Peach Lavender Jam Roly Poly Queen of Puddings Pudding in honour of the new Downton Abbey series - yippee!!

 

 Ta dah - my homage to the new series of Downton Abbey - a little baking pun on the Upstairs Downstairs nature of this so dearly beloved series - the downstairs for the servants (of whom I would have been one back in that day) is a dense jam roly poly, hard working and fortifying, made more refined with the addition of peach lavender jam instead of the usual raspberry - peach for the peaches and cream complexions of the Crawley Girls and lavender because it is such a British herb - the upstairs part of the pudding is Queen of Puddings, light and airy, delicate and demure - subtle lemony custard, sublime meringue and I've added some whipped cream to the mix because - honestly - it made the pudding look just that much better - what ugliness we can hide with whipped cream and a piping bag - and it also then ended up having the sense too of an Eton Mess - which makes the upper crust VERY upper crust - say what?

I am using blue type for the blue blood of the aristocracy :)

You may or may not want to have the lavender part in your pudding - it added a very subtle hint in the amount and way I used it but some people think it's a soapy taste and if you are one of their number you should leave this part out - it will not deter from the final deliciousness. 

As ever read through the recipe first as there are a number of methods and multiple steps.

LAVENDER SIMPLE SYRUP:

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tablespoon of food grade lavender flowers.

1. Heat 3 ingredients to boiling, take off the heat, allow to soak about 5 minutes and then strain out the flowers and allow to cool. You can use this in cocktails, lemonade, other recipes. It will keep quite well stored in a jar in the fridge.

You can also buy Peach Lavender jam from my friend Wendy at Sunchowder  

I use weights for my recipes and here some reasoning why from KING ARTHUR FLOUR 

 Now for the Jam Roly Poly:

Jam Roly Poly is a stodgy glory of a pudding -  'stodgy' being the British word for stick-to-your-ribs, heavy, filling comfort food that is usually very high in the carb department...this one fits the bill big time!! - it is nursery food of the highest order and one of those war time type puddings where the merry wives of England attempted to make something delicious out of almost nothing!!

THE RECIPE:
4 oz unbleached white flour

2oz very cold butter OR shredded suet if you can find it - although of course that makes it non-vegetarian - I used butter because I wanted to see how it came out - Mrs. Patmore would be appalled as she would always use suet which lightens the pudding and would have been a very normal ingredient in so many puddings of her day.

2 tablespoons sugar
 

Good pinch of salt
 

4-6 tablespoons cold water

3 big tablespoons of warmed JAM.....I used Bonne Maman Peach with 3 teaspoons of the lavender syrup added (Bonne Maman is a very clever company who advocates the recycling of their jars in their European advertising - immensely clever concept) - you may use strawberry or raspberry jam which is traditional.

 
A little milk for brushing

METHOD:
 
1. Rub the shredded suet or grated very cold butter into the flour along with the sugar and salt.

2. Add water spoon by spoon until the dough sticks together but is not sticky.

3. Turn dough onto a floured board and roll out to about 4" by 8" rectangle.

4. Spread chosen jam over dough but keep 3/4" clear of all the edges.

5. Fold over long edges and press lightly down...the object is to prevent the jam escaping when you roll the roly poly up...see pic below... 

6. Brush milk on to turned over edges and start to gingerly roll up the poly being careful to seal the edges as you go but not squeeze the jam out either.

7. Here's how your poly should look...like a great big sausage roll...no jam escaping here!

 ...seal well you don't want get that roll soggy!! Sprinkle with sugar and wrap up in a layer of parchment and then a layer of aluminium foil.

8. Now put the wrapped sausagey thing into the top of a steamer and steam the living daylights out of it for about 1 1/2 hours...thus..

9. This is unusual but I took the roly poly out of it's wrapping, sprinkled it with more sugar and then baked it in a 400F oven for about 15 minutes to dry and crisp the exterior...as below. And there you have your Jam Roly Poly...not the most exciting of desserts, sorry puddings, not the most elegant...a humble little pud that is oh so very traditional...I had it for pudding at school!!

