Saturday, February 28, 2015

Happy Saint David's Day, Sunday March 1st - a round up of my Welsh recipes from the past.

"Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus!"
Please enjoy this round up of the sweet Welsh recipes I have featured here on my blog these past few years - click on the name of the treat to go to the recipe!

Lovely WELSH CAKES for breakfast or a nice snack with a cuppa! 
Sorry about the rubbish photo - it's from long, long ago!

A nice MONMOUTH PUDDING - a breadcrumb custard pudding with jam and meringue

Marvellous BARA BRITH - a delicious and ever so easy to make fruity tea bread - much lighter and quicker to make than your normal fruit cake - great with an afternoon cuppa!

 SNOWDON PUDDING - Pwdin Eryri -
a delightful, traditional steamed pudding with lovely lemony sauce.

....and last but not least dainty and charming WELSH HONEY CAKES - Tiessennau Mel
 
Happy Baking, Steaming and Eating!!
Here's my own watercolour Daffodil - available in my Etsy shop along with many other illustration prints HERE 

Friday, February 13, 2015

An Earl Grey Possett for your Valentine's perhaps?

A divine Earl Grey Possett...swoon....sigh......
ELIZABETHAN POSSET:
OED definition is: Drink made of hot milk curdled with ale, wine etc (sounds charming....) formerly used much as a remedy for colds. In the Elizabethan era it became the recipe you see below...a more refined pudding in the truest Blighty tradition.

OK I’ve said some of my other desserts/puddings here were simple but this beats them all….4 ingredients (you can even make it 3 if you want to exclude the tea flavouring and just have it as a Lemon Possett) and 3 minutes of cooking and a really impressive and divine dessert results!! Sure to impress your beloved on Valentine’s Day!!

INGREDIENTS:
Makes 4 servings.
 
3 1/2oz/ mounded half cup sugar (I used organic slightly brown sugar but if you want your posset the palest of colours then use white)

1 1/2 cups/12 fl oz heavy/double cream

1 tablespoon of the best, most perfumed Earl Grey tea you can find
(it doesn't have to be Earl Grey - it can be any tea you like but Earl Grey is so romantic!)

3 tablespoons lemon juice (from one lemon) - organic preferably, so you can use the peel for glacee'ing (is that a word?) if you'd like. 

METHOD:
1. Put cream, sugar and tea in a heavy bottomed pan.

2. Warm to just barely boiling

3. Simmer very gently for 3 minutes and stir occasionally to prevent stickage.

4. Strain into a bowl, some flecks of the tea may go through the strainer - that's OK - it looks quite pretty - then gently and slowly whisk in the lemon juice dribble by dribble…be in awe as the mixture starts to thicken - you can stir instead of whisk but as I found when you whisk it gives you a nice bubbly surface on the creams as they set and when served in a teacup look like a frothy cuppa as seen below :)
5. Pour into small, ½ cup containers and allow to cool then pop
into the fridgerdator (tee hee) for about 4 hours until completely set.

6. I still am in awe of how this dessert sets with just the lemon juice.

WHAT a sublimely delicious, smooth, luxurious treat this is....PLEASE do try it sometime.

I embellished mine with candied/glaceed lemon peel:
which is simply a combination of peel, water and sugar:
as I have my wood stove cranked during this period of Arctic bleakness and vast episodes of heavy snow I utilize the heat to make candied/glaceed peel from any and all organic oranges and lemons that come through the house - I simply save the peels and then boil, boil, boil them in a simple syrup of one cup of water to one cup of sugar in a small pan and keep adding water and sugar as I see fit when the mixture reduces down, I let it boil down maybe 4 or 5 times to a thickish syrup then fill again with water - not at all scientific but eventually the peel softens, becomes translucent, tastes really good when you fish out a piece and allow it cool - beware this stuff is screaming hot -  and when the syrup boils down to a bubbly thickness after you decide it is ready - keep your eyes peeled on the pan as if it burns the house will smell for days and you've lost your lovely peel -  then I strain and roll the peel in more sugar and leave on a plate on a shelf above the stove to dry out - doesn't usually get much chance to do so as James and I are both rather fond of this and it disappear quite quickly.
 I save the sugar syrup from the straining in a jar to help start the next batch off in good stead.

In the background of these pics are my fabrics EUROPA and BLUE RHAPSODY - click on the names to go to my online shop - Thank YOU!!!
Meanwhile outside in Maine:
The snow has been piling up....
and the sculpture has been disappearing:

          As of this Valentine's evening we should be seeing yet another 1 or 2 feet of snow arriving and settling on top of the already 4 feet we have right now - I love a good blizzard and can't wait to cosy down and eat my possett!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Are you watching The Great British Baking Show??

Please do consider watching this wonderful show now airing in the US on PBS Sunday evenings at 8pm, just before Downton Abbey. What a delightful programme it is, it's known as The Great British Bake Off (click on the name there to be taken to their YouTube channel) in Blighty - and I am so thrilled it is now airing in the US. It is a charming, sweet, witty, informative and fun show.


 I was trying to keep up with the series via YouTube but it kept being taken down by Auntie Beeb (The BBC) - now my Sunday evenings are complete and I try each Sunday afternoon or earlier to make something delicious to eat while I watch because it does make me hungry.

Something like lovely
ECCLES CAKES 
or WELSH HONEY CAKES
or ROCK CAKES  
or delicious YORKSHIRE PARKIN
or a MAPLE PARSNIP PECAN APPLE SYRUP MAPLE SYRUP CAKE with TOFFEE ICING
or a few SIMPLE SUBLIME MAPLE SYRUP TARTS


You can catch up with most of the shows thus far
 online at MPBN - YEA!!!!!

Next up on my blog why 2015 is off to a SLOW start and why that's just fine by me!