Derbyshire Fidgety Pie

This pie has been in the planning for a while. To celebrate British Food Fortnight I knew I wanted to bake a traditional Derbyshire dish, ideally savory and with pasty. Inspiration came from the most random of places - the latest East Midlands National Trust newsletter. In the newsletter it mentioned the traditional Derbyshire Fidgety Pie. Not a pie I had heard of before, but gave me more of a challenge to try it. Another reason for wanting to use pastry was so I could use my Made in England rolling pin. I don't use it as much as my wooden or marble rolling pin as it is quite delicate, but I love it!

Hubby's family originate from South Derbyshire where this pie has its roots. There are various variations of this pie throughout the Midlands, where they are usually called Fidget Pie. Some with cider, some with ham, some with gammon along with some additional ingredients.



This pie is a traditional dish served to people working in the field through harvest. Essentially it is the Midland's version of the Cornish Pasty as it is a portable, filling meal. It is thought to have got its name from the fact it traditionally was fitched (5-sided) in shape. The key vegetables in a fidgety pie is apples and onions which are plentiful during the harvest and of course these vegetables go well with pork. This version should have raisins in it, but I left them out as I don't like them in savory dishes. Given this ingredient not being used it still made a surprisingly hearty & flavoursome dish.

Rather than baking a pie with both pastry on the top and bottom (trying to make it slightly kinder to the hips!) I baked it in aMason Cash pie dish (made in Derbyshire). In keeping with the South Derbyshire theme I also used smoked bacon from the best butchers around - Chantry Farm Shop in Kings Newton near Melbourne. If your ever near I beg you to pop in. Their meat is second to none and well worth the trip. Hubby & I really enjoyed the pie and I was surprised as to how tasty it was. Perfect for these Autumnal evenings.

Now, you can truly say that this pie has been Made in England.

Derbyshire Fidgety Pie
Makes 2 individual pies

225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
110g butter
cold water
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 small/medium potatoes, thinly sliced
1 apple, cored and finely sliced
4 rashers of bacon
400ml beef stock
thyme
seasoning
1 egg

1) First get started on the pastry. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2) Add the chilled water a small amount at a time and mix with a knife until you have a good dough. Roll into a ball, cover in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 min.

3) Preheat oven to 190oc. Fry off the bacon. At the bottom of each individual pie dish line with a layer of half of the sliced potatoes, then all the onions and apple. Sprinkle with black pepper and thyme then layer with the bacon and the rest of the potato. Pour over the beef stock (200ml per pie dish).

4) Roll out the pastry until around 5mm thick. Top the pie with pastry and trim to fit. Make 2 slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape then brush with egg.

5) Bake for 20min until pastry is golden and filling is cooked. Traditionally it is served on its own, but would go well with a side of vegetables.

Queen of Tarts

There is something simple, comforting and nostalgic about the humble Jam Tart. For many people it was probably the first thing they cooked with their Mum or Grandma. Making Jam Tarts always reminds me of Home Ec in Secondary School and many of those said tarts didn't make it home as I would have scoffed them before home time. Back then though I was frankly rubbish at pastry, it would just crumble and fall apart. It put me off pastry for long time and it's only recently have I got over my Fear of Pastry. I've just put Fear of Pastry into good old google and it sent me to a World of Warcraft page?!?...ok I digressed.

The reason behind these tarts is that I'm planning to cook them with my pupils during British Food Fortnight as you can't get more British Afternoon Teaish than a dainty Jam Tart, plus I have have a set of fantastic 10 year old budding pastry making boys in my class. The kids are aware that they are making Jam Tarts in a few weeks and bless them, they are already excited and talking about it. After baking a Bakewell Tart last year I'll be baking another traditional Derbyshire dish with pastry for British Food Fortnight this year. If I pull it off I'll blog about it during the fortnight.

I did experiment with using marmalade in a few of the tarts, but they just don't work as well and have an amazing ability, akin to superglue, to weld themselves to the bun tin. Given the fact I've now mastered pastry I can't for the life of me make a Jam Tart look refined, I think the best way to describe them would be "rustic". Anyway since when has a humble Jam Tart been anything but charmingly simple?


Jam Tarts
Makes 12 small tarts

225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
110g butter
cold water
around 12 tsp jam

1) First get started on the pastry. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2) Add the chilled water a small amount at a time and mix with a knife until you have a good dough. Roll into a ball, cover in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 min.

3) Roll out the pastry until around 5mm thick. Using a 3 inch cutter, cut rounds and press gently into a bun tin. Place a generous teaspoonful of jam in the center of each round.

4) Bake at 200oc for 10 min, or until well risen and golden. Allow to cool for 5 min before transferring to a wire rack.

