Feasting to Fasting

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything of note, but as a particularly food related event is coming up in the calendar, it seems appropriate that I should at least give it a mention.

Shrove Tuesday, or as a rather clever ad campaign puts it, Jif Lemon Day, is but a couple of days away. It's a time to consume rather a lot and indeed, to use up certain foodstuffs before the fasting of Lent begins.

I'm sure not many of us actually observe the strict practices of Lent, but most of us certainly take advantage of the day preceding it.

Already the shops are stacked to the ceiling with syrups and plastic squeezy lemons and dare I say it, ready-made pancakes – hmm, that sort of defeats the object of using up ingredients, but I suppose when you're hungry as well as time starved, it's the only way to indulge.

As you may have guessed, I have an obsession with Iceland, so I maybe practicing their pre-Lent festivities instead, as it involves cream-filled buns, but a thin pancake sprinkled with sugar and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice is just as good

I think the Icelanders have a rather clever approach to the proceedings and they can even make the gorging go on for a couple of days!

If you'd like to know more about the Icelandic tradition of Bolludagur, our friends at Reykjavik Outsider have the whole story and a delicious recipe for those indulgent buns.

Click here to find out more.

Photo: everystockphoto.com

Wakes Cakes

Following my visit to Bakewell in Derbyshire, I decided to put a recipe to test from my Favourite Peak District Recipes book. I chose Wakes Cakes, as they sounded intriguing with their combination of ingredients. They happened to turn out very well – nice and crisp with chewy currants and interesting little flavour hits from the caraway seeds.

This traditional recipe may originate from the time of the English cotton mill industry during the 18th and 19th centuries. During the industrial revolution, many cotton mills were built in the midlands and the north, using the rivers to turn the great water wheels, which in turn powered the machinery to weave the cloth. This part of England was chosen, as it’s known for it’s damp and rainy weather, which are perfect conditions to produce high quality textiles. A dry atmosphere made the thread prone to breakage.

The life of a mill worker was not an easy one, very long hours for low pay and poor conditions and precious little time allowed to take holidays.
Wakes were originally religious festivals that commemorated church dedications, a time when people normally would want to take time off work and be with their families. Mill owners, not being overly generous with rights for their employees, found that their workers would often be absent at this time, so eventually seeing sense, they agreed that all the mills should close for a week anyway to allow for this.
Eventually, the wakes were adapted into a regular summer break when the week would be the focus for fairs where these cakes were sold and eagerly eaten.

Ingredients

12 oz flour
8 oz butter
6 oz white sugar
1 egg, beaten
3 oz currants
½ oz caraway seeds
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Sugar to sprinkle

Method
Set the oven to 375F or Mark 5.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl, add the beaten egg and mix in all the other ingredients to make a firm dough.
Roll out thinly on a floured surface, cut into rounds with a 2½ inch cutter, sprinkle with sugar and place on a greased baking tray.
Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browed.
They should be crisp and sweet like biscuits.

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Easter Cupcakes

I usually like to make something in the form of a cake for Easter, but rather than make a big cake as usual, I opted for some pretty cupcakes instead. To celebrate the joy of Spring (although it has been snowing this weekend!) I chose to decorate them with fragrant crystallised violets.

Makes 12

Ingredients
125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons milk

For the icing
250g icing sugar, sifted

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice, warmed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
yellow and pink food colouring
crystallised violets

crystallised angelica

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C Gas 6 and line a 12-hole deep muffin tin with cases.

Beat together all of the cake ingredients for a couple of minutes in a food processor until you have a smooth batter. Divide between the muffin cases and bake for about 15 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with 1-2 tablespoons of the warmed lemon juice (add 1 first and then add the other if it's needed) to make a smooth spreadable paste, mix in the vanilla extract. Put half of the mixture in another bowl. In the first bowl mix in a little of the yellow colouring. In the second bowl mix in a litle of pink colouring. You want your colors to be soft pastel spring shades, the yellow reminiscent of primroses and the pink like cherry blossom. Try to avoid lurid psychedelic colours by adding a drop at a time from a skewer dipped into the dye.

Slice off any peaks from the top of the cupcakes, to give a flattish surface, and then spoon over the icing and smooth to the edges using the back of the spoon. Leave for a couple of minutes and then put some crystallised violets and angelica in the middle of each one. Leave to set completely.

Piparkökur: Icelandic Pepper Cookies

This is my version of an Icelandic recipe that I have in my collection for some extremely moreish spiced biscuits. Traditionally they are made for Christmas, but they're so good with their crispy honeycomb texture and warm fragrance, they'd go well with a cup of freshly brewed coffee, anytime.

You could decorate them with icing, if making them for a festive occasion, but they're perfectly fine left plain. In fact, I tend to find the icing can eventually make the biscuits go a little soft, which, perhaps, is not so desirable.





The recipe is sufficient to make a lot of biscuits ( I didn't count the final number – sorry) so you will have to bake them in several batches. Just store them in an airtight container and they'll keep fresh for quite a long time – that's if they're not eaten in a flash!

Ingredients
250g plain flour
2 and half teaspoons baking powder
1 and half teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
half teaspoon ground cinnamon
half teaspoon ground cardamom
quarter teaspoon ground nutmeg
quarter teaspoon ground cloves
quarter teaspoon ground black pepper
eighth teaspoon paprika
250g light brown muscovado sugar
125g butter, softened
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Method

Sieve together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices into a bowl and then mix in the sugar.

Add the butter and rub it through the flour mixture with your fingers until it becomes completely combined and sandy in texture.

Add the beaten egg and work in to form a dough. If the mixture seems too dry and doesn't want to come together, you'll have to crack another egg and add some more beaten egg, a little at a time. You may only need half the egg.

Wrap the dough in some cling film and put it in the fridge overnight to firm up.

To roll out the dough, place a large piece of cling film on your work surface and lightly dust with flour, put a quarter of the dough on it and place another sheet of cling film over the top, now roll out quite thinly. Peel back the cling film and use a cutter to cut into cookies shapes. Use a cutter that you think will be slightly smaller than you need as the dough spreads as it heats up in the oven.

Carefully peel off the cut pieces and place on to a flat, lightly greased, non-stick baking sheet. The cookies need to be well spaced to allow for them to grow.

Repeat with the other three pieces of dough and continue to cook in batches.

Bake at Gas 6 / 200C / 400F until dark brown.