Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with a right royal Butterscotch bite

Anyone visiting the UK at the moment can’t fail to have spotted that there’s something festive going on this week. Every shop is decked to the gills with red, white and blue bunting so there’s no escape from the Diamond Jubilee of HR Queen Elizabeth II.

Thanking back to food 60 years ago, tea was still rationed in 1952 and sugar until 1953. So it’s not too hard to see why many of Grandma’s recipes use less sugar. In 1953 when the coronation actually took place, sugar and butter rations were doubled for a short while but all food rationing didn’t end until July 1954.

In my home town of Doncaster, visitors to the town centre will be able to enjoy a special jubilee treat based on the famous Doncaster Butterscotch and adapted especially for the occasion from recipes from “®Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking”. I’ve joined forces with Doncaster Tourist Information Centre  and our local Doncaster College to produce a celebration event to be held at the Tourist Information Centre, The Blue Building, High Street, Doncaster on Saturday 2 June. Doncaster College Catering students will be baking Butterscotch cakes and serving them up at the Tourist Office during the Jubilee weekend as a local dedication to the Queen. They will also be collecting donations for their chosen charity the Teenage Cancer Trust a charity devoted to improving the lives of Teenagers and Young Adults with cancer. We’re also very grateful to the support of our local Sainsburys & Taylors of Harrogate.

Originally used as a treatment for invalids, Butterscotch is made from butter and brown sugar. It’s similar to toffee but is cooked to a ‘soft’ crack rather than a ‘hard’ crack’ and has become very popular in America for cake fillings.  The original Royal Doncaster Butterscotch was by appointment to the Royal Household so provides a fitting local tribute to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. I gave you the recipe for Butterscotch Tarte last week. Here’s a Butterscotch and Orange Cake recipe to try based on Grandma Abson’s ‘Orange Cake’ recipe. It has a very light texture to the sponge.

GRANDMA ABSON’S DONCASTER JUBILEE BUTTERSCOTCH & ORANGE CAKE

5 oz (175grams) butter

5 oz (175g) soft brown sugar

3 eggs

5 oz (175g) self raising flour (sieved)

Pinch of salt

Grated rind of 1 large orange

Strained juice of ½ orange 

“Preheat the oven to 180°C, Mark 4, 350F. Line the bases of 2 x 20cm sandwich tins with non-stick baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat the eggs and add a little at a time, adding a dessertspoonful of flour with each egg. Fold in the remaining flour, the orange rind and the orange juice. Divide the mixture between the 2 cake tins and bake for about 25 minutes until they start to shrink from the sides and a skewer inserted into the centres comes away clean. Place on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto the rack and leave until cool.”

Grandma’s tips for a perfect sponge cake :

·         Have all the ingredients at room temperature before starting the preparation.

·         Make sure the butter is soft before adding the sugar to cream the mixture.

·         The mixture should be a ‘dropping’ consistency so it falls off the spoon.

Filling and topping

3 oz (75g) butter

3 oz (75g) demerara sugar

2 oz (50g) flour (or cornflour)

4 fl oz (100ml) milk

Butterscotch chips

Icing sugar

“Melt the butter and sugar in a pan (preferably non stick) and stir over a low heat for 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the flour a little at a time, adding the milk alternately. Stir well, using a (non stick) whisk. Allow to cool slightly. Smear the top of the cake very lightly with a small amount of the filling. Cover the other cake with the filling. Then place the first cake on the top. Sprinkle the butterscotch chips over the top. (They should stick to the cake). Finally, dust the top with icing sugar.”

So enjoy Grandma’s celebration recipe wherever you are this weekend!

What’s in a name?

Every area has its own special attractions which have come about for all sorts of reasons. My town, Doncaster is famous for its fantastic award winning Doncaster Market where you can get fabulous meat, fish, fruit and vegetables and prize winning  Toppings Pies, now on sale in London’s Harrods and Harvey Nichols. At our Tourist office you can buy Doncaster Wines and we mustn’t forget the heritage of our famous Doncaster Royal Butterscotch.  

