Betsy's Biccie-Bics

My Boxer dog, Betsy, loves to have her own evening/late afternoon treats at Happy Hour (sometimes she doesn’t want to wait for Happy Hour when it officially starts!). I like to ring the changes with various goodies that I make myself. This soft treat is easy to make and is a real hit. I’ve given quantities as a guideline: you can add more or less of each item as convenient.

To make:

Cook a cup of plain raw rice with a sprinkling of salt; when cool, spoon this into a bowl or food processor.

Add 1 tablespoon of a fat, whether butter, chicken fat, bacon fat, or tallow.

Grate about 2 ounces of cheddar cheese into the bowl or processor.

Add one large egg or two small ones.

Snip up one tangerine or small orange, removing any pips.

Optional: sprinkle with Hungarian paprika.

Blend all ingredients together (this will create a puree if you’re using a processor).

To bake:

Line a baking tray with parchment paper, and bake in a 375°F / 190°C oven for 35-40 minutes, till nicely browned. Allow to cool, then cut into approximate squares (most convenient for this is a rolling pizza cutter).

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. They won’t last: happy chops will soon devour them!

GHEE, the wonderful Indian clarified butter

High-quality (cultured) butter, soft and spreadable but kept from spoiling in a marble butter bell. The butter sits in the top ‘bell’, upside down over the base with half an inch of water in it to keep out oxygen and germs.

The benefit of clarified butter — or in this case, ghee — is that it keeps longer than fresh uncooked butter, and it has a delightful nutty, caramelized flavour that enhances dishes both savoury and sweet. The flavour will vary according to the flavour of the specific butter you use, and also how long you cook/brown it. I use Président, a high-fat French cultured butter that is commonly available in America.

TO MAKE GHEE:

Solidified ghee, easily spreadable at room temperature.

Ghee, liquid and hot from the saucepan.

With the hob element set to medium-low, put the desired quantity of butter, cut into pieces, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan (helps prevent burning and keeps a more even heat). Once the butter has melted completely, turn the temperature to a low setting. As the butter starts to foam, resist the urge to stir: you want the solids to fall to the pan bottom and separate from the liquid (whey). Twenty minutes will generally suffice for ghee (you’ll hear the butter ‘snapping and popping’ in the pan as it cooks and goes from milky to golden-clear). The ghee will eventually have a golden foam and the solid bits will be brown: how dark each gets, without burning, is a matter of taste. I recommend, for most purposes, keeping the ghee fairly light in colour. (Colour is an indication of flavour not just doneness in this case.) I don’t bother with skimming-off, but just pour the butter through a fine sieve into a separate bowl. You can reserve the brown bits for enhancing baked goods or seasoning savoury dishes. Ghee that you will use that day does not need refrigerating. But it is recommended to refrigerate unused portions (both the solids and the ghee itself) to extend their freshness.

Classic English Hot Custard for Two

I grew up with Bird’s (powdered tinned custard mix), which is such an English institution, it even has a page in the excellent and inspiring Platinum Jubilee Cookbook. Though hot custard seemed to fall out of fashion for decades — it was all about cream instead, which I found baffling — custard is what I grew up with and still believe is best over many hot desserts. In particular, it is ideal with fruit pies such as rhubarb, its creaminess a complement to the sweet tang of the fruit.

Not having a tin of Bird’s in my pantry (I shall have to investigate getting some, but they don’t seem to stock it any longer in my local Publix), I’m happy enough to make custard from scratch (even though my mother never did). But custard is about the moment: you don’t want it for later. It’s a ‘mix, pour, and discard’ sort of item. Since I am conservative with my fridge and pantry stocks, I only want to make enough to suit two people of an evening — if it’s just hubby and me. Here’s my recipe. Note that vanilla is a nice addition, either through vanilla sugar or through adding extract (I like vanilla, so I use both).

What to avoid: lumps and a burnt bottom: keep the element temperature low at first, and stir often.

What to aim for: a rather thick, richly yellow sauce, which pours easily while hot (when cooled, it forms a skin, which you will want to skim off).

For more custard, simply double the recipe: 1½ cups milk, 3 egg yolks, 1 Tbs sugar, ¼ tsp salt, etc.

CLASSIC ENGLISH HOT CUSTARD

¾ cup milk (I use 2% or semi-skimmed)

1½ egg yolks.*

1 tsp cornstarch OR 2 tsps all-purpose flour, if you have no cornstarch

½ Tbs vanilla-infused sugar + ⅛ tsp vanilla essence (extract) OR

½ Tbs granulated sugar + ¼ tsp vanilla essence

⅛ tsp fine salt

*This may seem awkward, but all you need do is separate the second yolk from the white, slip the yolk onto a regular spoon, and then cut it in half with a knife. The cut part will slide into the bowl with the other yolk, and you can cook the remaining whites and half-yolk for breakfast — or give to the dog!

Warm the milk gently over very low heat and stir in the cornstarch or flour until well blended. Whisk the yolks into the milk and add the sugar, salt, and vanilla essence/extract.

Quince Pie with Honey, Cloves, and Ghee

Quince, when you can get it (I bought mine via courier, from the Pacific West coast), is a lovely delicately floral fruit, akin to apples, that needs to be cooked before using. This pie does it justice, in my opinion.

This recipe uses browned butter (cooked butter with browned solids) in the fruit-honey syrup that enriches the sliced fruit. It adds a creaminess to the texture and nuttiness to the somewhat floral-tasting fruit. Instructions for ghee appear at the bottom of the complete pie recipe. I advise making the ghee ahead of time, for convenience, but you can also make it while the fruit is simmering in the pan. Hot custard to serve with is optional. (See how to make it.)

INGREDIENTS:

2 lbs/ 3 jumbo quince, very ripe, peeled, cored and sliced like apples

3 cups water

2 star anise

½ cup honey

½ tsp fine salt

After cooking: 2 Tbs Grand Marnier, plus 1 oz unsalted ghee (or salted, if using salted butter).

