Irish Marmalade Cake for Saint Patrick's Day

 This is a lovely simple, elegant cake to celebrate Saint Patrick's - it surely does have a wonderful Gaelic bent as I used Scottish marmalade which has a nice deep flavour. I used the recipe from this book by Ruth Isabel Ross - one of my 'go to' favourite books for Irish recipes.

These last few weeks I have been eating a lot of organic tangelos and realized - wait why am I throwing away the peel when I can so easily make candied peel on the ever cranked wood burning stove - it has been wicked chilly these last few weeks, nary a day above freezing so the old stove has been doing a fine job of keeping us toasty! Anyway when I decided to do the Irish Marmalade Cake I decided a topping of home made candied 'orange' peel would be a good addition to the simple cake - and boy was I right - was a lovely extra. On the first day when it is poured atop it is shiny and delicious but the next day when it has dried a little and crystallized - it is that much better, as is the cake itself, it is one of those cakes that improves in flavour with a couple of days keeping.

FOR THE CANDIED PEEL

So if you'd like to add your own candied peel to the cake here's what to do:

2 oranges or 3 tangelos - maybe 4 tangerines if you use them

1 cup/8oz  of sugar approx

1/2 cup/8 fl oz of water approx

My method is not very scientific - I chop the peel into small pieces - maybe 1/4" square - and then I boil them in plenty of water for 10 minutes, I drain them and then repeat that process 3 times which helps to debitter the peel.

Then I add the sugar and 1/2 cup/8 fl oz water and boil gently until the peel is somewhat transparent and very shiny - then I taste to see how they are - if they need more sugar I add more and also add more water if the syrup is too thick and then I boil them a little longer. Basically I get them to where they are soft, taste good and have some syrup left for me to use on the cake - it usually takes about an hour or so to get them right. 

THE CAKE:

Please have all your ingredients at room temperature - makes a much better cake!

Have the oven at 350F and butter and flour a small cake pan - I always use my 6" round that gives a nice high cake - but if you only have a bigger pan then use that and expect a lower cake - keep your eye on the timing too as a shallower cake may take less time to bake.

INGREDIENTS:

4oz/125g/1 stick of butter (I always use salted in my sweet recipes - I like the taste it gives)

4oz/125g/ 1/2 cup sugar

4oz/125g/ 1/2 cup marmalade - as you can see I used Dundee - a good strong flavour but Ruth suggests a whiskey marmalade and if you can find one, which I couldn't , why not use it?

8oz/250g/ 2 cups white flour

(in the UK use self raising flour - in the US add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda to your flour to make it self raising)

2 large eggs beaten

2 UK tablespoons/ 2 1/2 US tablespoons of milk

(I don't know for sure as I am not a scientific or technical baker - I do my baking for fun BUT you may be able to exchange the milk for whiskey without changing the recipe but I'll look into that and see if I can find any info on that matter)

THE METHOD:

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add the marmalade and beat in well.

3. Sift the dry ingredients together and add the milk to the eggs. Add one third of the dry to the mix and fold in well, then add half the wet - fold well, then one third of the dry and fold well...then the rest of the eggs/milk and end with the last of the flour and fold well until well blended and smooth.

4. Now dollop the batter into the cake pan and smooth the top with a wetted palette knife or spoon, the water stops the batter from sticking to the utensil - to leave a well in the centre - this cake rises a lot so making it lower in the middle helps it not to crack so much when baking.

5. My cake got brown really fast so next time I make this I will make sure to put a circle of aluminium foil over the pan at the beginning and then check for colour half way through - I think it will brown well enough without removing the foil but you will have to check. The marmalade in this cake makes the whole cake go nice and dark as in the pictures below.

6. Bake for about 1 hour until a skewer/tooth pick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan.

Incidentally if you like the background fabric "Rolling Star Quilt" you can purchase it at my Spoonflower shop HERE

 When the cake is nearly completely cool rewarm the candied peel, remove the cake carefully from the pan, set on your prettiest plate and spoon the candied peel and luscious syrup over your cake thusly:

You can eat this cake right away, as above, or leave for the next day for better flavour as below - if you wait the candied peel will have lost it's shine but gained in texture and the syrup will be wonderfully crystallized and YUMMY!!!!!

And here's a close up of the inside texture:

So off with you now and bake yourself a lovely cake for Saint Patrick's Day!

