This is a famous American recipe, I believe; I first tasted it in the home of a hospitable friend, years ago. I thought the biscuits delicious and she generously shared the recipe, straight away.
Since then my friend has passed away and now walks other skies in freedom. She was a lovely person and I remember her whenever I make these cookies. A good memorial.
Unbaked chocolate cookies.
I was given the ingredients in American measurements; You can use a measuring jug that has fluid oz on it and allow 8 floz per cup.
In a mixing bowl, mix together:
3 cups of porridge oats,
4 tablesp cocoa powder,
pinch of salt and a
dash of vanilla essence. Stir together.
In a large, heavy saucepan, melt together:
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter (4 oz, 112 grams)
Bring this mixture up to a full rolling boil and boil for two minutes by the clock.
Cool for a brief minute, pour over the dry mixture and stir together.
[Optional; you may add at this stage, a quarter-cup of peanut butter.]
Drop by teaspoonfuls on to greaseproof paper, leave to cool.
**********************************************************
Notes: this can be knocked up very quickly from store-cupboard ingredients so it's a handy recipe for school treats or unexpected guests. Its pretty sweet as given, I often reduce the sugar a bit. I never use the peanut butter so can't report.
My friend told me that the texture - whether chewy or brittle - is governed by the length of boiling so an experienced hand can "tune" it to taste by boiling longer or shorter...I can't manage this. If they come out right they should cling together and be manageable; you might have to flatten them a bit with a fork.
Delicious and popular and even a way to sneak some whole cereal into the diet!
Thank you, Linda.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Passion Cake
Passion cake
Ingredients:
10 oz plain flour
1 teasp bread soda
2 teasp baking powder
1 teasp salt
6 oz soft light brown sugar
2 oz chopped walnuts
3 eggs
2 ripe bananas
6 oz finely grated carrot
6 floz cooking oil.
Set oven to 350 degs F. Grease and line with paper a 9 in round tin, (or you can use a square one.)
Sift 1st 4 ingredients oogether. (the dry ones) Mix in sugar and walnuts. Make a well in it then pour in the beaten eggs and the mashed bananas. Mix all together with a wooden spoon. Add the carrots and oil and beat well with wooden spoon to a soft cake batter. Bake for about an hour or until springy and firm to touch. Let cool in tin for 10 mins, then carefully turn out and finish cooling on rack: handle with care, it is crumbly and fragile.
When cold ice with orange icing:
Icing sugar, sifted: moisten with orange juice, and fine orange rind. Decorate with walnuts.
Monday, January 18, 2010
The tastiest coffee
What do you think? What is the very tastiest, home-made coffee?
Should it be ground fine, or coarse, or in-between: brewed long or short - that is to say, coffee grounds in contact with almost-boiling water for long or short time? Steeped in it or passed through? Filtered via paper, metal, simple strainer or not at all? Dampened first by steam, water, or dry?
Many and many are the coffee blogs; passionate indeed are the coffee devotees who write them.
But when push comes to shove, if you make your own coffee at home, you will have to choose a method that suits you and, above all, produces a delicious cup that is a pleasure to drink!
I am frustrated by the sites that start from the assumption that you must buy an elaborate piece of named equipment; will it be Gaggia? an Espresso machine? A Dr Strangelove device called a vacuum, or a suction or some such contraption?
Coffee existed for centuries before these devices were invented, and in fact, in its spiritual home, the Arab world, coffee is regularly made by boiling very fine grounds with water, and serving the resulting strong thick sludge in tiny cups.
So don't be swayed by advertising or snobbery, but by the trusty Tastebud Test!
Make it, drink it, do you like it? Try a different way, do you like that? Stronger, weaker, finer, smoother, sharper, sweeter?
Ideal Coffee proportions:
Water: use either 5 fl oz, or a quarter of a pint, or 150 ml, or 5/8 of an American measuring cup.
Grounds: use either 20 ml, or 1 and a half tablespoons( standard measuring spoon type) or 2 rounded dessertspoons, or one standard coffee scoop, (some brands...)
Now, believe it or not, choose any measure of coffee grounds from the list above, and any measure of liquid from the list ditto, and mix the latter, just off the boil, with the former.
(All the coffee quantities are the same. All the water measures are the same - get out your measuring jugs, and check!)