2 tsp ground mace, ½ tsp whole cloves, zest of one lemon

Put the water in a large saucepan, add the honey, salt, and star anise, and stir together. Add the quince and bring to the boil. Cover pan, reduce heat to a medium simmer, and cook, turning the fruit occasionally, for about 30 minutes. Then remove lid, cooking for another half hour, letting the liquid reduce.

While the fruit is cooking, make the ghee (see below), which takes about half an hour.

Reserving the juice-syrup, drain the quince into a colander over a large bowl, and then transfer the liquid to a small saucepan. Under low heat, keep reducing until you have no more than about ¼ cup of syrup. (Should be syrupy, not too runny.) Add 2 Tbs Grand Marnier, and briefly bring to the boil to burn off the alcohol. Take off the heat, and stir in 1 oz unsalted butter. Scatter over the quince ½ tsp whole cloves, 2 tsps ground mace, and the zest of one lemon.

Spoon quince onto blind-baked crust, cover with top crust or lattice, and refrigerate. Baste the pie generously with well-beaten egg (the whole egg), and sprinkle the crust with turbinado or demerara (crunchy) sugar. Cut vents in the centre of the pie if you are using a complete crust.

Shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée, for those that like it in French) with a ‘lion’s mane’ edging.

Just-made ghee. I don’t bother to sieve with a coffee filter when making it for baking purposes, so there are tiny particles at the bottom of this ramekin.

Pre-heat oven to 425°F (plain bake mode or with convection, if you have it). Put cold-crusted pie in oven and reduce heat to 400°F, baking for 10 minutes. Then turn down to 375°F and back for a further 40 minutes, checking on crust after about 25 minutes (cover edges with tinfoil or a rim protection ring, if you have one).

When done, with juices audibly bubbling and a warm golden brown crust, allow to cool slightly on a rack, before serving with hot English custard or ice cream.

TO MAKE BROWNED BUTTER OR GHEE:

Ghee, more butter-honey-coloured, when semi-solidified at room temperature.

With the hob element set to medium-low, put the desired quantity of butter, cut into pieces, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan (helps prevent burning and keeps a more even heat). Once the butter has melted completely, turn the temperature to a low setting. As the butter starts to foam, resist the urge to stir: you want the solids to fall to the pan bottom and separate from the liquid (whey). Twenty minutes will generally suffice for ghee (you’ll hear the butter ‘snapping and popping’ in the pan as it cooks and goes from milky to golden-clear). The ghee will eventually have a golden foam and the solid bits will be brown: how dark each gets, without burning, is a matter of taste. I recommend, for this recipe, keeping the ghee fairly light in colour. (Colour is an indication of flavour not just doneness in this case.) I don’t bother with skimming-off, but just pour the ghee, including the brown bits (no need to sieve the fat for this recipe) into the quince cooking syrup. That’s why I call it ‘browned butter’ here, rather than ghee: we use it all.

The Joy of Eggs

Three eggs of different colours from the same farm in Maine. Unsized and ungraded, from free-foraging chickens. I love the delicate blue and green ones especially. And… they taste wonderful!

My previous post talked about the renascence of butter, a long vilified or at least suspect food that never deserved the cold shoulder in the first place. It’s fitting that this post be about eggs, not only because whole eggs are now seen as good (as opposed to just the whites), but because eggs and butter are so essential to good baking. Eggs, butter, and sugar give you a fabulous basis for a dessert, such as clafoutis, pound cake, or éclairs, while eggs and butter with other ingredients (notably cheese) make delightfully savoury gougères. An egg cooked in a buttered pan gives you a fab scramble, creamy and ready for seasoning. Like butter, eggs are not only staples in my kitchen but they are especially cherished and appreciated, week in, week out. Rarely does a day go by that we don’t have either butter or eggs in our dishes, and often both at the same time.

Eggs are one of nature’s perfect packages, aesthetically pleasing as well as biologically clever. As we all know, if they pair well with butter in baking, they pair even better with cheese in the eating — and they complement each other in their protein to fat ratios. If cheese is more fat than protein, eggs are the other way round: about 9% fat, (mainly in the yolk) with the rest being a large number of various proteins (half of which are also in the yolk). No wonder we enjoy butter and eggs so much together!

Butter: Making Up Your Own Mind

As a baker I took it on faith for years that unsalted butter was best. We are told that unsalted allows you to salt your dish more precisely — which, when making pastry, is rather important: too little salt is a disaster, but then again, so is too much. We are also assured that salt, acting as a preservative, may make the butter keep longer but does not mean that what you’ve bought is fresh. Yet lately, I’ve had reason to doubt the Salted/Unsalted Butter Divide. For one thing, I think butter flies off most supermarket refrigerated shelves pretty frequently: I’m not concerned about freshness when I buy. For another, I tried Président’s salted version (it’s my go-to butter when at home, and is French, as the name suggests), just to see what I might be missing, and the truth is that when it was spread on my homemade bread, the salt was undetectable. It might just as well have been unsalted. And according to Olivia Potts — whose delightful and generously wide-ranging book I have just bought and can highly recommend — salted will do just fine, even for baking. She’s no stickler for one or the other when there really is no need to be.

Butter has become important to me in a way that I wouldn’t have imagined even a handful of years ago. When I was young, I always chose butter over manufactured spreads: I knew instinctively that anything that is only a few steps away from the cow it came from must be better for you than the goop we were told was better for us (it wasn’t). But perhaps because of the era I grew up in, where fats were highly suspect and public messaging warned us off them, I never really thought of oils such as butter as food. It’s as if I saw it (without much thought) as a kind of edible non-food, or a food by-product. Only in the past few years of baking, and of learning a lot more about nutrition, have I come to really appreciate and enjoy it. Now I want to taste the butter by itself: when you are restricting calories, an excellent toasted bread with plain butter on it is almost as delicious as a slice of cake. I had long since made up my mind that butter wasn’t bad, but now I’ve decided that it’s positively good. Good on the tongue, and good in the bod: Butter is a great source of vitamins A, D, E, B12, and K, as well as calcium. It helps to prevent diabetes, support thyroid functioning, and promote good vision throughout life. And if you’re pregnant, it helps your growing baby. So, my verdict is in: Butter is not just a food, it’s a power food!