Welsh Cheesecakes

As I've mentioned before I have a bit of a thing for kitchenalia. Trust me, if I had a big farmhouse kitchen nailed to all the beams would be random pans and Victorian jelly moulds. At moment my collection is very much orientated around vintage cookbooks. I love looking at the recipes and ingredients. The one thing great about a lot of old cookbooks is that they are plain and simple. They don't beat around the bush and unsurprisingly the recipes often work really well. They are also the kind of book that tells you how to be a good wife and look after your servants. I think Hubby is still wishing I would follow some of the advice in the books.



Stuffed in the back of one of the books given to me by Grandma was a catalogue from one of the local grocers. Unfortunately the grocer is no longer but some googling shows it was an important and well known place within the local community. Within the catalogue is adverts for long-gone products, apart from the Rowentrees Cocoa. The Rowentree advert means I can date the catalogue to around 1910, so Grandma must have been given this cookbook by her mother. I love looking at the claims the various products make. I don't think you would get away with it now! By clicking on the pics you can see the adverts in more detail.



Yesterday I had the craving to make Jam Tarts and while flicking through a copy of a Good Housekeeping book called The Home Book, from around 1920's-1930's, I stumbled across a recipe for Welsh Cheesecakes. One thing about old cookbooks, they often don't have pictures, however they sometimes tell you how to present the dish. Even with the basic presentation instructions I still wasn't 100% what they were meant to look like, let alone taste like. To be honest I'm not sure why these are called a cheesecake as there is no cheese in them. Some research suggests that the term "cheesecake" in olde English may mean just a tart, but I'm not sure.



A few years ago I did have a bit of a pastry phobia and have tried many shortcrust recipes over the year, but always come back to this recipe as it always works perfectly. These cakes are essentially jam tarts with a basic sponge topping. The pastry worked out at the perfect short texture and the buttery sponge helped offset the sweet jam. It's very difficult to just eat just 1 of these little dainty cakes with my morning cup of tea. Tonight we may have a few warm with some Cherry Beer Ice Cream. mmmmm... As this is a 80 or so year old recipe I've kept it in old style ounces rather than grams.

Welsh Cheesecakes
Makes 12 individual cakes

Shortcrust pastry
8 oz plain flour
4 oz unsalted butter, cold from the fridge and cubed
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
cold water (you'll need no more than 1/4 pint)

Filling
Raspberry jam
2 oz plain flour
2 oz unsalted butter
2 oz caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder

1) First get started on the pastry. Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2) Add the chilled water a small amount at a time and mix with a knife until you have a good dough. Roll into a ball, cover in cling film and chill in the fridge while you make the filling.

3) Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg. Fold in the sieved flour and baking powder until you have a smooth cake batter.

4) Roll out the pastry until around 5mm thick. Using a 3 inch cutter, cut rounds and press gently into a bun tin. Place a small amount of jam on top of the pastry then top with 1 tsp of the cake batter. Using the scraps place a cross of pastry on top of the batter.

5) Bake at 200oc for 10 min, or until well risen and golden.

Bara Brith & Butter Pudding

This particular loaf of Bara Brith had been hanging around for a week or two after I made it for my Welsh mother when she visited a few weeks back. To be honest I think we forgot about it in the cake tin as it is a very rare occurrence for cake to be left for a long time in this house. Now I did originally plan to accompany this blog post with a delightful photo of me aged 8 in traditional Welsh dress, but decided my credibility would go down the pan if I did, so you'll just have to do with a pic of the pudding.

I'm not one to throw perfectly good food away and the nature of Bara Brith means it doesn't go off very quickly, however it does begin to dry out making it perfect for a bread & butter style pudding. As much as I love feeding the fluffy fledglings with crumbs of cake I wasn't sacrificing all of this Bara Brith to our feathered friends. I was really pleased how they turned out, with the Bara Brith giving more depth to the pudding than usual bread would. I would be interested to try it with other dry cakes that have gone past their best. We had the puddings with lashings to custard. In my eyes the only way this type of pudding can be served.

Promise I will blog something savory soon!

Bara Brith & Butter Pudding
makes 2 indiviual puddings

6 slices of bara brith (or similar fruit loaf)
75ml milk
40g caster sugar
1/2 vanilla pod
1 egg

1) In a small saucepan mix milk, sugar and vanilla and gently heat until sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat and allow to infuse for 15 min, then remove vanilla pod.

2) Using a circular cutter, cut rounds of the bara brith. Butter both sides and pile into a ramekin. Once the milk has finished infusing whisk in the egg. Pour the custard over the bara brith and leave for 30 to allow the cake to soak up some of the custard. Cover ramekins with buttered foil.

3) Preheat oven to 170oc. Place ramekins in a deep baking pan then pour boiling water into the pan so it is half way up the ramekins. Place in the oven and bake for 40 min. Remove the foil and bake for a further 5 min to brown the top.