No matter what gadget you choose to brew it in, this is the mixture that you will eventually drink: Stir them together, wait three minutes, strain through a tea-strainer, or a paper filter in a cone, or invest in an automated kettle-cum-jug-cum-filtercone etc that will do the same untouched by hand. Or mix in a cafetiere when you will just push the grounds to the bottom with a wire filter. Or boil up in a percolator when the boiling water will be dripped over the grounds and circulated up a sort of central chimney.
Or instal the grounds in one section and place the water in another, depending on the gadget: usually, steam will pass through the grounds , moistening and warming them; this is supposed to bring out the flavour (and yes, it does) and the hot water or steam is then pushed through and extracts the best of the flavour. That describes espresso and the classic simple Italian upstairs-downstairs coffee pot.
Grinding: different methods require different grinding fine-ness, in theory antway. Mind you I have made excelent coffee with all sorts of variations ; no need to be TOO picky about this!
Beans: grinding your own makes a huge difference, I am bound to say. But so does the type of bean. Choose your favourite.
And so on...I welcome contributions!
Should it be ground fine, or coarse, or in-between: brewed long or short - that is to say, coffee grounds in contact with almost-boiling water for long or short time? Steeped in it or passed through? Filtered via paper, metal, simple strainer or not at all? Dampened first by steam, water, or dry?
Many and many are the coffee blogs; passionate indeed are the coffee devotees who write them.
But when push comes to shove, if you make your own coffee at home, you will have to choose a method that suits you and, above all, produces a delicious cup that is a pleasure to drink!
I am frustrated by the sites that start from the assumption that you must buy an elaborate piece of named equipment; will it be Gaggia? an Espresso machine? A Dr Strangelove device called a vacuum, or a suction or some such contraption?
Coffee existed for centuries before these devices were invented, and in fact, in its spiritual home, the Arab world, coffee is regularly made by boiling very fine grounds with water, and serving the resulting strong thick sludge in tiny cups.
So don't be swayed by advertising or snobbery, but by the trusty Tastebud Test!
Make it, drink it, do you like it? Try a different way, do you like that? Stronger, weaker, finer, smoother, sharper, sweeter?
Ideal Coffee proportions:
Water: use either 5 fl oz, or a quarter of a pint, or 150 ml, or 5/8 of an American measuring cup.
Grounds: use either 20 ml, or 1 and a half tablespoons( standard measuring spoon type) or 2 rounded dessertspoons, or one standard coffee scoop, (some brands...)
Now, believe it or not, choose any measure of coffee grounds from the list above, and any measure of liquid from the list ditto, and mix the latter, just off the boil, with the former.
(All the coffee quantities are the same. All the water measures are the same - get out your measuring jugs, and check!)
No matter what gadget you choose to brew it in, this is the mixture that you will eventually drink: Stir them together, wait three minutes, strain through a tea-strainer, or a paper filter in a cone, or invest in an automated kettle-cum-jug-cum-filtercone etc that will do the same untouched by hand. Or mix in a cafetiere when you will just push the grounds to the bottom with a wire filter. Or boil up in a percolator when the boiling water will be dripped over the grounds and circulated up a sort of central chimney.
Or instal the grounds in one section and place the water in another, depending on the gadget: usually, steam will pass through the grounds , moistening and warming them; this is supposed to bring out the flavour (and yes, it does) and the hot water or steam is then pushed through and extracts the best of the flavour. That describes espresso and the classic simple Italian upstairs-downstairs coffee pot.
Grinding: different methods require different grinding fine-ness, in theory antway. Mind you I have made excelent coffee with all sorts of variations ; no need to be TOO picky about this!
Beans: grinding your own makes a huge difference, I am bound to say. But so does the type of bean. Choose your favourite.
And so on...I welcome contributions!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
More biscuits...shortbread.
The best, and worst, of home-made biscuits, and an excellent one for the beginner to train on.
The word "short" refers to the fat content, (high)
First find your recipe: and I can tell you right now that most of the common shortbread recipes are much the same; they usually recommend a 3, 2, 1 ratio of flour, butter, sugar, in that order. Typically, let's say, 9 oz of flour, 6 of butter and 3 of sugar.
The butter is rubbed into the flour with your hands until amalgamated into a rich sandy mixure: the sugar is added, and the whole mass squeezed together until it forms a dough.