The first time I made this cake there was not a jar of marmalade to be found in the whole of Belfast, Maine so I used Bonne Maman's Yellow Plum jam - it came out beautifully - I did add the candied peel to that one too - what's surprising though is that cake did not go brown - it stayed a really light yellow so the marmalade does make for a very dark cake. I am sure you can use any jam or marmalade to good effect in this cake and I'd love to try it soon with ginger preserves and candied ginger atop - what do you think would taste good?

Here are some other recipes I have made for this special day, CLICK ON THE NAME TO GO TO THE RECIPE:

IRISH DATE AND WALNUT LOAF 

IRISH APPLE AND OATMEAL CAKE

DATE WALNUT AND GUINNESS CAKE

POTATO AND APPLE CAKE, that's more like a pie!

"Friends Forever"

 Meanwhile in Maine the sap is slowly beginning to flow - stopping and starting because we have one warm day and then lots of cold ones - still I am hopeful buy this time next week I'll be having maple syrup on some nice thin crepes!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

This Marmalade Cake is part of the Tea Time Treats Challenge for April being hosted by Lavender and Lovage and The Hedgecombers

Maple Parsnip Pecan Apple Syrup Maple Syrup Cake with Toffee icing also now known as Harvest Cake - phew!!

This is a simple but time consuming cake - a lot like a light, moist carrot cake but more gingery and just GOOD!!! - doesn't take any particular baking skills but there's a lot of components so please do read through the recipe before you start to see what you need to do and when and whether you think the effort is worth it - the original cake HERE (from Tasting Table - recipe by Michel Richard) didn't have any toffee sauce, apple cider syrup or buttercream so you could do that if you want to keep it much simpler :)

This cake improves with time so you may want to make the day before Thankies!!

First make the Apple Cider Syrup and allow to cool completely before use:

APPLE CIDER SYRUP - make lots of this it is really good on pretty much ANYTHING!

If you use 16fl ounces of apple cider (that would be juice in England not alcoholic cider) all you have to do is gently boil it down until there is only 6fl ounces left - that's it! When it cools it will go syrupy - if it doesn't, depending on the water content of your juice, then just simmer it a bit more.

 Allow to cool.

Now make the Sticky Toffee Apple Sauce:

STICKY TOFFEE APPLE SAUCE:

2 1/2oz brown sugar

 1 1/2 oz butter
2 tablespoons cream or half and half 

6 tablespoons apple cider syrup

1. Heat sugar, cream and butter together in a small pan until sugar has dissolved and allow to bubble for a minute or so.

2. Add the apple cider syrup and stir and bubble for a minute or two again - keep warm but not hot.

NOW MAKE YOUR NUT MEAL:

The original recipe uses just almond meal - I chose to go half almond, half pecan so to make 2 cups/7ozs nut meal:

 3 1/2oz pecans and 3/12 oz almonds - toast in a 350f oven for about 10 minutes until the smell is divine and the nuts are toasted but not burnt - be careful not to burn them so do keep an eye out and check every couple of minutes.

Allow to cool COMPLETELY - if they are not completely cold they will get oily when you grind them.

Take some of the flour from the recipe below and put some nuts and flour in a coffee grinder and grind 'til fine - do not overgrind as the nuts will get oily and that's not good for the recipe OR just buy ground almonds/meal from the shops and stop mucking about with nuts!! 

OKEE DOKKEE here we go - have all your ingredients at room temperature and set the oven to 350F. Please try to weigh your ingredients as it is so much more reliable for the recipe to work.

CAKE INGREDIENTS:

  2 cups/7ozs almond meal or very finely ground almonds or half and half finely ground almonds and pecans

¾ cup/2 1/2 ozs white all purpose/plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon - I don't really like cinnamon so I substituted freshly ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup/4 fl ozs pure maple syrup OR 1/2 cup/2 fl ozs maple syrup and 1/2 cup/2 fl ozs apple cider syrup

2ozs toasted whole pecans for decoration

A thing of beauty maple syrup and apple cider syrup together...ahhhh

 8 tablespoons (1 stick)/4ozs unsalted butter, melted - I always use salted myself

2 large eggs whisked

4 teaspoons freshly grated ginger - here's how you peel ginger - with the tip of a spoon - 

2 medium parsnips weighing a total of 4ozs - maybe 5 before you've peeled them - peeled and grated (about 2 cups)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and position a rack in the center.

