated at golf but according to my father nobody lost a ball as the course was teeming with secret service agents operating as ball-spotters.

Michael Powell,Donald Trump,Cadillac limousine

BBC The One Show 19/1/17

Photography Tuition Voucher – last minute Christmas gift

A special Christmas gift: Photography Tuition Voucher – How to take better pictures

Almost everyone owns a camera these days but you will never get consistently good pictures until you take control and understand its potential and limitations.

With a little help from me, a professional photographer with over 30 years experience, you will understand light better, improve composition and have the confidence to make your camera record what you want it to see. If you own a DSLR or other digital camera you will benefit from some “real world” advice from a professional’s perspective and learn lots of fundamentals the manual can’t tell you such as using daylight, when and how to use flash, depth of field and creating pictures with impact.

Whether you are just baffled by the technology, want to take better pictures of your family or have professional aspirations I can guide you through the jargon and improve your photography. I can also demystify Photoshop to make your photo’s shine.

The session is “one to one”, lasts at least two hours and takes place at my studio in Caistor, Lincolnshire or sometimes on location. The cost is £75.

Click the PayPal button below to purchase a voucher