A slice of history today

 

Most of us have someone in our lives who have inspired us. For me, that person was my grandmother, whose love for baking shaped my own passion for the craft. At 63, Lizzie Abson moved in with my family after the tragic death of my mother soon after I was born, and as soon as I could stand on a chair, I watched, learned, and eventually inherited not just her recipes but her deep-rooted love for simple, delicious home baking.

Grandma Abson’s Treasured Collection of Recipes

Grandma Abson had begun to collect many of her recipes during her time in service but she continued through most of the 20th century as times and fashions changed. She wrote them out by hand on scraps of paper, postcards, in old exercise books and torn out of magazines.  She was an avid collector of other people’s favourites. Her sisters – Emma, Clara, Mabel, Alice, Edith and Ivy were also ‘in service’ across the country contributed their own specialities from Plum Pudding and Rock cakes to biscuits – creating a diverse and cherished assortment of traditional recipes.

In 2010, I collated her recipes into a book entitled ‘Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking’ and sold them across the North of England. In fact, with radio and press coverage and distribution through bookshops and delivering talks and events they ‘sold like hotcakes.’  I just kept a small number back for my grandchildren for posterity.

Even today I get asked : ‘Have you still got a copy of Grandma Abson’s recipes?’ It’s a regular question whenever I’ve done a talk so I love to say it’s still around as an e-book so you can access those wonderful recipes.

Grandma was very proud of her baking, whether it was winning prizes or having family and friends sampling cakes and puddings. Grandma Abson’s legacy is more than just recipes; it’s a connection to the past, a reminder of the warmth and comfort that home baking brings. Her recipes remain as relevant today as they were decades ago, proving that simple, well-made food never goes out of style. In my family, we continue to bake her beloved cakes, biscuits, and preserves, keeping her traditions alive with every delicious bite. Check out the list of Recipes  and enjoy a slice of history today!

Around the world with Lemon Posset

 
Lemon Posset

They say that the best recipes are the ones with only a few ingredients and my friend Catty’s recipe for Lemon Posset ticks that box with just three. But even more intriguing is the story she tells of how this delicious dessert went around the world. Last Autumn, Catty embarked on a trip to Canada and New Zealand to visit various relatives. She made a fantastic travelogue entitled ‘Travels on a bucket list’ so her friends back home could keep up with her progress, offer words of encouragement and suggest tips for places they may have visited.

It was catching up with cousin Vivienne, who lives in the hills outside Dannevirke, which reminded Catty of her old Lemon Posset recipe. Vivienne is a keen cook but also a coeliac so her recipes don’t contain gluten. She made a treat for their meal together which she said Catty had made when Vivienne visited the UK in 1977. She made it again as a special memory of both visits. Here is the well-travelled Lemon Posset recipe :

Lemon Posset

600 ml cream

¾ cup caster sugar

Grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

To serve

Whipped cream or

lemon curd

berries

Makes 10-12 servings in small glasses

Place the cream and caster sugar in a small saucepan and stir as it comes to the boil. Once it boils, reduce the heat to keep gently boiling and time the mixture for exactly 3 minutes. This timing is very important to the ‘chemistry’ of the recipe. Remove from the heat and whisk in the grated rind and lemon juice. 

Cool, then pour into small glasses. Chill for at least 6-8 hours, or it’s even better if you can make it the night before.

Serve chilled with a small dollop of softly whipped cream/lemon curd and/or berries.

 Syllabub

Posset is very similar to Syllabub from the Georgian era but is thought to be more of a 19th century creation. I’ve made this glorious recipe several times now and my family love it. It’s rich and decadent and wonderfully smooth - one to savour for a special occasion, even to celebrate a family gathering after 50 years at the other side of the world!

This is a shorter version of my piece for  Yorkshire Bylines where you can read more about Catty's travels.

An Unexpected Gift: Turning Dulce de Leche into a Sweet Surprise

 

Sometimes, the best gifts are the unexpected ones. This story isn’t about an ‘unwanted’ present, but rather an unexpected delight—a tiny pot of dulce de leche paste.

 

Dulce de leche looks a lot like caramel, but unlike traditional caramel, which is made from butter and sugar, dulce de leche is made with milk and sugar. This Latin American favourite has a rich caramel colour and a deep, indulgent taste.

 

I received this little pot of joy at Christmas because it’s well known that one of my favourite ice cream flavours is dulce de leche. In fact, anything caramel—especially salted caramel—easily tops triple chocolate or rum and raisin for me. But what could I do with this tiny pot?