Local Maine butter with artistic state-proud packaging.

Olivia Potts’s new book, which is everything butter. She explains in her introduction that she grew up hardly eating it, whereas (among fats) I myself rarely ate anything else (apart from roasted chicken skin, that is!).

Best Peach Crumble

If you want an easy dessert that will WOW your family or party guests, bake this. It is a fabulous combination of crispy-sweet-nutty topping and succulent, fresh-flavoured peaches. I do not peel peaches for pies or crumbles — you keep all the fruit colour, nutrition, and flavour, and it spares you an unneeded step in the process. I bought my in-season South Carolina peaches from the roadside seller where I live in Florida — but you can use any ripe fresh or tinned peaches you have.

For the crumble:

7.5 oz (1 ½ cups) all-purpose flour

1 cup packed light brown sugar

5 oz unsalted butter, melted

½ cup ground almonds

½ cup ground oatmeal

1 teaspoon medium-fine sea salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the filling:

minimum 5 small or medium peaches (1 ½ lbs), cut into slices* — more as wanted or available

about 1.5 oz /44 grams (⅛ cup) Lyle’s golden syrup or deep-flavoured honey

about 12 ml lemon juice (a bit less than juice of half a lemon)

2 teaspoons Grand Marnier

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

⅛ teaspoon medium-fine sea salt

* The easiest way to cut up each peach: Slice through the center line, around the pit. Gently twist to separate the fruit into two halves, and remove the pit. Cut each half, face down on a board, with four even strokes (to create five slices of similar size).

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients, and then pour in the melted butter (put butter in a small bowl and microwave on a medium-low setting for a minute at a time, to make runny).

Find another biggish bowl for the five peaches, sliced as described above. Add the syrup — note that if you have a digital scale, the easiest method is to tare (cancel) the weight of the bowl and the peaches, and then weigh only the syrup (or honey, if using instead) that you pour over the peaches, to get the correct amount. Then add the lemon juice, cinnamon, ginger, and Grand Marnier. With a wooden spoon or a spatula, gently turn the fruit over to distribute the other ingredients evenly.

Pre-heat oven to 375°F/190°C. In a deep-dish pie plate, spoon out the peach slices and cover at an even depth with the crumble. If you are using five peaches, there will be more crumble than you need: the rest can be reserved for another time (refrigerated for a while or frozen). Bake for 45 minutes, when the crumble will be a lovely dark gold and the peach juices will be bubbling.

Allow to cool briefly on a rack. Serve warm, with or without vanilla ice cream or hot custard.

Iberico Mushroom Gougères

A gougère with green cauliflower

This recipe is my take on the mushroom-topped gougère, which by itself is just choux pastry mixed with cheese. I match portabella mushrooms (yes, there are two As and one O in the mushroom name) with two Spanish cheeses in the gougère dough. They are very similar cheeses, and even have the same herb-pressed braiding on their rinds, in different colors. But Iberico is made from a blend of cow’s, sheep’s, and goat’s milk, and is slightly tangier and more floral than the other cheese. Manchego is made from sheep’s milk and is a bit sharper, though it varies with age. You could use either cheese alone for this dish, or mix them as I’ve done. 

For the choux pastry:

5.7 oz or 1 cup + 2 TBs bread flour (or “strong” flour)  

4 oz butter (one stick or 8 tablespoons)

250 ml or 1 cup + 2 teaspoons water

½ tsp onion powder

½  tsp salt

3 large eggs, beaten

Iberico cheese, grated — 1.6 oz or 45 grams or ½ cup

Manchego cheese, grated — 1.6 oz or 45 grams or ½ cup

For the filling:

4 medium portabella mushrooms (about 3 oz each) OR 2 large portabellas

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

½ tsp herbes de provence of other herb mix

¼ tsp ground white pepper

5 oz or 1 cup chopped white onion

For the velouté sauce:

Roux (blended flour and butter)

1 cup or 250ml chicken stock

¼ tsp cayenne, paprika, or other red ground pepper

salt to taste

First, make the choux paste for the gougères. In a medium saucepan over high heat, melt the butter in the water and add the salt. Remove from heat, add flour, and mix thoroughly, mashing to a smooth paste with a wooden spoon. Return the saucepan to a medium-hot burner and stir often, cooking the flour-butter paste for a few minutes, until it has a sheen like marzipan. (Yes, you do need to ‘pre-cook’ the paste.) Now you’re ready for the eggs. Crack one egg at a time into the pan, and blend each egg in thoroughly, so that each is thoroughly absorbed into the flour-butter paste, then add the next one. Pre-heat the oven to 375°F/ 190°C, and spoon out clumps of paste the size of small donuts, onto a non-stick or parchment-paper-lined baking tray. Bake for 40 minutes with the oven door constantly shut.

Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack. Cook the onion-garlic- mushroom filling in a frying pan over medium heat, beginning with the olive oil and onions, then adding the garlic and the mushrooms and other ingredients last. Cook the velouté sauce in medium-low heat in a small saucepan. Pour the sauce over the mushroom-onion mix, stir, and spoon the medley onto the bottom half of the gougères, with the top half perched on top. Serve with salad greens or other veg.

Everything-Goes Jam and Nut Squares

This is kind of flat cake, good for tea and coffee and for cutting into squares. This is a quantity that doesn’t quite fill the typical square baking pan, for the simple reason that I don’t need that much cake at one time, and I certainly don’t need it when contagion is upon the land and we are trying to spare the butter and especially the eggs. The recipe upon which this is based (thanks, Olivia Potts) uses desiccated coconut and omits the pecans, almond flour, coconut flour, and cornstarch. The vanilla essence I used (paste in Potts’s recipe — what is that?) is homemade: two years ago I put a few vanilla pods in vodka et voilá: a nice, slightly boozy, essence. By the way, it doesn’t matter in grams whether it’s all precise. I recorded my ingredient quantities as I went along, and it came out to: 109g sugar, 107g butter, 109g all-purpose flour, and so on. In a recipe like this, easy come, easy go. Precision doesn’t matter. I round the numbers just to make it tidy and nice. Double the quantities as needed.