2. Butter the bottom of a 9-inch-round cake pan (I made half the recipe and used a 6" pan as I was testing the cake and there's only two of us but now having eaten the cake I would go for the full size cake as the small one was actually a bit small even for just 2 of us - for Thankies if you want a good sized cake for say 6 people I would actually double this recipe and make a layer cake with more buttercream - always more buttercream!!) and line it with a round of parchment paper. Butter and flour the parchment paper and sides of the pan. (As you can see I stupidly didn't do this parchment part and it would have been easier to extricate the cake if I had!!)

 
3. In a large mixing bowl whisk the almond/pecan meal with the flour, baking soda, cinnamon or nutmeg and salt. Set aside.

 
4. In a large bowl combine the maple syrup, apple cider syrup, melted butter and whisked eggs.

5. Beat at medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute.

6. Stir in the dry ingredients a cup at a time, mixing between each addition until just combined.

7. Finally stir in the ginger and parsnips.

 8. Pour the (very wet) batter into the prepared pan.

 9. Bake for between 40 to 55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake is shrinking away from the sides of the pan:

 Transfer to a wire rack and let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before unmolding. Let cool to room temperature and either keep it plain like this OR let's gild that lily!!!

As you can see this is not a high rising cake - so more is better - in future I would make two small cakes like this and sandwich with the almond buttercream.

Whilst the cake is cooling make the buttercream:

8ozs/2 sticks room temperature butter (yup - I use salted but I know many people use sweet - here the salt really works with the other flavours)

Bag o' icing/confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons apple cider syrup

1 teaspoon almond essence/extract

Cream butter 'til light and fluffy - slowly add sugar and liquid flavours and beat between additions until you get the taste you like - if the texture goes wonky because of the liquids add more sugar and beat beat beat it should come back together.

Now pipe the buttercream as you wish - I do a circle on the top which forms a wall for the apple toffee sauce - and place the toasted pecans as you wish - every other piped rosette is the way I go - now admire your work and IF YOU CAN STAND IT wait til the next day to eat it - it improves with flavour overnight!!!! - otherwise get the kettle on and eat the whole thing NOWWW!!!!

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

Happy Baking, let me know if you make it and please post your pics of PARSNIPPY goodness on my Facebook page HERE!!!

I just entered this recipe into the

Extra Veg Blog Challenge

 

held by Kate at Veggie Desserts,  Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy

 and also this Tea Time Treats Round up at The Hedgecombers and Lavender and Lovage

THANKSGIVING GUIDE
CHEFS' RECIPES
LOCAL PICKS
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SOUS CHEF SERIES





            



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       Carrot's Cousin

An easy cake that screams autumn  

     

Chef Michel Richard is righ

Maple-Parsnip Cake  

Recipe adapted from Sweet Magic: Easy Recipes for Delectable Desserts, by Michel Richard (Harper Collins) 


Yield: One 9-inch cake  

INGREDIENTS 

2 cups almond meal or very finely ground almonds

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup pure maple syrup

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs

3 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

6 medium parsnips, peeled and grated (about 2 cups)

½ cup toasted pecans


 DIRECTIONS   
1. Preheat the oven to 350° and position a rack

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and scatter the pecans over the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted






 in the center comes out clean, about 40 to 55 minutes. 






Transfer to a wire rack and let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before unmolding. Let cool to room temperature, slice and serve.





Read more: http://www.tastingtable.com/entry_detail/chefs_recipes/2314//An_easy_cake_that_screams_autumn.htm#ixzz2CcciTOQy

Silly Simple Strawberry Tarts for July 4th

Oh my goodness - these tarts are SO VERY GOOD and so ridiculously easy - to be honest one could happily forget the tart part and just eat the white chocolate cream filling with strawberries. If you go ahead and make this recipe you will think I am the bees knees for finding it in the June issue of British Country Living - the best magazine IN THE WORLD!!!

YOU DO NEED TO START THIS RECIPE THE DAY BEFORE YOU WANT TO EAT IT - because the cream needs that much time to set up and achieve it's delightfully luxurious and divine consistency - you can bake the tarts cases the day before too and keep them in an air tight container overnight!!

