Showing posts with label Elevensies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elevensies. Show all posts
I am very much thinking about the American Thanksgiving today as I write this. I really enjoy the fact that it is celebrated here in the last week of November.
When I lived in the UK, I always celebrated it in November rather than the Canadian tradition of celebrating it in October. Celebrating it in November just seemed to get the Holiday season off to a grand start!
When in Rome however, and this year we did it in October, Canadian style.
I am, however, thinking of my blessings and all that I have to be thankful for today. And I truly have much. When I look around me at my little home, I know that God is good and I am thankful unto Him for all things.
I live in a country which is relatively safe and filled with freedoms. I have a comfortable home where I am warm and sheltered. As I write this one of my kittens is nestled into my side and the other is laying on the back of the chair I am sitting in.
I am surrounded with love and have been always. I have come an incredibly long ways over these last 12 months due to the love of family and friends and also due to my readers here on the blog and facebook, etc.
I have, for the most part, only ever met incredibly nice people through this medium of blogging. Like Susan Branch, I feel like I am a part of a huge community of girlfriends and even some male friends.
People who share one thing in common and that is a love of food and cooking, and yes, recipes. I have to say that I am surrounded by people with an immense generosity of spirit, but that is really what cooking is about when you get right down to it.
When people cook for you and share recipes with you, they are sharing a chunk of their heart with you.
I firmly believe that, and I truly love the giving and the taking that surrounds this practice, as well as the generosity of loving sharing that it instills in each of us.
One only has to read through a community cookbook to feel that love. People are making an offering of their very "Best" to you. What a gift!
Much to be thankful for indeed. This recipe I am sharing with you today is one such gift. It came to me by way of a new "friend," one of my newer readers, Burt.
Burt reached out to me last week with a very kind and thoughtful e-mail. In the e-mail Burt mentioned several of their favorite recipes. I loved that sort of thing, that sort of sharing.
I wrote Burt back and asked if they would share the recipes with me. I love to try new recipes and even new/old recipes, and especially recipes which are special to people for whatever reason.
This recipe comes from James Beard's cookbook, entitled "James Beard's Menus for Entertaining." I think my boss at the Manor actually had that book. Burt offered to share it with me and I jumped at the chance.
James Beard was one of my inspirations when I was growing up, along with Julia Child, Madame Jehane Benoit and the Galloping Gourmet!
The recipe came to be by way of a scanned cookbook page. You can tell from the scan that it is a much beloved recipe. The page looks well worn and is scribbled with notes.
I love it! I did not wait too long before baking it. I think I actually baked it the very next day! Oh my, but it smelled lovely when it is baking and I can tell you, it is delicious as well! I'd expect nothing less from James Beard.
Thank you Burt!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE JAMES BEARD'S COFFEE CAKE
This is a very simple cake requiring very simple ingredients. The most exotic ingredient is Mace, which is the lacy covering of a nutmeg which has been ground. If you cannot find it, simply use Nutmeg in it's place.
- all purpose plain flour
- baking powder (the recipe says double acting, but I think all baking powder is double acting today.)
- salt
- mace (if you cannot find it you may use nutmeg in its place)
- sugar (fine granulated or caster sugar)
- one egg (I always use large free range eggs)
- milk (I only ever have full fat milk in my house.)
- melted butter (I basically only ever have salted butter in the house)
- butter, sugar and cinnamon/mace to dust.
HOW TO MAKE JAMES BEARD'S COFFEE CAKE
As with many of these older recipes the instructions can be a bit vague to the newer cook, especially one who has no experience in the kitchen. I always try to dispel the mystery!
In the recipe it says to sift the dry ingredients together. Did that mean the sugar as well? I am not sure. My sifter (which is a fine meshed sieve) would not sift sugar or salt for that matter. So I sifted everything else together and then just stirred in the sugar and salt.
Sifting does several things. One it mixes the leavening evenly into the flour and two it aerates the flour giving you a nicer lift to your bake.
The recipe said to combine these with the milk, egg and melted butter. I chose to beat those things together first and then add them all at once to the dry ingredients.
Much like you would do when making a quick bread. Burt says sometimes more milk is needed. I did add a tiny splash more as the batter was somewhat stiff.
You want a batter that softly drops from a spoon. So if your batter is ultra thick, do add a tablespoon more or two of additional milk.
By this time it was already smelling nice and fragrant from the Mace. Spoon/pour/spread the batter into a buttered 8-inh square pan that you have buttered really well.
Now here is the surprising bit. You need to dot the top in butter which you have rolled in sugar. No measurements mentioned at all.
