A Baking Challenge

Last Autumn I was invited to talk to the Friends of Clifton Park Museum, Rotherham about Grandma’s baking. The Museum boasts a wonderful black leaded Yorkshire Range which was restored in 2005 to working order. From time to time, the Friends show how food was cooked on the range in times past. You won’t be surprised that they ‘challenged’ me to go along and bake with them.

So with some trepidation I went along. I needn’t have worried as the‘Rangers’ were there to give me a hand. The museum staff had lit the fire about an hour before I arrived to get it ready for baking. Penny, Ann, June and Joan all helped me out by keeping an eye on the oven, fetching and carrying water and, best of all, washing up!

Joan had asked me to bake shortbread, so I showed the visitors how to make the mixture by rubbing the butter and flour in a large bowl to make breadcrumbs. Then I added  egg yolks to make a dough. (I saved the egg whites to make some Coconut Macaroons later.) The Rangers took it in turns to roll out the dough and cut into biscuits shapes, topping some with glace cherries and pricking others with a fork to make a decoration. Then it was into the oven for around 25 minutes until baked. 

Shortbread Biscuits 

10 oz/ 275g  butter

1 lb / 450g plain flour

6 oz / 175g caster sugar

1 -2 yolks of eggs

Glace cherries

Rub the butter into the flour and add the sugar. Then add the egg yolks and work into the flour as quickly as possible, making a dry dough. The mixture must be kept dry. Roll out an ½ inch/1 cm thick and cut into rounds. Put a cherry in the centre. Bake for 25 minutes in a slow oven. (300F, Mark 2, 150C)       

Take care with the oven door

I really got into the hang of baking on the Range and the biscuits soon disappeared with the visitors saying they were the best biscuits they had ever tasted! What are your favourite biscuits? 

Down memory lane at the Cake and Bake Show

It was a #caketastic day out last week with a trip to the Cake and Bake Show in Manchester!  

It was trip down memory lane for me, since I spent many summer holidays in the city with my Great Aunt Emma. We travelled from Yorkshire by train to Manchester Central Railway station, and now this former railway terminus has been converted to a major exhibition hall.

Emma's Rock Buns were the best I’ve ever tasted.

What a wealth of wedding cakes, baking ingredients and cake decorating equipment. Indeed, everything you might need to make that glorious creation. 

Celebrity baker spotting in the demo areas

We managed to find a quieter spot for a lunchtime break and try a slice of Bradleys Bakery wonderful Cheese and Onion Pie.

My highlight was to meet @ChrisPBlackburn, the Yorkshire Pudding King from Halifax. Chris was a contestant on ITV’s Food Glorious Food and Yorkshire Pudding Champion, so has a fantastic pedigree where all things Yorkshire are concerned. We had a great #baking #chat and agreed to a Blog post swap later in the year. Did you visit the Cake and Bake Show? 

A quick and healthy treat!

Fruit & Honey Bars

People often say that they don’t have time to bake. There are lots of things to bake which don’t need huge amounts of prep and are quick to bake. Here’s a quick and healthy treat to make in two shakes! 

Any combination of dried fruits and nuts will do: raisins, sultanas, apricots, cherries, cranberries, dates, almonds, pistachios, walnuts or flaked coconut. *Leave out the nuts if you have an allergy. **I usually leave out the demerara sugar as I haven’t a sweet tooth. I like the tangy taste with adding lemon juice.

Fruit & Honey Bars

12 oz/350g oats

6 oz/175g raisins

*4 oz/110g chopped nuts

5 oz/150g butter melted

**4 oz/110g demerara sugar

4 oz/110g honey or golden syrup

2 tsps lemon juice

½ tsp vanilla essence

Toast the oats in a baking tin at 180C (160C Fan), Mark 4, 350F, stirring occasionally until starting to brown. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Mix all ingredients. Line a Swiss roll tin 10 x 12 inches/ 25 x 30 cms with baking paper. Spread the mixture on top and smooth the surface with a spatula or palette knife. Bake for about 20 minutes at 180C (160C Fan), Mark 4, 350F. Cool and cut into bars.

