Hello Again and The Best of British Baking cookbook review

I took the above photo on a drive this morning, the sun was lighting up Mt. Jefferson to the right of the old barn. 

 Hello all--happy new year! I hope it is going well for everyone. We have already been "snowed in" and had a big thaw with squishy mud! It was hazardous to get out. Excavation for landscaping is underway, but I have to catch all my house-building posts up to this point so more on that much later. I wouldn't mind more snow, it is just the aftermath of sinking 3" into the mud everywhere we walk that is not so fun! A week of sunshine is drying us out nicely.

I wanted to start the year's blogging with a cookbook review, as it was a good time to stay indoors and bake!

I was thrilled to be picked to receive a free copy of this book, The Best of British Baking: Classic Sweet Treats and Savory Bakes,  to review! I knew that in order to truly review it I would get to bake a lot of treats!

I have followed Marie's blog, The English Kitchen, for a few years and enjoyed her practical, use-what-you-have comfort-food style recipes from both Canadian and British cuisines. Anything from a Canadian cook is going to be successful... and a cookbook of British favorites was a good fit for this tea-lover!

 

Besides the appeal of the recipes, the book itself is beautiful to look at and I like reading all the extras about the cuisines of each region. There are plenty of tips, too.

I have tried four recipes so far: Crumpets, English Muffins, Cornish Pasties and Scottish Shortbread. I confess I've made the shortbread twice and I think it will be the one I make the most from this book! It's really good shortbread!

Here are a few tips of my own for what I have done so far: 

 

--If you are going to treat yourself and order the book, put Crumpet Rings/baking rings in your cart, too! Don't mix up the batter before you discover that you need rings (in other words, read the note at the top of the recipe first!). Improvising may not be for this application. I had to make mine "free form" and the flavor was delicious but you really need the rings.

--The pasty pastry worked! Pastry and I do not get along normally. My pies are usually ragged and patched. This pastry rolled and had no holes! I wondered how the Cornish Pasty filling was going to work out without gravy etc. but it made its own sauce and was such a satisfying, hearty recipe for my family. 

--English muffins take patience (for me at least!). If you have the heat too high, even for a bit, they will get too brown too fast but not done right in the middle. Low and slow is the advice in the book so I need to do this one again.

 

But the shortbread...ahh...the shortbread. It was delicious very warm from the oven. With heroic effort I put aside some for the next day. 

 

Of course I had to take a taste for breakfast, because shortbread is never sitting there on the counter at breakfast time and I the water was boiling for tea... well  someone needed to test these out to see if they were any good the next day. They were! The texture and flavor were just the same. Delicious hot or cold.

 

 I will say that if you have never made Scottish shortbread before, just be aware that it isn't going to form into a dough; it is a mixture like damp sand and when Marie says "tip it into a tin" it's because it's going to dump a mixture of what you will think is too dry to make cookies. It magically melds together in the oven, all sweet buttery-ness and comes out perfectly. I may have to keep making this one regularly to further review it... you know, to double or triple check to make sure it is still delicious.

 

There are savory and sweet baking recipes so I need to decide which kind I am going to bake next...maybe a cake for Valentine's day!

 

 I hope you will take a look at the book, you can see several sample pages on Amazon. Don't forget the crumpet rings (you know you will want to try crumpets out!). Thank you to Marie and her publisher for sharing a copy with me!

The new teapot

I have found a basic, everyday teapot to replace "Old Splatters." I do not usually name my tea ware, but in a way I'll miss "Old Splatters" so I think I'll name this one "Gertrude." She looks like a very proper but friendly teapot, and she does not splash or dribble.

Old Splatters

I bought this teapot on sale for $5.00 at a local grocery store.
Upon use, I discovered it has a crooked spout, which soon chipped, and it splashes and drips while pouring out.
The Pleasant Times' field editors have taken to calling it "Old Splatters" when it appears on the tea table.
I wrapped it up in a towel, pinning it close with a clothes pin, to catch the dribbles. It looks like a bandit from the wild west, with a bandanna around its nose.

How To Boil Water

Why is it important to know how to boil water? Won't any hot water do for cooking? Can't I just use hot water from the tap?

