Back to Baking

I've really enjoyed the focus on fish in my recent posts and still have the sardines from my delivery to eat - they're in the freezer at the moment.  My thoughts now turn to some more home baking. 

Last night I made a Victoria sponge using Holly Grove bramble jam instead of the more traditional raspberry or strawberry jam.  The bramble jam was made from hedgerow blackberries growing in the lanes around Holly Grove - very satisfying to make something so delicious from free fruit!

The cake makes a lovely light, sweet offering with a cup of tea or coffee as an afternoon treat or served with cream or ice cream as a light pudding.  Good use of the larder full of homemade jam!

Today I've adapted a recipe for shortbread biscuits to incorporate some essence of orange flower water that I bought on impulse a few days ago.  These, like the sponge, make a lovely accompaniment to afternoon tea or morning coffee or with some stewed fruit and ice cream make a quick dessert. 

Orangish Shortbread Biscuits
Makes about 35
Ingredients
325g plain flour
200g chilled unsalted butter, diced
125g caster sugar
2 tsp essence of orange flower water
2 egg yolks
icing sugar, for dusting

Method
Set the oven to 180C.  Put the flour and butter into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add the sugar, orange flower water and the eggs and mix to a smooth dough.

Roll the dough into a long sausage shape, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.  Cut the dough into 5mm thick slices and arrange them on the baking sheets spacing them slightly apart.  bake for about 20 minutes until pale golden in colour.  Place biscuits onto a wire to cool and then dust with icing sugar. 

Note: The 'orangish' in the recipe title is because the biscuits didn't taste very orangey, perhaps next time I'll add some grated orange zest?  Despite that the biscuits were crisp and lovely with my latte.

Hedgerow Bounty

I walked through the lanes near Holly Grove yesterday morning scouting for blackberries. Such a slowpaced and pleasant activity, scanning the hedges for the beautiful black jewels, a lovely way to spend a late August morning. Time to let thoughts drift and allow eyes and ears to contemplate the diversity of an English hedgrow and its wildlife. The hedgrows surrounding our garden are made up of holly covered in green berries, hawthorn with its red berries, ivy, damson, hazel, dog rose, honeysuckle, sycamore and brambles.

So, after an hour or two of forraging I returned to the HG kitchen with one and a quarter pounds of hedgrow blackberries - so what to do with them...blackberry and apple cheese. Fruit cheeses are firm and can be cut into wedges or slices. Best served as an accompaniment to cold meats or dairy cheeses, or cut into slices and dredged in sugar and served as a sweetmeat.

So with the apples on one of the trees ready to pick I gathered the last of the red and white currents to augment the blackberries and set off to make:

Blackberry and Apple Cheese
Makes about 2lbs
Ingredients
2lbs blackberries (I used 1lb 4ozs blackberries and 12ozs red and white currents)
1lb apples, cut into chunks with skin and core intact
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1lb 12 ozs granulated sugar, warmed

Method
Put all the fruit and the lemon rind and juice in a preserving pan and pour in enough water to come half way up the fruit. Bring to the boil, then uncover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the fruit is very soft.

Leave the fruit to cool slightly, then press the mixture through a sieve into a bowl, using the back of a spoon. Measure the puree into the cleaned preserving pan adding 14ozs sugar for every 1 pint of puree.

Gently heat the puree, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat slightly and cook for around 50 minutes, stirring frequently, until very thick - you should be able to see the base of the pan when a wooden spoon is drawn through the mixture.

Spoon the blackberry and apple cheese into warmed, sterilised jars. Seal and label the jars, then store in a cool, dark place for 2-3 months to dry out slightly.