I hope you’ll enjoy baking them. They're great for a picnic or lunchtime treat.  What would you include as a combination of fruit and nuts?

An Easter Parade of Baking

Here’s an Easter Parade of Grandma’s baking with chicks and chocolate to brighten our mood after the winter months. I'm tempted by these

Chocolate Orange Biscuits 

5 oz/150g margarine or butter

3 oz/75g caster sugar

8 oz/225g plain flour

2 tsps baking powder

3 oz/75g  plain chocolate (chopped into small pieces)

Grated rind of an orange

1 tbsp orange juice

Pre heat the oven to 180C(fan 160C), Mark 4,350F. Beat the margarine or butter 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. Roll out into a floured working surface, about ¼ inch/0.5cm thick. Using a 2 inch/5cm plain cutter, cut out the biscuits and place them on the baking sheets. Sprinkle them with a little extra caster sugar and 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. Decorate with a dusting of icing sugar. Paste a tiny amount of apricot jam in the centre of the biscuit and decorate with a chocolate egg.

And there's more...

Try these irresistible Chocolate Brownies

Grandma's easy ‘all in one’ Simnel Cake recipe

Dutch Easter Stick

Indulge in Easter baking and you’ll put a Springtime smile on the faces of your friends and families. Tell me about your baking for Easter....

A Tale of Two (or Three) Chocolate Cakes

Chocolate has been in Europe since the early 17th century. The first mention of chocolate in England was in the mid 1600s when bakers started to add cocoa powder to cakes. Everyone loves Chocolate Cake and yet there are as many variations as stars in the heavens!

At my last talk at Hodsock Priory Snowdrops visitors were intrigued by one of the recipes from the Buchanan family’s own compilation of recipes. The Chocolate Cake recipe dated back to 1885 from Emily, Marchioness of Headfort, great great grandmother of the current custodians of Hodsock. It has a denser texture than modern sponge cakes but is surprisingly tasty.  

Emily says that her Chocolate Cake is ‘perfect but extravagant’

The ingredients : sugar, flour, grated chocolate, butter and eggs and Groult’s potato flour.  

The method : ‘Work the butter and sugar together, then work in the chocolate, add the yolks of eggs and lastly the flours and the whipped egg whites. Bake for 1-1 ½ hours according to the oven’.

Harry gave me his Chocolate Cake recipe when I talked to the Independent Living Group he attends. He makes his yummy cake for the group whenever they meet for Afternoon tea. They love it!

Harry’s Chocolate Cake

4oz/110g butter or margarine

4oz /110g sugar

2 eggs (beaten)

5 tbsps evaporated milk

1 oz/25g cocoa powder

7oz/175g self raising flour

5 tbsps water

Few drops of vanilla essence or extract

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Then stir in the eggs beaten with the evaporated milk. Add the flour and cocoa powder. Mix thoroughly. Then add the water and vanilla essence. Pour mixture into 2 well greased sandwich tins. Bake in the oven 180C (fan 160C), Mark 4 for around 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool.

Filling

20z/50g butter

4oz/110g sieved icing sugar

Mix thoroughly and spread on one of the sandwich cakes. Place the other on top. Decorate the top with sieved icing sugar or melted chocolate.

Grandma’s simple version of Chocolate Cake can be decorated with a dusting of icing sugar or cocoa powder or covered with melted chocolate. 

Enjoy baking any of these Chocolate Cakes - have you got a special recipe?

Land Girls provide the ‘women power’

Hodsock Priory 

The snowdrops faced competition with a sudden snowfall on my second talk at Hodsock Priory but it didn’t deter the visitors who came shod in wellies and warm gear determined to see the wonderful display.

