Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Blue July, bright July,  Honey flapjacks Month of storms and gorgeous blue;  Violet lightnings o'er thy sky,  Heavy falls of drenching dew; ... So wrote George Meredith.  I certainly saw some lightning in July but not here in Ireland. The spouse, the younger offspring and I were on the continent. Despite the time away from my own hob and oven, I still managed to get some baking done.  Pecan toffee shortbread: a favourite My first offering consisted of honey flapjacks from a recipe in the Irish Times . You'll see that the basic recipe can be varied: butter can be replaced by coconut oil and honey by maple syrup. Four days later I made pecan toffee shortbread - a personal favourite.  Prize-winners: apple crumble cake and plum and amaretti tray-bake Shortly afterwards I entered the local baking competition, making plum and amaretti cake for the tray-bake section and apple crumble cake for the miscellaneous section. Much to ...

Peanut butter brownies Party Pieces While sorting out recipes cut from magazines recently, I came across one for marbled peanut butter brownies. Having been off chocolate in January, I decided that I would reward my abstemiousness with a chocolate treat. My self-imposed rule when I haven't given up chocolate in January is not to eat chocolate except on Fridays and Saturdays ... and perhaps a sneaky bit on Sundays. Back to the brownies recipe. When would I get to try it out? The occasion arose. Two colleagues were moving on and in the time-honoured tradition of showing affection for people who are always on diets or lamenting their weight, a group of us marked their departure by going out for lunch and then having a tea party about an hour and a half later! I baked, of course. First I made good  old-fashioned cup cakes using the batter and glace icing recipes from Mary Norwak's Breads, Cakes and Biscuits , which was published in 1978. Then I made the marbled peanut but...

Italian Wedding Soup   Avid readers of Minnie's Soup Kitchen will recall that on the 4th September I considered making Italian wedding soup because the older offspring had expressed an interest in a meaty soup.  He's just back from a week away in Scotland and no doubt has missed his parents' home cooking, so he deserves some spoiling. Yesterday I baked him a rich chocolate almond cake with orange and lemon, using a recipe from a favourite book, Chocolate by Gill MacLennan. For chocolate lovers everywhere I will list the ingredients: white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, grated orange and lemon peel, eggs, butter, caster sugar, ground almonds, white breadcrumbs and cocoa powder. Now wipe all the drool away from around your mouths and pay attention to the soup. Cake batter in progress Chocolate by Gill MacLennan Ingredients for chocolate almond cake A slice of chocolate cake Italian wedding soup - the raw ingredients As I write, the meat ingr...