Keep Baking alive and start the conversation

Getting the low down on home baking

One of the marvels of  spreading the word about Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking is that it takes me to all over the country. I’m doing book signings at Waterstones, talks, baking parties and events such as afternoon teas and it’s often to raise funds for various charity causes. With Grandma Abson's blog, I had never imagined that people all over the world would read about her baking. I hope you are enjoying the anecdotes and recipes. I've picked out 5 common themes :

1. Baking cakes breaks down barriers. I’ve learnt that the smells and delights of home baking appeal to all generations : exited anticipation of baking with kids, student grub, thirty somethings who missed out on baking cakes at home, nostalgia among oldies for recipes long forgotten; baking is therapeutic and the taste of homemade cakes or biscuits always bring a smile.  

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 tell me that it’s the Grandma’s recipes work because they are easy to bake, have few ingredients and taste wonderful. 

Marmalade Spice Cake made with Gluten Free Flour

4. Then there’s the ‘health’ bit.  Grandma generally used much less sugar in her baking, so many of her recipes have tastes from spices 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. Many of you tell me you have recipes out there, written on scraps of papers, laying forgotten in cupboards and drawers, just like the ones in Grandma’s collection. So let's start sharing them, so we don’t lose this amazing legacy. 

 Last week, I met a presenter at a workshop about using Social Media in the community. 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 Apple and Nut Tea Loaf

It's St Patrick’s Day on 17 March and I've had the luck of the Irish with this family favourite Irish recipe. Maria, my saxaphone friend, had contacted her sister, Patricia, the cook in the family and she sent this delicious recipe for Apple and Nut Tea Loaf.  Demerara sugar sprinkled on the top before baking, gives it a lovely crunchy topping.

                   Kathleen’s Apple and Nut Tea  Loaf                     

225g/8oz self raising flour

110g/4 oz butter

1 cooking apple

50g/2oz sultanas

50g/2oz chopped nuts

110g/4 oz caster sugar

1 teaspoon mixed spice

2 eggs

1 tbsp demerara sugar (for the topping)

Pre heat the oven to 170 degrees Centigrade/ Mark 3, 325F. Rub the 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 1 kg/2lb greased loaf tin and sprinkle with the demerara sugar. Bake for about 1 hour.

Grandma Abson's tips : Use a teaspoonful of cinnamon as well as the mixed spice for this recipe. 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.

Patricia sent me this lovely message : 
“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”

Thanks to Patricia and Maria for this wonderful story and recipe. If you have a recipe to share, please send it on to me to share.

Give Mum a treat for Mother’s Day

Ana Cecilia’s Coffee Cake from Grandma’s recipe

Grandma’s fame has already reached Paris – here’s the picture of Grandma’s coffee cake made in Paris by Ana Cecilia who is a fashion blogger. 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 March as it’s Mother’s Day and also my birthday 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 St Quentin. I had no lessons to teach on Fridays so 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. Quel luxe! We stayed in the Opera area, central to all points to visit.

Tres cool at the Pyramide        

                          

La Tour Eiffel  

On 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 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 saw fashion models and photographers - ‘tres cool’! 

On Sunday we set out for Montmartre to sample the latest Parisian craze for ‘le Brunch’ and managed to get there before the queue snaked around the building. Just time to see Le Sacre Coeur before winding our way to the newly restored café at the Opera, before back to La Gare du Nord. 

If you want an idea for Mother’s Day at home, here’s a traditional Mothering Sunday Simnel Cake. Or have a look at Grandma's Recipes page and choose a favourite one to bake. Go on, give mum a treat, she deserves  it!

Daffodils are out to celebrate all things Welsh!

Daffodils on 1 March

Hurray it’s March and the daffodils are out! I always love the beginning of March with the lighter days and the warmer weather. 1st March is the national day of the Welsh patron saint, St David and a chance to wear either a daffodil (or leek) as a symbol of all things Welsh. The traditional meal on St David's Day is ‘cawl’, a soup made from leeks, potatoes and Welsh lamb or beef.

Perhaps the most famous Welsh baking recipes is Bara Brith or 'Os gwelwch yn dda' which translates as ‘speckled bread’. My Uncle Albert, who lived for twenty years in North Wales always made several loaves of Bara Brith whenever we went to stay. It’s a sort of sticky ‘teabread’ made with dried fruit and soaked in black tea overnight. Once it’s baked, allow to cool, slice and spread with (Welsh) butter. 

