Since my last post I have made another soup and done a fair amount of baking. The soup recipe was from The Guardian Feast (2 November 2019) and was a hit in this house. Pasta soup with potato and sausage, cheese, leek - what's not to like?
On the baking front I've made a marmalade ring and date and walnut biscuits (both recipes from Doreen's Country Fare), an apple pie (guided by my M&S cookery book published in 1980), and two types of flapjack (both recipes in my Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Baking).
I do like flapjacks and am always very interested in other people's produce. My earliest memories of flapjacks date from my mid-teens when I was still living in England. Butter, brown sugar, oats and golden syrup. How can you go wrong?
The ones I made last Thursday were for different purposes: ginger flapjacks for the younger offspring's associates and orange flapjacks for the office; and some spares for my nextdoor neighbour. (Spouse and offspring, I don't begrudge your tasting sessions!) I particularly liked the orange flapjacks. These involved paring strips of orange rind and putting these in with the sugar and butter as they melted. The final touches required heating marmalade with some water, then spreading the syrup over the cooled flapjacks. Oh Lady Marmalade Flapjacks, je veux me coucher avec toi et une tasse de thé!
Following a quick review of my cookery books for flapjack recipes, I found seven other recipes (apart from the two in Step-by-Step Baking). They're all similar but have their own variations. Martha Day lists dark brown sugar, while the Big Book of Chocolate includes cocoa (I can't say I'm tempted by that); Doreen uses black treacle; Mary Norwak uses honey in one recipe and coconut and cornflakes in another; and M&S uses coconut too. The most interesting recipe (Bridget Jones' Comfort Food) lists apple sauce, dried apricots, raisins, various seeds, self-raising wholemeal flour and coconut: fascinating, but is this really a flapjack recipe?
Music for December
It's too soon to mention the C-word so let's listen to Jonie Mitchell singing Winter Lady.
That's it for now.
Minnie
On the baking front I've made a marmalade ring and date and walnut biscuits (both recipes from Doreen's Country Fare), an apple pie (guided by my M&S cookery book published in 1980), and two types of flapjack (both recipes in my Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Baking).
I do like flapjacks and am always very interested in other people's produce. My earliest memories of flapjacks date from my mid-teens when I was still living in England. Butter, brown sugar, oats and golden syrup. How can you go wrong?
The ones I made last Thursday were for different purposes: ginger flapjacks for the younger offspring's associates and orange flapjacks for the office; and some spares for my nextdoor neighbour. (Spouse and offspring, I don't begrudge your tasting sessions!) I particularly liked the orange flapjacks. These involved paring strips of orange rind and putting these in with the sugar and butter as they melted. The final touches required heating marmalade with some water, then spreading the syrup over the cooled flapjacks. Oh Lady Marmalade Flapjacks, je veux me coucher avec toi et une tasse de thé!
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| Orange flapjacks coated with marmalade |
Following a quick review of my cookery books for flapjack recipes, I found seven other recipes (apart from the two in Step-by-Step Baking). They're all similar but have their own variations. Martha Day lists dark brown sugar, while the Big Book of Chocolate includes cocoa (I can't say I'm tempted by that); Doreen uses black treacle; Mary Norwak uses honey in one recipe and coconut and cornflakes in another; and M&S uses coconut too. The most interesting recipe (Bridget Jones' Comfort Food) lists apple sauce, dried apricots, raisins, various seeds, self-raising wholemeal flour and coconut: fascinating, but is this really a flapjack recipe?
Music for December
It's too soon to mention the C-word so let's listen to Jonie Mitchell singing Winter Lady.
That's it for now.
Minnie
I know you love baking Minnie. And I know that it's not just the finished product that you like. It's the whole process, from looking through the recipe books, to choosing what to bake, to gathering the ingredients, to the mixing, the pouring, putting the batter in the oven, the smells, the satisfaction of the finished product on a cooling tray, the decoration and the first cut and taste. You are so good at it and I enjoy your enjoyment. Of course, I also enjoy the baked goods. x
ReplyDeleteThank you for that. I'm glad you enjoy the end product and appreciate the process. xxx
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