For the batter:

110g all-purpose flour

110g sugar

110g butter

20g coconut flour

20g almond flour

about 12 pecan halves, finely ground

1 Tbs cornstarch (or cornflour)

2 ¾ tsp baking powder

1 tsp medium-fine sea salt (a bit less if using fine)

For the topping:

About 7 Tbs jam, warmed if need be to allow spreading

About 12 pecan halves, semi-coarsely crushed in a mortar

Bake on middle rack in preheated 325°F oven for 30 minutes until a warm golden colour, or until a gentle finger prod doesn’t leave a depression. Let cool and then spread with the jam and sprinkle all over with the mashed nuts. Store unused portions in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.

Amanda's Garibaldi biscuits

Although these are called biscuits, they are really finger pastries loaded with currants (tiny round raisins of the Zante grape) — and the easiest pastries to make. The ingredients are simple, and you read it right: there is only a tablespoon of superfine granulated sugar in the dough, because the currants themselves are so intense and sweet. There is egg in the dough and also for the glaze, to give a nice warm golden glow. I like a hint of pie-spiciness, which you can substitute with others (nutmeg or cinnamon, for instance) as you like. I also like the coarse sugar crystals on top, but these are optional: you can also leave the biscuits plain or scatter the regular sugar you have instead. This recipe makes about 27-28 biscuits plus yummy trimmings. I think they are much better ‘cold’ than straight from the oven.

For the dough:

113 g / 4 oz / I stick of softened unsalted butter

The uncut dough, with the neat fold at the right edge where the upper layer was folded over the layer with the currants. I saw that this needed some more currants, so in the final recipe the quantity is ideal at 140 g.

284 g / 10 oz / 2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon caster sugar

1 tsp medium-fine sea salt

¾ teaspoon ground spices, such as:

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground cardamom or allspice

¼ tsp ground mace or nutmeg

4 Tablespoons milk (I use 2% milkfat)

1 large egg, well beaten, with two teaspoons reserved for glazing

To spread on HALF of the rolled-out dough:

140 g / 5 oz / 1 cup currants (if you have a bit less, that’s fine)

For the glaze:

2 tsps beaten egg

1 Tablespoon Turbinado or Demerara sugar

METHOD:

1. Mix the dry ingredients of flour, sugar, salt, and spices, then add the milk, soft butter, and beaten egg, mixing well. (Put the whole butter stick in the flour and churn it up with your hands.) Remember to reserve two teaspoons of the beaten egg for the glazing. The dough should have a certain firmness, so chill it in the fridge for several minutes if it feels too soft or ‘melty’, before rolling it out. You may find it helpful to roll out on parchment paper, so that even after the dough has been cut into biscuits, you can easily transfer them to the baking tray. I also like to chill dough before placing in the hot oven, for a better result.

2. Roll out dough in a rough rectangle about ⅛ inch thick. Spread currants on one half of the dough, fold the over half over, and roll your pin over these two layers, keeping the dough approximately squared off. Keep rolling and pressing until the currants are plainly visible.

3. Pre-heat oven to 400°F / 200°C. Trim rounded edges of dough to make straight edges, and cut (a rolling dough blade helps) into rectangles/'fingers'.

4. Glaze with remaining beaten egg and sprinkle with your choice of sugar. Place biscuits on baking tray that is greased or lined with parchment paper, and bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown but not brown. Allow to cool completely before serving and store in an airtight container or freeze for later use.

All-Purpose Rolls

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My bun floweth over (this is the smaller version, of course)

I can eat these at any time of day, preferably as shown: toasted, with a scrambled egg, slice of ripe tomato, bit of lettuce, cheddar, salt and pepper, and hot sauce — and some watercress or a spring onion on the side.

This bread machine recipe makes 16 small dinner rolls or 8 large ones. (See below for half quantities if you want half the batch.) The large rolls pictured contain one egg; the small roll at left has none. If using two eggs, I prefer to add them last, just before hitting the Start button.

You will need:

3¼ cups (16.4 oz) bread flour

1 scant cup warm water OR 1 large egg + ¾ cup + 1 tsp water OR 2 eggs + ½ cup + 2 tsps water (together = 135 ml)

2 Tbs / 1 oz unsalted butter, cut into pieces and allowed to soften

1 Tbs raw honey

2¼ tsps bread machine yeast /active dry yeast / quick-rise yeast

1½ tsps fine sea salt (2 tsp if using medium-fine, such as fleur de sel)

up to 1½ tsps dried herbs

Select the Dough setting on the bread machine. Check on the consistency as kneading proceeds: add a dribble more water or pinch more flour if needed for a smooth, springy dough ball that can be easily handled.

When the dough is ready, turn it out on a cutting board (Iightly flour it if needed). Divide the dough evenly in half, then divide the halves in half, and so on until you have 6 or 8 or 16 rolls, as desired.

Place the raw rolls on a large parchment-lined baking tray (or two smaller trays). Cover with tea towels and let them rise in a warm place for up to half an hour.

If a glossy finish is desired, brush the rolls with beaten egg. These will turn a nice warm brown anyway, especially if you have used the egg alternative.

Bake at 375°F / 190°C for about 25 minutes (the egg-containing dough will brown sooner). Allow to cool (bread continues to bake as it cools), and store any uneaten rolls in the freezer in plastic freezer bags.

Halving this recipe for a half-batch (suitable for a small family):

8.2 oz flour / 1 egg + ¼ cup + 1 tsp water / ½ oz soft butter / ½ Tbs honey / 1⅛ tsp bread machine yeast / 1 tsp medium-fine salt / ¾ tsp dried herbs

Maple Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

I use a fairly dark amber maple syrup for this pie, but any genuine maple syrup will do. I suggest here a ‘lattice’ top, but I actually like doing this in a ‘tartan’ pattern of symmetrically alternating strips, thick and thin. A bit difficult to describe, so for now we’ll stick with ‘lattice’.