Here's how to bake it :

450g/1lb dried fruit (mixed sultanas, currants, raisins, mixed peel)

75g/3oz soft brown sugar

300ml/½ pint black tea

1 egg, beaten

450g/1lb self-raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

Soak the dried fruit and sugar in the tea and leave overnight. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Mark 3. Line a 900g/2lb or 2 smaller 450g/1lb loaf tins with baking or greaseproof paper. Add the beaten egg, flour and mixed spice into the fruit mixture and mix well. Put the mixture into the loaf tin(s) and bake for 1½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake(s) comes out clean.

Uncle Albert’s Bara Brith

Celebrate the national cake of Wales with a slice of Bara Brith and enjoy the daffodils. Here's how to say it in Mwynhewch eich bwyd!

Fiesta time in the Rhubarb Triangle

Glorious forced pink Rhubarb

February marks the major event of the year in the Rhubarb calendar. Grown in an area around Wakefield in the north of England, in warm, dark ‘forcing sheds’, this pink fleshy plant is a popular Yorkshire treat. There’s a big Rhubarb Festival going on around the end of February in Wakefield.  The area where it’s grown is famously called the Rhubarb Triangle and you can even go on a tour of the forcing sheds.

Grandma’s Tips for cooking Rhubarb

Grandma usually stewed Rhubarb by cutting off the leaves, washing the sticks and cutting each stick into pieces each one about 2 inches/50 cms long. Then she placed them in a pan over the hob with a little water and sugar.

When she had lovely forced pink Rhubarb, she would wash and cut the pieces and sprinkle demerara sugar over them. Then she would cook them in the oven (325F, Mark 3, 160C) for about 15 minutes until tender. This way the Rhubarb retains its maximum flavour and the pieces look like pink jewels!

Sprinkle with sugar 

Cooked Rhubarb - jewels in the crown!

Grandma used to make delicious crumbles and pies but one of my favourite desserts is Rhubarb Tart.

Rhubarb Tart

To make Shortcrust pastry

4 oz(110g) butter

8 oz (225g) plain flour

Salt

1 egg

A little water (or a little milk and water)

Rub the butter into the flour and salt. When the mixture is like breadcrumbs, make a well and add the egg. Add the water to make a dough. Let it stand for ½ hour in a cool place before rolling out. 

For the filling

Rhubarb (about 450g) prepared and cooked as above

2 oz (50g) butter

2 oz (50g) caster sugar

1 egg beaten

2 oz (50g) self raising flour

1 oz (25g) ground almonds

A little milk to glaze

Sugar to sprinkle on the top

Roll the pastry out to cover a 9 inch (23 cm) flan dish, reserving the trimmings of the pastry for the lattice decoration. Spread the cooked Rhubarb on the bottom of the pastry base. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, a little at a time, fold in the flour and ground almonds. Spread over the Rhubarb. Bake in the oven at 35oF, Mark 4, 180C for about 25 minutes.

If you have spare pastry trimmings you can make a Rhubarb Lattice Flan. Roll out the trimmings of the pastry and cut into thin strips to criss cross the top of the flan. Moisten the ends of the strips with water and arrange over the filling, pressing the wetted ends to seal. Brush the lattice with milk and sprinkle with sugar. 

 Rhubarb Rhubarb

            

Something different for Pancake Day ‘Ficelles Picardes’

Ficelles Picardes - Delicieux!

On Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday I love to cook this fabulous recipe my French friend, Francoise gave me some years ago when I lived in France. Francoise comes from Amiens in the Picardy area of northern France and this is a traditional recipe from that area. The pancakes or crepes, make a savoury dish called ‘Ficelles Picardes’ – which translates as ‘Picardy strings’. 

I use Grandma’s recipe for the pancakes which always works a treat. The pancakes, together with a slice of ham are stuffed with mushrooms, then covered with crème fraiche, sprinkled with Gruyere cheese and cooked in a casserole dish in the oven until they are crisp and bubbling.  Superbe!

Ficelles Picardes   

For the pancakes :

125g/4 ½ oz plain flour

3 eggs

1 pinch salt

275ml ( approx ½ pint) milk

Melted butter or oil for frying

To make the batter, place the flour, salt and eggs in a basin and mix well. Add enough milk to make a thin batter. Then leave to stand. Then make about 8 individual small pancakes. Heat the butter or oil in a small frying pan until very hot. Pour enough batter to cover the base. Cook each side in turn. Leave the pancakes to cool and prepare the mushroom mixture.

For the filling and topping

2 shallots (finely chopped)

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 Lemon  - juice

8 slices ham

6-8 mushrooms

Salt and pepper

3 dsps crème fraiche

Gruyere cheese (grated)

A little butter

Fry the chopped mushrooms in butter and lemon juice, add the shallot, parsley and salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add 1 dsp of cream fraiche.  Place a slice of the ham on each pancake and then some of the mushroom mixture. Roll up each pancake and arrange together in a heat proof dish.

