I treated myself to a revised and updated Good Housekeeping Step by Step Cook Book. I still own and use the one my Mum gave me when I left home (1957 edition). It is looking decidedly dog eared so when I spotted the new and shiny copy in a sale I had to have it.
Thumbing through it I stumbled across the following recipe. It is so pleasingly simple and effortless to make also very few ingredients required so fairly instant gratification to be had with this.
Ingredients:
4 lemons
100g butter
4 eggs - the best you can find - I like Burford Browns for this recipe as they have a really rich colour yolk.
350g caster sugar.
Method:
In a double boiler ( a bowl that you can place over a saucepan of simmering water ) place the juice and zest of all the lemons. Cut the butter into small cubes and add that and the eggs and sugar to the bowl. So far so simple.
Place over your ready simmering water and stir until the sugar disolves. Heat gently without boiling for 20 minutes. You can give it the occasional stir. Keep an eye on it as you don't want to boil the mixture. Once you have your mixture ready strain it into jars. You will have around 700g of curd so one large or two small jars should be enough. The curd can then be stored in the fridge for two weeks.
This curd is lovely on white bread and butter, spooned liberally from the jar.
Friday, 15 October 2010
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Cakes and Charity - a perfect combination
I have just spent a very productive afternoon baking. I take cakes/muffins in to the office once a week to raise money for charity. The current charity of choice is The Ellen MacArthur Trust: a wonderful charity dedicated to inspiring young people's cancer recovery through sailing.
So far my lovely office of cake eaters have raised over £200. Last year they raised several hundred pounds for The Teenage Cancer Trust.
My son and his best mate also raised over a hundred pounds for the Teenage Cancer Trust by shaving off all their hair. Jack's just giving site features youtube footage of the hair shaving deed.
If you are reading this and feel so inclined to check out those two charities as well as my just giving sites. Check out the following links.
http://www.justgiving.com/jackclark
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LornaClark
http://www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org
http://www.teenagecancertrust.org
Tried and failed many times to make these links actually link so you'll have to do it the old fashioned cut and paste way. Sorry!!
Anyway, only a mini post and no recipe attached but very worthwhile methinks.
So far my lovely office of cake eaters have raised over £200. Last year they raised several hundred pounds for The Teenage Cancer Trust.
My son and his best mate also raised over a hundred pounds for the Teenage Cancer Trust by shaving off all their hair. Jack's just giving site features youtube footage of the hair shaving deed.
If you are reading this and feel so inclined to check out those two charities as well as my just giving sites. Check out the following links.
http://www.justgiving.com/jackclark
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LornaClark
http://www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org
http://www.teenagecancertrust.org
Tried and failed many times to make these links actually link so you'll have to do it the old fashioned cut and paste way. Sorry!!
Anyway, only a mini post and no recipe attached but very worthwhile methinks.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Millionaires Shortbread
Every time I make this recipe I am always pleasantly surprised at how easy it is. The hardest part of it is the rather laborious task of stirring the caramel for 8 to 10 minutes, but to be honest if you put on some fab music ( I can highly recommend the fabulous Susie Clarke http://www.myspace.com/susieclarke ) then 8 minutes or so is not so bad and can in fact be quite therapeutic.
The original recipe I used came from a Waitrose recipe booklet. Sad to say they have stopped making these fab little cook books, but great while it lasted. Anyway the original recipe was ok, great in fact, but me being me I had to tweak it, and now the recipe runs as follows.
For the shortbread base you will need:
200g plain flour
150g butter
80g caster sugar
For the caramel topping you will need:
1 can condensed milk
75g butter
50g caster sugar
2 tbsp of golden syrup
For the final topping
50 - 100g chocolate depending on your preferences - my family likes around 50g milk chocolate.
Method.
The oven needs to be preheated to 180 degrees C, gas mark 4.
Grease and line a square tin of around 22cm x 22cm or similar type tins.
In a bowl put your flour and butter and then rub them together until your mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you have a food processor, lucky you! this then should take you only merest moments. Either way once you have your fine crumb mix, you need to add the 80g caster sugar and mix that through. The mixture should start to feel like it is coming together.
Pour this into your prepared tin, and push down firmly into an even compact layer. Pop this into the oven for around 20-25 minutes. I would highly recommend you start checking this at around the 15 minutes mark as an over zealous oven can ruin all your hard work. You need to look out for a nice even golden colour. Leave to cool in the tin.
