CHRISTMAS CAKE

I make this cake once a year - shocker!  Each time it is a little different.  It was pretty good this year, according to Alan who is the most ardent fan of this cake.  My sister has been making this cake for many years, I believe the recipe came from Aunty Elaine, thank you.

BOILED FRUIT CAKE

• 3 eggs
• 6 Tbsps butter
• 2 pounds fruit & nuts ( I use raisins, golden raisins, red glace cherries, dates and walnuts)
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 pinches salt
• 2 tsps baking soda
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 1 & 3/4 cups water (can use 2 cups and omit brandy)

Prepare 8" square tin or equivalent by lining sides with cardboard covered in foil, this will ensure more even baking.  Spray with 'Pam for baking' or grease as you prefer.
Combine fruit, water, butter and sugar is large saucepan. Put on high heat til comes to boil and sugar is dissolved. Cool. (can do this day before),
Add well beaten eggs and brandy if using, then flour, bicarb and salt.  Pour into prepared tin and place thoroughly soaked newspaper under tin.  Bake at 325F for one hour, turn down to 300 and cook for about another hour, or maybe even 2, til toothpick comes out pretty much clean.
I make this cake over Thanksgiving weekend and store in a Tupperware like container.  Pierce the cake all over with a skewer and add one Tbs brandy once a week, or so.........
FROSTING:
Start this a  few days before Christmas,  I use 2 tubes of Marzipan to cover the cake.  First spread about 3 Tbsps of apricot jam over cake,  roll the marzipan as thinly as possible, using confectioners sugar to keep from sticking to your surface and rolling pin. Don't worry too much about how it looks at this point, it is very forgiving once you cover with frosting!  I usually cut a piece of marzipan that will pretty much fit the top, then cut pieces to fit the sides and fill any gaps with the bits left over.  You then need to leave for a day to dry out, covered with a clean (duh!) tea towel.  I use Delia's Royal Icing, which is a little more brittle than I would prefer but have not found a better one.
Present on a fabulous plate and decorate with a piece of holly from your garden! This cake does last a while if stored correctly. Oh, and I have heard all the jokes about fruit cakes, all I can say is that those jokers have not tasted this cake!

TRADITIONAL SHORTBREAD

These have so many fond associations for me, I wonder how many batches of shortbread I have made over the years?  So popular in my house I cannot make enough, perhaps because I only do them at Christmas time these days.  I got the recipe from the Mary Berry Aga cookbook and have never looked back! It is now reduced to a sticky note because it is so simple, but I am going to share the recipe here and will do the conversions for my American friends.  I keep meaning to convert to cup measures as opposed to weights, one of these days!

• 8 ozs all purpose flour
• 4 ozs sugar
• 8ozs butter (2 sticks) at cool room temperature, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 4 ozs cornflour (corn starch) or fine semolina
• Metal baking pan, approx 11" x 8" or equivalent (for 2 batches, really no point in making one!)
• heat oven to 350F (or 325F Convection)

Put all ingredients in a food processor.  I actually put in the flours first a whizz for a while to take the place of sifting, then add the sugar and butter last. Do not over-process, stop as soon as it  binds together. Tip into a metal pan that you have buttered (I use Pam for baking) and pat with spoon or your hands til even, should be around 3/4 inch thick.  Prick all over with a fork and bake for around 50 minutes til just tinged golden.  Sprinkle with more sugar as soon as you remove from oven and cut into desired shapes.  Leave to cool in pan, remove and store in airtight container.
Notes:

• I have substituted the cornflour with ground almonds
• you can put dough in fridge for at least half an hour, then roll out to half to 3/4 inch and use cookie cutters for desired shapes. Usually this is better thinner than 3/4 inch so you will need to bake for less time.
• I continue to experiment with the butter temperature. If it is fridge temperature you get very short shortbread, but it is difficult to prick with fork as it all sticks to the fork.  I have resorted to putting in oven for 5 mins to soften then taking out and pricking, seems to work pretty well. I usually take the butter out of the fridge as my first step.
• I have to admit I never do just one batch but my food processor can only deal with one batch, so I do work with these amounts but keep the ingredients at hand and do multiple batches.  Today I did 5, once you have everything out it is pretty quick to keep going!

SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT FOR ME

Knew I wanted something fishy for dinner tonight, had nothing in particular in mind so decided to browse through recipes I have saved.  I find that too often, if I do not cook them immediately they end up in my binder, forgotten!  I found 'Okra and Tomato Stew with Savannah White Shrimp and Sausage'.  Probably meant to be a summer dish but seemed perfect for a wintery evening to me.
First clue was that it is not Okra season but I am not that easily put off, zuccini would substitute nicely.
Recipe worked out pretty well, quite delicious really and who knows how different it would have been had I found okra?  The broth part of my stew was pretty thin and I suspect that okra might have thickened it. But, I simply and confidently laid a soup spoon for everyone to eat the broth and it was really tasty.

SUGAR COOKIES FOR JOSEPH

So who am I to argue when he requests sugar cookies instead of shortbread!!! This happened last weekend and I turned to my collection of Cooks Illustrated for the tried and trusted recipe.  They were not a success - hence no posting last weekend!  They were burnt on the bottom, having followed every instruction exactly.  So, I could not be defeated and had another go at them today.  I changed 2 things, I bought 2 cookie sheets, yes shocker, I have never owned any, and I  looked at Epicurious for a recipe that had a lot of positive reviews.  Success all around, all I have to change next time is the glass I use to press them down and maybe not let Joseph add the sugar that was left in the bowl at the end! They were also easier to deal with, you put the dough in the fridge for between 1-24 hours and it is so much easier and less messy to deal with than the recipe we used last week.

PORK CHOPS!

I have fond memories of having delicious pork chops as a child but have almost always have been disappointed with them for the past few decades! Have tried various cooking techniques with some success but never had an 'aha' moment......  Apparently all to do with breeding very lean pigs and we all know that it is the fat that keeps the meat moist and tastes yummy! Nikki at work mentioned having cooked really good pork chops and I demanded the recipe and I have to say they were really good.

Recipe was from Cooks Illustrated so cannot provide a link so here it is:
Combine in a small bowl:

• 1tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Pat 4 pork chops (I inch thick is best, cut through fat in 2 places) dry and season with spice mixture. Put about 1/2 cup flour on a plate and dredge chops with flour, transfer chops to plate, keep flour. Let chops sit for 10 mins.  In the meantime fry 3 slices bacon over medium heat. Remove bacon and enjoy the snack!  Re-coat chops with flour and fry until browned, about 3 minutes each side.

Maybe not quite as good as the memory but really enjoyable, will definately do these again, thanks Nikki!

DESSERT FOR TEENAGERS

HALLOWEEN WHOOPIE PIES:  Back to my very fist post on this blog!  I made these again but decided to go for orange filling just for fun at this time of year.  Was not too happy with the shade or orange, had yellow and red food colour, thinking that would be all I would need, oh well, they got the idea!

Last time I did these I delivered them to a friend who was going through a tough time with her health and I did not eat one.  This time I tried a bite and thought they were just ok!  Joseph said the filling was not sweet enough, I thought the cake part could have been richer, denser and moister........ will work on this .......

MY FRIENDS ARE TURNING 50!

How did that happen?! We had a joint celebration last night for Julia, John and David, none of their birthdays are imminent, David's visit from the UK drove the date.  The boys got to choose dessert, apple crumble with custard for Bammy and Eton Mess for Jonesy.  Have made crumble tons of times over the years, from a well worn recipe in Delia's first book,  in fact, my whole book got so worn I am on my second edition of it! The recipe has evolved over the years, and as I described it when discussing this meal, has become almost muesli-like, which I didn't think John would go for, but Julia demanded that I at least add almonds!  Went straight to Delia on line for these 2 very English desserts, as I have discovered she is good at updating recipes. Came across Apple and Almond crumble,  perfect! Changed it a bit, inevitably, used 1.5 lbs granny smiths as we cannot get bramleys in the US, and used 8ozs of blackberries.  Also, used the cinnamon in the apple mix but left it out of the crumble, I like cinnamon but not when it overpowers.  I thought it was pretty perfect, first time I had started with whole almonds, and they provided excellent amount of crunch.
Next to the Eton Mess.  I was so happy to have this requested, I have looked at this recipe many times, thought it looked yummy and easy, and it was.  Not much to add except to say I would have preferred there to be more strawberries and I would save a few to garnish with once you have mixed everything together, so add at least another 4 ozs.   David, who is the expert was very complimentary, don't know if he was just being gracious but I'll take it!

Update a week later:  I made this again, luckily I was cooking for a different group and was keen to try to get this right, so I did pretty much double the amount of strawberries and I much preferred it. Used the same amount for the puree and used the extra for the ones that you chop and mix with the cream etc.  I also saved a few to garnish the top and was in general very happy with the result, and was happy to accept the compliments of my fellow diners!