Whilst ye olde jam roly poly is steaming  you can make the beginning of the custard and also the wonderful almond meringues - I was going to do plain meringues at first and then veered towards almond as I am a lover of that flavour and I thought it would be a nice foil to the peach.

Mrs. Patmore would be pleased to know I steamed the Roly Poly on my trusty wood burning stove named Cookie - she's a workhorse of a stove - keeps us nice and toasty through the cold winters here in Maine and provides a wonderful opportunity to steam, boil, and slow roast/cook many a recipe. She's hard to bake in as the temperature gauge is way out of whack and the temperature itself is so variable but we do so many other things with her - the copper kettle is always on ready for a nice cuppa - she provides a lovely warm spot for Eleanor underneath, do you think she's comfortable?...but poor Cookie has been working so hard lately what with the well below freezing temps that she is not looking her polished up finest, first warmish day and we'll rectify that but in the meantime she is cranked and purring - thanks Cookie!

CUSTARD for the pudding - taken from Mary Berry's beautiful recipe for Queen of Puddings:

INGREDIENTS:

 20 fl oz whole milk
 

25g/1oz butter
 

1lemon zested
 

50g/2oz  sugar

4 whole eggs whisked

METHOD:

1. Gently heat the milk.

2. Add butter, sugar and lemon zest and swish until melted.

3. Gently pour the warmed milk mix into the whisked eggs, whisking as you do so so they don't get a chance to cook or curdle and blend well - set aside to cool and use later.

Heat the oven to 325F, have some hot water ready for a bain marie/water bath (and if we were watching Call the Midwife the possibility of a baby being born) and a roasting tin large enough to hold your chosen pudding dish.

Take your jam roly poly out of the steamer after its 1 1/2 hours sauna - unwrap, allow to cool.

When cold slice into 1/2 inch slices and arrange in the bottom of a heat proof, shallow preferably  oval (because that's more elegant and the Lady Violet will appreciate it) dish thus in the background - foreground showing you what the sliced roly poly should look like:

 Now pour your lovely cold custard over the sliced roly poly:

 Pop the little darling into your bain marie - I had a small dish (I did two separate dishes - one for me one for James) and used a cake tin for my water bath:

 Now off into the oven for about 20-25 minutes - allow the centre to be just a tad wiggly and the custard will be just perfectly set thus:

Allow to cool.

Now make some divine meringues with a lovely almond flavour that taste like heavenly amaretti biscuits!!

METHOD:

1. Toast 1 oz of whole almonds with the skin on for about 15 minutes i a 325F oven.

2. Allow to cool completely.

3. Put into a plastic bag and hit with a hard object to break into small pieces THEN grind in a coffee grinder until fine but not oily.

The Meringues:

Try to make on a dry day - humidity and thunderstorms can either effect the consistency of the beaten eggs or make them curdle - so the dryer the day the better.

Set the oven at 250F – nice and low. Cover your baking tray with a sheet of parchment or greaseproof paper – no need to grease the paper.

INGREDIENTS:

2 egg whites at room temperature

4 ozs sugar...fine if don't want your meringues to be gritty - mine were a bit gritty because I use organic sugar from the Belfast Coop and it doesn't come in fine - and I am OK with a little grittiness in my meringues

1/2 teaspoon of vinegar

1/2 teaspoon of almond extract

1oz toasted almonds

 1. Whip the egg whites until stiff

2. Add sugar 2 tablespoons at a time and whip, whip, whip until all the sugar has been added and the result is glossy and dense and divine.

3. Mix vinegar and almond extract and almonds together in a small bowl and then gently fold into the egg white and sugar confection.

4. Pile dollops of meringue or pipe meringue onto parchment.

5. Bake in a 250F oven for about an hour and a half then turn oven off and leave meringues in there to cool - this is for a meringue that still has some softness and chew in the centre - if, like me, you prefer a meringue that is like ceramic (and yes I know that is not fashionable because of French macaron everyone wants a bit of chew) then you can cook for another hour making sure that they do not brown - so check on them occasionally.