For the filling:

1 lb 12 oz / 790 grams fresh rhubarb, washed and ends trimmed

12 oz / 340 g strawberries (equal to a one-pound punnet minus 6-7 berries)

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground mace

4 Tablespoons or 1/4 cup maple syrup

For the glaze:

One beaten egg followed by a generous sprinkling of sugar. 

Blind-bake the bottom crust at 375° F / 177°C for about 20 minutes, until it’s a light golden brown.

Cut the rhubarb into roughly 2-inch lengths, arrange in a single layer on a baking tray and bake at 350° for about 20 minutes.

Hull the strawberries and halve the medium-sized ones. Quarter the large ones and leave small ones whole.

Mix the fruit, salt, and spice, and drizzle the quarter-cup of maple syrup over it. (I like a bit of tang: add more as you like.)

Roll out top dough and cut strips for lattice. Brush with beaten egg and dust with granulated sugar.

Rum Nut Brownies

4 oz butter (1 standard American stick)

3 oz almond paste in small bits

2 large eggs

⅔ cup lightly toasted walnuts*

⅔ cup cocoa powder

⅔ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup raw cane sugar

1 Tbs rum

1 tsp almond extract

½ tsp baking soda

Using an electric beater, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy, then add the eggs, rum, baking soda, cocoa, and almond extract. Next, add the flour, a little at a time, and the almond paste, till well combined.

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F / 177°C. Spoon the mixture into a parchment-lined square baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the center is sufficiently firm (use a toothpick to check: it should come out dry). Let cool on a rack and cut into squares. 

* Break up the walnuts into small bits, put in a frying pan over medium-high heat and stir about for a few minutes, until the skins begin to darken. Reduce heat if need be. Don't allow the nuts to burn, and remove them from the heat as soon as they are off-raw. If any bits look very dark, don't use them.

Figgy Heaven Cake

If you don’t have a large orange, gather about 11 ounces or 308 grams’ worth of tangerines and use their juice and rind instead.

This cake has three elements: a fig-jam batter, a ‘walnut swirl’ in the middle, and an orange ‘soak’. I list each element’s ingredients first, and below that, I tell you what to do with them. I think the various flavours (including rum, cocoa powder, cinnamon and orange zest) work beautifully together. I mention sea salt: my preferred salt for baking is a medium-fine ‘finishing’ sea salt, such as fleur de sel.

You will need three large eggs, a large orange, Greek yoghurt, walnuts, light brown sugar and honey, rum, and fig jam. I recommend a jar of Dalmatia fig spread. You will be using 10 tablespoons of jam in total, and that very conveniently equals one Dalmatia jar.

If you like, reserve some walnut pieces to press into the top of the cake (at about the 45-minute mark, to prevent their sinking or burning).

Equipment: One 9” x 5” buttered load pan.

For the batter:

3 large eggs, with the white of one egg reserved for the walnut swirl

2 Tbs honey

8½ oz all-purpose flour

4 oz or ½ cup butter (one-half of a Kerrygold block), softened

1 cup Greek yoghurt

5.6 oz or 8 Tbs fig jam

2 tsps orange zest

2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cinnamon

For the swirl:

1 cup toasted coarsely ground walnuts — not a flour or meal

1 egg white

2 Tbs fig jam

1 Tbs brown sugar

1 Tbs rum

1 tsp cocoa powder

¼ tsp sea salt

For the soak:

Juice of one large orange (about ½ cup)

¼ cup light brown sugar

1 Tbs butter

2 tsps rum

To make the batter:

First, in a large mixing bowl cream the butter with the sugar a bit at a time, then add the fig jam.

In a separate bowl, combine the other dry ingredients with the flour, and then gradually add half the flour mixture to the sugar-butter. Fold in the yoghurt, and add the rest of the flour mixture.

To make the swirl:

Toast the walnut pieces, either in a pan on medium heat or on a baking sheet at 350°F / 177°C for about 8 minutes (if you’re in a rush, put the sheet under the broiler (or grill, in the UK) for about 4 minutes — but watch them!). As soon as they are fragrant and slightly darkened, remove them from the heat. Coarsely grind — you don’t want a fine meal for this recipe.

Whisk the egg white into the ground walnuts, adding and mixing well the jam, sugar, rum, cocoa powder, and salt.

Pre-heat oven to 350°F / 177°C.

Spoon half the batter into the baking pan. Spoon the walnut swirl in an even layer onto the batter. Over the swirl, layer the rest of the batter. Bake the cake on the middle rack for 1 - 1 ¼ hours until set: a skewer should come out clean. When the cake is firming, about 15-20 minutes before it’s done, add some walnut pieces to the top, if desired. Once removed from oven, leave the cake in the pan, poke holes into the cake with the skewer, and pour over the soak. Let sit for an hour.

Turkish Yoghurt Cake

This cake has everything: it’s moist, nutty, fruity, mildly spicy, and flavourful but not rich; it has the perfect density; it's easy to make and is susceptible to different ‘interpretations’. You could change the nuts or leave the nuts and raisins out, and add fresh berries or candied fruit; you could put icing or frosting on top, or drizzle citrus syrup; you could make any one of the flavours more pronounced  (cinnamon, citrus, vanilla). You could bung in other flavourings, such as liquor – rum, brandy, sweet sherry, Tuaca, Grand Marnier –  or actual vanilla seeds, or fennel or anise. It’s a cake to dress up or down, a cake for all seasons and occasions. It is Turkish Yoghurt Cake. 

Apparently this cake comes in many versions. Claudia Roden's much simpler recipe (no nuts, raisins, cinnamon or vanilla) features lemons and lemon zest instead of orange, and Greek-style yoghurt; hers also has a lemon syrup, which she describes as 'optional'. But the one below is the recipe I know. I don’t recall where I found it, but I’ve made this cake several times, and this recipe represents my idea of improvement. My recipe has more walnuts, more raisins, less butter, and slightly more salt and vanilla than the original version. I also toast the walnuts before baking with them. In my opinion, toasting much improves the taste, but you need to be quick: the lightest broiling is all that’s needed –  just a few minutes –  or the walnut oil burns and the flavour becomes nasty.  UPDATE: Better than ever, I now add rum-and-maple-syrup infused figs: they make all the difference!