Cherry Bakewell Biscuits

With a hectic and stressful week in work I wanted to do some stress relieving baking and a recipe I found on a forum I lurk on, ticked all the right boxes. The recipe is based on Smitten Kitchen's slice & bake cookie palette. I've never made a biscuit like this before, but I think I now may be hooked. It is such an easy technique and it was nice coming home from work with some fresh dough in the fridge knowing I was less than 15 min away from freshly baked biscuits. These are also the first biscuits (I think) that I've made in my KitchenAid. I did a half batch as quite frankly my hips are turning more Nigellaesque by the day.

While looking through my baking cupboard for biscuit fillings I found some glace cherries that really needed to be used. Along with my almond extract the idea hit me. Biscuits inspired by my favourite cake, a Bakewell tart and so it was born - Cherry Bakewell Biscuits.

They are incredibly moreish and Hubby & I are trying not to eat them all in one sitting, and yes they do taste like the hallowed Bakewell. The primary reason for making them is for a treat in our lunchboxes as if I know I've got a little homemade treat in my box I'm less inclined to raid the staffroom biscuit tin. I've already started to think about other variations of this biscuit - dark chocolate & sour cherry, lemon & poppyseed, apricot & almond...

Cherry Bakewell Biscuits
Based on Smitten Kitchen's slice & bake cookie palette
Makes 25

115g unsalted butter, room temperature
40g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp almond extract
140 plain flour
100g glace cherries, chopped

1) Beat together butter and sugar until you have a buttercream, then beat in yolk and extract.

2) Add cherries and flour then beat again until ingredients are well combined. Flatted dough into a disk, cover in clingfilm and chill for 30 min.

3) Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out into a long log with a diameter of around 3cm. Wrap back up in the cling film and chill for a further 2 hours (minimum). If the dough isn't chilled sufficiently it will begin to misshape when it is sliced ready for baking.

4) Preheat oven to 180oc. Cut the dough log into rounds about 1cm thick and place on a lined baking tray. Bake for 12-14 min until they are cooked. Once cooked transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Time for tea

I'm not ashamed to admit it, I don't do earl grey, chamomile or any of the fruity tea bags. To me chamomile smells of a rabbit hutch and fruity tea never tastes as good as it smells. I'm more of a PG tips/Tetley type of woman with a splash of milk and no sugar; or if I'm feeling a bit fancy, a cup of refreshing rooibos. Saying that I do have a pack of blooming flower tea waiting to be immersed, but they look so pretty I don't want to use them.

There is something therapeutic about the humble cuppa. A cup of tea can solve a multitude of problems. Last year when floodwaters were lapping at the doors along the row of cottages all of us neighbors still managed to drink tea...made on next door's gas BBQ. We weren't going to let a torrent of murky water stop the important institution that is tea.

I only really started to drink tea since I started work in education. Not only is it a refreshment it's also has a social element. If you drink tea you belong to the hot drinker clique. It also has a role of warming me up. School is cold at the best of time, to put it frank I'm nesh. No matter how busy the day is we will always make time for a cuppa, even if we have to decant it into a spill proof cup to take into class.

I'll be drinking a lot of tea over the next week as I've been offered an interview for the amazing job I applied for a few weeks back. I've got to do a presentation for my chosen lesson subject along with preparing resources so I may go quiet, yet again, for a week. There are some implications if I'm offered the post, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Well, back to the interview prep with a cuppa and Tunnocks caramel log for fuel.

Bara Brith

I'm a bit of a melting pot. Half English, Half Welsh but with German influences from the 3 years I spent living there; so for all the Welsh people out there, an albeit belated, Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus...or Happy Saint David's Day for you non-Welsh speakers. To celebrate I made Bara Brith and lobscowse (a Welsh version of Scouse).

Bara Brith, translated literally, means speckled bread and is a traditional cake in Wales. There are essentially two types of Bara Brith. A version made with yeast, or a longer lasting version made with self-raising flour. I opted for the self-raising flour version as there is only 2 of us to eat it and wanted it to last.

After some searching around I came across an authentic sounding recipe. Few problems, it wasn't particularly well written and the recipe stated a 1lb loaf tin. No way was all the cake mix going to fit so used my baking experience and put it in a 2lb loaf tin instead. I'm glad I did as it filled a 2lb tin perfectly.

I only have feint memories of Bara Brith so wasn't totally sure what it was meant to taste like, but I think I certainly got close with this cake. It was a surprisingly delicious cake, with a pleasant marmalade taste throughout the slice. The texture was also just right, perfect for lunchboxes. Not bad considering I was winging it towards the end of the recipe! It looks similar to my banana bread that I made last week, but it tastes very much different.