I used approximately 1 1/2 TBS (possibly 2) of really cold butter that I cut into bits and dropped into a bowl of sugar (2 TBS) rolling them about a bit to coat.
I then dropped the butter in little nibbles all over the top of the cake. Finally you dust the top with some additional mace/nutmeg or cinnamon. I chose to do some nutmeg and cinnamon.
Already I was thinking about how those little nibbles of sugar butter were going to melt down into the surface of the cake in sweet buttery dimples.
I was not disappointed. This not only smelled heavenly when it was baking, but yes, the surface was covered with little sweet buttery dimples of lusciousness! (Can you tell I love LOVE butter?)
I could hardly wait to get it out of the oven and dig into it. Its a good thing this cake is best served hot/warm is all I can say!
I dug in straight away. I just couldn't resist it! I enjoyed a nice hot cup of Orange, Mandarin, and Cinnamon herbal tea with it. Oh my, but it was some good. Thank you so much Burt!
Delicious things like this are surely meant to be shared and so I took some of it over to my friend Sheila who lives next door. She was also most appreciative and I can tell you, even today I am enjoying it.
It is pure and simple deliciousness. A gift for which I am most thankful.
Speaking of gifts many of you have remarked from time to time on this lovely tea cozy of mine.
This was also a gift to me, from my friend Ginny in New Hampshire. She so very generously knit it for me. I am a hopeless knitter. I am much more adept at crochet.
It is filled with love. Not only was it a gift from a loving and generous heart and talented hands, but it also is filled with hearts!
Can you see them in the pattern? Yellow, green and gold hearts are knit right into the beautiful pattern. It looks a treat on my little Wrendale teapot, sitting on my little Emma Bridgewater cork teapot trivet.
Talk about home sweet home and thankfulness. It just doesn't get much better than this. Cake, tea, the love of friends. Happy American Thanksgiving everyone!
James Beard's Coffee Cake
Yield: One 8-inch square cake
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 35 Min
This is a delicious cake that goes wonderfully with a nice hot cuppa. The recipe was a gift from a friend.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (210g) less 2 TBS of all purpose plain flour
- 2 tsp double acting baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp mace
- 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
- 1 large free range egg, well beaten
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whole milk
- 3 TBS melted butter
- Additional butter and sugar for topping (see instructions)
- mace or cinnamon to top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C/ gas mark 6. Butter a 8-inch square baking tin really well. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, mace, and salt together into a bowl. Stir in the sugar.
- Beat together the egg and milk with the melted butter. Add all at once to the dry ingredients and beat together until smooth. Pour into the prepared baking dish.
- Dot with butter which has been rolled in sugar. (Although amounts were not given, I used 1 1/2 TBS of butter cut into bits and about 2 TBS of sugar) Dust with mace or cinnamon.
- Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown and puffy. Serve hot with a nice hot cuppa.
Its that time of year again. The time of the great garden Zucchini glut. It happens every year about this time. We end up with zucchini (or courgettes as they are loving called here in the UK) coming out our ears. We don't even have to grow it ourselves because everyone else who is growing it will soon start happily dumping it on us. I got one given to me just the other day!
I think I have been carrying on a love affair with peanut butter my whole life. I come by it honestly. My father also loves it. My bedtime snack of choice has always been a slice of bread or toast (whole wheat these days) and peanut butter, and I can remember as a child when my mom was cooking the Sunday morning bacon and eggs for the rest of the family, I chose to have peanut butter on toast with my bacon instead of eggs.
These are gorgously tasty cookies and quite different than the usual peanut butter cookie. You should smell them when they are baking!
The recipe is adapted from a cookery book entitled Canteen, Great British Food, and makes only 15 to 20 cookies. That is not a problem from where I am sitting. We are a small family and I am not supposed to be eating things like this.
Oh the smell though . . . when they are baking. Absolutely Heavenly! Bliss! Actually as far as biscuits go, although quite high in sugar (most cookies are), they contain healthy carbs in the way of oats and whole wheat flour.
The dough is a bit sticky when you go to roll it into balls. But not so sticky that it is impossible to work with. Just roll them and put them onto the baking tray. Do leave plenty of space in between as they do spread a LOT. I baked only 8 at a time, spread out on a medium sized paper lined tray.
The original recipe called for a bake time of only 8 to 10 minutes, but I found that to be far too short. I baked them for 15, which was just perfect. They were crunchy without being hard, and having just a tiny bit of chew in the middle. The peanut garnish on the top is my own addition. These are great!
*Oaty Peanut Butter Cookies*
Makes 15 to 20
60g plain wholemeal flour (7 1/2 TBS wholewheat)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
75g porrige oats (scant cup)Optional - a few whole salted peanuts to garnish each cookie
Preheat the oven to 165*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Set aside.