Pour the crème fraiche into the frying pan with a little butter to warm through.  Now pour it over the pancakes and sprinkle with grated Gruyere cheese. Brown lightly, either under the grill or on the top shelf of a hot oven. The pancakes can be made and stuffed in advance then finished off with the crème fraiche and cheese before serving.

Traditional pancakes 

For more Pancake recipes take at look at some traditional Pancakes I found in an old newspaper cutting in Grandma’s collection. Whether you're enjoying savoury pancakes or traditional pancakes with orange juice, have a good time flippin' pancakes on Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday. 

Bon appétit!

Something for your Valentine

Ivy's heart shape cake tin 

What better way to offer your Valentine a gift than to bake a favourite homemade treat for Valentine’s Day on 14 February ? After all, as I say in Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking book, ‘who can resist the joys of a simple fresh  cake or the appeal of a tray of biscuits, warm, aromatic and straight out of the oven?’ 

Last year, Aunty Ivy gave me a pile of cake tins and amongst them was a heart shape tin. I’ve been itching to use it for one of Grandma’s easy cake recipes ever since so this year I’m making a surprise cake for my Valentine (and me) to enjoy.

Will it be Dream Cake?  

 Orange Cake or ...       

Heart shaped Valentine Cake?

I still feel like an 18 year old in my head and this week, I met up with two friends from student days, one of whom I hadn't seen since we finished our degrees 40 years ago. We’d been on a French degree course at university and had gone our separate ways with careers and families to distract us from keeping in touch and without the benefits of social media. So we spent the day reminiscing about those halcyon days of student life, laughing till we nearly cried over some of our antics .... not forgetting valentines from long ago!

Looks like I can use Ivy's heart shaped cake tin after all!

Desert Island baking

Afternoon Tea in London

When I’m in the kitchen, I'm always listening to the radio. BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs always produces some interesting choices. The interviewer asks the interviewee or ‘castaway’ to choose 8 pieces of music, a luxury item and a book to have with them on the desert island. Whilst I’d have to think hard about which music to choose, I’d have little hesitation in asking for an oven, a supply of baking ingredients and Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking book to keep me happy.

I’m going to be working with students from the University of Huddersfield  to produce some video clips of traditional baking techniques and a range of recipes, as part of my mission to keep Grandma’s baking legacy alive. I’m very excited about doing this with final year undergraduate media students who will be carrying out all the stages of planning, shooting and editing footage.

I want to find out which recipes will be the ones you want to see. I asked Milan, who’s in charge of the students, which recipes he would choose and he told me his favourite cake is Victoria Sandwich. I’m well impressed as he’s a skilled home chef who loves cooking regularly for family and friends.  

Over the next 4 weeks, I’ll be doing a poll on Grandma Abson's Facebook page to see which cakes, buns, teabreads, biscuits, puddings, jams and chutneys you’d like me to bake.

Take a look at what we made for Afternoon tea in London last summer. What would you choose for desert island baking?

A sweet treat for Burns Night

There's a Scottish welcome in January with Burns Night on 25 January celebrating the life, songs and poetry of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, born on 25 January 1759.

Haggis is the traditional dish to serve on Burns Night, accompanied by Tatties (mashed potato with a dash of nutmeg) and Neeps (mashed swede or turnip with a touch of ginger). But what do you serve up as dessert or pudding on Burns Night? My proud Scottish friend, Fiona,who is an amazing cook has a traditionally Scottish Prune and Whisky Tarte which she makes every year for her family and friends as well as her own Haggis!

Fiona’s Prune and Whisky Tarte

8 inch (21cm) flan tin

8oz (225g) shortcrust pastry

8oz (225g) dried prunes (those stoned ready to eat D’Agen prunes are best)

4floz (100ml) double cream

2 eggs

3oz (75g) caster sugar

2oz (50g) ground almonds

2 fl oz (50ml) malt whisky 

Zest of one orange finely grated

1oz (25g) butter

Line the flan tin with pastry, prick and leave in fridge to rest. Preheat the oven to 400F, Mark 6, 200c. Whisk the cream, eggs, sugar, almonds and zest in a large bowl. Melt the butter and add to the egg mixture and whisk again. Arrange the prunes on the bottom of the flan and pour the egg mixture over. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. When cooked, drizzle the whisky over the top and serve warm.

This recipe sounds quite decadent! Slainte Mhath! Happy Burns Night! Have you got a Scottish recipe to share?