Grandma's old Baking Book

‘Have you still got a copy of your Grandma’s recipes?’ has been a regular question whenever I’ve been back to the Bolton-upon-Dearne, where I grew up in South Yorkshire. Shortly after Grandma died 30 years ago, I collated her recipes into a booklet entitled ‘Grandma Abson’s Yorkshire Recipes’ and sold them across the North of England. In fact, they sold like hotcakes.

I’m planning on launching the book again by this summer. Grandma was very proud of her baking, whether it was winning prizes or having family and friends sampling cakes and puddings. Her recipes stand the test of time, they were simple yet scrumptious. I can’t wait to see them in print again. The process has just begun with the manuscript now sent off to FCD  to do the graphics and design. I’ll keep you all posted.

Waste not want not

Lemon Biscuits just out of the oven

None of us likes to waste things and this is particularly the case with food. Grandma Abson was always careful to make full use of everything in her pantry and nothing went to waste. So when I had a couple of lemons left over, I remembered Grandma's recipe for Lemon Biscuits. I adapted the original recipe by reducing the sugar and substituting lemon juice for the milk. 

Lemon Biscuits

½ lb/225g plain flour

5 oz/150g butter

2 oz/50g caster sugar

Grated rind of one lemon

Pinch salt

1 tbsp lemon juice 

Mix the salt and flour. Rub in the butter and add the grated rind, sugar and then the lemon juice. Turn the paste onto a floured board and knead to a dough. Roll out rather thickly and cut into rounds. Place on a greased baking tray and bake in a slow oven for 20 minutes at 325F, Mark 3 or 170C.

Tip for making biscuits: A stiff dough is the consistency for most biscuits. Just enough liquid is needed to bind all the dry ingredients together so the dough can be shaped or rolled out and cut without crumbling. It is important that the dough is well but lightly kneaded so it’s smooth and even.

Meryl says : Grated rind of an orange can be substituted  to make Orange Biscuits.

Enjoy making biscuits – my Lemon Biscuits didn’t last long! 

Baking and hygiene

Keep clean and stay safe

Last Monday, I spent the day at a Training school getting to grips with Food Safety. We had a lovely tutor and, although this is a really serious topic, we covered the topics in a really entertaining way. We did food safety law, hazards, temperatures, handling food, storage and hygiene, and then the heat was on when we took the test to achieve  the CIEH Level 2 Food Safety in Catering at the end of the day.

Grandma Abson did her cooking for the first 65 years of her life without the benefit of being able to refrigerate food but it didn’t stop her from taking food hygiene seriously and keeping utensils and preparation areas scrupulously clean when preparing food. Chilling was about finding a cool place in the larder to keep food safe. Covering cakes and buns with beaded muslin cloths kept insects away.

So, here are my top tips to you for baking at home to make sure nothing unsavoury happens:

1. Wash your hands thoroughly before preparing food.

2. Remove jewellery (rings etc.), when preparing food.

3. Always use clean cloths to wipe surfaces or utensils.

4. Keep fresh food separate from cooked food to avoid cross contamination.

5. Use different knives to chop raw meat or fish and ready-to-eat foods such as salads or cheese.

6. In a fridge, store cooked food on a higher shelf than raw food.

7. Check the length of time for storage of food and observe use-by dates.

8. Don’t leave food out for a long time.

9. Be aware of storage temperatures for fridges (1-5C) and freezers (-18C).

10. Only reheat food once. 

Safe baking to all!

New Year Baking for 6 January (Le Jour des Rois)

Galette de pommes

I love celebrating New Year with a Galette de pommes. It reminds me when I lived in France and worked in a school in St Quentin. We had a staff reception to celebrate ‘Le Jour des Rois’ (the Day of the Kings) on 6 January and tasted the famous ‘Galette des Rois’. 

The tradition is that a ‘feve’, a dried bean or a porcelain figure, is hidden in the ‘Galette’ and whoever finds it becomes King or Queen for the day and wears a golden paper crown. The ‘Galette des Rois’ is usually made with puff pastry with a layer of almond paste or frangipane. The head teacher served us all with a glass of champagne. I had taken some of Grandma’s Christmas Cake and Monsieur le Proviseur said it was the best cake he had ever tasted.