Butterscotch is credited with being invented in Doncaster in the 19^th century by grocer and tea dealer, Samuel Parkinson who had a shop in the High Street, near to the famous Mansion House which is now The Georgian Tea Room. Doncaster Butterscotch was by appointment to the Royal Household.

It’s a real Doncaster gem. I’ve crafted various recipes from Grandma’s collection to create Butterscotch cakes, buns and tartes. I’ll be telling you more about this next week as we’ll be using the recipes to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in Doncaster. In the meantime, here’s the Butterscotch Tarte recipe made with Grandma’s pastry recipe:

GRANDMA ABSON’S JUBILEE BUTTERSCOTCH TARTE

Shortcrust pastry with egg :

4 oz butter or a margarine

8 oz plain flour

Salt

1 egg

Water (or a little milk and water)

“Rub the butter or margarine into the flour and salt. When the mixture is like breadcrumbs, make a well and add the egg. Knead and add the water to make a dough. Let it stand for ½ hour in a cool place before rolling out. Roll out the pastry and line a 9 inch flan dish with the pastry.   Line the pastry with baking paper and cover this with dried beans or peas.  Bake the flan for 20 minutes and then remove the paper. This is called ‘Baking it blind’.  Keep the beans or peas to reuse. Allow to cool. Prepare the filling.

Butterscotch Filling :

7 oz (200g) butter

7 oz (200g) demerara sugar

4 oz (110g) flour (or cornflour)

8 fl oz (250ml) milk

Butterscotch chips

Melt the butter and sugar in a pan (preferably non stick) and stir over a low heat for 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the flour a little at a time, adding the milk alternately. Stir well, using a non stick whisk if available. Allow to cool slightly. Pour into the flan dish and leave to set a little. Sprinkle the butterscotch chips over the top.”

In fact, we’re very proud to be local in our town and we keep reminding ourselves about it by tweeting #doncasterisgreat. We’ve just had a fantastic trade fair organised by Success Doncaster to showcase goods and services and promote businesses. I took Grandma’s baking books to sell (with cakes to sample) and they went down a real treat!

But wait ….. I’ve discovered that there’s a suburb in Melbourne, Australia called Doncaster. It’s locally known as ‘Donny’ and is situated on the top of a hill called Doncaster Hill. It’s even got a Westfield Shopping Centre, one of the largest in Australia. I am wondering if they have specialties there including Butterscotch? Perhaps if you are reading this out there, you’ll let me know…

In the meantime, enjoy Butterscotch Tart whether you are in Doncaster, UK or Doncaster, Australia or any other Doncaster around the world and be proud of your town!

Getting the Baking bug at Cook ‘N’ Dine

Who can resist the smell of home made baking straight out of the oven? Well, the customers and staff at Cook 'N' Dine  in Lakeside Village, Doncaster UK certainly couldn’t resist it on a cold and drizzly May Bank Holiday Monday. Cook ‘N’ Dine, a related store in the Sinclairs group is an amazing emporium of everything you need to get baking as well as a wide range of cookware, china, dinnerware and glassware.

Tracey and her staff at Cook ‘N’ Dine had worked really hard to set up a wonderful welcome for me with window displays, posters and an area set aside with oven and hob and equipment, so I could really show everyone how easy and quick it was to mix, melt and combine simple ingredients to make wonderful cakes, buns and scones, all from a few ingredients in your stock cupboard.

I had a fantastic time in the store recreating some of Grandma’s signature recipes including Marmalade Spice Cake and her scrumptious Scones. I also tried out some Butterscotch cakes which I’ve created especially from Grandma’s cake recipes for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in Doncaster on 2 June. You can see what we’re planning on the Events page.


Best of all was talking to people of all ages who came into the store, attracted by the wonderful baking aromas. We chatted about Grandma’s baking and I passed on some simple tips from Grandma’s book which was on sale. Within minutes of getting each of the finished products out of the oven, there was nothing left but a few crumbs. There was barely time to cut and butter the Scones! What a great experience to share the joys of Grandma’s simple homemade baking. I can’t wait to do it again! 