Bara Brith
Makes a 2lb loaf

450g mixed fruit
300ml strong tea
450g self-raising flour
2 tbsp marmalade
1 egg
1 tsp mixed spice
6 tbsp muscovado sugar
honey, for glazing

1) Soak the fruit in the tea overnight. Don't drain!

2) Preheat oven to 170oc and line a 2lb loaf tin. In a large bowl mix together the tea soaked fruit, the remaining tea, flour, marmalade, egg, mixed spice and sugar. Pour into the tin and bake for 1.5 hours, or until a skewer comes out clean. If the top is browning too much, cover with foil.

3) Once cake is baked, allow to sit for 5 min before removing from the tin, then brush with the honey to get a shiny glaze. Allow to cook fully before slicing.

Alright mate, 'av some Scouse

Abel & Cole recently contacted me asking if I would like to try one of their mixed fruit & veg boxes. Over the years we've had veg boxes off various people so I was interested to give Abel & Cole a try. The box contained potatoes, carrots, leeks, onions, mushrooms, salad tomatoes, savoy style cabbage, apples, clementines, mangoes, bananas. Most of the veg was turned into Ham & Leek pie and a lasagna leaving me with some potatoes, carrots and onions. It was then I decided to make Scouse. Incidentally they are the first company I've come across who deliver my favourite beer!

Scouse is a dish, originating from Liverpool, that I've been meaning to make for a while and it seemed like a perfect dish to not only use up the veg but to also christen by my Le Creuset dish. My teenage years were spent growing up a stone throw for Liverpool and quite regularly picked up portions of Scouse from the local bakery for lunch. Although the dish had begun to die out over the last few years, I noticed on my last visit to Liverpool it is appearing on menus again. It is this dish that Liverpudlians (aka Scousers) are thought to be named after.

There is different variants of the dish depending on where you are and who you speak to. Scouse is a lamb/mutton stew from Liverpool and was originally brought to Liverpool by North European sailors who called it Labskause. It's what we would now call a peasant dish using cheap cuts of meat and basic veg. Blind Scouse is the same dish, but without the meat and Lob Scouse (or Lob Skows) is more from North Wales and uses beef rather than lamb or mutton. It's by no way a posh looking dish, but it certainly fills you up. Traditionally you eat it with pickled red cabbage, which gives the dish some bite and tartness.

This is also an exercise to prove to Hubby that Liverpool does have a famous dish, which at the moment he refuses to believe. I can see his point as I don't think I can name a single other famous dish from Liverpool, unless and chip butty counts! He wants to call it a hotpot, but I tried to explain calling Scouse hotpot is like calling Beef bourguignon a Lancashire Hotpot.

Some searching in the internet came up with a lots of variations on the recipe, some with both lamb & beef, some with herbs, some with fancier veg and one even suggesting adding tomato ketchup. I decided to stick with what I know and have tasted in turn kept it as simple as possible. It was hard trying not to add herbs to the mix! So here to celebrate the fantastic year that was Liverpool's year of culture, I present Scouse...

Scouse
Serves 4-6

2 tbsp vegetable oil
400g lamb shoulder, diced
1 large onion, cut into chunks
500g carrots, sliced,
2kg potatoes, diced
Worcestershire sauce
750ml lamb stock (you could use beef stock)
salt & pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 170oc. In a deep casserole dish heat the oil then brown the lamb. Remove the lamb then fry the onions for a couple of minutes. Return the lamb to the pan then add the carrots and 500g of the potatoes. Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce and 500ml of the stock.

2) Place the covered casserole dish in the oven for 2 hours. Stir every hour. Once the 2 hours are over stir in the remaining potatoes. By this point the potatoes that went in at the beginning will have begun to disintegrate and thicken the sauce. Add the remaining stock (if needed) and put back in the oven, covered, for a further 2 hours. Serve hot with picked red cabbage and crusty bread.

A Brilliant Brew

Hubby's family originally come from the home of brewing in the Midlands (incidentally also the home of the evil that is Marmite) and naturally his family know a good ale when they taste one. One of the first pubs Hubby's family introduced me to is also the best brewery in Burton - The Burton Bridge Brewery. Situated near one of the bridges over the River Trent, the pub tied to it has a great cosy atmosphere and a traditional skittle alley upstairs (popular in Hubby's family for parties). On our wedding day we had kegs of Burton Porter it went down incredibly well and in most of our wedding photographs you can spot a glass of it somewhere!

A recent discovery for us, on the beer front, is the various beers available from Samuel Smith Brewery based in Tadcaster, Yorkshire. The only stockists I know of in Derbyshire are Chatsworth Farm Shop and Sound Bites, a great organic, ethical shop in Derby. As I was in Derby on Saturday I decided to pay Sound Bites a visit to stock up on their beers. In the summer I tried their Raspberry beer and this time went for the cherry beer, strawberry beer and Best Ale. Trust me, I would have bought a lot more if I didn't have to carry them back up Babington Lane to the car.