My landlady's friend, Madame Blanchard made an apple version : 
Galette de Pommes. 

Pastry

150g plain flour 

100g butter  (cut into small pieces)

1 tsp sugar 

4 tbsps water 

Filling

5 apples

25g unsalted butter melted

100g caster sugar 

Topping

50g caster sugar 

1-2 tbsp Calvados 

 Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl with the butter butter. Add the water and bring together. Wrap the dough in clingfilm, and let rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Remove from the fridge and let it soften while making the filling. Peel, core and slice the apples.  Roll the pastry out into a large circle to fit the dish. Place the pastry in the dish. Arrange the apples so that they overlap. Place in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Heat the oven to 200C/Mark 6/400F. Remove the Galette from the fridge and brush the pastry edge with the melted butter. Sprinkle the apples with the caster sugar and Calvados. Place the Galette in the oven and bake for 45-60 minutes until golden. Serve hot or cold with cream or ice cream. 

Meryl’s tips : I follow the pastry recipe which is like Grandma’s shortcrust pastry but include 25g of ground almonds. I use Coxes apples but don’t add any sugar since we don’t like things too sweet. I also sieve some icing sugar and caramelise it under the grill once the Galette is out of the oven rather than the caster sugar. See for yourself, it's very tasty.

It’s been a hectic week baking for family and friends  but I read Nigel Slater's book 'Toast' and remembered the same sort of delectable apple and lemon meringue pies just like Grandma used to make. 

More festive and New Year baking

Tarte Noël

Festive baking continues with Tarte Noël. This is a recipe of my

Grandma's son, Albert, who lived in North Wales for the last 20 or so years of his life. I always make it during the Christmas and New Year holidays. It's a good one to use the last of the (homemade) mincemeat and is a favourite for New Year's Eve.

For the pastry:

4 oz/110g plain flour

pinch salt

2 oz /50g softened butter 

2 egg yolks

2 oz/50g caster sugar 

For the filling:

6 tbsps mincemeat

For the topping:

4 oz/110g ground almonds

2 oz/50g flaked almonds

2 eggs whites

almond extract

For the glaze:

2 tbsp apricot jam

2 tbsp boiling water

Method:

Sift the flour and salt in a bowl. Rub the fat into the flour. Once the mixture is crumbly, make a well in the centre and add the egg yolks and the caster sugar. Place in the fridge to chill for one hour. Roll out the pastry and line a 7 inch (roughly 18cm) flan dish. Spread the mincemeat over the pastry base. Blend the ground almonds, egg whites and almond extract and spread over the mincemeat. Cover the top with flaked almonds and bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 F / Gas mark 4 / 180 C. For the glaze, mix the apricot jam with boiling water, and brush this over the top of the tart as soon as it is out of the oven.

I hope you enjoy it! I want to share lots of traditional recipes so send me your favourites to keep the legacy of our Grandmas' baking alive. Have you got a treasured family cake, pudding, pie or biscuit that they used to make?

Christmas baking like Grandma used to do

Grandma Abson aged about 16 in 1900

Today is Christmas Day, and I've been busy preparing some treats for the family over the past few weeks and days in preparation for this special day on the baking calendar. I've been particularly busy as I have been setting up my new blog where I will be sharing the baking passion and expertise that I inherited from Grandma Abson. So bear with me as I'm new to this! I hope you'll enjoy these baking tips and stories.

Homemade Mince pies

On Christmas Eve, we had my daughter's fiance and his family over. Grandma Abson's tasty Mince pies are always a really crowd pleaser. They are bitesize so you can enjoy more than one without feeling guilty. I make Mince pies with home made mincemeat and Grandma's melt in the mouth pastry. To make them extra special you can make Christmassy shapes such as stars, bells and Christmas trees out of the pastry on top, and brush them with milk before popping them in the oven. Try them for yourself.

At the end of October, I always make Grandma Abson's Christmas Cake. My tip is to always make the cake at least six weeks in advance so that the brandy  can mature, then just before Christmas, I put the finishing touches - home made almond paste and icing. We are usually too full to start the cake on Christmas Day, so we usually have a slice with afternoon tea and Wensleydale cheese on Boxing Day. 

Grandma Abson's Christmas Cake

Happy Christmas everyone!