Simple ingredients for fabulous scones

Bring out the best china

A couple of weeks ago, we went to visit the home of Britain’s best loved china – the Wedgwood Museum . I used to go to the Potteries to see my cousins who lived in Stoke on Trent when they were young but I hadn’t been there for many years as they had left that area a long time ago. So this was a journey back in time. The Wedgwood Museum is an amazing place and the Factory Tour  is absolutely well worth a visit. You can even get afternoon tea in the café and browse in the shop where they’ve got a whole range of china especially designed for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics if you collect that sort of thing.

Even though I haven’t got the real china McCoy, I always like to display Grandma’s cakes and biscuits on pretty plates. I still have her 3 tiered cake stand which was made in the Potteries. It’s just the thing to show off tea time treats.

 Grandma’s cake stand laden with Coffee Sandwich, 

Fruit Harvo, Butter Biscuits and Coconut Fingers 

All the recipes on Grandma’s cake stand are in Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking book. The Fruit Harvo recipe also found its way to Nigella Lawson's website as it was in the original edition of Grandma’s Yorkshire Recipes. Here’s the recipe for Coconut fingers which are irresistible. Cut them into fingers while they are still warm, and then leave to cool in the tin.

COCONUT FINGERS

4 oz butter

4 oz sugar

2 eggs (beaten)

4 oz plain flour

¼ oz baking powder

6 oz coconut

“Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, flour and baking powder. Then add the coconut. Mix well and bake in a flat tin in a quick oven for 20-25 minutes.”  (375F, Mark 5, 190C)

This week, it’s Multiple Sclerosis MS Cake Break week  all about raising funds to support research for people affected by MS. I’ve been doing ‘Talk and taste’ sessions about Grandma’s baking. Yesterday, I did a ‘Meet the Author’ event at Sheffield Central Library and later I’ll be doing a Cake Break event in Doncaster (UK that is!).  It’s great fun as everyone always enjoys talking about and tasting homemade baking.

So, get busy baking, bring out your best china and, if you can, join thousands of others on Friday 4 May 2012 at MS Cake Break events . Enjoy!

Try the famous Anzac Biscuits

Anzac biscuits but all soon disappeared!

I’m staying on theme of biscuits as last week with more tips on making the perfect biscuits. Here’s a recipe for a World War 1 favourite biscuit which I was given on an old scrap of paper by an old friend, now in her 80s. She said that these biscuits were associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, hence ANZAC. The biscuits were sent by mothers, wives and girlfriends to soldiers abroad because they kept well when shipped around the world. They are so easy to make and taste delicious. You can reduce the amount of sugar to half a cup if you wish to make them less sweet. Like many biscuits, they don’t have eggs either. I’ve also made them with Gluten free flour and they get good marks from Gluten free friends!

25 April marks Anzac Day,  a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand to honour the members of the ANZAC troops who served  during World War 1. So what better way to commemorate this occasion than to make these wonderful biscuits.

Anzac Biscuits

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup coconut

1 cup quaker oats

4 oz margarine or butter

2 tbsps golden syrup

1 tbsp hot water

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Mix all the dry ingredients together except the bicarbonate of soda. Just melt the butter and syrup then add them to the dry ingredients. Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the hot water and add to the mixture.mix well. Roll into small buns. Place on a tin and bake at 375F, Mark 5, 190C for 15 minutes or until (golden) brown.

I took these biscuits along to a talk I did at the Gawber and District WI in Barnsley recently and they gave them full marks! They devoured the lot as well as a Marmalade Spice Cake. Praise indeed!

Get out in the garden!

 My Mini Greenhouse

It’s National Gardening Week very soon (16-22 April 2012) and it’s time to get sowing, mowing, hoeing and planting. I love being out in the open air, remembering how I used to help my dad in the garden at the railway station where we lived. He would grow all sorts of vegetables and fruit which kept Grandma busy later in the summer preserving jams, chutneys and bottling syrups as well as serving up fresh vegetables. I’ve put her recipes into Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking book. But now’s the time to get sowing. I’ve made an early start this year and have tomato, pepper  and chilli plants well on the way inside and French beans, carrots and salads peeping through outside in the ground under cover. So, I’m well on the way to making sure we have a regular supply of fresh produce.

