Melting Moments

Another recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible, and made late Sunday ready for yesterday when a group of knitting friends were coming round.  I decided biscuits were easier to eat if touching yarn, books etc.

With the butter weighed out and at room temperature for an hour, it still was not soft enough.  The recipe says measure the butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract and flour into a mixing bowl and beat together to form a soft dough.  I could see the kitchen covered in flour and bits if I used my hand held mixer, and I did not think the wooden spoon would made an imprint in a month of  Sundays.  I remembered Paul Hollywood getting in there with his hands on one demonstration and Mary giving him the sly look, so divested of rings and watch, hands and nails scrubbed, I went in there, mixed the butter and sugar a little with my hands, then the other ingredients and it was a dream.  Best of all no noise on a nice quiet Sunday evening.

I used half the quantity: 4oz butter, 3 oz golden caster sugar, 1 egg yolk, some vanilla bean paste, 5 oz of self raising flour, and 1 oz porridge oats for rolling, and some cherries for the top.  I still got 21 biscuits.  They are delicious biscuits, melt in the mouth, with the flavour of the butter coming through nicely. 

I watched the biscuits carefully whilst washing up, and then allowed them to cool on the baking sheets till they were firmed up, then transferred them to the rack to finish cooling. 

When Mr S made me some Viennese whirls last year, he kept checking them in the oven for crispness and nearly burnt them, those too are soft even when they are cooked, then firm up as they cool.

Kenilworth cycle path to Warwick University

One Sunday, a couple of weeks ago,  it was sunny, Mr S had replaced his mouse eaten handlebar grips, so we ventured out and cycled along the new path linking Kenilworth to Warwick Uni.  Very well built in concrete along part, with loads of cattle grids.  For the first few I gingerly pushed my bike across walking along the very edge. Then I became brave enough, so long as I kept my nerve and the handle bars steady,  I would make it.  I braced myself and make all the cattle grids from then on...... 

There are wonderful views along the length, and we stopped at the sculpture to admire the rolling farmland.

As we arrived on the University campus, a small clump of trees attracted my attention: Rowan Trees with pink berries, and a very blue sky.

We sat on one of the benches by the Lake, and had hot drinks from our flask, watching the ducks, moorhens, and the Heron fishing, right in front of us.

In patches the path was already heavily caked with mud and other things which cattle leave behind, so when we got back, out came the bucket and brushes and I gave my bike a really good wash....first one since the bike was new nearly 18 months ago!

Fresh off the Knitting Needles

Running along other interests such as baking, another of my home based activities is knitting.....I normally write up my knitting on Ravelry, which for any knitter using the Internet, its a huge resource.  I was thinking of my lovely Aunty Doreen who reads my blog when I realised that she would love to see this little cardigan.

During a visit to a newly opened Wool Warehouse  nearby in Leamington, I used my very rarely used mobile phone to check on whether my little grand daughter wanted a new cardigan, and with the request for a red one please, proceeded to get a pattern and some red double knitting yarn.

Putting into practice what I had picked up in an article which explained that more yarn is used on the purl row which for some can lead to an uneven fabric, really gave a near perfect finish.  Some knitters use pins of a smaller size on the purl row, and the article explained that one can throw the yarn in a different way, but I just tightened my tension a little, and it has really improved the overall fabric.

I had not been to one of our local haberdashery shops since it had relocated, to a position a little further down the shopping street, so decided to make a visit but could not find the right buttons, though it has just occurred to me that there are two other shops in our little town...so I shall try those in future first.  The little metal buttons I got from Textile Garden do really finish off the cardigan beautifully, and I hope the little fingers can cope, so maybe as Red is a favourite colour, I need to get a stash of nice buttons in ready for the next red cardigan.

A couple of weeks later, with pretty buttons, here is the new cardi complete:

Its been posted off, and I hope it is there for the weekend.