To bake:

NB: 'Tablespoon' here is the UK/US measure equalling 15 ml.

Equipment:  10-inch tube pan, electric mixer, two large mixing bowls, scraper or spoon spatula.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup or 6 oz (about 1 ½ sticks) high-quality unsalted butter

1½ cups sugar 

1 cup/ 10 oz plain yoghurt

2½ cups / 12.5 oz flour

4 eggs

1 cup chopped walnuts (lightly toasted)

½ cup golden raisins or flame raisins, the latter chopped

1 generous teaspoon freshly grated orange zest (i.e. zest of about one medium orange)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract/essence OR seeds of one vanilla pod + 1 tsp essence.

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp + ⅛ tsp sea salt

Optional: Fresh figs, 6 - 8, trimmed and quartered. place in the smallest container that will accommodate the them, and soak for a few hours in about 3 tablespoons of rum and two tablespoons of maple syrup (adjust quantity as desired). Once you remove the figs, reserve some or all of the liquid left behind to add to the cake, no more than 2 Tablespoons (discard the rest, if any).

METHOD

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the orange zest, cinnamon, vanilla, nuts and raisins.

In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, and continue to beat until well combined. Add the yoghurt.  

Butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan. Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. 

Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture, and stir until incorporated. Gently fold in the fig pieces and reserved liquid, if using. Turn mixture into pan, and bake for 1 hour (or 40 minutes if using a traditional fan-assisted oven*), or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on a rack, then remove from the pan. *If your oven drops the temperature on the 'convect' setting -- mine does by 25°F -- then bake for the full hour.

Pear Celebration Pie

We had lovely pears this summer, so I devised this recipe to make the most of them. We ate ithe pie before I could take a photograph!

For the dough:

7½ ounces of unbleached all-purpose flour

4½ ounces or 9 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter (= 1 whole stick plus an extra pat)

3 Tbs ice-cold water

¾ teaspoon of sea salt or other high-quality, medium-fine salt

¾ teaspoon of sugar (optional but recommended)

For the glaze: One beaten egg of any size with granulated sugar for sprinkling.

For the filling:

3 ripe (yielding to the touch) pears (about 1 lb before peeling and coring)

up to 6 oz blackberries, gently washed

½ cup / 60 grams slivered almonds

2 Tbs Galliano liqueur, or other fruity/herby liqueur as available.

1 tsp cornstarch (or 2 tsps all-purpose flour) mixed in with liqueur-pear juice.

A well-mixed bowl of:

2 generous heaping tablespoons / 35 grams light brown sugar

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

¼ teaspoon ground mace

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Spoon liqueur over pears and add the almonds, then the spice-sugar mix. Gently turn to distribute ingredients evenly.

Set oven to 375° to blind-bake bottom crust, 20 minutes. Remove and allow to cool before spooning pears and almonds. Put no more than half the berries in gaps between pear slices.

Roll out second half of dough, cut into one-inch lattice strips, and cover pears with them. Glaze trips completely with beaten egg. Roll the rest of the blackberries in sugar, then pop them in the square gaps between strips, creating a pin-cushion effect.

Chill pie and pre-heat oven to 375°. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or till the lattice is golden-brown. Serve hot as-is or with vanilla ice cream.

Brunchie Crunchies

This batch of small savoury pastries is a variation on the idea of “cheese straws.” It uses pre-cooked cheese to give a crunchier texture and to enhance the cheese flavour. Brunchie Crunchies make lovely snacks and are excellent for party platters, lunch bags, or a picnic. The dough can be made the day before baking. Do pay attention to the different treatment given to the softer cheese and the harder cheese, for a really delightful result.

Yield: Enough sticks to fill a cake or biscuit tin measuring 7 inches wide by 3 inches high.

Bakeware:

Baking sheet, the larger the better. Please note that a ceramic or ceramic-coated pan may give crisper, faster results, so you’ll want to check on the straws after about 12 minutes of baking, and/or reduce the heat from 400°F / 200°C.

Also required:

Parchment paper, cut into approximate squares.

Ingredients:

I cup (2.7 ounces) of sharp tangy hard cheese, such as mature Cheddar or Cheshire

I cup of a second very hard, strong cheese such as Mimolette, aged Manchego, or Parmigiano-Reggiano (genuine Parmesan).

10 ounces all-purpose flour

6 ounces unsalted butter

One beaten egg for the glaze

Sea salt and fresh black pepper, also paprika, cayennne pepper, curry or cumin powder

Chives, two tablespoons, finely snipped (optional)

Ice-cold water, about 3 tablespoons

To make:

Grate one cup or 2.7 oz of the harder cheese, e.g. the Parmesan. Put this aside.

Slice off the remaining 2.7 ounces of the softer cheese (e.g. the Cheddar), very thinly, on the short side of the cheese block. Aim for slices about ⅛ of an inch thick.

Now create the cheese brittles. Tear or cut parchment paper into rough squares about 5 or 6 inches across (you can re-use the same squares if you want). Take three or four cheese slices and place these in the center of the paper, so that they form a small rectangle. Transfer to the microwave and cook on High for 40-42 seconds. Repeat, until all slices have been cooked. NOTE: Don’t attempt to cook all the cheese at once.

Break up the cooled cheese with your fingers into little bits, the smaller the better.

Add to a large bowl 10 ounces of all-purpose flour.

Add to the flour the seasoning:

Up to 1½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Up to 2 tablespoons of finely snipped chives (optional)

Up to ½ teaspoon paprika, curry powder, cayenne, or other spicy seasonings you like. Sweet paprika will add colour even if you don’t want added heat.

Add 6 ounces of butter small chunks and slivers to the flour and mix well, working it into the flour with your fingers. Don’t allow the butter to get very soft or oily-feeling. Put the mix in the fridge for several minutes if this happens.

Add about up to 3 tablespoons ice water to the buttered flour, stirring with a fork, and squeeze the mixture with your fingers to test whether it’s coming together. If not, add a tiny bit more water. Then add all the cheese, mixing thoroughly to make the dough.

