Ma Bailey's Luscious Chocolate Brownies

Chocolate Brownies a la mere Bailey

Chocoholic Sara is one of my friends from our Leeds University days where we studied languages. From time to time, we meet and have fun reminiscing as if it were yesterday. We still feel 19 years old in our heads! 

Sara is a keen baker and regularly sends me recipes. She writes “I discovered this recipe - now called 'Ma Bailey's Brownies' - when my boys were at school. The tradition continued and I made them each time they set off for university and for each visit during the term. The chocolate chunks stay sort of gooey in the brownies. These brownies have also been to Ireland, Lapland and Iceland. I am trying to see how far round the world I can get them!"

Ma Bailey’s Chocolate Brownies

125g/5oz butter

200g dark chocolate

175g/7oz soft brown sugar

2 medium eggs, beaten

A few drops vanilla essence

50g/2oz plain flour

5ml (1 tsp) baking powder

Preheat oven to 180C, Gas mark 4. Line a baking tin 18cm /7" square with greaseproof paper. Melt the butter with 50g/2oz of the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of hot water. Put sugar, eggs and vanilla essence into a large bowl, then sift in flour and baking powder. Stir in the melted chocolate and mix well. Chop the remaining chocolate into rough chunks and stir into the brownie mixture. Spoon into the tin, spread evenly and bake for about 40 minutes until the cake begins to shrink from the sides and the centre is firm.

Sara’s baking tips :

"Melt choc in microwave then add butter and CAREFULLY finish melting them  together. Today's bake took an extra 10 minutes but has been known to be longer so don't panic! I cut the pieces in half again as it's rich and is for sharing! I still work in ozs but for the first time I just followed the metric today. These homemade brownies are really easy - the hardest part is waiting 40 minutes for it to come out of the oven!”

Thanks, Sara. We did and they are chocotastic! I hope they go round the world as you said!  It's Chocolate Week so check out all Grandma's Chocolate Recipes  from biscuits to cakes which one are you baking this week?

Of Rice and Romans

 Being interested in all things Roman, I was delighted to chance upon an amazing archaeological site in the village of Vieux La Romaine in Normandy, France. Our visit coincided with ‘Les Journees du Patrimoine’  September Heritage weekend and a special ‘Salon de The’ was put on by the members of the ‘Comité de Jumelage de Vieux et Otterton’. A tempting array of savoury and sweet flans were on offer to visitors, all served up with a smile and a cheerful explanation of each dish.  

Most impressive was the famous local Norman speciality -  La Teurgoule – a rice pudding flavoured with cinnamon. It’s absolutely stunning to taste. The ladies explained that they make it in a large pot for special community festivities and the crusty topping is the best bit! Here’s the recipe for a smaller family celebration.

La Teurgoule

600ml/1 pint milk (whole not skimmed)

75g/3 oz pudding rice

2 tbsps sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Knob of butter

Grease an ovenproof dish with butter. Mix the rice, sugar and cinnamon in the dish. Add the milk and stir around. Dot the top with butter. Place in a preheated oven (150C/Mark 2/300F) for about 3-3 ½ hours. Test with a knife to see if the mixture has thickened and is creamy. Allow to cool and serve ‘tiede’ i.e. warm

Meryl says : This recipe reminded me so much of Grandma Abson’s luscious rice pudding slowly cooked in the coal oven range. We loved scraping the crusty bits around the edge! 

If you have ever wanted to imagine life in the Roman Empire, then this place is a ‘must see’. The Head of Archaeology and her small team of experts and volunteers are doing a fantastic job. With 3 major excavation sites, as well as a well designed museum containing a huge amount of artefacts, this location deserves a must see place on the Roman archaeology trail.

Be sweet without the sugar

Mixing a cake with less sugar

Grandma Abson lived though the hard grind of life in service in 1900s. Then she lived through the depression of the 1930s, when she became a widow with two teenagers, followed by rationing in World War 2. So she learnt to be very resourceful in times of shortage. 

Part of her baking philosophy was about turning out something tasty from limited resources. The weekly ration of sugar for an adult from 1940 was 8oz, the equivalent of 225 grams. This sounds quite a lot if, like me, you don’t have a sweet tooth. Sugar was rationed till 1953, so it’s not hard to see why many of Grandma’s recipes use less sugar. In 1953 when the coronation took place, sugar and butter rations were doubled for a short while so people could enjoy a Coronation bake. All food rationing ended in July 1954.