BTW Mrs. Patmore would be appalled that the meringues are not pristinely white as that was the aim back then and really until recently - maybe until me - to have them as white as possible - naughty moi!!

Now for the assemblage: Warm a few more tablespoons of chosen jam and spread over the cooled custards - remove meringues carefully from the parchment paper and dot over:

Now decide that you don't like the way this looks and whip up some cream, with a teaspoon of the lavender simple syrup if your heart so desires and some sugar to taste and pipe that over your puddings so they look much prettier:

I do hope you enjoy this seasons Downton Abbey - I have heard wonderful things about it from my sister and friends in England - do let me know if you make this pudding and please feel free to share your pictures on my Facebook page HERE. 

My apologies for the type and spacing being all over the place - blogspot is having one of THOSE evenings where it just won't behave - Lady Violet will have something to say about that won't she!!

Thanks!!!

 

 I thought you might enjoy this picture of our recently adopted kitty Sasha who has decided she prefers the inside of the pillow to the cover and has made herself a nest therein which she seems to delight in daily - go Sasha!!

Let's make a mess - an Eton one of course!!

SIMPLE, LUSCIOUS, DELICIOUS!

But why is it called Eton Mess? Because it is traditionally served at the Eton College annual cricket game against the students of Winchester College. The word mess I would suspect refers to the look of the dish which is very rustic and free form but that part cannot be confirmed through my Googling. Strawberries are the traditional fruit used in an Eton Mess, for it is England after all, but I have chosen to use raspberries as there were no decent strawberries to be had and then along came some excellently priced and highly desirable cherries so I mixed the two - and why not?

It is so simple, with three main ingredients, and disarmingly charming! ...and if you choose to use purchased meringues instead of making them well then it's also awfully easy - just a matter of whipping cream, macerating berries and assembling your mess!

Always read through the recipe first to know what you need, and what you need to do and when.

You will need the following for one large serving or two small - I ate the whole thing above top and am now sitting here feeling a little overwhelmed so I suggest, if you can control yourself, to make this for two people - or one person at two sittings :) Of course you can double, triple or more for a crowd and everything will work just as well.

1 cup heavy/double cream - buy the very best you can, whipped with a couple of tablespoons of sugar (less or more to taste, your choice) and a teaspoon of vanilla. Return to the fridge after you have whipped it.

6-8ozs of your chosen fruit - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries - cooked gooseberries if you can find them - and I used cherries because I love them so - tossed with a good tablespoon of sugar and macerated for a couple of hours until the juices run.

4 small meringues either made or bought - recipe follows if you want to make your own

This ingredient list is very loose you can have more or less of whatever you want and it will still taste marvellous!

Here are my cherries and raspberries macerating happily

MERINGUE RECIPE: Try to make on a dry day - humidity and thunderstorms can either effect the consistency of the beaten eggs or make them curdle - so the dryer the day the better - my day was a little humid and they turned out a little chewier than I personally like but they were still very good.
 

Set the oven at 250F – nice and low. Cover your baking tray with a sheet of parchment or greaseproof paper – no need to grease the paper.

INGREDIENTS:

2 egg whites at room temperature

4 ozs sugar...fine if don't want your meringues to be gritty - mine were a bit gritty because I use organic sugar from the Belfast Coop and it doesn't come in fine - and I am OK with a little grittiness in my meringues

1/2 teaspoon of vinegar

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. Whip the egg whites until stiff

2. Add sugar 2 tablespoons at a time and whip, whip, whip until all the sugar has been added and the result is glossy and dense and divine as the picture below.

After much whipping you end up with a lovely dense deliciousness about the consistency of really good mayonnaise.

3. Mix vinegar and vanilla together in a small bowl and then gently fold into the egg white and sugar confection.

4. Pile dollops of meringue onto parchment and spread out into rough and rustic rounds for this is called a mess and the meringues end up being broken apart so their appearance is not important!

This was the first batch I made - they looked great going in the oven but they just did not set up - they stayed bouncy and soft - took me a while to back track and eventually discover I had only put in half the amount of sugar I should have done - so if you halve or double recipes do make sure you get the quantities right!