I was first drawn to these beers by the labels, quite different from other bottle labels (yes I'm the type of person who chooses a book depending on how pretty the cover is). I'm yet to try the strawberry beer, but the cherry one was gorgeous. Almost like alcoholic cherry aid. I didn't realise until last night how strong it was; coming in at 5% alcoholic volume. I'm looking forward to the next time I'm in Derby so I can stock up.

Piles of Parkin

Parkin has been on "must bake" list for a while and when Sylvie @ A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit made some for British Food Fortnight I decided I had to give it a go.

Parkin is from Yorkshire and traditionally eaten on Bonfire Night. The principle ingredients of parkin are flour, oatmeal, fat (traditionally lard), black treacle and ginger. Lyle syrups are archetypal ingredients in British baking and the tins are kitchen icons. Black treacle reminds me of cooking Christmas cake with my mum. There was always a fight as to who would lick the spoon clean. As a child I was always intrigued by the lion logo on the tin. Innocent little me thought it was a sleeping lion with stars above it; in reality it is a dead lion with a swarm of bees. No I don't get it either, though wikipedia does go some way to explain it. I perfer to think it is still a lion happily dreaming away!

Black treacle has the ability to be explosive (hence why it tells you on the tin not to open it after best before date and dispose of it). Maybe this is why it appears in so many dishes associated with bonfire night!

I think I may have slightly overcooked it, but with a few days of rest it should begin to go stickier. I was also expecting it to come out a bit darker in colour so next time may use soft dark sugar instead of golden caster sugar. Saying that, it still takes very good!

Parkin
from A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit

125 g butter (if using unsalted butter add 1 tsp salt)
125 g golden syrup
125 g black treacle
125 g golden caster sugar
250 g plain flour
250 g medium oatmeal
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, beaten

1) Preheat oven to 150°C/Gas 2/300°F and line a 10x10 baking pan. Gently heat the butter, golden syrup, treacle and sugar in a pan, stirring constantly until all the sugar is dissolved.

2) In a bowl sift together flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt (if using), ginger and cinnamon. Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter mixture, beat until everything is combined.

3) When combined add the egg and mix until you have a smooth soft batter. If the batter seems to be stiff add 1tbsp of milk.

4) Pour into the tin and bake 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool before removing and cut into squares

Celebrating British Food - Bakewell Tart

Summer made a brief appearance here in the UK over the weekend; basking the ground in glorious autumnal sunshine. Hey it was short lived, but at least it brought us some cheer.

We spent Sunday at Kedleston Hall on the outskirts of Derby, walking around the grounds and eating picnic on the lawn. It was packed out with people taking advantage of the beautiful weather, The Duchess exhibition and the fact they were giving free puddings away in the restaurant as part of their British Food Fortnight events.



This is why I love Britain, in particular Derbyshire not only do we have awe inspiring scenery but fantastic food. 20th September till 5th October is British Food Fortnight and the lovely Antonia @ Food, Glorious Food is hosting a British Food Fortnight Challenge. As soon as I heard about the challenge there was one thing I knew I had to make, Bakewell Tart. Possibly one of the most famous cakes in Derbyshire

Now there is lots of myths surrounding Bakewell Pudding/Tart. Don't let Mr Kipling make you believe a Cherry Bakewell is traditional. The Bakewell Pudding is believed to have begun in a pub in Bakewell when an inexperienced chef in the kitchen was meant to make a strawberry tart, but made something very different. The Bakewell Pudding is a tart made with puff pastry shell, layer of jam and eggy custard topping and an alleged "secret ingredient" (No I've never been able to work the ingredient out). The Bakewell Tart however has evolved from the Bakewell Pudding and is made with a sweet shortcrust base, layer of jam and a rich almond sponge topping. My original intentions were to make a Bakewell pudding, but decided a Bakewell Tart was more picnic friendly.



Bakewell Tart is one of my favourite cakes and I believe a perfect Bakewell tart should have a thin, but supporting layer of pastry, thick layer of raspberry jam and a deep, dense, moist frangipane sponge. A dry, tasteless Cherry Bakewell it ain't!

I admit I'm not too confident with pastry, but with the help of my trusty KitchenAid I'm getting there. I was really pleased with how the pastry and the overall tart worked out. For me it was the perfect Bakewell Tart, and trust me in my lifetime I've eaten my fair share!



Bakewell Tart
Serves 8-10

PASTRY

125g plain flour
75g unsalted butter, cold and diced
25g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp cold water
1 egg white

FILLING

100g raspberry jam
100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs
25g plain flour
100g ground almonds
1 tsp almond extract
30g flaked almonds

1)In a large bowl mix together flour, salt and sugar then rub in butter until you have the consistency of breadcrumbs. Stir in the egg yolk and water until you have a smooth dough. Flatten into a disk, cover in clingfilm and refrigerate for 45 min.