But with all this hard work, we gardeners need a break so what could be better than a mug of tea with a homemade biscuit (or two). Here’s a recipe I was given from another Grandma where you can use up any leftover chocolate Easter egg :

CHOCOLATE ORANGE BISCUITS

5 oz margarine or butter

6 oz caster sugar

8 oz plain flour

2 tsps baking powder

3 oz plain chocolate (chopped)

Grated rind of an orange

1 tbsp orange juice

Pre heat oven to 350F, Mark 4, 180C. Beat the fat until it’s light and fluffy. Then sift the flour and baking powder straight onto the creamed mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients and work the mixture together until you get a fairly stiff paste. Now roll out into a floured working surface, about ¼ inch thick. Then, using a 2 inch plain cutter, cut out the biscuits and place on the baking sheets. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the biscuits are a nice golden colour. Remove from the oven, leave to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then place on a wire rack. Store in an airtight tin.

Some things to remember about making biscuits :

·         Biscuit mixing depends on the type of biscuit i.e. rubbing in, creaming or melting method.

·         The main difference is in the amount of liquid added to the mixture. In almost all cases, just enough liquid is needed to bind all the dry ingredients together as a stiff dough is the usual consistency for most biscuits so it can be shaped or rolled out and cut without crumbling.

·         Soft flour such as rice flour or cornflour can be mixed with wheat flour to reduce the gluten content. You can make tasty biscuits with full Gluten free flour.

·         The type of sugar depends on the type of biscuit. Caster sugar gives a smoother result. Coarser crystals in granulated sugar give a speckled appearance when cooked. The same differences apply to soft brown sugar and demerara sugar.

Don’t forget to take a peek at the National Gardening Week website. It’s all about getting us celebrating and enjoying everything about gardens and gardening everywhere. 

Simply scrumptious Simnel Cake for Easter

Grandma’s Easter Simnel Cake

Although we seem to be experiencing a bit of cold snap here at the moment with sleet, snow and back to warm jumpers, it doesn’t seems to be quite like the depths of winter. Maybe because it’s lighter for longer now and there’s the prospect of better weather just around the corner, and it’s Easter weekend!

I’ve been getting all the ingredients together for Grandma’s Easter Simnel Cake – it’s one of my favourite cake recipes.  Simnel Cake is said to mark the period at the end of the 40 days of Lent. The word ‘Simnel’ comes from the Latin ‘simila’ meaning wheaten flour which was used to make the cake.  It’s also a traditional cake for Mothering Sunday. As Grandma explains in her recipe, for this Easter cake, it’s traditional to decorate it with 11 marzipan balls on the top marzipan layer to signify Jesus’ 11 disciples, omitting Judas Iscariot.   

Quite a few of you have been in touch saying you are busy making Simnel Cake too so here’s a reminder about the recipe from Grandma’s book. It’s really easy as you simply mix all the cake ingredients in a bowl together apart from the almond paste or marzipan. You can buy ready prepared almond paste/marzipan but, again, it’s easy to make homemade Almond Paste.

Simnel Cake

4 oz margarine or butter

3 oz sugar

1 tbsp syrup

2 oz ground almonds

2 large eggs (save some of egg white)

1 lb mixed fruit

2 oz chopped peel

2 oz glace cherries

Grated rind of one orange or lemon

8 oz self raising flour

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp mixed spice

2-3 tbsp milk

1lb of almond paste  

2 tbsps warmed apricot jam

“Mix all of the ingredients except the almond paste together. Turn half the mixture into a well greased tin and on it place one third of the almond paste, rolled out slightly smaller than the cake measurement. Turn the remaining mixture onto this and bake for 2 - 2 ½ hours in a slow oven. ” (300 F, Mark 2, 150 C) “Allow to cool. Then brush the top of the cake with the apricot jam. Roll out the remaining almond paste and place on top of cake. Shape the remaining almond paste into 11 balls and arrange them around the edge of the cake and brush with egg white.  Place under a hot grill or in a very hot oven for 1- 2 minutes to allow top to brown. To finish off, then decorate as you like with Easter chicks and mini chocolate eggs.”