5. Bake in a 250F oven for about an hour and a half then turn oven off and leave meringues in there to cool - this is for a meringue that still has some softness and chew in the centre - if, like me, you prefer a meringue that is like ceramic (and yes I know that is not fashionable because of French macaron everyone wants a bit of chew) then you can cook for another hour making sure that they do not brown - so check on them occasionally.

The second batch baked to perfection!

So you have sweetened whipped cream, your chosen macerated berries and your perfect meringues - heaven is just a short while away!

TO ASSEMBLE Choose an attractive vessel for your ambrosial delight - plop some whipped cream in the bottom, crush a couple of meringues over this, dollop half the fruit over that and repeat. And now you have an ETON MESS - to make it even more perfect I like to let the flavours meld a little - pop in the fridge for about an hour - take out, allow to warm a little and dig in!!

Please do let me know if you try this and what you think and if you make one why not post your pictures and thoughts on my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PatriciaSheaDesigns

Here are some pictures of the day lilies blooming in my garden right now - aren't they the most wonderful colours and look at the red leaves on the two different individual ones - they are the opposite formation from one another!

Happy messing about everyone!

If perchance you like my jaunty little Union Jack design as seen in the top picture here's a link to many and varied items adorned with such at my CafePress shop. Cheers!

Mince pies with hairdo's or...Mince Pies Royale!

And here I am again sitting by the wood stove humming away with all the pups and kitten getting toasty by the fire, the wind howling and the snow flying writing up my Christmas treat! I have already eaten about 7 of these delights and am ready to eat more....and so goes the Holidays!!!

The recipe is a combination of 3 parts...instant mincemeat a la David Lebovitz , pastry a la Martha and hairdo a la "Christmas Feasts from History" by Lorna J Sass....and off we jolly well!!

INSTANT, VEGETARIAN, 'FRESH' MINCEMEAT...should be made at least one day in advance for flavours to meld. I am calling this ‘fresh’ mincemeat, meaning you don’t have to wait months for it to be ready as with your ordinary or garden variety mincemeat. This recipe is ready after one day and better after three…so make it today and Bob’s your uncle for Friday!! Also this is a vegetarian variety so no shredding of suet which can be a little off putting to say the very least!!

Ingredients:
1 cup (135g) coarsely chopped raisins, dark or golden

½ cup candied peel…orange or lemon or both

¼ cup brandy but I used whiskey as that is all I had in the house and it tasted just fine!!

2 teaspoons lemon juice
 
4 tablespoons sugar…again dark or light

1 teaspoon of cardomom
 
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
 
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
 
½ teaspoon of mace
(I differed my spices from David’s recipe which called for ½ teaspoon each ground cinnamon and nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon of cloves…I am not a fan of cloves as a flavouring and I think cardamom works really well with the lemon flavour)

1 grated crunchy apple…I use Pink Lady which is a big fave of mine.

This is really hard…mix everything together and put it in a jar. Allow to stand for one to three days, don‘t put in the fridge, the flavours marry better at room temp. This mincemeat is meant to be used quickly.
That’s it for the mincemeat!!!...now for the pastry, it's the same one I always use from Martha which works like a charm, stays crispy under duress and has a lovely meltiness.

PASTRY INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups of white flour

 2 tablespoons sugar
1 stick (4ozs) butter I always use salted, VERY cold

1/8 to 1/4 cup ice cold water
METHOD:
1. Sift the flour

2. Grate the butter into the flour.

3. Gently work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal.

4. Add some of the water and test to see if it comes together, if not keep adding water until the dough will squush into a non-sticky ball.

5. Put into the fridge to rest for at least one hour.

6. Take the pastry out of the fridge, allow to warm little, roll out nice and thin, then line 6 muffin tins with a round of pastry each, I had pastry left over so I just keep going 'til I ran out...made some cute smaller versions.