You may find this process frustratingly dry but DO NOT ADD LIQUID! Keep kneading, and your warm hands will bring it together into a smooth ball of dough eventually.
(If your dough has got too sticky/greasy in the kneading, you can lay it aside, or chill it, for a while, and the dough will firm up.
Usually this will be pressed out into a tin, or rolled and cut. Don't make it too thin or it will burn. And don't make it too thick or it will be dreary chewing. (Not thinner than a 2 euro coin, probably not thicker than about 7 mm, is the best I can suggest.)
Check the temperature of the oven: most recipes say something like "a moderate oven, about 350 F or 180C"- this is too high!
Bake slowly at about 325F or 160C and start checking at 9 minutes, then 11 minutes, then 13 etc.
Don't let them brown, a light suntan towards the edges is enough.
How much heat could it take to cook a bit of flour that thin? how long for a pancake on a pan, by way of comparison?
The sugar and butter are edible raw anyway, you're only cooking the flour - don't overdo it!
Remove and cool promptly - sprinkle with caster sugar. Done!
Very, very plain biscuits - there are many improvements possible, you bet. But more of that anon.
The word "short" refers to the fat content, (high)
First find your recipe: and I can tell you right now that most of the common shortbread recipes are much the same; they usually recommend a 3, 2, 1 ratio of flour, butter, sugar, in that order. Typically, let's say, 9 oz of flour, 6 of butter and 3 of sugar.
The butter is rubbed into the flour with your hands until amalgamated into a rich sandy mixure: the sugar is added, and the whole mass squeezed together until it forms a dough.
You may find this process frustratingly dry but DO NOT ADD LIQUID! Keep kneading, and your warm hands will bring it together into a smooth ball of dough eventually.
(If your dough has got too sticky/greasy in the kneading, you can lay it aside, or chill it, for a while, and the dough will firm up.
Usually this will be pressed out into a tin, or rolled and cut. Don't make it too thin or it will burn. And don't make it too thick or it will be dreary chewing. (Not thinner than a 2 euro coin, probably not thicker than about 7 mm, is the best I can suggest.)
Check the temperature of the oven: most recipes say something like "a moderate oven, about 350 F or 180C"- this is too high!
Bake slowly at about 325F or 160C and start checking at 9 minutes, then 11 minutes, then 13 etc.
Don't let them brown, a light suntan towards the edges is enough.
How much heat could it take to cook a bit of flour that thin? how long for a pancake on a pan, by way of comparison?
The sugar and butter are edible raw anyway, you're only cooking the flour - don't overdo it!
Remove and cool promptly - sprinkle with caster sugar. Done!
Very, very plain biscuits - there are many improvements possible, you bet. But more of that anon.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Miniature perfection: biscuits: how to bake them.
It is with some modest authority that I claim to know a good deal about making biscuits.
Every Christmas for nearly thirty years I mix and bake and pack and give (and eat) multiple batches of these little seasonal specialities.
Most home-made biscuits are not much good, to be honest. Very often I have been told that someone makes great biscuits, and when you taste them they nearly always turn out to be a bland shortbread with a taste of slightly scorched flour and nothing else.
I would have to say that scorching is by far the commonest fault, and the reason for this is very readily understood: biscuits are small and usually thin, they contain very scorchable ingredients like sugar and butter, and a lot of recipes give temperatures that are too high and cooking times that are too long.
So the first secret of successful biscuiteering is to exercise great caution with baking: test the first trayful with a slightly reduced temperature, with several minutes chopped off the time allowed. Get yourself a good kitchen timer and always use it. Make notes of your findings, modify the recipes as required, and keep these notes for future use.
The best way to bake biscuits is on parchment paper. They may stick to the bare metal of a biscuit tray - even if they do not, sometimes a taste will come through from some long-ago pizza: I repeat, biscuits are very thin!
Have several FLAT baking trays and line them with non-stick parchment; don't use such things as roasting tins or swiss roll tins - the raised edges deflect heat unevenly around the biscuits and give irregular results. If such tins are all you have, turn them over and use the underside, covered with paper as before. Greaseproof can be used but the dough is more likely to stick to it, and then the biscuits break as you remove them to the cooling rack. And they must be removed to a cooling rack promptly in most cases, or the residual heat of the metal tray may bake them further and yes, scorch them!