 

Most suggestions involve drizzling it over cakes, but since my pot contained more of a spreadable paste, I decided to incorporate it into a batch of homemade chocolate chip biscuits. The result? A perfect combination of flavours that made these biscuits truly special.

Chocolate Chip Biscuits with Dulce de Leche

What you need

·         110g/4oz butter (softened)

·         50g/2oz golden caster sugar

·         ½ tsp vanilla essence

·         25g chocolate chips

·         100g/4oz plain flour (sifted)

How to bake

1.      Preheat your oven to 190C (170C Fan) and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2.     Cream the butter with the sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.

3.     Stir in the chocolate chips and flour to form a stiff paste.

4.    Drop dessertspoonfuls of the mixture onto the prepared baking tray, spacing them well apart.

5.     Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until golden.

6.    Leave to cool for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

 

The combination of chocolate and dulce de leche elevated these biscuits from ordinary to extraordinary. The caramel-like richness blended beautifully with the chocolate, creating a treat that felt truly indulgent.

 

So, if you ever receive—or treat yourself to—a small pot of dulce de leche, don’t hesitate to get creative in the kitchen. You might just discover a new favourite recipe!

 

And funnily enough, I’ve also been gifted a pot of pistachio cream all the way from Sicily. That’s my next challenge! Did I mention that pistachio is another favourite of mine?

Logging on to La Bûche de Noel

 

If there is one certainty in France at Christmas, it is that most French families will celebrate their Christmas with a Bûche de Noel. This is the famous Yule Log, consisting of a Swiss roll, filled and covered with lashings of cream and chocolate and decorated with everything from holly leaves and marzipan mushrooms to silver and gold stars topped with a dusting of icing sugar. It makes a wonderfully festive dessert.

 

Origins of La Bûche de Noel

This popular Christmas bake has its origins in a pagan tradition, whereby the Celts were reputed to have placed a large log on the hearth to burn for as long as possible in order to protect the household from a variety of ailments and evil deeds. It also was thought to be an offering to thank the sun for coming back to earth as the days slowly began to lengthen after the midwinter solstice.

 

Over time, the tradition moved on to placing a smaller log on the table and decorating it with sweet gifts called ‘friandises’ and, at some point during the 19th century, it started to appear as a Christmas dessert which we now recognise as ‘La Bûche de Noel’.

 

Searching for a recipe

There is a recipe for ‘La Bûche de Noel’ in every family – simple, elaborate, exquisite or classic with a multitude of fillings from butter cream to whipped or double cream, chocolate ganache ladled with the spirit of your choice such as cognac or rum and often made with purée de marrons (chestnut purée).

I found a recipe in my go to French cookery book, Les Recettes Faciles’ by Françoise Bernard, which my colleagues at the Lycée Pierre de la Ramée, in St Quentin presented to me. They were keen that I set off on the right track with French cuisine! Françoise’s recipe has chestnut purée which thankfully is still available to buy in most groceries and supermarkets in the UK.

This is a shorter version of my piece for  Yorkshire Bylines which contains a translation of the French recipe from Les Recettes Faciles.

 

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas. ‘Joyeux Noel’ and ‘Meilleurs Voeux pour l’année 2025’!

Oh! the weather is damp and dreary but the cake is warm and cheery …

Damp Gingerbread

As the temperatures drop and storms bringing rain and snow make a path to our doors, I always reach out for Grandma’s traditional warming bakes which bring cheer and joy. These recipes often contain ginger, that fiery spice, which is reputed to have anti- inflammatory benefits for our health and well-being.

Elsie’s eclectic recipe collection

Some time ago, my friend Sue, in Halifax sent me a assortment of recipes which were in her late mother, Elsie’s cookbook. Sue’s Mum and Dad were close family friends and we have kept this flame of friendship alive over many years. Elsie’s recipes included an eclectic mixture of cakes but the one which caught my attention first was Damp Gingerbread. I’ve always been intrigued by names of cakes and even dared to suggest some cakes needed a rebrand . Grandma Abson had a similar recipe to Elsie’s.

Damp Gingerbread.

What you need

4 oz butter

8 oz treacle*

3 oz soft brown sugar

12 oz plain flour

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 ½ tsps baking powder

6oz sultanas

2 eggs (beaten)

A little warm milk (about 6-8 tbsps)

How to bake

Pre heat the oven to  180C (160C Fan), Gas Mark 4 Warm the butter, treacle* and sugar in a pan on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Mix the flour, ginger, cinnamon and baking powder and sultanas. Add the liquid from the pan and the beaten eggs. Add a little milk to mix to a soft texture/batter. Pour into a well-greased and lined approx. 8 inch/20 cms tin – round, square or rectangle. Bake in a moderate oven for 45 minutes.