Cream together both sugars and the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Beat in the remaining ingredients, mixing well together.
Roll in your hands into walnut sized balls and place spaced well apart on the baking sheet. Flatten slightly and top each (optional) with a few more salted peanuts.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown on the edges. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before scooping off onto a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat as necessary until all the cookies have baked. Store in an airtight tin.
If you are looking for a great cookie to bake for a weekend treat, or to pop into the kids lunch boxes next week, or even just to enjoy with your morning cuppa, and you love peanut butter as much as I do, you can't go very far wrong with these tasty biscuits! Crisp, sweet and salty, they go down a real treat! Bon appetit!
I first saw this Carrot Cake Roll on La Table De Nana (one of my favourite spaces) back in July of this year.
It looked fabulous, but then everything she makes looks fabulous. Monique is such a talented lady in so very many ways.
As recipes go, she had purloined it from French at Isa's, but also gave a link to an English version to be found here.
It is a fabulous cake in any language.
Carrot cake is my husband's favourite kind of cake. As soon as I saw Moniques, I had in mind to make this for him and that's just what I did today. It only took me two months to get to it, haha.
And then I had to search and search for her photo of it so I could find the recipe. Note to self: from now on pin what you want to make. Just don't take it for granted that you can easily find it again!
So after much searching I found it again and set out to make it for my husband. I used the English version and adapted it a tiny bit.
I have incuded the recipe in both linear and metric measures.
Its a very easy cake to make. There is no fat in the batter, unless you count the eggs. I used large free range eggs. The size had not been specified, but large free range worked perfectly.
There is rather a lot of sugar however . . . almost as much sugar as flour. I am not sure if you could cut that down or not.
I added chopped raisins and toasted walnuts to the batter as well. I like carrot cakes to have raisins and walnuts in them.
I just put them into a coffee mug and chopped away with my kitchen scissors. Easy peasy. Worked a charm.
My filling didn't turn out as solid as the original recipe did. I think that is because of the difference in cream cheese between North America and over here in the UK.
Our has a lot more liquid in it. Not sure how I can fix that either . . . but as far as taste went, it didn't really matter too much.
My husband really, really enjoyed this cake. I would make it again for company. I think its a good solid recipe. Easy and delicious, pretty and much more interesting than a normal carrot cake.
*Carrot Cake Roll*
Serves 12
For the filling:
170g cream cheese, at room temperature (6 ounces)
4 TBS butter, at room temperature
260g sifted icing sugar (2 cups)
1 tsp pure vanilla
You will also need:
icing sugar to dust (optional)
toasted walnut halves (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F. gas mark
4. Line a 10-inch by 15-inch rimmed sheet pan with aluminium foil and
spray it well with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
Crack the eggs into bowl and beat well for about 5 minutes until thick and creamy. They should get lighter in colour. Beat in the sugar, salt and vanilla. Sift the flour and spices together. Stir in the raisins and walnuts. Stir this into the egg mixture to combine. Stir in the carrots. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it to completely cover and fill to the edges.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until just done. The top should spring back when lightly touched, but it should not have browned too much.
While the cake is baking place a large cotton tea towel on a flat surface and dust with icing sugar. As soon as you remove the cake from the oven, carefully invert it over the icing sugar dusted tea towel. Carefully remove the foil. (If you have sprayed it generously, this won't be a problem) Starting from a short end, fold a bit of the end of the tea towel over the end of the cake and the roll it up tightly in the towel. Leave to cool completely.
To make the filling beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar and vanilla.
When the cake is completely cold, carefully unroll and spread the filling evenly over top. Re-roll. Refrigerate for about an hour to firm it up. Place onto a decorative plate, dust with icing sugar, place toasted walnut halves decoratively on top and serve. Cut into slices to serve.
Store in the refrigerator. You can freeze the finished cake, wrapped tightly in cling film, for up to one month.
Crack the eggs into bowl and beat well for about 5 minutes until thick and creamy. They should get lighter in colour. Beat in the sugar, salt and vanilla. Sift the flour and spices together. Stir in the raisins and walnuts. Stir this into the egg mixture to combine. Stir in the carrots. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it to completely cover and fill to the edges.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until just done. The top should spring back when lightly touched, but it should not have browned too much.
While the cake is baking place a large cotton tea towel on a flat surface and dust with icing sugar. As soon as you remove the cake from the oven, carefully invert it over the icing sugar dusted tea towel. Carefully remove the foil. (If you have sprayed it generously, this won't be a problem) Starting from a short end, fold a bit of the end of the tea towel over the end of the cake and the roll it up tightly in the towel. Leave to cool completely.