2)On a floured surface roll out the dough until it is about 3mm thick then line a 20cm tart tin with the pastry. Lightly prick the base with a fork and chill for 30 min.

3) Preheat the oven to 180oc (160oc fan). Line the pastry case with baking parchment and baking beans then bake for 20min until pastry is a light golden colour. Remove the beans and parchment, brush the inside of the pastry shell with egg white and bake for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 min

4) While the pastry is cooling beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs and almond extract. Stir in the flour and ground almonds until well combined.

5) Spread the jam generously over the pastry base then pour frangipane mix on top of the jam. Level out with a pallet knife. Sprinkle with sliced almonds then bake for 35-40 until risen and golden.

6) Allow to cool in tin before eating.

Summer Pudding

Yet another day of dodging the torrential rain showers. Yesterday after going to the PYO farm and trying to convince myself that yes it is summer (not that the weather wants to make us believe that) I decided to try my hand at Summer Pudding.

The smell of the fruits simmering was glorious. You can't beat summer fruits. Tonight was the tasting and it was delicious. The tartness of the blackcurrants was matched perfectly with the sweetness of the crème de framboise all finished off with a spoonful of extra thick cream from the local dairy.

Incidently, to find your nearest PYO farm pop along to this great website. www.pickyourown.org
I've entered this recipe to Cook Sister's - WTSIM Blog Event

Individual Summer Puddings
Makes 2

250g summer fruits (I used raspberries, blackcurrants and strawberries)
50g vanilla sugar
4 slices of white bread, minus the crusts
2 tbsp crème de framboise

1) In a saucepan gently simmer the fruit and sugar for 3 min. Don't over simmer or the fruit will fall apart. You should have the fruit floating in a nice syrup. Allow to cool. Stir in crème de framboise.

2) Line 2 individual pudding basins with cling film. Cut 2 circles of bread just bigger than the base of the pudding basin and 2 circles the size of the top of the pudding basins.

3) Dunk the smaller bread circles into the syrup. Allow the bread to absorb the syrup then place 1 at the bottom of each pudding basin. Share the fruit out between the two basins.

4) Place the larger circle on top of the fruit then drizzle with the remaining syrup, ensuring all the bread is covered. Fold over the remaining cling film and weigh down with a weight (I used weights from my scales). Chill overnight.

5) Turn out onto a plate and drizzle with a small amount of crème de framboise.

Cream Tea

Films, literature, a walk through York or London and even browsing wikipedia will make you believe that us Brits drop everything mid-afternoon and eat Afternoon Tea or Cream Tea. Trust me, I don't know a single person who regularly eats Cream Tea, I bet even the Queen doesn't. However, with the current trend of getting back to the good, simple things in life; the comforting cream tea is making a come back. Hurrah!

Traditionally Cream Tea consists of scones slathered in jam and tea accompanied with a cup of tea. There is a big dispute amongst Cream Tea purists as to which order the jam and cream should be put on the scone. I believe a thick layer of raspberry or strawberry jam followed buy a dollop of clotted cream from the local dairy makes the perfect Cream tea. The other way is to put the cream on first then the jam, known as the Devonshire Cream Tea.

A few months back Hubby's Grandma gave me a old cookbook of hers. The cover is missing and it's full of interesting notes and recipes. I think it's Good Housekeeping - The Home Book dating from the mid 1920's, essentially all about how to be a good housewife. Although some of the tips and recipes you won't get my trying in a million years (braised calf head anyone?) there are lots of articles that ring true today in 2008. Eating in season, cleaning without chemicals, reducing waste.

The first and last time I made scones was about 15 years ago in Home Economics. My scones then were not very successful and tasted dry and bitter. Today I decided to give them another go and using one of grandma's recipes. One problem with old recipes is that they can be a bit vague with temperatures. My usual rule of "if in doubt bake at 200oc" worked well. Apart from me being a bit overenthusiastic when rolling out the dough, they turned out perfect and light. If you want you can replace the bicarb and cream of tartar with 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder.

Mixed Fruit Scones
Makes 12 small scones

225g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
25g caster sugar
40g butter
pinch of salt
50g mixed fruit
1/4 pint of milk
1 egg, beaten

1) Sieve the flour, salt, bicarb and cream of tartar into a basin. Rub in the butter, add the sugar and mixed fruit. Gradually stir in milk until you have a smooth dough.

2) Turn out onto a floured surface and roll until about 2cm thick. Cut into rounds and place on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment. Brush the top of each scone with beaten egg. Bake at 200oc until golden and firm. Cool on a wire rack.