Flatten the dough into a rough square patty and chill in the fridge for a minimum of one hour, preferably 2 hours if you have time. You can also leave the dough overnight if you want to serve these fresh from the oven the next day — but this will make for a very hard ball, so you’ll need to bang it flat with a rolling between two sheets of parchment paper to make it workable.

Roll out the chilled dough into a rectangle about ¼ -inch deep (about the thickness of an ordinary pencil). Square off the edges with your hand or a knife. Patch as needed.

Cut the dough into two halves, to get two rectangles. Then cut about 2 inches off the top of each rectangle. Now cut the reduced rectangles into into thin strips, about ½ an inch across and 4-5 inches long. (If the dough seems soft or you’re working in a hot kitchen, put one rectangle into the fridge while you work on the other.) Cut the cut-offs into similar strips. If you want more uniformity you can roll the two cut-offs together into a new rectangle, before cutting the strips. But chill the newly-rolled dough for a few minutes first, and don’t overwork it.

Transfer strips to a plate with the flat of a large knife blade and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Beat an egg with a whisk or fork until yolk and white are well mixed. Using a pastry or basting brush, baste the strip tops with the egg.

In two batches, place strips on baking tray in a single layer and bake for 14 -15 minutes, until deep golden but not brown. Remove, let cool on a rack (allows air to circulate and the drying/cooking to continue), and serve hot. If not eating immediately, let cool further and store in a biscuit tin or an airtight container. To store for longer than two days, put in the freezer to retain crunchiness.

For a flavour change: Add finely chopped crispy bacon bits to the dough. Or substitute lard (cooked and hard-chilled bacon fat) for half the butter.

Quiche Chez Vous

Quiche Lorraine Chez Vous

Lovely with a simple green garnish. Lettuce, cress, rocket — any of that works nicely.

There are many different recipes for quiche lorraine, with a basic theme of eggs, cream (or half cream, half milk), herbs and onions, eggs, cheese, and bacon. You need the cheese, but it doesn’t particularly matter what sort of cheese you use, as long as it’s not a stringy mozzarella or Greek type and as long as it has good flavour. The bacon could be any kind of bacon. The onions can be any kind of onion — yellow, red, green, white, or leeks. You could skip the leeks and half the onions, and add mushrooms instead (see the recipe). You could add garlic or leave it out. You could add herbs or leave them out. If you want, the green veggie aspect of this dish could be young spinach. This is really a versatile dish, which explains why it has so long been popular. It’s also delicious cold the next day. So you could make it the day before, have some for dinner, and then have the rest for a boffo picnic. I call this Quiche Lorraine Chez Vous (‘at your home’) because I encourage you to add to it whatever you have in your fridge. Please note the ‘OR” recommendations. This is not a recipe to be uptight about. Try different ingredients and enjoy!

Bakeware:  A flan/quiche tin (tall crimped sides and removable bottom) or deep pie dish 

Also: a medium mixing bowl.

For the dough:

5 ounces or 1 level cup of unbleached all-purpose flour

3 ounces or ¾ stick of butter (6 Tablespoons)

2 Tablespoons of ice-cold water (equals 6 teaspoons)

½ teaspoon sea salt or other high-quality, medium-fine salt

For the filling: 

One large or two small garlic cloves, crushed (and pan-fried in oil with the onions). The quiche will not taste ‘garlicky’ but the flavour is enhanced.

About ¾ of a 16-ounce package of smoked thinly cut bacon rashers (up to 3 oz cooked, if you want the bacon to be prominent in the dish; less if you don’t). 

OR Canadian bacon (about 8 slices, with fat trimmed off, and crisply cooked in oil) can be substituted for regular streaky bacon.

About I teaspoon reserved bacon fat (lard), to be used for cooking the onions.

4 ounces of finely chopped onion (any kind, but I like white and/or green the best in this recipe)

OR a combination of onions and finely chopped leeks, well washed and stripped of the tough outer layers. 

ALTERNATIVELY, use 2 ounces finely chopped onion and 2-3 ounces of mushrooms.

About 1 tablespoon each of parsley and chives (err on the side of generosity). Remove all stems from parsley first. Snip herbs with scissors or chop finely. If you don’t have fresh herbs, several shakes of dried parsley and dried chives can be substituted.

Two large or extra large eggs, with an additional egg yolk

About half of a pint carton or 10 oz or 300 ml of half milk, half cream (‘half and half’)

OR 1 cup of sour cream.

3 ounces or 75 grams of grated hard cheese (good options are mature Cheddar, Manchego, hard Mahón, or Gruyère)

To make:

Blind-bake the pastry in a pre-heated oven at 375° for about 20 minutes or until it starts turning golden bown.

Divide the bacon into two batches and cook over medium heat until crisp. (You may find you get a more even result — and more in the pan at one time — if you cut the raw bacon in half first. This is the longest part of the cooking, so allow half an hour and prepare the herbs and cheese in the meantime: see below.) Set aside. Drain the fat and reserve in a bowl. When the bacon cools, break into small bits, about the size of your fingernails.

In a small pan, heat about ¼ of a teaspoon of bacon fat on a low setting and cook the crushed garlic until aromatic and slightly golden. Do not let brown. Put garlic into the bowl for the egg-cream mixture.

Slick the pan with 1 teaspoon of bacon fat and add the onions and leeks, stirring frequently, and cook over medium heat until soft. (Lower the heat if the onions are browning too quickly.) Add more bacon fat as needed. If using mushrooms, add them along with 1 tsp fat along once the onions have become soft and somewhat translucent. After a few minutes of constant stirring, when the whole mix has become golden brown, remove from the heat and add to the garlic.

Whisk the eggs together, and salt and pepper as if you were about to eat them alone as a meal, with a few extra pinches of both salt and pepper, since in fact you are seasoning the whole quiche.  

To the whisked eggs add the half and half, the bacon, the grated cheese, and the garlic, onions, leeks if using, and herbs.