Next is the tricky-ish bit.
In a good solid saucepan put your condensed milk, butter, 50g sugar and golden syrup and then heat gently until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and simmer, stirring vigorously for around 8-10 minutes, until your caramel has darkened to a fudge like colour.
You need to be on the ball with this one as any wandering off to answer the phone, do a quick text etc etc will result in a burnt bottom! Stir, stir, stir and make sure you have got that music blaring in the background. Also useful if you have family members/friends around. Get them to dance or otherwise entertain you. I discovered my three children can do a rather marvelous impression of Girls Aloud singing The Promise!!! The less said about my husbands dancing though, the better.
Once you have your caramel ready, pour this into your tin over the shortbread base. Leave to cool.
Word of warning though. The caramel is comedically hot. If you get it on your hands/arms etc try to resist popping that into your mouth, as although it tastes really, really good, it will unfortunately burn all your taste buds off. Best bet, cold water. Save the pan to lick later once cooled a bit!
Once the caramel shortbread is cool you are ready to add your chocolate topping. The original recipe demanded a thick layer of dark 70% chocolate on the caramel. I find that too, too much. My family like about 50g melted milk chocolate drizzled over the caramel in a pleasing zig zag pattern, but really whatever your heart desires is fine with this. You could even scatter a few chopped nuts over the chocolate if you fancy.
Now if you can, this really needs to be refrigerated again to let the chocolate set, but no harm in having a small sliver - just to check it's ok for everyone else you understand.
Enjoy.
The original recipe I used came from a Waitrose recipe booklet. Sad to say they have stopped making these fab little cook books, but great while it lasted. Anyway the original recipe was ok, great in fact, but me being me I had to tweak it, and now the recipe runs as follows.
For the shortbread base you will need:
200g plain flour
150g butter
80g caster sugar
For the caramel topping you will need:
1 can condensed milk
75g butter
50g caster sugar
2 tbsp of golden syrup
For the final topping
50 - 100g chocolate depending on your preferences - my family likes around 50g milk chocolate.
Method.
The oven needs to be preheated to 180 degrees C, gas mark 4.
Grease and line a square tin of around 22cm x 22cm or similar type tins.
In a bowl put your flour and butter and then rub them together until your mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you have a food processor, lucky you! this then should take you only merest moments. Either way once you have your fine crumb mix, you need to add the 80g caster sugar and mix that through. The mixture should start to feel like it is coming together.
Pour this into your prepared tin, and push down firmly into an even compact layer. Pop this into the oven for around 20-25 minutes. I would highly recommend you start checking this at around the 15 minutes mark as an over zealous oven can ruin all your hard work. You need to look out for a nice even golden colour. Leave to cool in the tin.
Next is the tricky-ish bit.
In a good solid saucepan put your condensed milk, butter, 50g sugar and golden syrup and then heat gently until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and simmer, stirring vigorously for around 8-10 minutes, until your caramel has darkened to a fudge like colour.
You need to be on the ball with this one as any wandering off to answer the phone, do a quick text etc etc will result in a burnt bottom! Stir, stir, stir and make sure you have got that music blaring in the background. Also useful if you have family members/friends around. Get them to dance or otherwise entertain you. I discovered my three children can do a rather marvelous impression of Girls Aloud singing The Promise!!! The less said about my husbands dancing though, the better.
Once you have your caramel ready, pour this into your tin over the shortbread base. Leave to cool.
Word of warning though. The caramel is comedically hot. If you get it on your hands/arms etc try to resist popping that into your mouth, as although it tastes really, really good, it will unfortunately burn all your taste buds off. Best bet, cold water. Save the pan to lick later once cooled a bit!
Once the caramel shortbread is cool you are ready to add your chocolate topping. The original recipe demanded a thick layer of dark 70% chocolate on the caramel. I find that too, too much. My family like about 50g melted milk chocolate drizzled over the caramel in a pleasing zig zag pattern, but really whatever your heart desires is fine with this. You could even scatter a few chopped nuts over the chocolate if you fancy.
Now if you can, this really needs to be refrigerated again to let the chocolate set, but no harm in having a small sliver - just to check it's ok for everyone else you understand.
Enjoy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
