Hard Sauce

Serve this sauce with bread pudding or Christmas pudding.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup soft butter
1 and 1/2 cups of sifted icing sugar
2 tablespoons rum or brandy

Instructions:
Cream the butter with the icing sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the rum or brandy. Place a generous dollop on top of warm pudding and get blissful.

Fruit Cake- Its time has come.

The fall is when holiday fruitcakes should be made to allow lots of time for soaking up whatever boozy goodness you want your cake to absorb. I realize that not everyone likes fruitcake and in fact, there are those who make jokes about this iconic Christmas sweet....it take all kinds.

Ingredients:

• 3 ½ cups of raisins
• 3 ½ cups of dried currants
• Place the raisins and currants in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Leave until the water is tepid.
• 1 cup of chopped candied orange peel
• 1 cup of chopped candied citrus peel
• 3 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 ½ cups of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 ¾ cups of brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 3 tablespoons brandy or rum or port, depending on your preference

Instructions:

Heat your oven to 300º F. Then grease a 9 ″ round baking pan well and line with parchment paper. This is a big cake so your baking pan needs to be at least 3 inches deep. (Alternatively, you can use several smaller pans.) 

Sift the flour with salt, nutmeg and allspice in a medium-sized bowl. Cream the butter and sugar in a very large bowl and add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Stir the flour mixture into the eggs/butter/sugar in 2 or 3 batches, followed by the alcohol and drained fruit. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top of the cake, making a slight hollow in the centre.(This ensures that the top of the cake will be flat after baking). Bake for 2.5 to 3 hours or until the cake tests done. (A toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean). If it browns too much before the baking is complete, cover the top of the cake with tin foil and continue baking. Leave to cool in the pan; when cool, remove from pan and pull off the paper. Wrap cake in some booze-soaked cheesecloth and then cover the whole thing in plastic wrap. Store in a cool dark spot, (such as the back of your fridge). Every few weeks, you can remove the plastic wrap to refresh the booze on the cheesecloth. Re-wrap and refrigerate until the point that you decide to ice your cake.

Editorial Note: This cake can be made in multiple smaller pans, but the cooking time will need to be cut accordingly. Cheesecloth, in case you are wondering, is available in most grocery stores and in kitchen supply shops.



Iced fruitcake...the stuff of dreams.

Pastry, then pumpkin pie....

The French terms for pie pastry are pâte brisée or, the sweeter, pâte sucrée. These use butter as the fat and have a different taste and texture than the typical Canadian pie pastry described below. Many inexperienced bakers are intimidated by pastry. However, the technique is easier and more forgiving than you might think. The thing to avoid is over-manipulation of the dough. There are 2 types of fat that the typical Canadian home baker will use in pie crust; lard or vegetable fat (aka: Crisco). Both are generally found in 1 pound blocks in the baking section of the grocery store and will usually contain a perfectly acceptable recipe for pastry on the packaging. What I am providing below is basically the recipe on the Tenderflake lard box.

Step 1- Assemble your tools
- a large mixing bowl
- a pastry cutter or 2 knives
- a rolling pin
- a measuring cup

Step 2- Assemble the ingredients
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 5 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 pound of fat (lard or vegetable fat)
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar (not balsamic or otherwise flavoured)
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- approximately 1 cup of very cold water

Mix together flour and salt. Cut in the fat with a pastry cutter or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse oatmeal. Add the lightly beaten egg and vinegar to the water and gradually add the liquid to the fat and flour, stirring with a fork only until the dough begins to cling together. (Too much liquid will make it tough but too little, simply causes frustration). Gather into a ball and divide into 6 equal portions. Wrap each of the 6 balls in plastic wrap and pat to form flattened discs of dough. Each disc forms a single crust.(So, an apple pie will need two discs and a pumpkin pie only one). Refrigerate for ½ hour before using or freeze for up to 3 months.

