Marmalade

I haven't posted for ages, but I haven't been slacking in the kitchen.  For a while all my spare time seemed to be getting consumed by preparations for a charity fund raiser craft sale.  In addition to the sewing, knitting, crochet, there was sweet pickle, banana chutney, red onion marmalade and 3 kinds of citrus marmalade to make.

I turned my back on the Lime and Ginger marmalade just a litle too long and cooked it past the ideal setting point (so had to make another batch for the charity sale orders).  That means I have a couple of litres of runny lime and ginger marmalade to use up somehow.

On that basis I deviated a bit from my objective of baking recipes from my childhood collection, and went in search of interesting things to use up lime marmalade.  Watch this space....

Meanwhile I wanted to share this fantastic pink grapefruit marmalade recipe which is so easy we should all be making pink grapefruit marmalade. 

http://notjustanyoldbaking.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/pink-grapefruit-marmalade.html

Now that is how a baking blog ought to be - lots of photos, lots of explanation. 

I can't improve on that except to say: know your pink grapefruit - the redder the better.  The first batch I made used ruby grapefruit and was pink/red, the second batch the grapefruits were not so red (more pink than red) inside and the result looked like orange marmalade.


Xmas Trio - Lime & Ginger, Lemon & Honey, Ruby Grapefruit



No 35 - Chocolate Coconut Macaroon Square

Really easy -

Chocolate Coconut Macaroon Square

Melt 150g chocolate in a bowl over boiling water  - or in the microwave.

Line a baking tin (11" x 9" or similar size) with buttered baking paper (butter side up)

Spread the melted chocolate in the tin and put it in the fridge to set again.

Beat 2 eggs until thick,
add 4 oz caster sugar and beat until the sugar is dissolved. 
Fold in 6 oz of dessicated coconut and a tsp of vanilla essence.

Spread the coconut over the chocolate and bake at 135-145 degrees C for about 30 minutes.

Cut into squares while still warm, but leave in the tin until completely cool.

OK - looks a bit weird on the bottom because I melted dark and white chocolate together....

Savory Muffins

At this time of year we spend our Sunday's yacht racing.  I love sailing but it does sometimes make the weekends seem to short.  Sailing on Sunday, and 5 days of work in London, leaves only Saturday for everything else in life..... including the baking.

The allotment has very nearly been cleaned up - frost took all the pumpkins and courgettes a week ago.  The corn and beans are all harvested.  Only the bassica bed looks well stocked for Winter - that and some Swiss Chard (called Silver Beet where I come from) - nothing much there I can turn into baking (cabbage cake ....hmmmmmm .... although I have to say as an aside that kale in curry sauce - an accidental combination - wasn't as objectionable as might be anticipated).  We spent part of Saturday putting guttering on the shed so that we could collect rainwater for summer watering.  It felt like a mad project given that it has rained solidly for a week and the garden is completely waterlogged again.  

There had to be, however, time for the baking; muffins to feed to the crew on Sunday.  I have a recipe somewhere, but I tend to make muffins up as I go along and savory ones simply depend on what is in the fridge at the time....

Savory Muffins

Into a bowl: a small tin  of corn kernels (drained), some finely chopped up bacon, and some grated cheese (the tastier the better) - roughly equal quantities if you need better guidance - and a finely diced onion,

Yesterday I also threw in some grated courgette, tobasco sauce, and oregano.

2 cups of flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 small to medium eggs
1/2 cup oil  (or a couple of ounces of melted butter)
1/2 tsp B. Soda dissolved in some milk - made up to enough to turn the whole lot into a loosely sticky mess.

Dollop that into a greased 12 pot muffin tray.  Bake at 170-180 degrees C. for 15-20 minutes.

I find that muffins with cheese in them rise beautifully and have a disconcerting way of collapsing as they cool.  Slight overcooking helps to overcome this (and the corn, onion and courgette helps to stop them drying out in the process), or just eat them warm.