Next make the hairdo goo:
MERINGUE INGREDIENTS:
3 egg whites at room temperature

4 tablespoons sugar

MERINGUE METHOD:
1. Whisk egg whites until fluffy and stiff

2. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time until stiff and glossy

To ASSEMBLE the pies:
1lb (454g) of ‘fresh’ mincemeat, that should be the amount you made

¼ cup (2oz, 56g) of clarified butter (melt butter and skim off white solids that float to the top)

3 egg yolks

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. In a bowl combine the mincemeat with the 3 egg yolks and clarified butter, mix well.

3. Spoon into the prepared pastry shells.

4. Bake for about 20 mins. until the pastry starts to golden slightly.

5. Remove from oven and pipe prepared meringue onto pies.

6. Bake again for another 20-25 minutes until meringues are nicely browned.

7. Allow to cool before eating, these pies taste best at room temperature. They are neither too sweet nor too tart, they are certainly nothing like as cloying or toothachingly sweet as mass produced ones and with the 'fresh' mincemeat they have a nice brightness that I really enjoy.

HAPPY BAKING!!!!!!!!!!!

Bilberries, blaeberries, whortleberries, whinberries, whimberries, fraughns, hurts, hurtleberries or wild BLUEBERRIES!!! Blueberry Curd and a Pavlova...

In North America they are called wild blueberries, in England and Ireland they can be called by any of the title names....whinberries, whimberries, whortleberries, blaeberries, fraughns, hurts, hurtleberries or the most popular, bilberry. Traditionally in Ireland the Sunday nearest to the first of August is 'Fraughn Sunday' when the wild blueberry is celebrated, this year that would have been last Sunday July 26th but things are behind here in Maine where the weather has been overcast and rainy forEVER and that has held up the harvest. Nevertheless some blueberries came into the Belfast Coop in the last couple of days and I couldn't resist buying them and making a little something for James and myself!!

Above is a watercolour painting I did for a Maine company a few years ago celebrating the wild blueberry...it took me a LONG time to paint because capturing the bloom was quite the challenge and there's a lot of blueberries there!!

Here are the ingredients...Maine wild blueberries, organic cane sugar, local eggs from happy chickens, flaked almonds that have been toasted for that divine extra flavour, a little lemon juice for complementary tang and delicious salty butter...organic cream adds more lusciousness!!

...and here are the egg whites whipped to a glossy, marshmallow perfection before being baked into crispy, chewy heavenly meringues...reminds me of making nougat, which I did once and it nearly killed me with the amount of whipping.....which I do all by hand because I am a baking purist fool!!.......plus I have this bogus idea that if you burn all the calories you can whipping and beating by hand it may somewhat ameliorate the amount of calories you consume in the dessert...great idea right????

The final result of my wild blueberry endeavour...a meringue nest with blueberry lemon curd and whipped cream sprinkled with blueberries and toasted almonds...would you like the recipe??

THE RECIPE for my PAVLOVA PALAVER

MERINGUE:

4 egg whites at room temperature

6 ozs white sugar...fine if possible

1 teaspoon of cornflour

1 teaspoon of vinegar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. Whip the egg whites 'til stiff

2. Add sugar 2 tablespoons at a time and whip, whip, whip until all the sugar has been added and the result is glossy and dense and divine as the picture above.

3. Pile dollops of meringue onto parchment and spread out into rough and rustic rounds then pipe the meringue in stars around the edge of the 'circles' so as to form a little well in the centre for the blueberry curd to nestle.

4. Mix cornflour, vinegar and vanilla together in a small bowl and then gently fold into the egg whites

5. Bake in a 250F oven for about an hour then turn oven off and leave meringues in there to cool...I started making the meringues on a blissful sunny day with a slight breeze and by the time I was finished the fog had moved in and the damp arrived so my meringues are, ONCE AGAIN, not perfect...the humidity stops them from drying out as much as you want them to and it makes them get sticky really quickly when they are removed from the oven....oh well what can a girl do about Mother Nature??

BLUEBERRY CURD:

1 cup of wild blueberries

2 tablespoons of sugar

1. Put these two ingredients in a heavy bottom pan and heat gently 'til the blueberries give up their juices and pop open, allow to cool slightly before adding the yolks....