However, Grandma cut down the amount of sugar in her cake, pudding and biscuit recipes and used between one third and one half of the quantity of sugar you might see in modern recipes. She would flavour her baking with cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice and later used honey or golden syrup as an alternative.  

Ginger Cake

I'm following her example and don't overload my baking with sugar and enhance the flavour with spices and natural products. Stay healthy by reducing the sugar. Enjoy your baking and let me know what you’ve baked this week.

A wedding cake with substance and style

A flurry of butterflies gave the final touches to Becca and Rob’s wedding cake on their special day. Most wedding cakes are traditional fruit cakes but the couple wanted a simple 3 tiered sponge wedding cake. There’s always the question of how to create a stunning masterpiece from sponge cakes and stack without an elaborate structures of dowels. ? Well, our secret’s out! I used ultra light polystyrene moulds for the top 2 tiers. These rested securely on the large bottom tier of chocolate cake. And, ready to serve for the guests, I made 3 more large cakes, decorated in the same way for the evening ‘celebration’.  They just had to remember to cut into the bottom tier for the photos!

Countdown to the Big Day

In the weeks before the wedding day, I made test cakes with various fillings for Becca and Rob to try. In the end, they chose :

Victoria Sandwich with Chocolate Butter Cream filling
Toffee Cake  with Butterscotch Cream filling

Chocolate Cake with Butter Cream filling

Wednesday (3 days to go)

I made the 4 large 10 inch/25cms cakes : Victoria Sandwich, Toffee ( x 2) and Chocolate Cakes. 

Meryl’s Tip : I used Grandma’s basic recipe for each one and baked them in 10 inch/25cm cake tins for each cake with the 3 eggs and their weight in sugar, butter and flour for each layer of individual cake so each cake was made with 6 eggs. I used soft brown sugar for the Toffee Cake and Toffee Butter Cream filling instead of caster sugar.

Thursday (2 days to go)

I made Butter Cream in the various flavours to go with the cakes. I covered each cake with Butter Cream to form a base for the Ready to roll Icing. I rolled out the Icing and iced the cakes.

Friday (1 day to go)

I delivered the cakes to the venue, tied the themed green ribbon round each cake, and stacked them. Becca placed the butterfly decorations as she wanted. Hey presto!

Saturday 

Cake cutting (the bottom tier!) and lots of fantastic feedback from the newlyweds and their guests about the stylish look and most importantly the taste of all the cakes! It all worked perfectly so it was both substance and style. It was fantastic to be part of such a wonderful day! Becca and Rob even took it in the car to the airport for their honeymoon - what a great start to their life together!

Plenty of Plums

It's the season for Plums. They are an amazingly versatile fruit packed with Vitamin C so what's to lose.

Plum and Almond Flan

Flan base  Shortcrust Pastry Use 8oz /225g flour

Meryl’s tip Use 7oz/200g flour and 1oz/25g of ground almonds and 4oz/110g butter

Filling

3oz/75g butter

3oz/75g sugar

½oz/10g  flour

2 eggs beaten

3 oz/75g ground almonds

1 lb/450g plums

Roll out the pastry to a 9 inch/23cm flan dish and allow it to ‘relax’ for around 30 minutes. Cream the butter and sugar. Then add the beaten eggs. Fold in the flour and ground almonds into the mixture. Pour the mixture into the pastry case. Cut the plums into halves and remove the stones. Arrange the plums on top of the almond filling. Bake in a preheated moderate oven 190C, 375F Mark 5 for about 25-30 minutes until the top has browned.

Glaze the top by boiling 2 tablespoons of any dark jam or jelly such as redcurrant, raspberry, bilberry or plum with 1 tbsp of hot water. Brush this on top of the flan. 

Try Clafoutis or the famous Yorkshire Drop. 

Make a Plum Crumble with the same mixture as Rhubarb Crumble.

Make the most while they are at their best! Have you a favourite recipe with Plums? 

Grandmas baked the best

Grandma's Doncaster Butterscotch  Cake

One of my favourite recipes  is Doncaster Butterscotch Cake - a sponge sandwich cake recipe based on Grandma's Victoria Sandwich Cake which I baked to celebrate one of Doncaster's famous products, Doncaster Royal Butterscotch.