For the tart crust - I made baby tarts as you can see - if you want to make one tart this recipe is for a deep 8"/20cm radius tart pan - other wise this makes about 10 mini tarts - of course that depends on the size of your minis! I made mine with Pate Brisee from Martha but I made it too thick and I think the following recipe would be so much better as it is easier to make thinner and also doesn't shrink - which is important if you're using the mini cases!! It is from my friend Lindsey at Let Them Eat Cake Bakers in Belfast.

Pre-heat your oven to 325F...thank you!!

EASY PEASY SWEET TART CRUST: I made 10 miniature tarts from the recipe here:

1 1/2 cups/6ozs of unbleached white flour

1/2 cup/2ozs confectioners/icing sugar

1 stick + 1 tablespoon/ 4 1/2ozs butter VERY COLD

1 large egg yolk

a tad of milk or cream if your dough doesn't stick together

1. Sift dry ingredients together into a medium sized bowl.

2. Grate the butter into the dry ingredients and rub in until like breadcrumbs.

3. Add egg yolk and blend carefully until the dough sticks together

4. Mine didn't stick together with just the egg yolk so I added baby drop by baby drop some cream until it did start to come together...be careful once it does start to come together it does so quite quickly...don't let it get sticky!!

5.My mini tart cases are about 1 1/2" round so I rolled a ball of dough about the size of a large walnut and popped one into each case.

 This is too thick - do try to make it thinner than this, you'll thank me for it :)

Allow the tart cases to cool completely then melt some white chocolate - about 2oz - melt in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water and be careful not to get any water in the chocolate or it will seize and that's no fun!!! Then coat the pastry cases with a nice slather of white chocolate.

With their coating of white chocolate

Now for the best part WHITE CHOCOLATE CREAM - so easy!!!

9 oz neufchatel cheese (I used this) OR cream cheese would work as well - the original recipe called for marscapone but I couldn't bring myself to spend nearly $7 on a container of it!! but if you want something really special then use the marscapone!

7oz white chocolate - luckily I can buy Callebaut callets (little dots) at the Belfast Coop for a very good price - use the best you can afford or find.

4 tablespoons heavy/double cream - you need this for the neufchatel or cream cheese but not if you use marscapone.

Also -  6 fluid ounces heavy/double cream - I really like Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream - really thick and delicious and whips so well - so whip it up and set aside.

Here's the hard part - put the cheese, white chocolate and small amount of cream if you are NOT using marscapone - in the top of a double boiler or in a glass bowl set over a pan of simmering water - wait until the chocolate seems completely melted - take off the heat and stir until well blended - allow to cool some and then put in the fridge covered overnight to set up perfectly!!

NOTE: If the chocolate is not completely melted before you stir - and this did happen to me - when you stir it it may get lumpy - not completely smooth - if this happens you need to let it cool quite a bit and then put in a blender and blend until completely smooth.

Day of devourment: A couple of hours before you are ready to assemble your tarts slice up the best strawberries you can avail yourself and macerate in a bowl with a few tablespoons of sugar  and set aside until needed.

Beautiful local strawberries - ahhhhh

Take your faboo white chocolate cream out of the fridge - STOP yourself from eating all of it now - dollop as much of this sublime nectar into either your mini tarts or your full size tart, smooth and cover with as many strawberries and strawberry juice as you feel necessary!!

EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy July 4th everyone!!!

This post is part of the Tea Time Treats challenge hosted by Lavender and Lovage
in collaboration with What Kate Baked

 http://wp.me/p287Dn-566

Apple Parkin Slice

 Apple Parkin slice is an old Yorkshire/Lancashire recipe by way of Australia. Growing up in the north of England every bonfire night we partake of parkin - a chewy, oaty, dense, treacle-ey

slice ( a 'slice' is halfway between a cake and a scone I'd say) - recently I espied this recipe in British Country Living for a similar 'slice' but with no molasses, lighter in texture and with the addition of apples through the middle (something I am not unhappy about as I am not a big fan of molasses or as we call it in the UK treacle- a nice onomatopoaeic word that sounds like the treacle being spooned from the jar!)

THE RECIPE - as usual in weights which nowadays I am translating from metric to imperial as I only have a weighing scale with ozs so the amounts may seem odd!!

INGREDIENTS:

7oz butter

9oz sugar plus extra for sprinkling

2 large eggs whisked together

12.5 oz white flour

3.5 oz rolled oats

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

3-4 apples of your choice peeled and chopped

A little milk for making the batter a little softer.

