On the road...

"Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase, it the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things it will come and sit softly on your shoulder..." Thoreau 

There are just thirty five stitches for the needles to work, for the yarn to meander in and out and keep my itchy fingers busy when I'm in the passenger seat. I'm knitting another simple garter stitch scarf. This time in Icelandic Lopi yarn to match Ahmad's Cobblestone Pullover. Perfect timing for Hannah's invitation to help with the move, basement to attic. From up on the hill, down to the creative Bohemian quarter. 

When there wasn't enough room in the car for bookcases and me, I happily inhabited a big comfy armchair and borrowed a copy of Walden from the bookcase. What with Thoreau, knitting, ginger beer and Swedish ginger biscuits it felt like the butterfly was comfortably perched on my shoulder. 

We even had time for a lunch at my favourite friendly Bristolian. 

I don't have a recipe for crunchy Danish ginger biscuits but this is an old family recipe for fairings which are traditional Cornish ginger biscuits. They are named after the edible treats that were traditionally sold at English fairs:-

Ginger Fairings

Ingredients:

• 6oz of Self Raising flour
• 3oz of golden caster sugar
• 2tsp of ground ginger
• 4oz of butter
• 1tbs of syrup
• A pinch of bicarbonate of soda

Method:

1. Prepare a baking try by oiling and preheat the oven to 275-300c/140-150f
2. Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan
3. Sieve the dry ingredients into the melted butter and mix well.
4. Roll  teaspoons full of the mixture in the palms of your hands to make little balls.
5. Place on the baking tray and cook for 15 to 20 minutes using the bottom shelves in the oven.

joining ginny and nicole...
...coming?

debx

Highland Fling and simple Highland butter shortbread biscuits

We went to Scotland. Not the highlands but we did dance. I don't think it was a highland fling even though I did get flung around quite a bit. Maybe that's because I kept going in the wrong direction. One of Hannah's old school friends got married in Edinburgh last month (18/7) and we were invited. As her friend is an opera singer and her new husband a conductor/concert pianist the music was awesome in the true meaning of the word. Really awesome...not your favourite band awesome but Bach and Mendelssohn awesome...(you wouldn't know it, they look more like hipsters or an indi band than classically trained musicians) It's a shame the video files are too long for the blog so I can't post them. Just the bagpipes...so I recommend fingers in ears if you click on it...

We were greeted on arrival by a kilted bagpiper and then more kilts as the groom and his brothers, the cute little nephews, then gradually all the guests appeared. The wine flowed, the band played and everyone danced the night away...

These highland shortbread biscuits remind me of my highland fling...

It is so easy to make Butter shortbread just like the real Mccoy. If you've never made them before you MUST have a go...

Butter shortbread

Ingredients:

• 2oz  caster sugar plus a little extra. I used golden caster sugar
• 4oz butter or non-dairy alternative. I used slightly salted butter
• 6oz plain flour. I used strong white flour because I didn't have any regular plain flour and they turned out amazingly  good. 

Method:

1. Cream the butter and 2oz of sugar.
2. Add the flour and continue to beat together. Draw together and make into a ball of dough.
3. Sprinkle a little sugar onto a clean work surface and roll out the dough until about half and inch, that's about a centimetre thick. I made twelve biscuits.
4. Cut into fingers and place onto a baking tray prepared with baking parchment. Prick with the tines of a fork and bake for about fifteen to twenty minutes until pale golden brown. 
5. Leave to cool for a little before transferring to a wire rack. 

I'm not a big biscuit fan but these are extremely moreish and so easy to make.  

I've just put the second batch into the oven...double quantities this time...

I've got photos of Edinburgh city that I'll share later...
debx

Claire's Grandma's Biscuits

When H was little she would sometimes play with her schoolfriend Claire who lived at the end of our  road.  I think those times mostly involved around playing in the woods.  Other times they would go to Claire's grandmother, who live at the other end of the road...we're in the middle.  On those days they would usually bake biscuits.


I found the recipe for Claire's Grandmother's Biscuits  the other day and had a go.  They are so easy a child could make them!  

Hummingbird Bakery Oat and Raisin Cookies.

I've just baked a big batch of Hummingbird Bakery Oat and Raisin Cookies and am now trying to convince myself that as oats reduce cholesterol, they will counteract all the butter in them!  