Whenever you propose to make biscuits, start by placing the oven racks as needed - usually near the centre - and turn the oven on, and while it heats, line your biscuit trays with baking parchment and lay out your cooling racks and timer and a spatula for moving them about, and a tin or box to take the finished product.
THEN you can mix your dough, if it is the kind that can be done straight away.
Of course many biscuit doughs are rich in butter and need to be chilled after mixing, in which case you prepare the mixture, wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour: when ready to bake them proceed as above.
More to follow...
Every Christmas for nearly thirty years I mix and bake and pack and give (and eat) multiple batches of these little seasonal specialities.
Most home-made biscuits are not much good, to be honest. Very often I have been told that someone makes great biscuits, and when you taste them they nearly always turn out to be a bland shortbread with a taste of slightly scorched flour and nothing else.
I would have to say that scorching is by far the commonest fault, and the reason for this is very readily understood: biscuits are small and usually thin, they contain very scorchable ingredients like sugar and butter, and a lot of recipes give temperatures that are too high and cooking times that are too long.
So the first secret of successful biscuiteering is to exercise great caution with baking: test the first trayful with a slightly reduced temperature, with several minutes chopped off the time allowed. Get yourself a good kitchen timer and always use it. Make notes of your findings, modify the recipes as required, and keep these notes for future use.
The best way to bake biscuits is on parchment paper. They may stick to the bare metal of a biscuit tray - even if they do not, sometimes a taste will come through from some long-ago pizza: I repeat, biscuits are very thin!
Have several FLAT baking trays and line them with non-stick parchment; don't use such things as roasting tins or swiss roll tins - the raised edges deflect heat unevenly around the biscuits and give irregular results. If such tins are all you have, turn them over and use the underside, covered with paper as before. Greaseproof can be used but the dough is more likely to stick to it, and then the biscuits break as you remove them to the cooling rack. And they must be removed to a cooling rack promptly in most cases, or the residual heat of the metal tray may bake them further and yes, scorch them!
Whenever you propose to make biscuits, start by placing the oven racks as needed - usually near the centre - and turn the oven on, and while it heats, line your biscuit trays with baking parchment and lay out your cooling racks and timer and a spatula for moving them about, and a tin or box to take the finished product.
THEN you can mix your dough, if it is the kind that can be done straight away.
Of course many biscuit doughs are rich in butter and need to be chilled after mixing, in which case you prepare the mixture, wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour: when ready to bake them proceed as above.
More to follow...
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Yogurt Scones
Put rack across the middle of the oven and turn on to 425F
Shake a handful of flour over a biscuit tray, or roasting tin.
Mix dry ingredients:
Sift together, 1 lb of plain flour, 4 level teaspoons of baking powder, 1 level teasp salt.
Rub in: 4 oz of packet marg like Stork, or butter. Rub in till fine crumb texture.
Stir in 2 oz of caster sugar.
Liquids: in your measuring jug, mix together: 5 fl oz natural yogurt and 5 floz cold water.(ie quarter pint of each)
Whisk lightly to mix.
Beat an egg in a cup and add most of it to the jug of liquid. (leave a little behind for glazing)
When the oven has reached temperature and tins ready (and not before!)---
Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix quickly but thoroughly with a fork: knead very briefly to amalgamate dough. Handle lightly.
With floury hand, press out on floured tray, about 1/4 to a /1/2 inch thick. Slash into squares, no need to separate them unless you want to.
Glaze the squares with the last bit of egg to which you might add a drop of milk .
Pop quickly into oven and bake for about 15 mins.
You can of course cut with a cutter into the classic rounds and bake them fairly close together. But do not let too much time elapse between adding the liquid to the dry, and baking.
The rise comes from the interaction of the acid yogurt with the baking powder: if left too long it loses its fizz!
You can halve quantities if wished.
A rich full-fat yogurt gives richest result.
Currants can be added, or sugar omitted, etc.
Eat same day (won't be a problem!) as scones stale quickly.
*****************************************************
Postscript: ingredients list;
Plain flour, 1 lb
Baking powder, 4 level teaspoons
salt, 1 level teaspoon
Hard margarine or butter 4 oz
Egg, 1.
Caster sugar, about 2 oz.
Natural yogurt 5 fl oz
Water 5 fl oz.