To make the filling beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar and vanilla.
When the cake is completely cold, carefully unroll and spread the filling evenly over top. Re-roll. Refrigerate for about an hour to firm it up. Place onto a decorative plate, dust with icing sugar, place toasted walnut halves decoratively on top and serve. Cut into slices to serve.
Store in the refrigerator. You can freeze the finished cake, wrapped tightly in cling film, for up to one month.
This made the perfect cake to celebrate the beginning of Autumn and the weekend.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Border Biscuits here in the UK make a gorgeous Chocolate covered Gingernut biscuit. I just adore them, they are hot and spicy with lots of ginger flavour and coated in either dark or milk chocolate. They are so crisp they snap when you bite into them and the chocolate melts on your fingers as you are eating them. A bit of a mess to eat, but oh so tasty.
These are not them, but they are every bit as good. This is like a shortbread biscuit almost . . . buttery and short . . . crisp . . .
Studded with candied ginger and flavoured with ginger extract . . . just a few drops. If you can't get the ginger extract, then add about 1/4 tsp of ground ginger-root powder in it's place . . .
Dark chocolate drizzled over top are their crowning glory and makes them very scrummy indeed. Dark chocolate and ginger are a marriage made in heaven. Combine them in a delicious biscuit and you have some very incredibly edible indeed! Mmmm . . . soooo good!
*Chocolate Drizzled Ginger Butter Cookies*
makes a couple dozen
few drops of ginger extract
275g of plain flour (scant 2 cups, sifted)Press down with a fork. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes until light golden brown and just firm on top. Leave on baking sheet to cool for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
When I eat these I am reminded of the dark chocolate coated bits of candied ginger we treat ourselves to at Christmas time. You won't be able to eat just one of these, I guarantee! Bon appetit and happy dunking!
Today's recipe is a traditional one that I have adapted from a great National Trust cookery book I have entitled, Complete Traditional Recipe Book, by Sarah Eddington. I love these old traditional recipes. There is always a story behind them. They are also very simple and uncomplicated as well as being very delicious!
They are also known as Ashby Statutes Cakes, which have traditionally been baked to enjoy during the travelling Summer Fun Fairs of July, August and September. I think they are very similar to Welsh Cakes, or biscuits.
To me they seem to be somewhat of a cross between a cookie and a pastry . . . nice and buttery . . .and short, but not as short as a shortbread biscuit would be . . .
Welsh cakes are very similar in shape and size and also dusted with castor sugar . . . but are studded with raisins and flavoured with spice.
These are not studded with raisins alone . . . nor is there any spice . . .instead they are studded with a mix of dried fruit and chopped nuts. I have used glace cherries, sultanas, currants and citrus peel, along with chopped toasted hazelnuts.
I chopped the cherries very fine, and then I chopped the other fruits also. Not too fine, mind . . . just fine enough to make them easier to stamp out. Nothing worse than a whole raisin or a nut ruining the look of your biscuit by jamming the cutter.
These are beautiful dunkers . . . be it in a nice hot cuppa or a glass of milk . . . which makes them perfect for elevensies, or coffee break or afterschool, or with your afternoon cup of tea.
I love a good dunking biscuit don't you? Its a bit of a comfort thing I believe . . . and these are very comforting. I do love these fabulous traditional foods of these beautiful Islands, and all of their the history and folklore behind them!
*Langley Wakes Cakes*
Makes approx. 16 1/2 tsp baking powder
and finely chopped toasted hazelnuts)
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line several large baking sheets with some baking paper. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Stir in the dried fruit and nuts. Add to the creamed mixture, alternating with the well beaten egg, stirring until you have a batter which is stiff enough for rolling out. You don't want it too sticky.
Lightly flour your countertop. Working with half of the dough at a time, roll out approximately 1/3 of an inch thick, using a lightly floured rolling pin. Take a 3-inch fluted round cutter and stamp out rounds. Transfer to a baking sheet, leaving about an inch of space in between each. Add the scraps to the second half of the dough and lightly knead together, roll out again as before and stamp out more rounds, again placing them onto the baking sheets. Repeat until you have used all the dough.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown on the edges. Sprinkle with additional caster sugar and leave on the baking sheets to cool for about 5 minutes prior to scooping off to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Store in an airtight container. These will keep for several days.
I love the idea of sprinkling hot biscuit/cookies with fine sugar right when they come out of the oven. The heat from the cookie makes it stick, and it adds a glorious gild to that tasty lily! Fire up the oven, you won't want to miss out on these! Bon Appetit!
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