No. 

Recipes call for things to be hot, to be simmering, to be boiling or to be brought to "a rolling boil." Failure to follow these specific instructions can make things taste awful! Foods like rice or pasta will not cook correctly!

The tea will not steep! 

The Young James...

Marcus Stone

Buy This at Allposters.com

Black teas and herbal tea will not steep right unless the water is at the right temperature. It will taste like blah hot water with some sort of flavoring in it (I realize there are specific temperatures for specific teas, and I won't go into that in this post). The hot water coming out of the regular kitchen tap is nowhere near boiling temperature. What that hot tap water is good for, is filling into the teapot to warm it up while you are waiting for the water in the tea kettle to boil. Once the tea kettle water is boiling, you can dump out the tap water from the teapot and then make the tea with boiling water, without the fear of your teapot cracking. 

Why is it important to go on and on about this? As someone who likes milk in my tea, which cools it down, I like to start with a really hot cup of tea. Otherwise when I pour the milk in, I get a lukewarm serving. The way I see it is, if you can place your hand on the teapot and hold it there for even a second, it isn't hot enough.

So on to how to boil water! 

 First, use cold tap water. Cold. Not lukewarm, not warmish and NOT hot!

 Run the water for a while before filling your kettle-- it will also get the "sitting in the pipe" flavor out of the water-- and will be nice and cold. 

Now, set the pot or kettle of cold water on the stove and turn the burner on to "high." A lid on the pot will help it to heat up faster.

 See the steam coming up from the water? It isn't boiling. It's hot but it isn't boiling, so do not pour this into the teapot yet! Or put in the pasta yet!

 Aha-- see the bubble in the middle of all that steam? It isn't boiling. Don't use it yet.

 Now there are lots of little bubbles-- and it even sounds noisy. Don't turn off the burner! It isn't boiling yet! You can tell the water is boiling when it quits making noise and starts to be quiet. If you do not have a tea kettle with a whistle, please resist the urge to turn off the burner because there is noise in the kettle. It isn't ready yet! 

Rapid little bubbles means it is simmering. 

Now you can see that the water is boiling. That is, large bubbles racing up to the top of the water. 

 And here we are getting to the rolling boil. A rolling boil may be called for in some recipes. If you start out with a good rolling boil for some cooking, the water will return to a boil very quickly after you put the food in (Sometimes recipes say to bring water  TO a boil. In that case you don't want the water to go on and on and on before using it). 

 Boiling water is turbulent--

 like a stormy sea--

When you lift up the kettle to pour it into the teapot, and you can feel that the water is still moving inside, then that is a good strong boil. And now you are allowed to use it to make  that lovely, hot pot of tea!

the Upright Egg

We interupt this "Teacup Thursday" to bring you a special post on balanced eggs. 

We were at this tea party today, and someone proposed that we go into the kitchen and start balancing eggs.

I acted as photographer, though I see now that with a little bit of patience, egg balancing can be acheived. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Delicious!

Apple Blackberry Plum Punch

We are enjoying extending our cool treats into the late summer heat wave. Here is today's refreshment-- and oh, boy, is it good! It is also a good way to use up plums when it is too hot out to make jam or pies.

I cannot give exact measurements because this was a "thrown together" thing, but here are the ingredients:

Ice

Pureed red plums (with skins on)

Pureed frozen blackberries (I've been freezing the blackberries as we pick them, as it is too hot to make jam. I suppose fresh would do but it is nice to have the extra cooling factor of frozen berries!)

Apple Juice

Simple Syrup (optional, depending on your sweet tooth)

Ginger Ale

Place ice in your punchbowl or pitcher, enough to fill 1/3 of the vessel.

Puree the blackberries, adding enough apple juice to help it smooth out nicely in the blender. Strain if you don't want the seeds.

Puree the plum slices. You may strain out the skins but it takes a while. You could peel them but the skin makes a nice tart flavor.

Mix the two purees in the pitcher; if it is too tart, add some simple syrup (sugar + water) to get it to your liking.

Add some ginger ale for a nice fizz-- I added 2 small cans to a gallon of the juice mixture.

Ladle it out into fancy glasses and enjoy!