Shake a handful of flour over a biscuit tray, or roasting tin.
Mix dry ingredients:
Sift together, 1 lb of plain flour, 4 level teaspoons of baking powder, 1 level teasp salt.
Rub in: 4 oz of packet marg like Stork, or butter. Rub in till fine crumb texture.
Stir in 2 oz of caster sugar.
Liquids: in your measuring jug, mix together: 5 fl oz natural yogurt and 5 floz cold water.(ie quarter pint of each)
Whisk lightly to mix.
Beat an egg in a cup and add most of it to the jug of liquid. (leave a little behind for glazing)
When the oven has reached temperature and tins ready (and not before!)---
Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix quickly but thoroughly with a fork: knead very briefly to amalgamate dough. Handle lightly.
With floury hand, press out on floured tray, about 1/4 to a /1/2 inch thick. Slash into squares, no need to separate them unless you want to.
Glaze the squares with the last bit of egg to which you might add a drop of milk .
Pop quickly into oven and bake for about 15 mins.
You can of course cut with a cutter into the classic rounds and bake them fairly close together. But do not let too much time elapse between adding the liquid to the dry, and baking.
The rise comes from the interaction of the acid yogurt with the baking powder: if left too long it loses its fizz!
You can halve quantities if wished.
A rich full-fat yogurt gives richest result.
Currants can be added, or sugar omitted, etc.
Eat same day (won't be a problem!) as scones stale quickly.
*****************************************************
Postscript: ingredients list;
Plain flour, 1 lb
Baking powder, 4 level teaspoons
salt, 1 level teaspoon
Hard margarine or butter 4 oz
Egg, 1.
Caster sugar, about 2 oz.
Natural yogurt 5 fl oz
Water 5 fl oz.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Strawberries with Ricotta and Barbados sugar
I came across this simple seasonal dessert in Italy, many years ago.
It is still one of the best and nicest ways to serve strawberries.
As usual, the better the ingredients, the better the dish.
Good strawberries are pretty rare nowadays...don't get me started!
(But do tell every seller and grocer that those Elsantas are watery miserableness)
Good ricotta can be got, just make sure the brand you use is real ricotta, mild and creamy NOT CHEESY OR SALTY! It should taste like thick milk. The texture can be drier, almost sliceable sometimes, but it mustn't be like cream cheese.
Brown sugar - any kind will do, but the strong dark sticky Barbados type is best. Worst is that feeble kind that is like brown-coloured white sugar.
For a small family, use about a pint of strawberries, maybe a half of that volume in ricotta, and about 6 to 8 tablespoons of dark brown sugar.
Rinse and trim the strawberries. Quarter, slice, halve or leave, as needed for a comfortable spoonful size. Layer with the other ingredients into individual glasses, for single portions, or a pretty glass bowl for family serving.
Put strawberries, dollops of brown sugar, and spoonfuls or clumps of ricotta. About a third of each but more of the strawberries, the other things are a garnish for them.
It sounds very simple, but it is remarkable how good this mixture is!
For an excellent, clear account of what ricotta is and how it is made, have a look at Wikipedia.
It is still one of the best and nicest ways to serve strawberries.
As usual, the better the ingredients, the better the dish.
Good strawberries are pretty rare nowadays...don't get me started!
(But do tell every seller and grocer that those Elsantas are watery miserableness)
Good ricotta can be got, just make sure the brand you use is real ricotta, mild and creamy NOT CHEESY OR SALTY! It should taste like thick milk. The texture can be drier, almost sliceable sometimes, but it mustn't be like cream cheese.
Brown sugar - any kind will do, but the strong dark sticky Barbados type is best. Worst is that feeble kind that is like brown-coloured white sugar.
For a small family, use about a pint of strawberries, maybe a half of that volume in ricotta, and about 6 to 8 tablespoons of dark brown sugar.
Rinse and trim the strawberries. Quarter, slice, halve or leave, as needed for a comfortable spoonful size. Layer with the other ingredients into individual glasses, for single portions, or a pretty glass bowl for family serving.
Put strawberries, dollops of brown sugar, and spoonfuls or clumps of ricotta. About a third of each but more of the strawberries, the other things are a garnish for them.
It sounds very simple, but it is remarkable how good this mixture is!
For an excellent, clear account of what ricotta is and how it is made, have a look at Wikipedia.
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