The photo is of the few that came back having beat around the Solent in a plastic box

No. 34 - Peppermint Square

This one is a bit too much like the last one - never mind.  One of my favorites as a kid - just because I liked eating sweetened condensed milk straight from the tin (there is always more in a tin that you need for any one thing....)

Peppermint Square

4 oz butter
4 oz sugar
1 egg
6 oz flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 dsp cocoa

Cream the butter and Sugar and add the egg.  Sift in the dry ingredients and spread the soft dough out in a sponge roll tin.

Bake at 170-180 degrees C for about 20 minutes.

Topping - to be poured on while the base is still hot

2 oz butter
2 TB sweetened condensed milk
2 oz icing sugar
peppermint essence (I use the essence bottle cap full, it's probably about a teaspoon)

When all that is cool and set, ice with chocolate icing.  Cut into Squares.

No 33 - Keamish Square

I have no idea about the name....  I googled it and it appears to be a surname.  So I assume that sometime in the history of this recipe it was first published or promoted by a Mrs Keamish....

Keamish Square

4 oz butter
4 oz sugar
1 egg
6 oz floour
1 dsp cocoa
1 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the egg and sift in the dry ingredients.  Spread in a greased pan about 8" x 10" (or so), and bake about 20 minutes at 170-180 degrees C.

Spread it over with raspberry jam while it is still warm.  (In this one I used Oregon Grape Jam - which is very dark coloured.)

Topping:

4 oz butter
2 oz icing sugar
1 tsp gelatine - in 2 TB boiling water
Cream the butter and icing sugar, add the dissolved gelatine and beat until creamy.  Spread on top of the jam and when set, cover with chocolate icing.

Cut into squares when the icing has set.

 

Crumble Topping

All those blackberries, scrumped apples from wild-growing trees, overripe pears, some late strawberries from the garden... we have an abundance of fruit at this time of year.

Crumble sounds like one of those old-fashioned 'puddings' that grandmothers make, or which are served in pubs, smothered in custard (with or without skin!). The stiky-dry pub version (cloys the inside of your mouth, welds itself to the back of your teeth) involves rubbing butter into flour and sugar. 

This version is much easier, tastier, better textured, and considerably healthier.


Crumble Topping
(for about 8 large apples stewed up, or equivalent in other fruit)

2 Cups Rolled Oats
2 cups Coconut
3/4 cup Sunflower Seeds
1/2 cup Raw Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Oil
1/2 cup Cold water

Mix the ingredients and pat them onto the top of a baking dish of fruit (cooked or uncooked fruit).  Bake 30-45 mins at 170 - 180 degrees C - until golden and crispy on top.

And here is a two person version of a pear and raisin crumble in the making.

No 32 - Fred's Original Bran Muffins

Wow – way too long without adding anything to the Blog.  It’s not that I haven’t been in the kitchen; it’s pickle, jam and chutney season and I have been making batches of preserves for a Charity Craft Sale, and for my Xmas hampers.  I’ve also been taking advantage of a remarkably (considering our wet summer) good supply of blackberries on the hedgerows to fill the freezer with fruit for winter puddings, and to make Blackberry and Apple Crumble on a regular basis.

Despite a waterlogged start the allotment is finally producing enough vegetables to feed us so I have been freezing beans and corn, and turning some of the surplus courgettes into cakes and muffins.  Courgette doesn’t add any flavour to your cake but it does contribute wonderfully to texture, making even bran muffins soft and moist.

This muffin recipe started my own recipe collection.  Prior to learning to make these in the ‘Home Economics’ class at school (aged about 10) all the recipes I baked from were my Mum’s.  Mum never made muffins - no idea why not, but maybe because microwave defrosting hadn't been invented in those (old) days!

The addition of courgettes to these muffins extends their delicious life by another 24 hours or so.  For years after I set up my own household, I would make variations on these a couple of times a week, to eat with soup for our evening meals.  They freeze well and microwave defrosting means you can have a hot fresh muffin anytime.