METHOD:

1. Heat the oven to 350F/180C

2. Butter a square baking dish - about 8"

3. Beat butter and sugar together until light and pale.

4. Gradually beat in the eggs - I do this in about 4 goes with goodly beating in between so I don't go down the road of curdling.

5. Fold in the sifted flour, nutmeg and oatmeal and blend nicely.

6. The mixture will be quite stiff at this point - put half of it into the greased dish and press evenly.

7. Strew apples atop this evenly.

8. To the remaining mixture add a couple of tablespoons of milk or more to make the dough come to a dropping consistency - so spoonfuls plop onto the apples as below -

 9. Smooth out the plopped spoonfuls to look like the pic below - and sprinkle with some extra sugar before popping into your pre-heated oven.

 10. Bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until the 'slice' is golden and firm to the touch - again as below.

This is a hearty sweet - another good keeper which tastes better the day after baking - but who can keep desserts around that long I ask you? You can serve this hot, warm or cold - with or without ice cream, lashings of cream or custard or on it's own with a good hot cuppa!

HAPPY BAKING!!! and do enjoy Great Maine Apple Day tomorrow October 23rd.

This post is part of the wonderful bloghop of Tea Time Treats over at lovely Lavender and Lovage

Banana Raisin Tea BreadCake...so goood!!

Does my puppy really think she's getting a slice of this divine Banana Raisin BreadCake...I think not!! - especially so as raisins can be lethal to our furry dog friends...but that aside this is a really divine cross between a teabread (a sweet loafy thing with yeast) and a fruit cake...it's really just a light fruitcake with bananas in to be honest and it  is absolutely delicious.

The ingredients above and the cake pictured here don't have nuts in but the second one I made...and the third and now for sure the fourth had either walnuts or pecans in to round out the tooth and flavour...it's great without nuts but even better with and be sure to lightly toast the nuts first to elevate their flavour.
 
Adapted, ever so slightly, from "The Food for Thought" cookbook by the restaurant of the same name in Covent Garden, London....a wonderful vegetarian eatery.

Firstly soak your dried fruit in hot tea for a couple of hours to plump before using in this recipe.

I try to give measurements for cups and weights but I always do weights myself as it makes for a much more reliable recipe and for consistency when you make it again so I would recommend weighing if you can.

 Set your oven to 325F when you're ready to start the recipe

INGREDIENTS:

4oz/1 stick softened butter (I always use salted in desserts..I just like the flavour)
 

8oz/1 cup sugar
 

4 fl.ozs/1/2 cup strongly brewed tea - I used Earl Grey and it was excellent!!
 

4oz/ 5/8 cup raisins
 

4oz/1 cup walnuts or pecans lightly toasted first until they are fragrant...allow to cool and then crumble to smallish pieces.
 

4 fl.ozs/1/2 cup liquid combination of whole milk (I used Elderfower Farm unpasteurized in glass bottles from Lincolnville, Maine) and the tea

strained from the fruit
 

2 goodly sized bananas mashed smooth
 

1 teaspoon bicarb of soda/baking soda
 

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I LOVE nutmeg but you can use ginger or cardamom or a combination)
 

8oz/2 cups unbleached white flour
 

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

METHOD:

1. Soak raisins in hot tea for a couple of hours then drain and reserve the tea....add milk to tea to make 4 fluid ounces/1/2 cup.
 

2. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour and fluffy.
 

3. Beat in the tea/milk, bananas and vanilla...it will be sloppy and kind of curdled looking like below but not to worry!! Then stir in the drained raisins...

4. Sift dry ingredients together.
 

5. Gently fold dry ingredients into banana/butter slush until well combined.
 

6. Pour into a lightly buttered and floured cake tin...mine is 6 x 3 and it is a perfect size for this recipe...which can be doubled and made in a 9" pan.

7. Bake in 325F oven for about 40-60 minutes. The cooking takes a long time and you may have to check a couple of times to make sure it is cooked in the centre...my first one you see here was a little undercooked in the middle...but then I cooked longer the next time...just make sure a skewer slipped into the centre of the cake comes out clean and your cake is done. If your cake is getting too brown put a little aluminium foil cap on it until it is done.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before unmolding and allowing to cool on a cake rack...if you leave in the pan to cool or cover before it is completely cold it will sweat and become soggy...we don't want that do we??