I’ve also made a special Easter treat for my friends at Rocket Powered.  They’ve been fantastically helpful with Grandma’s Blog so I hope they enjoy these Easter Chocolate Brownies.

Don’t forget as well if you want to get regular updates, simply drop your email address into the subscribe box and you’ll not miss out on new postings. Have a wonderful Easter, whatever the weather and wherever you are! 

Special Easter Chocolate Brownies

They loved the Easter Brownies at Rocket Powered!

Keep Baking alive…

One of the marvels of spreading the word about Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking is that it takes me to all sorts of different places. I’m doing book signings thanks to lovely Waterstones, talks to groups, baking parties for ‘Hens’ and a ‘Boot Camp’, afternoon teas and it’s often to raise funds for worthy causes. And with this Grandma Abson blog, I can see that people all over the world are reading about her baking. I hope you are enjoying the anecdotes and the recipes. There are some common themes :

Getting the low down on baking 

1. Baking breaks down barriers. I’ve quickly learnt that the smells and delights of home baking appeal to all generations and genders: baking with kids, student fare, thirty somethings who missed out on baking cakes at home; finding time to bake is theraputic, and the nostalgia amongst the oldies for recipes long forgotten, all bring a beam to faces of all ages when they taste homemade cakes or biscuits. 

Cupcakes? ... No ....Butterfly buns!

2. There are always fashions in baking. Grandma was an avid collector of recipes over her long life so ones from early days in service in the 1900s are quite different from those in the 1970s. Economic circumstances will have dictated which ingredients were available. I’m pretty sure Grandma would have been making cupcakes if she were around today! 

3. We all have our own favourite celebrity chefs but people often tell me that it’s the Grandma’s recipes work because they are simple, have few ingredients and taste wonderful. 

4. Marmalade Spice Cake made with Gluten Free Flour

Then there’s the ‘health’ bit.  Grandma used much less sugar in her baking, so many of her recipes have tastes from ingredients such as ginger or cinnamon and use natural sugars such as honey or dried fruits. When ingredients were scarce, recipes were created without eggs or dairy products. These are a forerunner of ‘free from’ style recipes for those with allergies. 

5. Finally, lots of you tell me you have recipes out there, written on scraps of papers, laying forgotten in cupboards and drawers, just like the ones from Grandma’s collection. So my plea is to start sharing them, so we don’t lose this amazing legacy. 

 Last week, I met a presenter at a workshop I went to in Manchester, UK about using Social Media in the community. You can find details at www.podnosh.com. What a fantastic way to get people helping each other by sharing expertise. I want to keep baking alive for many more generations to come by sharing our best baking tips and recipes on Grandma’s Blog – so join Grandma on Facebook and Twitter and let’s start the conversation!

Kathleen’s top bake for St Patrick’s Day

   

Kathleen’s Irish Tea Loaf

As it’s St Patrick’s Day 17 March, I asked my saxophone teacher if she had knew any favourite Irish recipes we should share with you. She immediately contacted her sister, the cook in the family, who writes this lovely story about their childhood treat and passes on a delicious recipe for an Apple and Nut Tea Loaf.  I love the idea of sprinkling demerara sugar on the top before baking as it gives it a lovely crunchy topping.

“My name is Patricia and I am Maria's sister. She has been raving about you and Grandma’s baking. She mentioned you were looking for a special Irish baking recipe for St Patrick's Day. The things I can remember being made are Apple tart or Apple crumble.  People were poor and money was very scarce so I think they concentrated on main courses for dinners, savoury foods and breads. Growing up in the 1970s and 80s through the troubles was very challenging for our Mum. She was a fine cook although she wasn't confident. She always made an effort to celebrate certain occasions.  For St Patrick's Day, she set a green jelly. Later she prepared an orange or a yellow jelly and when it was cooled and starting to set she poured it on top of the green jelly. Angel delight was whipped up and that was our Irish special dessert. Mammy loved a Knickerbocker glory when on a trip to the sea side. I'm starting to think of a green yellow and orange Knickerbocker glory style dessert with green grapes, kiwis, mango, pineapple and mandarin orange. Our children would have fun making and eating that!  Anyway – here’s a recipe I did find from our Mammy’s collection. Kathleen was actually a friend of hers”