I’ve been talking about the Land Girls who worked at Hodsock Priory during World War 2. They slept in the old servants’ quarters of the old house and grew fruit and vegetables in the ornamental gardens. Across the country farmers ploughed up 2 million acres and needed ‘women power’ to work the land and feed the nation so the Women’s Land Army was created. The reality of the work proved rather different to the government propaganda as the Land Girls worked 50 hours a week and were paid 2/3rds of men’s wages. One visitor remembered the harsh winters in her home county of Hampshire and seeing Land Girls cutting cabbages out in the fields in the freezing weather. Often referred to as the ‘Forgotten Army’, Land Girls were finally honoured in 2007.

Visitors were intrigued by Grandma Abson's ‘Wartime Pudding’ recipe from periods of rationing. The campaign to ‘win the war on the kitchen front’ was about using food wisely and maximising gluts of produce in season. This is very relevant today. Just now it’s Rhubarb time so here's a reminder about some traditional Rhubarb recipes.  Rhubarb Crumble is a popular choice too. Here's how she prepared Rhubarb so it wasn't mushy. Grandma added ginger for that extra bit of spice!

Rhubarb Crumble

6-8 sticks of Rhubarb

 2 oz / 50g soft brown sugar

1 tsp ginger

Wash and cut the Rhubarb sticks into chunks. Place on a baking tray and sprinkle the sugar over them. Then cook in the oven (325F, Mark 3, 160C, 140C Fan Oven) for about 15 minutes until tender. Remove from the oven, place in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle the ginger on top of the Rhubarb. 

For the crumble

4oz /110g plain flour

4oz /110g porridge oats

4oz /110g butter

2 0z/ 50g demerara sugar

Turn the oven up to 350F, Mark 4, 180C , 160C Fan.Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the porridge oats and demerara sugar. Spread the crumble mixture over the Rhubarb and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for about 10 minutes before serving. 

Have you got a favourite Rhubarb recipe? 

It’s Snowdrops time

Here we are already in February and the first snowdrops are out in abundance to herald the coming of spring at Hodsock Priory. 

I’ve been doing talks at Hodsock about what traditional baking in the house was like and the visitors are keen to ask questions.  

Afternoon tea with sponge cakes cut into diamonds

Dorothy Spencer (nee Clay) was in service in the house until 1933 and she described her memories of life. On ‘Entertaining at Hodsock’ she said “Summer tea parties on the terrace were most popular …The menu was always the same : cucumber sandwiches, plain sponge cakes, cut into small squares or diamond portions, some with coffee icing, others with chocolate icing and there was homemade ice-cream. Best china was always used (with) small linen napkins and silver tea pots.” 

We had a little peek into the Hodsock family Cookery Book with some intriguing recipes collected from all over the world and a recipe from a book dated 1885 belonging to Emily, Marchioness of Headfort who was Barbara Buchanan's grandmother. 

Let me know if you have any intriguing family recipes.

Lemons have what it takes

 Grandma’s Recipe of the Month

Lemons have what it takes to make a perfect dessert. Grandma Abson’s Lemon Delicious Pudding is the latest ‘Recipe of the Month’ at Tim & Jane's Tasty Flavours in Doncaster Market Award winning International Food Hall. We’re collaborating on getting people to bake easy recipes with simple ingredients to buy straight from Tim and Jane’s. This month's is proving very popular. It’s one of my favourites, as I like the way the mixture separates into a curd at the base and sponge on the top. 

Lemon Delicious Pudding

4 oz/110g caster sugar

2 oz/50g butter

2 oz/50g plain flour

2 lemons – juice & zest

¼ pint/150ml milk

3 eggs, separated

Cream the sugar and butter. Add the flour, lemon juice and zest and mix in. Beat the egg yolks in the milk and add to the rest of the mixture. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the creamed mixture with a metal spoon. Bake in a greased 1½ pint/1 litre pie dish for 35 -45 minutes. (350F, Mark 4, 180C)

Meryl’s tips : Grandma Abson's recipe has weights for a smaller pudding but I’ve made it here with 2 lemons and have slightly increased the amount of butter, plain flour and added an extra egg to make a slightly larger pudding. That’s the great thing about Grandma’s recipes – you can adapt them and they still work out brilliantly.