Original Bran Muffin Recipe

In a pot gently warm:
1/2 cup milk
1 oz butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon golden Syrup
When the butter is melted add
1/2 tsp Baking Soda

Pour the contents of the pot into the dry ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup bran
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
Handful Sultanas

Then add
1 beaten egg

Mix the whole lot up and bake  - 15 -20 minutes at 170 -180 degrees C.  Makes 12.

That's the standard recipe.  In the line after the sultanas add your own - 1 cup (or so) of grated courgette, grated pumpkin, carrot, apple, pear....etc, 1cup of frozen black currants (now that's a good one if you can get them), and 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds, or chopped nuts, etc if you like a bit of crunch.

No 31 Triple Ginger Biscuits

Following my love of things ginger I thought I'd share this one with you.  Biscuits and squares travel better on the bike than large delicate cakes....

Triple Ginger Biscuits

6 oz butter
1 up packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup treacle
2.25 cups of flour
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in the egg and treacle.  Combine all the dry ingredients and sift them into the creamy mix.  Lastly add the fresh and cystallized ginger.

Cover the dough and for at least 2 hours (better over night).  I have found that rolling the dough into a log inside some plastic cling-film before refrigerating it, means that you can simply slice it and bake the slices next day.

However if you prefer, you can roll the dough into 1 inch balls, place them 2 inches apart on a baking sheet

Either way, bake them for about 10 minutes at 175 degrees C.

They don't go really crisp, and are great to eat warm.......

Gooseberry Shortcake

This one doesn't have a number because it never made it to work. 

The gooseberries were ripe enough to pick last week.  Mr B had to pick them while I was at work and I came home on Friday to find a bowl of them in the fridge.  They were ripe enough to eat just like that but I managed to restrain myself.

Last year I ate them straight off the bush.  The bush is right next to the bee-hive, but with only one beehive that wasn't really a problem; they were extremely well behaved bees.  This year we have 4 beehives at the end of the garden, and at least 2 of them have a tendency to stroppiness.  At least the gooseberry bushes are well guarded by day.

Shortcake

4 oz butter
4 oz sugar
2 beaten eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar, add eggs, then sifted flour and baking powder.  Roll holf of the dough to fit a 9 inch diameter straight sided cake tin.  At this point I put the base in the oven (170 - 180 degrees C) while I roll out the top half.  That bit of extra cooking avoids the soggy-base risk once the fruit goes on.

Anyway - top that with a generous layer of stewed fruit sweetened to taste, or fresh berry fruit (works well with backberries, gooseberries etc) uncooked, and some sugar.  Put the other half of dough on top (I roll it out between two layers of plastic wrap, peel off the top, tip it onto the pie and then peel the second bit off.)

20 minutes to half an hour in the 170-180 degree oven.  Serve hot with cream, or cold in slices as a cake.

Pre-cooked fruit will give you a nice rounded top, the bumps come with using fresh uncooked fruit.....

No 30 - Afghans

A tradition of some sort in NZ, no one seems to know why they were named thus, and I suspect they are just an excuse to eat chocolate icing and walnuts.  However they are easy, great to make with kids, and popular it seems (if my work mates are anything to go by).

Use unsweetened cornflakes, and mash them up a bit otherwise the mix can bea bit crumbly and the 'biscuits' don't hold together properly.

Afghans

6 oz flour
3oz sugar
2 oz cornflakes
1 oz cocoa
7 oz butter

Mix together, squash dessertspoonfuls into a rounded mound, bake in a moderate over (170-180 degrees C) for 16 minutes.  When cool, ice with chocolate icing and top with half a walnut.

(My colleague suggested using Nutella..... now there's innovation for you.)

Pictured with, or without, flash lighting.... the flash certainly makes them look more chocolatey.