St George's Day - Bangers & Mash

Today in England we celebrate St George's day. To mark the day I decided to cook some truly British grub in the form of bangers (sausage) and mash with caramelised onion and cider gravy...just a shame the dish didn't really go with the beautiful warm Spring day we have experienced today with the temperatures touching 20oc.

The sausages were delicious apricot and sage sausages and I believe sausages are the few savory foods that can get away with a pinch of fruit in them. Hubby has a sasuage making kit winging it's way to him now, so soon we'll hopefully be having a go and making our own sausages.

Bring on the summer I say - BBQ's, Pimms, Eton Mess, raspberries, eating alfresco, drinking wine on the patio, drinking cider with friends while camping...need I say more.

Malt Loaf

Today has been "come and visit the chicks" Day. The kids loved to stroke and hold them. To go with the countless cups of tea being made today I made a malt loaf. This was partially inspired by the jar of malt extract I found at the back of my baking cupboard. It only comes out when I'm making malt loaf or granola.

My memories of malt loaf go back to my school days where we used to literally fight over the slightly burnt corner piece of malt loaf that had a lovely caramelised, chewy texture. This recipe isn't as chewy as Soreen, but the taste is very close. If you want you can soak the fruit in tea for 30 min before adding to the cake mix.

Malt Loaf

75ml/3fl strong hot tea
8 tbsp (about 200g) malt extract
175g/6oz self-raising flour
1/2 tsp mixed spice
150g / 6oz mixed fruit
1 egg

1) Preheat oven to 140oc. Line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Mix malt extract and tea, then allow to cool

2)Mix all ingredients together, including malty tea and pour into tin. Bake for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours. Stand for 10 min before slicing.

Mother's Day Feast & Kinder Bueno winner

Today is Mothering Sunday (or Mother's Day) in the UK. Yesterday evening my sister, brother(who took the photos) and I managed to pull off quite a feast. As our mum is jetting of to New Zealand next week for a month, rather than going out for a meal on Mothering Sunday, (which is usually a guaranteed sign for having a terrible meal, poor service and longs waits for the meal) we decided to have a go at cooking a 3 course meal. With my sister doing the starter, me the main and brother making the pud, the kitchen was quite a scene.

As we live a 2 hour drive from my parents we decided to have the meal Saturday night meaning we could all drink and have a leisurely meal. Original intentions was for it to be a Welsh themed meal as we were eating on St Davids Day, but I'm not too confident with roast lamb, and we couldn't think of a quick easy Welsh dessert. However sis did manage to get Welsh goats cheese into the starter.



Sis made Goat's Cheese and Cranberry Parcels on a bed of leaves dressed with blackberry vinaigrette. They were delicious and I'll certainly be making them at home.



For the main course Hubby and I cooked topside of longhorn beef with mustard crust from Quenby Hall, honey roasted parsnips, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puds, cauliflower cheese and purple sprouting broccoli. The smell of the beef cooking filled the house and mum commented on how good the beef was. It tasted like beef should taste. It was rarer than the photo shows. This was the first time I've cooked roast for 7 people and I must say myself we didn't do too badly! Sis made the gravy as I just can't make it.



For pudding my brother made strawberry gratin. We found the recipe in Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook. It was really easy to make and delicious. It tasted a bit like cheesecake with a creme brulee sugar topping.



I was a really enjoyable evening and it was all washed down with various liquor coffees and Hotel Chocolat truffles. It was far better (and cheaper) than any meal we could have had if we had gone out for Mother's Day lunch.

Congratulations to Barbara Ghezzi from Suffolk who won a years supply of Kinder Bueno. The prize should be with you by the end of the week.

Shrove Tuesday and the glories of Nutella

Today is Shrove Tuesday and here in the UK, it is also known as Pancake Day. The tradition behind pancake day is that people would use up all their rich and perishable ingredients before lent starts. As well as eating pancakes different areas of the country have different tradtions. Some have pancake races, but here in Derbyshire we have Shrovetide Football that is played in Ashbourne. I've never been to Ashbourne to see the match, but judging by the footage on the local news tonight it looks a bit scary for me. I'll stick to the tradition of eating pancakes, thanks!

I love pancakes, but oddly I only seem to eat them on Pancake Day. You can eat them plain and simple with a bit if sugar and lemon juice or be more extravagant. Personally I like, no love, Nutella. I could gladly eat spoonfuls of it straight from the jar and my University finals were fueled by Nutella slathered on rich tea biscuits. It has to be Nutella though, no other chocolate spread has the same taste. I have to admit I did make a marmalade & whisky sauce to go with one of the pancakes, I was thinking crepe suzette style without flambeing (flambeing and low cottage celings don't mix!) but I still preferred the Nutella pancake.

After throughly overeating on pancakes I'm off to flick through The Taste of Britain, Kitchen Diaries which arrived today.