These are really delicious cookies and very easy to make, as I'm discovering all the Hummingbird recipes to be.  They're made with half soft dark brown sugar and half caster sugar along with the butter,cinnamon, wheat flour, oats and raisins, plus a drop of vanilla extract.    

The recipe, which you can find of page 137 of The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, or link to here, is for twenty biscuits.  As usual generous with sizes, my batch made fifteen very large ones.  It's a lot of cookies...they won't last long, but I think next time I would probably make up a third of the quantity, purely because they are so delicious and my clothes are getting a bit tight and I don't want to go up another dress size!!

I would definitely rate this recipe a 10/10 for ease and results.

Rocky Road

Hurray H is coming home for Christmas on Sunday and so I've made a batch of her favourite Rocky Road. I feel a bit of a cheat saying I made them because this recipe involves absolutely no baking. It's really a case of a little bit of weighing, a smidgen of melting, a tad of chopping and then a spot of mixing.

This is a great recipe to make if you have any little people who want to help out. They can do the weighing and breaking biscuits.

For twelve pieces you will need:

100g shortbread biscuits (it's also nice made with Malted Milk biscuits)

25g of mini marshmallows or normal size ones cut into quarters

25g natural glace cherries

225g milk chocolate (H loves this made with Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate)

75g of butter

Prepare a 19cm square baking tin or dish with baking parchment so the Rocky Road is easy to remove when set.

Chop or break up your biscuits into small pieces. Halve the cherries and cut the marshmallows into quarters if using regular size not mini ones. I find it's useful to use a sprinkling of icing sugar to prevent the marshmallow quarters from sticking together. Place all these ingredients in a bowl.

Break up the chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. I used my porringer which was great for this. Add the butter and heat gently until both are melted. Stir thoroughly.

Pour the chocolaty mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well to combine everything together.

Put the mixture into the prepared dish spreading it evenly over the base and into the corners.

Cover and chill in fridge until firm and then cut into even sized bars.

NB For a vegetarian version you can make your own gelatine free marshmallow. You can link to the recipe here but you do need a product called Genutine Vegetarian Gelatine which you can buy in online in the UK from here and I'm sure other substitutes made from Agar-agar are available too.

Opposites Attract; or Raspberry buns V Date biscuits

It seems like ages since we had a bit of a laid back Saturday morning. One where you get up at six, go check your emails. Then think to yourself, 'why am I up at this ungodly hour, I don't have to be up now, it's freezing cold and there's a nice warm body in bed that I can go and warm my icy feet on' Go back to bed, and actually sleep until 9am. 

I love those pottering mornings and the less you have, the more enjoyable they become. The whole treat is that nothing is rushed. You're not looking at the clock all the time. You don't have a quick shower, but a long soak in the bath. Preferably with a good book and a nice cup of tea or mug of coffee. Then unhurriedly change the bed.

Then bake together. Everything done leisurely just for yourselves. Not cooking for a banquet, or the Queen coming to tea, but because you feel like doing it. We both love baking. Actually we are quite similar in our interests,taste, goals,ethics even politics, everything. That is until it comes to baking.

We bake very differently. I was always taught that baking is a science. It has to be exact. You have to weigh everything out. It's a precise art with chemical changes going on, alchemy. So when I really fancied making Raspberry buns this morning. Something I haven't done for years, I looked out my old school recipe.

I followed it to the letter. Weighed everything correctly. Rubbed the flour into the margarine. Added the eggs and milk.

Rolled the mixture into little balls. Made a well in the middle of each and filled it with jam. Baked them until golden brown at precisely 220 degrees c. They looked and tasted exactly like the ones I made as a little girl. Yummy.

Whilst I was making them, 'A' made these date biscuits.

He just mixed some flour in a bowl. He didn't weigh it, just sieved some into the bowl.Added bicarbonate of soda, sugar, a little bit of margarine, a pinch of salt and a splash of rosewater. Then rolled out what looked like a thick pastry dough.

Stoned some dates and laid them across one end.

Made a neat little sausage.

Brushed the outside with milk. Then cut it up into little circles.

And put them in the oven at the same time as I baked the raspberry buns.

They were just as delicious as mine. I don't know how he manages to do it. It's weird because he's supposed to the be the scientific one, he has degrees in maths and physics. I'm supposed to be creative one. He just has an idea of something he wants to make, mixes a few ingredients together, and hey presto tasty cakes or biscuits magically appear...It works every time...