Kathleen’s  Tea  Loaf                     

8oz self raising flour

4 oz stork margarine or butter

1 cooking apple

2 oz sultanas

2 oz chopped nuts

4 oz caster sugar

1 teaspoon  mixed spice

2 eggs

1 tablespoonful demerara sugar (for sprinkling on top)

Pre heat the oven to 170 degrees Centigrade/ Mark 3, 325F  

Rub the stork margarine (or butter) into the flour until it ressembles breadcrumbs. .

Peel and chop the apple into small pieces.

Add the apple, sultanas, nuts, sugar and spice to mixture.

Add 2 eggs, well beaten, and stir well.

Pour into a 2lb greased loaf tin and sprinkle with the demerara sugar. Bake for about 1hour and enjoy.

Grandma Abson’s tips :

·         I used a teaspoonful of cinnamon as well as the mixed spice for this recipe. It goes well with apple.

·         If you use an eating apple rather than a cooking apple, you can easily reduce the amount of sugar and so ‘be sweet without the sugar.’

Thanks to Patricia and Maria for this wonderful recipe. If you have a recipe to share, please pass it on to me so we can share it just like Grandma used to do.

And this weekend – it’s Mother’s Day, so make your mum a special treat – you’ll know the recipe works if it’s from Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking book – still time to get a copy!

Give Mum a treat for Mother’s Day!

 Ana Cecilia’s wonderful coffee cake from Grandma’s recipe

Grandma’s fame has already reached Paris – here’s the picture of Grandma’s coffee cake. It was made by Ana Cecilia who is a fashion blogger in Paris. She’s written all about Grandma’s recipes. It’s great fun to read and a real tribute to Grandma's many talents!       

I love the month of March as it’s Mother’s Day and also my birthday towards the end of the month so double treats! Last weekend, I got an early taste of indulgence with a weekend trip to Paris. Paris has many brilliant memories for me as I used to go there every Friday from my work at a school in northern France (St Quentin). I had no lessons to teach on Fridays so I was free to travel to Paris, about an hour away by train. I loved to explore the different areas of the city.

The trip began at St Pancras International in London with a glass of bubbly in the Champagne Bar   and a surprise ticket in Eurostar's  standard premier class which meant lovely comfortable seats and a pleasant light meal both ways. Quel luxe! We stayed in a well equipped Cosys appartement in the Opera area, central to all points to visit.

The next day, Saturday, we breakfasted in style at a nearby café with a freshly made ham and cheese omelette, petit pains au chocolat washed down with fresh orange juice and café au lait. Since we knew Paris well and it was all about relaxing, we took the Batobus on the river to see the sights, stopping off wherever we fancied to ramble near the Place de the Concorde, Ile de la cite and the Louvre and of course linger over Croque-messieurs and chocolats chauds  at Le Cafe Marly   (the weather wasn’t too warm!). It was Paris Fashion week so we kept coming across fashion models and photographers who looked ‘tres cool’! We dropped by friends of my son’s for ‘le 5 o’clock’ – a welcome tea break before heading off to Les 3 Seaux , a bistro in the 11eme serving amazing organic food.

                        

        Tres cool at the Pyramide!                      Ah.. La Tour Eiffel!  

Next day, we set out for Montmartre to sample the latest Parisian craze for ‘le Brunch’ at Le Cafe qui Parle  and managed to get there before the queue snaked around the building. Just time to see Le Sacre Coeur and La Place du Tertre before winding our way with a stop for a final tea at the newly restored café at the Opera, before setting off back to La Gare du Nord. Formidable!

If you want a fantastic idea for Mother’s Day, here’s a special Mothering Sunday Simnel Cake  which has a whole story behind it. Or have a look at the Recipes section and choose a favourite one she’ll like. Better still, buy her a copy of Grandma Abson’s Traditional

Baking book and bake a treat from the 192 recipes. It’s available from this blog or online in all the usual places for books. Go on spoil your mum, she deserves  it. Bon appétit!