Grandma  Abson’s Doncaster Butterscotch  Cake

3 eggs & their weight (= approx 6oz /175grams)in

6 oz /175g Butter 

6oz/175g soft brown sugar

60z/175g self raising flour(sieved)

Preheat the oven to 180°C, 350°F, Mark 4. Line the bases of 2 x 20cm/8 inch sandwich tins with non-stick baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat the eggs and add a little at a time, adding a dessertspoonful of sieved flour with each egg. Fold in the remaining flour. Divide the mixture between the 2 cake tins and bake for about 20-25 minutes until the cakes start to shrink from the sides of the tins and a cake 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.

Butterscotch Butter Cream Filling

3 oz (75g) butter

3 oz (75g) soft brown sugar

3 oz (75g) Icing sugar

Milk to mix

Butterscotch chips for decoration

Cream the butter and icing sugar. Add the milk. Cover one cake with the filling. Then place the  other cake on the top. Dust the top with icing sugar and sprinkle the butterscotch chips over the top.

The taste of Lavender is as good as the scent!

Visitors to Cusworth Hall were surprised to learn that Lavender was a popular ingredient in baking as they enjoyed sampling Grandma’s scrumptious Lavender biscuits. As well as being a beautiful plant, Lavender is one of the best kept secrets for baking. Lavender sugar can be used to bake a wide range of teatime favourites such as Scones by substituting the sugar with Lavender sugar in the recipe.

How to make Lavender sugar 

Place the caster sugar in a bowl. For every 4oz/110g sugar, you need a tablespoonful of lavender. Add the lavender to the sugar by pressing it through a sieve with your fingers or the back of a spoon. Put the sugar in a clean jar and add another tablespoon of lavender flowers to the jar. Cover the jar and shake well every couple of days. Leave for 3 to 5 days for the lavender to infuse into the sugar. Then it’s ready to use.

Lavender Biscuits  

150g/5oz butter

225g/8oz plain flour

75g/3oz lavender sugar

1 yolk of egg

Rub the butter into the flour and add the sugar and the salt. Add the egg and work into the flour as quickly as possible, making a dry dough. The mixture must be kept dry. Roll out thinly and cut into rounds. Bake for 25 minutes in a slow oven. (300F, Mark 2, 150C)

Chris at Fragrant Lavender sent me a very simple and scrumptious recipe for Lavender Cakes which uses flower buds mixed with the flour. These are for small cakes which Grandma would call 'buns'. 

Lavender Cakes

4 oz/110g Margarine or butter 

4 oz/110g Caster Sugar

4 o/110g Self Raising Flour

2 Eggs

1 tsp Lavender flower buds 

(Chris says: 'I use fresh ones but you could use dried ones.')

Cream the margarine/butter and sugar until light and creamy in texture. Add the eggs a little at a time and beat well. Add the lavender flower buds to the flour then fold into the mixture. Half fill paper bun cases then bake at 180-190C, 350-375F, Gas mark 4-5 for about 20 minutes until firm to the touch.

If you haven’t got lavender in your garden, visit a Lavender farm and pick up a plant.   

Gooseberries - the forgotten fruit?

I’ve heard very little about gooseberries for a while and yet this tart berry is perfect in a range of desserts and puddings. A neighbour surprised me with some gooseberries from her garden, so I’ve made a delicious Gooseberry Pie. 

Gooseberry Pie

 8oz/225g gooseberries

60z/175g caster sugar

60z/175g Shortcrust pastry

Prepare the gooseberries by topping and tailing them. Wash them before stewing them in a saucepan with sugar and a little water for around 5 minutes on a low heat. Allow to cool then pour onto a pie dish. Make the shortcrust pastry: For an 8 inch (20-21cm ) pie dish you will need 6oz/175g of flour and 30z (75g) of butter. Rub the butter or margarine into the flour. 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 to the size of the pie dish and cover the gooseberries. Trim the edges then brush the top with milk. Sprinkle a teaspoonful of caster sugar over the top so it will crisp in the oven. Bake at 200C, Mark 6 for about 25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. Serve hot or cold.

Meryl says : You don’t need much pastry for this dish as just a pastry lid will suffice.

Here's another old Gooseberry dessert recipe which Peter and Jan gave me a while ago when I was doing a baking talk at Hodsock Priory during the Snowdrop season. Jan has been making this recipe for over 40 years. Try it out and tell me what you think.