* Grandma used the term’ treacle’ for golden syrup or a mixture of golden syrup and black treacle so it could be a bit confusing! I used a mixture of golden syrup and black treacle to bake this recipe.

The Glasgow School of Cookery leads the way

I found a similar recipe for ‘Damp Gingerbread’ in my copy of ‘The Glasgow School of Cookery Book’ 1910.  The Glasgow School of Cookery was established in 1875. The aim was to educate young working-class women in cookery skills and, later, it promoted culinary education at board schools. 

The Glasgow School of Cookery recipe has the addition of 3oz (approx.. 85g) almonds – this could be ground almonds or flaked almonds. The recipe also suggests baking in moderate oven for about 2 hours which is not necessary in a modern oven!

So, nothing wrong with Damp Gingerbread - perhaps it has the right name after all. As the song nearly goes :

Oh, the weather is damp and dreary

But the cake is warm and cheery …

Enjoy and keep safe in the wintry weather.

This is a shorter version of my article for Yorkshire Bylines

Our French cousin … Le Pain d’ épices

 

It was a holiday in Alsace that I first came across Pain d’épices. This translates as ‘spiced bread’ but it has no yeast and doesn’t require kneading so perhaps we would call it a ‘spiced loaf’ rather than ‘bread’. It’s full of spices from ginger, nutmeg, cloves, star anise to cardamon or cinnamon with orange and lemon zest often added. The most important ingredient of all is honey which give the pain d’epice its characteristic taste and smell. It’s also made with rye flour, although some recipes suggest a mixture of rye and wholewheat flour.

I watched the baker making this Pain d’épices on a street in one of those pretty Alsace villages. The aroma in the street was drawing in the customers. I asked how it was made and, it was no surprise that his was a secret recipe. I did find our hotel owner happy to give me her own family recipe when we returned later in the day. She said that it was a tradition to eat a slice of ‘Pain d’épices’ in the cold weather after coming back from school with a mug of ‘chocolat chaud’.

What you need

250g honey

50g soft dark brown sugar

125g rye flour

125g wholewheat flour

20g baking powder

2 tbps mixture of  

ground ginger, mixed spice, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, star anise

2 eggs

 170 ml milk to mix

How to bake

Preheat the oven 180C/Mark 4.

Heat the honey and sugar in a pan gently, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat.

Mix the flours, baking powder, and spices in a bowl, adding the honey mixture gradually to make a soft dough.

Beat the eggs and milk together until smooth and then add to the other mixture to make a batter.

Pour this into a lined 1 kg loaf tin and place in the oven. Bake for approximately 45 minutes until a cake skewer comes out clean. 

Meryl says : This is a very simple recipe to bake. There are versions of this across France from Dijon to Reims, each with a slightly different twist in the ingredients such as local types of honey or more of a particular spice - the Reims version has more cinnamon in the mixture.  In some ways, there are close links to our own Gingerbread, Parkin and Wheaten Bread recipes. It’s on my list of lovely warming bakes which are perfect for cool autumn days. 

Bon Appétit!

Parasols ou Parapluies at the Paralympics 2024

 

We Brits are always obsessed with the weather so the big question for me as I got ready to go back to Paris for my stint at the Paralympics was what to pack for the weather. As it turned out, both sun cream and rain protection were needed.

Formation and Familiarisation

I arrived in Paris just before the Training (Formation) day at Clichy Sous Bois for the Para Road Races and Time trials. This site was about 15 kms to the east of Paris, so it was Metro/RER E and Tram 4 to get there over the 6 days of competition.  Choosing this venue was part of a deliberate strategy by the Paris Olympic organisation to take the Paralympics out to the people wherever possible.

The Road Races (les Courses) and Time Trials (Contre la Montre) were based around the Complexe Sportif Henri Barbusse. Much is being done to regenerate the Cichy Sous Bois area, following the civil unrest in 2005 but the scars of deprivation were still visible in the yet to be demolished blocks of flats. There was a sense that the locals were pleased to see the Olympic bonanza come to their area, especially when they came to applaud the athletes.

There was much to digest on the training day, followed by the Familiarisation Day. This was when the teams arrived on site and we had to distinguish the different categories of athletes and types of bikes.

Services aux Athletes – the new team

It was good to see old hands as well as new faces amongst the Volontaires - I’d met Manon from Quebec and François from La Rochelle at the JO - and the same fantastic team of staff including Philippe, Jean Sebastian, Thierry, Zoe and Louise. Over 6 days, we rotated different roles around the site, guiding the athletes and coaches at key points to the race starts, helping athletes in the Athletes Lounge/Resto with meals, waiting at the finish line, taking medal winners to the Protocol and Medal Ceremonies and much more.