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. On the middle rack, bake the filled flan dish for 35-40 minutes in a conventional oven, or about 25 minutes with convection. Note that when you remove the pie to cool on a rack, it’s still cooking internally. Please note also that times will vary according to how hot or how efficient your oven is: 40 minutes on a non-convection setting is closer to perfect in my experience, but anything over will tend to overcook it. If you’re not sure about doneness, use a toothpick to gauge whether the center is still wet or not.

Best Bakewell Tart

Frangipane for the tart

The Bakewell Tart is reputed to be an accidental recipe, created in England in the early 1800s (but not early enough for Jane Austen to have eaten it). The jam that is spread over the crust was supposedly a misunderstanding of the instructions (clearly not very good instructions!) given to a servant. I have decided to continue the creative “misunderstandings” of the recipe, in the interest of variety and a fruity tang.

View fullsize

Quince paste usually comes in rectangular plastic containers (sometimes tins, but quality varies). This Spanish product shows the quince fruit on the label.

I have made Bakewell Tart with jam on the bottom, and very nice it is, too. But I really prefer fresh or defrosted frozen fruit, cooked with some brown sugar, or else a layer of membrillo, a sweet paste made from quince. Raspberries work well, as does rhubarb, either of which can be used in my recipe here. I also like to add ground toasted walnuts to the traditional egg-almond meal mix or frangipane. Some recipes for Bakewell add lemon zest to the mix as an antidote to its sweetness, but I prefer simply to cut the sugar down.

For the dough:

5 ounces or 1 level cup of unbleached all-purpose flour

3 ounces or ¾ stick of butter (6 Tablespoons)

2 Tablespoons of ice-cold water (equals 6 teaspoons)

½ teaspoon sea salt or other high-quality, medium-fine salt

½ teaspoon of sugar

For the fruit layer:

1¼ cups frozen or fresh chopped rhubarb or raspberries

3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

Or ½ cup jam or fruit preserve

Or 1 cup membrillo (quince) paste

For the frangipane:

4 ½ oz / 125 g almond flour. If you don’t have almond meal or flour, grinding 1½ cups of slivered almonds in a food processor will give you the same result.

½ cup walnuts, lightly toasted, and finely chopped or ground, as wanted

1 large egg, beaten

4 oz or one stick of unsalted butter

½ cup packed brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

For the garnish: ¼ cup flaked almonds

To make:

On the blind-baked and cooled crust, spread the jam. If making a fruit compote to replace the jam, microwave the berries on high for at least half a minute or until the berries are hot and juicy. Stir in the sugar and spread over the crust.

If using rhubarb, boil the chunks in an open pan for several minutes until the rhubarb has broken up, juice has evaporated and the rhubarb resembles a purée. Add the sugar. Leave to cool. Spread on the crust.

Toast the walnuts and crush them (for larger pieces) or grind to a flour.

Pre-heat the oven to 375°F or 190°C.

In a large pan, melt the stick of butter over a medium-high heat, being careful not to brown it. Turn off heat and stir in the almond meal or flour, the walnuts, the brown sugar, and the salt. Pour this mixture over the fruit layer.

Bake for about 35 minutes, being sure to check the tart after about ten minutes for over-browning. I recommend placing tinfoil over the tart because otherwise it will burn before the filling has cooked and set. When the tart is nearly done (about 5 minutes to go), sprinkle the top with flaked almonds and return to the oven.

Serve hot as it is, or with clotted cream or whipped cream. If you are having it later, it’s fine at room temperature but heat intensifies the flavours wonderfully. I find that giving it a quick re-heat in the microwave makes it taste so much better.

Mandy's Jam Shortbread

I get excellent results with brown rice flour, and recommend it for its better nutrition, but white rice flour is fine, too.

On the one hand, there is no way to improve on traditional Scottish shortbread (with salt, please: just like real bread, shortbread without any salt is longer in shortcomings than in shortening). On the other hand, this recipe gives some of the most “more-please” biscuits I’ve ever tasted. To the plain delights of butter, sugar and flour (all-purpose and a little rice flour, for extra crunch), they add the subtle nuttiness of ground oats and the fruitiness of jam made ever so slightly chewy in the center by baking — and don’t forget the lovely addition of mace, which has both citrusy and nutmeg-y taste notes. (If you don’t have mace on hand, feel free to substitute nutmeg.) Crumbly, mildly crunchy, melty, and chewy: this how we have it “all ways” with this shortbread. You can use any kind of jam — from peach to blackcurrant — but if the jam has thick fruit pieces, you’ll want to pick them out as you delve into the jar.

Whole mace blades, which I like even better than the nutmeg they once contained.

5 oz butter, softened

4.5 oz unbleached all-purpose flour

1.5 oz rolled oats, to grind

1.5 oz brown or white rice flour [if you don’t want to buy a bag, just grind your regular uncooked rice in a spice blender or other blender, to a fine powder]

2 oz superfine granulated sugar

½ teaspoon ground mace (or 1 mace blades/aril, ground, if using)

1 teaspoon salt

Jam for spreading over half the dough

To bake:

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter with a spoon. If the butter is stiff, soften in the microwave in a suitable bowl for up to 30 seconds, on a low setting such as no. 4.

Grind the oats in a mortar, spice grinder, or food processor so that you’ve got gritty bits rather than slices. Stir into the butter the ground rice and oats, mace, sugar, and salt, and combine well.

Then add the all-purpose flour (adding it later just helps keep the dry ingredients from jumping out of the bowl).

Chill the dough for 5-10 minutes.

On a parchment-lined baking tray, press or roll dough out ¼” thick, into a rectangle. Chill again briefly if dough seems very soft or butter seems to be melting.

Using a knife or bench scraper, cut the rectangle of dough in half.

Spread one half with jam, coating it.

Place the other half directly on top of the jammy half. Now cut this sandwich into strips or fingers about an inch wide. You should have about 10 strips. Dip the blade in water between cuts if you find the knife is not drawing out cleanly. (There is no need to prick the tops, though most shortbread recipes ask you to do this.) Then draw the blade through the middle to cut each strip in half. Now you have 20 fingers.

Put the tray in the fridge to chill and firm up for 10-15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Bake for about an hour on the middle rack.

Allow to cool before serving, or store shortbreads in an airtight container for a few days, or in the freezer.