Gooseberry Ambrosia

Ingredients

1lb gooseberries + 4 tbsp water

2oz granulated sugar (or more to taste)

1 level dessertsp cornflour (or a bit more to thicken them a little)

8oz plain Madeira cake (Peter says Sand Cake in Grandma’s book is perfect for this)

1oz glace cherries (or a few more if you like them)

2oz butter

2 level tbsps clear runny honey

Top and tail the gooseberries. Simmer with the little water and sugar for about 5 minutes till cooked, but not mushy; remove from heat. Blend together cornflour with a dessertsp water and add to the fruit, bring to boil stirring gently. Cook for 2 minutes to thicken a bit. Pour into 1½ pint shallow casserole. Cut cake into 1” cubes. Halve the cherries. Place butter in saucepan, measure honey carefully and add to the melting butter. When butter has melted, remove from heat, gently stir in cake pieces and cherries until they are coated with the butter and honey. Pile the mixture on top of the gooseberries. Prepare a moderate grill.  Put the ambrosia under the grill to lightly brown the topping. Serve hot or cold, with custard or cream.

Have you any gooseberry recipes to bring this fruit back into favour? 

The Yorkshire ‘Drop’

Yorkshire Drop 

On 1st August we Yorkshire folk get a chance to boast about our identity, be proud of our county and give a boost to all those sad Yorkshire folk who have to live in exile away from this wonderful region. There’s more to read about Yorkshire Day and the tale of the origins of our special day. 

So, have you heard of Yorkshire Drop?  This recipe is based on Yorkshire pudding batter mixture but served up as a dessert with a fruit filling instead. It’s a close relative of the mouthwatering French Clafoutis and usually made with plums.

You'll need

4 ½oz/125g plain flour (sieved)

2 eggs

1 ½oz/40g sugar

Pinch of salt

 1/3 rd pint/200ml milk

*Fruit as in season

        

Make the batter as for Yorkshire Pudding. Mix the eggs and flour with a wooden spoon. Mix in the sugar, salt and milk and beat to the consistency of cream. Let it stand for about half an hour or so and stir occasionally to let the air in. Butter an ovenproof flan or pie dish and pour in the Yorkshire Pudding batter mixture.  ‘Drop’ in the fruit into the mixture and cook in a preheated moderately hot (Grandma called this temperature ‘quick’) oven for about 45 minutes (Mark 5, 190C, 375F). The batter will rise to perfection!

Meryl’s tips for the fruit: Now’s the time to make good use of summer fruits, so you can vary the fruit to ‘drop’ in according to the season : Plums, Raspberries, Blackberries, Cherries and Rhubarb, are all perfect for this dish. Wash and dry the fruit carefully. Slice fruit such as Plums and pre cook Rhubarb.  

Here’s a round-up of Yorkshire baking to celebrate our rich culture. 

 Yorkshire Parkin which we usually have on Bonfire Night 

Celebrate with Doncaster Royal Butterscotch Cake 

Bridlington Cake

By far the most well known dish is Yorkshire Puddings 

and Grandma was an expert!

Here comes summer…..

Tarte aux framboises

We've just got back from a fantastic holiday in the Vercors district of the French Alps. where we met Dominique Fluzin runs La Taiga, a lovely little hotel  in the village of Villard de Lans. The Hotel gets its name from a link with the Siberian Forest as it hosted members of the Russian Olympic team who stayed for the Winter Olympics in Grenoble in 1968. The sporting links don’t end there as Dominique offers expert guidance for cyclists, walkers and winter sports enthusiasts throughout the year.

Dominique and his wife Marie Jose are keen to offer guests a taste of local traditional food including Tartiflette and he kindly wrote out his family recipe for Tarte aux framboises. The flavour of the raspberries is enhanced with ground almonds. I’ve made a version using a thin base of Grandma’s Shortcrust Pastry which is like French Pate Brisee but Dominique uses Puff Pastry /Pate feuilletee. A vous le choix!

Line a large flan dish with Shortcrust Pastry and bake blind for around 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Filling

160g/6oz caster sugar

3 eggs

75g/3oz butter (melted)

70g/2½oz ground almonds

150g/5½oz raspberries

Beat the eggs and sugar until they are creamy white. Add the melted butter and ground almonds. Mix in the raspberries. Pour the mixture into the flan case and bake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes at 180C/Mark 4/350F.

Dominique decorated his Tarte aux Framboises with chocolate vermicelli but you could always dust with icing sugar.

Dominique's recipe is already bringing back wonderful memories of a fantastic ‘sejour’ in the Alpes. Let’s make the most of the sun, and our own local produce.  Have you got a summer recipe to share?