Lemons are pretty underestimated in the baking world so don’t forget to check out many other fabulous recipes Recipes. 

Have you got a favourite lemon recipe for a cake or pudding?  

Ring out the bells

As the bells ring in the New Year, I’ve lots of memories to cherish. Talking about Grandma’s recipes has brought me more forgotten recipes for me to share; demonstrating Grandma’s simple baking skills is inspiring a whole new generation at events for various charities including Teenage Cancer trust to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee with Grandma’s Doncaster Butterscotch recipes. 

The Gamesmaker experience at the London Olympics 2012 was one of my most memorable moments including the Olympic Orange Cake for our final evening’s shift. How fitting that the start of the London 2012 Olympics began with the now Sir Bradley Wiggins ringing the bell. It reminded me of the popular nursery rhyme we used to play in the school playground. This starts off with ‘Oranges and Lemons say the bells of St Clement’s....’  The citrus fruits were unloaded in the quaysides close to the city of London and the churches nearby.

Scrumptious St Clement’s Pie

Grandma had a recipe for St Clement’s Pie, perfect for a New year dessert. She made it just like her Lemon Meringue Pie but used both oranges and lemons in the filling. She would line a pastry base with baking paper and dried beans or peas, bake it blind and then pour in the filling. When this cooled a little, she would whisk up the egg whites for a sumptuous meringue.

Bake it Blind

What will next year bring? I’m finding new ways to share Grandma’s baking all the time. The ebook version of  Grandma Abson's Traditional Baking is now ready with more recipes so I hope that you’ll be downloading it right away. I’m  excited about filming some of Grandma’s signature baking with students from the University of Huddersfield and sharing more experiences of traditional baking across the country.   

It only remains for me to wish you all a very Happy and baketastic New Year! 

A very Dutch Celebration Christmas Wreath

Prettige Kertdagen

My Dutch friend, Cobi, who has lived in Yorkshire for over 30 years, is busy making her delicious Celebration Christmas Wreath to her Grandma’s (Oma’s) special recipe.  

It’s similar to the Celebration Stick she makes at Easter.

The Christmas season is in full swing in Holland as on 5th December St Nicholas (Sinterklass) arrives in Amsterdam with Black Peter (Zwarte Piet) in a boat from Spain, bringing presents and sweets for the children. The adults wrap their presents up for family and friends, rather like Secret Santa presents. They write a poem (Cobi says it can be humorous but not unkind) to highlight the receiver’s personality. Sometimes there’s a treasure hunt around the house with messages to lead you to your gift. Christmas Day is usually a quieter time with a church service and family m

Celebration Dutch Christmas Wreath

Filling

125g   ground almonds

125g sugar 

1 egg (Meryl’s Tip : Since this recipe is cooked in the oven, I’m happy to use a raw egg in the filling. Otherwise use Grandma Abson’s Almond Paste recipe and bind the mixture with water and lemon juice)

Finely grated rind of a lemon

Juice of a lemon (If a stronger flavour is preferred, then use more lemon rind).

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until it forms a paste. Cover and leave to stand for an hour.

Puff pastry

To decorate

Apricot jam

Glazed cherries (mixed colours)  and strips of orange peel

Roll out the pastry thinly, about ½ cm thick, into an oblong shape of about 35-40 cm long and 12-15 cm wide.  Roll the almond mixture (marzipan) into a long sausage shape and place it on the pastry. Wrap the pastry around the mixture and shape it into a circle. Slightly wet the sides and ends and push one end into the other to stick it together.  Place the wreath on a baking tray. Brush with beaten egg. To finish off the decoration, cut out some holly shapes, stars or bells and lay them on the top of the wreath. Place in a hot oven, about 220C, 425F, Mark 7 for about 30-40 minutes.  Allow to cool. 

When completely cold, warm 4-5 tbsps of apricot jam in a pan until it’s runny.  Spread the jam over the baked wreath.  For a final decoration, you can use glazed cherries and orange peel strips as you wish.

 We love anything with Almond Paste. 

What’s your favourite recipe for this time of year?