Le Grand Jour – our last day

On the last day, our mission was at the Parc Georges Valbon in La Courneuve, to the north of Paris. It was the venue for the 8.00 a.m. start of the Para Marathon, followed by a day of celebrations, Le Grand Jour, with a range of activities for children in the Seine-Saint Denis département featuring bike-ability courses, wall climbing, skateboarding. Our roles changed and I was on lunch duty helping pack up 300 lunch bags – first time as a dinner lady!

At 1.00 p.m. we moved to lead the French medal winners to the stage following their spectacular descent on the Skyliner to wild applause. A concert followed with popular hip-hop duo, Big Flo and Oli but not before we heard the strains of Italian singer Gala’s 1997 hit ‘Freed from desire’. What a blast to end our Paralympic mission!

So about the weather?

The French have definitely taken up our obsession with the weather from their Olympic and Paralympic experience. At Clichy Sous Bois, parasols had been ordered to shield the Para Cyclists from the sun but they turned into parapluies and came in handy to provide cover at the start line, during torrential downpours. The Volontaires got out the ponchos again.

Although the rain came to say goodbye at the Closing ceremony at the Stade de France, it didn’t stop the Olympic joie de vivre.  Popular singer, Santa’s version of Johnny Halliday’s ‘Vivre Pour le Meilleur’, the Garde Républicaine’s singalong version of Joe Dassin’s ‘Les Champs Elysees’, Dalida’s ‘Laissez-moi danser’ and much more, proved that ‘Paris est une fête’, whatever the weather.

Paris should be enormously proud of what was achieved over summer 2024 - crazy, mad, fou, ‘emotion’ but most of all it showcased an inclusive world with stunning athletes at its heart. I was very privileged to be part of it.

This is a shorter version of my piece for Yorkshire Bylines 

C'est top, Paris 2024!

 

Who would have thought that I could top my amazing Games Maker experience at the Aquatics Centre for London 2012? But I’ve just gone and done it with two weeks as a ‘volontaire’ at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

It was my volunteer experience at Le Tour de France, Grand Depart from Yorkshire in 2014 and fluent French which ticked the right boxes. Wow – what a privilege to be chosen as one of 45,000 volunteers. Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024 (and French three-times Olympic champion slalom canoeist), described us as “The face, soul, heart and smile of the Games”. As volunteers we don’t get accommodation but a full kit of uniform, sponsored by Decathlon, including the much sought-after ‘Bob hat’ (le Bob).

The success of the Paris bid for the games was very much based on using existing venues to display the sports against the backdrop of iconic Parisian landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides and Trocadero. What luck – these were my locations and our managers kept telling us these were the best.

I was allocated a small, brilliant team of volontaires to support the cyclists and their personnel in a wide variety of roles as ‘services aux athletes. Fundamentally, it’s about promoting a light-hearted, friendly and courteous approach to making athletes and spectators happy to be part of the whole event.

As for the weather, the heavy rain from the opening ceremony continued the next day for the Cycling contre la montre (time trials). The huge ponchos we were given came in very useful on the Pont Alexandre III, with no shelter from the torrential non-stop downpours! The next weekend, sun cream and that Bob hat were the order of the day for the road races at the Trocadero.

Paris has always vaunted its culture, creativity and innovation and these were certainly on show throughout this festive celebration of sport. On days off-duty, I was living the dream with visits to see my favourite Musée d’Orsay, marvel at the ‘En Jeu’ exhibition at the Musée Marmottan and explore the newly opened Musée Picasso. 

I managed to get close up to La Vasque, that mind blowing Olympic cauldron in the Jardin des Tuileries. And not forgetting the sports, I took in the incredible beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower and exhilarating athletic heats at Le Stade de France.

We couldn’t fail to be bowled over by Celine Dion’s interpretation of Piaf’s ‘L’Hymne a l’amour’, Lady Gaga’s version of ‘Mon truc en plumes’, that silver horse racing down the Seine and much more at the opening ceremony. The closing ceremony, with its science fiction interpretation of the history of the Olympics, the creation of the rings, Tom Cruise’s amazing entrance and journey to LA, showed how this Olympics was everything: sheer determination, dedication and most of all fun. Paris did it its way.

I can’t wait to complete my Olympic experience as a volontaire at the Paralympics in September and see the motto “Spirit in motion” in action. Here’s to the Olympic legacy. Let the spirit live on to inspire a new generation! C’est top!

This is a shorter version of my article for Yorkshire Bylines which you can find here.