Shrewsbury Biscuits

Another recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.  This recipe caught my eye, and since it does not seem long since we were in Shrewsbury, I thought I would give it a try. 

I got my baking sheets out, lined them with baking parchment, and got my cutters and tape measure out of the cupboard.  I took the one which measured 6cm.......

With the butter and sugar creamed, egg yolk, lemon rind, flour and butter, the last thing to add were the currants.

Mary says roll out the dough to a thickness of 5mm.....no I did not use my ruler for this, but its pretty handy that a currant is about this size, so I just let the feel of the currants guide me....then I got cutting.  The biscuits looked a little on the small size, so out the tape measure came again, the size depends on which end one measures the cutter, I had been measuring the smooth size, the cutting edge was narrower, so some biscuits were cut with the larger cutter.

The next instruction is to lightly beat the egg white, with which the biscuits are to be brushed after they have been baking for 8 to 10 minutes.  I wondered just how frothy the egg white had to be.  Some biscuits got the froth and some did not, so there was a variation.  Either way is nice.  The ones with the froth have a certain sparkle about them.

After a further 5 to 8 minutes, a little longer than Mary suggested, which I reckon was because my biscuits got a little cold, as I was a little ponderous with the egg white and sugar sprinkle bit, voila, fresh biscuits.

They were lovely fresh, and after three days, Mr S reckoned they were a little like Garibaldi biscuits, still tasty but not crunchy. 

When we were little in Mauritius, we were friendly with a family a couple of roads away.  The mother was English, the father Indo Mauritian, and they had a very smart male cook who also dressed up as the Butler to serve dinner.  They had two little girls about our ages, and I do remember that we had home made Garibaldi biscuits there, made by their cook.  It was only when I came to England that I understood that people normally bought Garibaldi biscuits ready made.

Bath Buns

The first time I visited  the Pump Rooms in Bath, after a tour of the Roman Remains, and Georgian Baths, I stopped in the tea rooms as there was a band playing.  Tea and Bath Buns were ordered.  We had a pleasant view of the large room, and were enjoying chatting, then for a few minutes pure silence on my part.....I was savouring the delicious softness and flavour in the Bath Bun.  After that if we had any visitors or family staying, and wanted a ride out, we would go to Bath, and whilst our friends toured the Baths, we would have a first sitting of tea and buns and newspapers, and later a second helping with our friends.    Its quite a few years since our last visit as we now live too far away.

Bath Buns come in various sizes, looks and flavours.....ones in the shops do not look like the ones in Bath or ones in Bakeries...those are rounded and smooth, whilst the ones in the shops and some recipe books are raggedy. They usually have an egg wash and crushed sugar on the top.  I must have subconsciously had a yearning for a Bath bun, as I had only recently ordered some nibbed sugar.

The recipe I chose for my first batch of Bath Buns was From the Women's Institute Bread Book by Liz Herbert.  As I read through the ingredients I knew I had everything, so Friday Buns just had to be these.  The main flavourings were sour cherries, roughly chopped, raisins and mace.  It starts with a batter, then all other ingredients are added and the whole lot given a good 'beating' with a wooden spoon.  The dough is too slack to knead, and I have no dough hook.  Lovely for toning the upper arms.

The recipe says to place seven large spoonfuls spread well apart....next time I shall place eight spoonfuls well apart, as they came out really quite a bit larger than I wanted, and seven divided by 2 leaves an odd one out!  When they were baked they looked half raggedy and nicely round at the same time.

What the recipe does not describe is the wonderful smell given off by these buns, Mr S knew he was in for a treat when he walked in from work.  Mace is the spice and the flavour I could taste in those buns at the Pump Rooms, it filled the house with rich and warm smells, and quite dispelled the damp and gloom outside.  There is nothing quite like drawing the curtains on a Friday evening, and sitting down to a nice cup of tea and freshly  baked bun as a start to the weekend.

I froze four of the buns, which were defrosted and warmed a couple of days later, tasting just as if they had been newly baked.