The Guide #193: Meet Ernesto, the viral America’s Got Talent contestant … who doesn’t exist
Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for glazed cinnamon focaccia | The sweet spot
If you’ve been anywhere near TikTok, you’re likely to have seen plenty of videos of sweet focaccia doing the rounds. I’m not normally one to jump on to viral trends, but I couldn’t resist trying this one. The dough is pretty easy, with no kneading or stand mixer required – just some stretching, folding and plenty of time to rest. You end up with something that tastes like a cinnamon bun/doughnut hybrid, that’s not too sweet and with a little more chew.Prep 5 min Prove 3 hr+ Cook 1 hr 15 min Serves 12-16For the dough450g bread flour 7g instant yeast 2 tbsp sugar 1 tsp fine sea salt 30ml olive oil, plus extra for greasingFor the cinnamon sugar3½ tsp cinnamon 50g caster sugar 50g unsalted butter, melted For the glaze3 tbsp icing sugar ¼ tsp cinnamon 2 tsp whole milk A pinch of saltPut the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer, and mix to combine
Rustic no more: let’s drink to Sicilian wine
Now that the third season (OK, discourse treadmill) of The White Lotus is sinking into the horizon, and its many fans flock to Thailand in the hope of catching a whiff of Walton Goggins (who I’m in no doubt smells absolutely lovely), I’m grateful that Sicily, the location of season two, might finally be a little less busy. Not least because of its wines.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more
Children injured, wildlife slaughtered, forests ravaged: is it time to ban disposable barbecues?
Single-use grills are ‘the worst form of litter’, says the boss of Keep Britain Tidy, whose own young son was badly burned by one left on a beach. They’re also a terrible way to cook. Should shops stop selling them?Toby Tyler can still hear his son William’s scream. “That will never, ever leave us,” he says, speaking on a video call from the family home in Stockport, Greater Manchester. “But we didn’t understand what had happened
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for spaghetti with prawns, courgettes and gremolata | A kitchen in Rome
While tidying the freezer the other week, I found yet another reminder of my (late) friend and teacher Carla Tomasi in the form of a Tupperware box a bit larger than a matchbox. Unlike the rest of the unmarked boxes with identical sky-blue lids and opaque sides, I knew exactly what this was: a mix of parsley, garlic and lemon zest (otherwise known as gremolata or gremolada) made last June to go with braised chicken, but not finished, so the leftovers were put in the freezer. I exchanged messages with Carla all the time and, knowing how much she loved freezer-talk, I consulted her as to how long she thought the mix would keep in there. She gave two replies: an official one of three to six months, and an unofficial one of a year, which must have sunk into my unconscious like a preset alarm because, almost a year later (and 10 months since she passed away), I find myself in front of my chaotic freezer, holding a tub of finely minced things and thinking, “There you are!” and, “Thanks, Carla!”Gremolata is a typically Milanese mix, and the name means to reduce into grains. And that is precisely what you do to a clove of garlic, a handful of parsley and the zest of a large unwaxed lemon in order to make a fine and fragrant rubble, which can be made by hand or in a food processor
Tell us: will you continue to buy takeaway coffee as prices rise?
Australians take coffee seriously, so much so that we perfected it through the humble flat white (although New Zealanders may beg to differ). But local coffee culture, admired around the world, may be under threat.A perfect storm of increased wholesale coffee bean prices, supply chain issues and other rising overheads are driving up the price of cafe coffee.One industry figure suggested takeaway coffee prices could reach $10 by the end of the year, though others say increases this steep are highly unlikely. Meanwhile Breville recorded a lift in at-home coffee machine sales earlier this year
How to turn aquafaba into a delectable vegan chocolate mousse – recipe | Waste not
I love the simplicity of today’s dish. Just two ingredients – chocolate and aquafaba – come together to create a waste-saving treat. Bean water has a mild savoury taste, but the dominant flavour here is chocolate, which, without the addition of extra fat (usually in the form of cream), becomes incredibly intense, amplifying its sheer chocolatiness.Aquafaba has magical properties that mean it behaves like egg whites when whisked, creating an airy foam that can be used for everything from mayonnaise to mousse. According to Ada McVean in an article asking What is Aquafaba? for McGill University in Montreal, the water-soluble proteins and sugars in the beans leak into the water during cooking, giving it a similar composition to egg whites; it also contain saponins, which help it foam so well
China accuses US of ‘seriously violating’ trade war truce; UK factory output shrinks again – business live
Vodafone vows to invest more than £1bn in a year as it seals Three UK merger
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta to enable AI ad creation by end of next year
‘Humanity deserves better’: iPhone designer on new partnership with OpenAI
French Open: Zverev and Pegula in action, Gauff wins, Norrie v Djokovic to come – live
Simon Yates rides away with prize of Giro d’Italia while rivals lose the plot | William Fotheringham