3 tablespoons lemon juice (more or less to taste...you can put this in at the end and see how much you like)

4 more tablespoons of sugar

2 egg yolks

2 ozs butter (I always use salted Amish butter that has a bright flavour)

2. Whisk together the yolks and sugar in the top of a double boiler, add the blueberry mix and heat over simmering water and stir constantly until the curd gets nice and thick, it will thicken more as it cools.

3. Allow to cool completely

ASSEMBLY: Spoon the blueberry curd into the well in the centre of the cooled meringues, add a dollop or more of lightly whipped, sweetened heavy cream and scatter artfully with flaked, toasted almonds and the odd unadorned blueberry. James christened this dessert my Pavlova Palaver!!

Happy baking in dry weather...IF you can find it!!!

Pink meringues, rain and kittens

Look at these beautiful little puffs of perfect pale pinkness, what could they be for??? Actually they are the beginning of a new illustration project I am setting myself which shall be revealed when I am finished probably in about 10 days time. Yesterday began rainy and gloomy but then the weather brightened and I thought I would go ahead and make my little pink meringues.....but I was wrong, the weather went down the tubes and up the spout and I ended up with crinkly, uneven and sticky meringues that won't work for their intended purpose...so it is indeed true, not that I didn't believe it, that you can't make meringues in rainy weather
Here are the crinkly baked meringues, craggy finish and all. I will have to wait until the projected tropical weather weekend we are now looking forward to to make the meringues again.
Harry is considering whether he should check out the meringues or not.....

...curiosity got the better of him!!

Yule logs...fake and real!

This is the scene outside right now...winter has arrived with a vengeance and we here in Maine are girding ourselves for quite the snowstorm.....up to 18 inches are expected by tomorrow morning so we are not dreaming of a white Christmas, we are indeed, going to be living it! Grab your snow shovels and get the kettle on!!
Now...on to the Yule Log/Buche de Noel...here is a pic of the meringue mushrooms in their seperate parts and 'glued' together with melted chocolate...I have to be honest with you...I am very pleased with how these little darlings turned out...James said they look like the animated mushrooms in 'Fantasia' which I am taking as quite the compliment.

Ta dah!!! My first Yule Log in all it's glory...the genoise didn't turn out as thick as I hoped but I am very happy with the finished results.


THE RECIPE

Firstly you need to make those cute little meringues!

Ingredients:

2 egg whites

4oz fine sugar

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make sure your egg whites are at room temperature to ensure the greatest volume when you whip and do not attempt to make meringues on a wet/humid day...they won't work at all or will be a disappointment!

1. Beat the egg whites until stiff

2. Gradually beat in the sugar

3. Mix vinegar and vanilla extract together and fold in to egg whites

4. Using a large plain tip pipe the meringue mixture into small rounds and small upright tubes...see pic above for shapes. You will probably get little peaks on both...you can smooth these out with a WET finger....if you don't wet your finger all you will do is drag the meringue around.

5. My recipe then says to cook the meringues in a 250 degree oven for 1 hour which will give you adequate meringues with chewy centres...more like a French macaroon....but I prefer a meringue that is like ceramic so I bake in a 175 degree, if your oven will go that low, for about 4 hours and then I turn off the oven and leave the meringues in there for about 5 hours...the meringues will be dry and crisp and beautiful.

6. Melt the chocolate you are going to use for the buttercream in a pan over boiling water and use to 'glue' the meringue tops to their stalks.

7. Stand back and admire your incredibly cute work....they are irresistible aren't they?

NOW FOR THE CAKE PART: Chocolate Genoise, adapted from 'The Christmas Cook book' by Marilyn Bright with lovely illustrations by Bridget Flinn

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 extra egg white (whipped to stiff)

scant 1/2 cup superfine sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1. Grease and line with buttered parchment paper an 8 x 12 inch jelly roll pan

2. Whisk the 3 whole eggs and sugar in the top of a double boiler until the mixture is pale and thick and leaves a definite trail when you lift the whisk out. DO NOT stop whisking at any point for fear of curdling the mixture and ending up with scrambled eggs!