Pancakes
Makes 6-8

115g (4oz) plain flour
300ml (1/2 pt) milk
pinch of salt
1 egg

1) Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Crack egg into well then gradually whisk in milk. Beat until smooth. Refrigerate batter for 1 hour.

2) Heat non-stick frying pan to med-hot. Pour a ladle of batter into the frying pan, enough to cover the bottom of the pan. As bubbles begin to appear under the batter flip the pancake over.

Toffee Apple Pudding - The Great British Pudding Challenge

This months Great British Pudding Challenge is Toffee Apple Pudding. There is a copy of the recipe & rules on Rosie's blog. As there's just the two of us I halved the recipe and steamed for 55 min in 2 mini pudding basins. In the words of Nigella my pudding looks very *cough* "rustic" thanks to me not greasing the mounds enough. I also meant to serve them with custard. I wasn't in the mood to make proper custard so was going to use some readymade stuff I had on standby, but the custard tasted so horrible we ended up serving it with whipped cream.

I felt like I was on Masterchef trying to get the puddings on to steam within minutes of the pies being ready. Poor Hubby got quite a shock as he walked into the kitchen to find dirty dishes all over the place. I admit I'm not the tidiest cook, but trying to keep everything on track tonight almost got the better of me!

Stir-up Sunday - Guinness Christmas Pudding

Today is traditionally Stir-up Sunday and I decided to make my first ever Christmas pudding using the Guinness Pudding recipe that appeared in last month GFM. The fruit had been soaking in the Guinness since Saturday lunchtime and was beautifully plump by the time it came to make the pudding this afternoon. I didn't realise until I came to make the pudding that I didn't have any muscovado sugar and had to replace it with a mix of soft dark brown sugar and demerera sugar.

I also misinterpreted the recipe, it states "spoon in mixture into bowl and level the top". I read this to mean fill the bowl right to the top and level it off. This misinterpretation produced startling results when the pudding began to rise and lifted the saucepan lid that it was steaming in. Serves me right for squeezing a 1.2 litre (2lb) pudding into a 1 litre pudding basin! However, now the pudding has cooled it has sunk back down to normal proportions.

I did come across this crazy looking pudding basin and I'm very tempted to buy it for next year! It looks and smells like a Christmas pudding so I couldn't have gone too wrong! We'll have to wait until Boxing Day to taste it.

Guinness Christmas Pudding
Based on GFM recipe.
makes 1x 2lb pudding

500g luxury mixed fruit
100g dates, chopped
250ml guinness (or another stout)
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
1 medium brambley apple, peeled and grated
100g cold butter, grated, plus extra for the basin
100g dark muscovado sugar, plus 2 tbsp
100g fresh white breadcrumbs
50g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs , beaten

1) In a large bowl soak the mixed fruit, dates, orange & lemon zest and apple in the guinness for 24-48 hours.

2) Butter a 2lb pudding tin then lightly coat the butter in 2tbsp of muscovado sugar by slowly tipping and turning the bowl.

3) Add the remaining ingredients to the fruit that has been soaking. Stir until well combined. Spoon into the basin and level.

4) Take a sheet or foil and greaseproof and make a pleat in the middle (this allows for the expanding pudding). Place over the top of the pudding bowl and fix in place with string.

5) Sit the pudding bowl on top of an upturned heatproof saucer inside a saucepan. Pour boiling water half the way up the pudding. Cover and steam for 6 hours. Top water up as required.

6. Once the pudding is cooked cover with fresh greasproof paper and foil. Store in a cool dry place. To reheat either cook in the microwave (minus the foil), on medium, for 10 or steam for a further hour.

Perfect Roast Pork with Crackling

I can cook the perfect roast pork and beef, but get me to cook the perfect roast lamb and you can forget it. I just can't master it. Tonight, as it's Sunday, was a traditional pork roast dinner. I love my roast dinners and today I cooked probably the best crackling. After my last roast dinner success of Yorkshire puddings I put my crackling success down to Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil, yet again. Today I also discovered that if you sprinkle polenta on potatoes before you put them in the oven you end up with beautifully crispy potatoes. We ate it with roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips that had been roasted in some roasting oil I had picked up at a farmers market last week, garlic & herb stuffing plus Yorkshire puds. I know you shouldn't have Yorkshire puds unless you having beef, but I love them!

Roast loin of pork with crackling

1) Get pork joint out of the fridge, uncover to allow air to get to the skin. Score skin of pork with sharp knife. Sit for an hour. Pour boiling water over the skin and leave for around 15 min.

2) Preheat oven to 240oc. Rub olive or rapeseed oil into the skin then massage in lots of salt. Cook for 25 min at 240oc. Turn down oven to 190oc and continue to cook (TOTAL TIME = 35min per lb/450g) until juices run clear.

3) Rest for 30 min before carving. This allows you to turn the oven back up a bit to cook the potatoes etc....