 I could happily eat a slice of this cake every day for the rest of my life...I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!

Happy Baking...Patricia

This post is part of the Tea Time Treats at Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked

 

Kentish Pudding for National Pie Day!!....huh??

This is Kentish Pudding...and yes it is a pie or tart, it's one of those English colloquial anomalies that continue to confuse us all but rest assured it is quiet, simply elegant and most delicious!

This recipe is from Yorkshire TV's "Farmhouse Kitchen 2" and is attributed to Mrs. M. White and Mrs. Sue Marshall of St. Michale's, Tenterden, Kent...thank you ladies!!

My formatting is being VERY strange today so I apologize for the odd spacing...blogger doesn't want to let me change it, I have tried a couple of times and have now accepted my odd layout...apologies readers.
 

EASY PEASY SWEET TART CRUST:

Enough for one tart case about 9” diameter…nice and thin,

I am not a chunky crust personage so if you like a thicker pie crust make this for a smaller diameter pan:

1 1/2 cups/6ozs of unbleached white flour

1/2 cup/2ozs confectioners/icing sugar

1 stick + 1 tablespoon/ 4 1/2ozs butter VERY COLD

1 large egg yolk

a tad of milk or cream if your dough doesn't stick together

1. Sift dry ingredients together into a medium sized bowl.

2. Grate the butter into the dry ingreds., and rub in until like breadcrumbs.

3. Add egg yolk and blend carefully until the dough sticks together

4. Mine didn't stick together with just the egg yolk so I added baby drop by baby drop some cream until it did start to come together...be careful once it does start to come together it does so quite quickly...don't let it get sticky!!

5.Tear dough into big chunks…..place strategically in pie pan and start squushing to a create a smooth even covering of the entire pan…

The beauty of this crust is that it does NOT shrink at all…it stays put…good crust!!...and it tastes like a really good shortbread…yum!!

I did not pre-bake the crust but you can use a pre-baked crust if you are short on time...in which case the baking time will probably be quite a bit less maybe 20 minutes
so keep your eyes peeled on the pie.

Have your oven heated to 350F

FILLING:

1oz/scant ¼ cup ground rice…I found Fiddlers Green Brown Rice flour in bulk

at the Belfast Coop so I got a bit more fibre in there…just a bit

1/2pt/10US fluid ozs + I tablespoon milk or half and half (I used the latter as it

was the only thing in the fridge!)

11/2oz/ very scant 1/4 cup sugar

1/2oz/1 tablespoon butter

1 well beaten large whole egg

A grating of nutmeg (I like a lot of nutmeg)

About 2oz/ ½ cup currants

Pinch of salt


RECIPE:

1. Put ground rice in a bowl and slake with a couple of tablespoons of milk i.e.

mix it to a smooth paste.

2. Put remainder of milk (or ½ and ½), sugar and salt in a saucepan

and heat to boiling.

3. Pour a little of the boiling milk onto the rice paste, cream well and make

sure it is smooth, add a bit more and cream again and repeat until

finished and very smooth… I usually use a whisk for this instead of a spoon

which helps break up any attendant lumpage.

4. Return mix to pan and simmer gently for about 5 minutes..it will get

very thick and you need to stir it constantly again to prevent

lumpage and catchy burnage on the bottom.

5. Take off the heat and stir to cool for a couple of minutes,

then add the butter and blend well, then add the egg and nutmeg

and blend well.

6. Allow to cool to room temperature.

7. Strew the currants all over the base of the pie case (the recipe said to

strew them on the top of the pie but I have found if the currants

aren’t covered by the mix they can burn and that’s a taste I am not fond

of so I put them in the bottom instead…

not traditional but more to my own personal liking..…use as many or as few

as you like, I love currants and raisins so I covered the whole bottom

and actually would have liked more on reflection after eating the pie.

8. Pour the cooled rice mix over the currants.

9. Pop the pie pan onto a tray and off it goes into the oven.

10. I cooked the pie for about 35 minutes…it needs to be set and

slightly risen to be ready…it colours very little except on the air bubbles.

11. Remove from the oven and cool and EAT!!

Happy Pie Day everyone!!!

This Kentish Pudding is part of the Lavender and Lovage and Hedgecombers Tea Time Treats bloghop

Happy Baking - if you try this recipe please let me know how it turns out and feel free to post pictures of such on my FACEBOOK PAGE - thanks, Patricia