3. Remove from the heat.

4. Sift the flour and cocoa together and gently fold into the egg mixture.

5. Fold in the whicked, or whisked!, extra egg white.

6. Pour into the prepared jelly roll pan and smooth evenly with a spatula...I didn't and the cake baked unevenly...it didn't seek it's own level as other cake batters do...how very rude of it and lazy!!

7. Bake at 425 for about 10 minutes...until the cake feels firm to the touch.

8. Carefully flip over onto a wire rack and flip again onto a flat surface, trim any uneven or crusty edges and roll up with the parchment still on it....allow to cool completely.

9. Whilst cooling whip 1/2 cup of heavy/double cream with a few tablespoons of sugar to taste and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

10. Unroll the cake/genoise, peel off the parchment,which probably involves another flip....spread with the whipped cream and reroll.

THE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM

I like really simple buttercream...no mucking around with melting butter and whipping egg whites etc...AND I like to use salted butter to give that nice counterpoint tang that is so popular with caramels right now...I always use salted butter when I bake which I have recently found out is a very European thing to do, I just thought it was because I like the tang of salt with sweet. ANYWAYS...

Ingredients:

4oz softened butter

an inordinate amount of confectioners/icing sugar...I just keep adding until it tastes the way I like....

2oz melted semi-sweet chocolate...again I do this by eyeball and tastebud so you may want more or less.....and cooled so it won't melt the butter.

1. Beat the butter..

2. Add sifted sugar to taste.....

3. Add melted chocolate to taste.

Assemble your YULE LOG/BUCHE DE NOEL

1. Cover the rolled Yule Log with chocolate buttercream...I don't cover then ends as I like to see the cake and cream...but you can do otherwise of course! When covered to your satisfaction pull the tines of a fork lenghtwise along the buttercream and wiggle as you go to make the buttercream look like the bark of a log!!! Very easy and very effective I might say!

2. Add the ridiculously cute meringues anyway you like....see my picture above.

You will get great praise for this dessert so happy baking!!!

Now for some info on real Yule Logs......WOW!, is it snowing here...it wasn't supposed to start 'til midnight but we already have about 2" accumulated and it's only 4pm!!!

The celebration of the Yule Log began in pre-Christian times as a counterpart to the midsummer celebrations those crazy guys held way back then. The fire festival they began so long ago has developed into the burning of the Yule Log either for the modest 24 hours of Christmas Day or more ambitiously the whole twelve days of Christmas from Christmas Eve to January 6th. You are supposed to kindle to the new Yule Log with a piece saved from the log the year before. In years gone by people choose their log from those fallen on their land and the log was brought into the dwelling with great ceremony...we are talking here about castles and grand houses that had hearths the size of a modest family home nowadays. The ashes of the log are scattered over the land to promote feritilty in the crops the following year and a piece of the charred wood is to be kept under the bed to protect the house from thunder and lightning. Oak is the traditional wood for a Yule Log...here is a poem, whose origin I could not determine, that tells the properties of all manner of wood.....

LOGS TO BURN

Oak logs will warm you well,

If they're old and dry.

Larch logs of pine wood smell,

But the sparks will fly,

Beech logs for Christmas Time,

Yew logs heat well,

Scotch logs it is a crime,

For any one to sell,

Birch logs will burn too fast,

Chestnut scarce at all,

Hawthorn logs are good to last,

If you cut them in the fall,

Holly logs will burn like wax,

You should burn them green,

Elm logs like smouldering wax,

No flames to be seen,

Pear logs and apple logs,

They will scent your room,

Cherry logs across the dogs,

Smell like flowers in bloom,

But ash logs all smooth and grey,

Burn them green or old,

Buy up all that come your way,

They are worth their weight in gold.

I can indeed attest to this about ash logs now that I have been using a good old wood burning stove to heat the house these last nine years...I have also discovered I am allergic to oak, love the smell of birch bark and love ash because it does burn when green and puts off amazing heat.

Happy baking and burning...Patricia