To roll out the dough, flour both your rolling pin and the rolling surface.Roll to an even thickness of approximately 1/3 cm. If the crust breaks apart, simply patch it together. Patched pastry has an attractive rustic look anyway. Balling it together and re-rolling too many times will make the pastry tough. In my experience, perfectionism impedes progress.

To make pumpkin pie, purchase a can of pumpkin puree and follow the directions on the inside of the paper label on the tin. If you do so, you will end up with the perfect pie, such as that shown above. 

Editorial Note: Some of you may feel the need to purchase a real pumpkin, bake it, peel it, seed it and mash it rather than buying a tin of pumpkin puree. You do so at your peril; pumpkin prepared in this manner is frequently both coarse and watery. Buy the tin. Follow the directions.Trust me on this one.

Butterscotch Pudding

This recipe is taken directly from food blogger Deb Perelman's blog. I've used her cookbook (The Smitten Kitchen) a lot, and find that her recipes appeal to me as a home cook.

The pudding you see in the photograph was made by my friend Janice, who yearns for the butterscotch pudding her mother used to make. According to Janice, Perelman's recipe was pretty close to the real deal.   

Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- several pinches of sea salt 
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 3 cups whole milk (or 2 & 1/2 cups of milk and 1/2 cup of heavy cream)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and reduce heat to medium-low. Let it heat and bubble for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Don’t let it smoke or burn, which brown sugar is always very eager to do. Reduce heat to low. Add salt and cornstarch, stirring until combined — it’s going to look like a thick paste. Switch to a whisk and add the milk in a thin drizzle, whisking the whole time, so that no lumps form. Once all of the milk is added, you can switch back to a spoon. Cook over low to medium-low, stirring frequently, until the mixture comes to a gentle simmer. Let it simmer for a full minute, stirring, it should clearly thicken at this stage, although it will finish thickening in the fridge. Off the heat, stir in the vanilla extract. Divide into glasses or pudding cups and let chill in fridge for 1 to 2 hours, until set.

PEI Potato Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake looking like a prop used in film noir

I'm back to the Prince Edward Island theme of baking with potatoes with this recipe for a moist and delicious chocolate cake, again taken directly from a PEI website featuring the flavours of the province.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup	yellow-fleshed potatoes, mashed & hot
- 1 cup	water, lukewarm
- 2/3 cup	butter, softened
- 2 cups	brown sugar
- 1 tsp	vanilla extract
- 4	eggs
- 3/4 cup	cocoa
- 2 cups	all purpose flour
- 2 ¼ tsp	baking powder
- ½ tsp	baking soda
- pinch	salt
- ¾ cup	semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan and dust with cocoa powder. Remove any excess cocoa powder and set aside. 

Whisk the water into the mashed potatoes to form a smooth mixture.

Beat the butter, brown sugar and vanilla for 4-5 minutes with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs and mix until blended, scrape down sides of bowl; add remaining eggs and continue mixing until well blended. 

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt, then stir to combine.

At a low speed, alternate adding the sifted dry ingredients with the potato mixture until incorporated into the butter, sugar and eggs. Fold in the chocolate chips. 

Place the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes (or more), until the cake springs back when pressed lightly and begins to move away from the sides of the pan. 

Cool in the pan on a rack. Sift confectioners sugar over the cake.

Orange Polenta Pudding Cake

This charming-looking and very fragrant cake is actually rather more pudding-like than cake-like despite appearances to the contrary. I made it using a recipe from 'Style at Home' magazine (August 2015 edition) with no modifications, so thought it best to provide you with the direct link.

http://www.styleathome.com/food-and-entertaining/recipes/recipe-orange-polenta-pudding-cake/a/60821



The magazine has much better photos of the cake, but this shows the real deal. In fact, that's why I made the cake in the first place...because the magazine photos were so compelling.

Editorial note: I think that it has now pretty much been determined by several tasters of this 'cake' that the texture is weird. Either you'll like it or you won't.

Date Squares - I'm married to them

Believe it or not, dates squares are known in Western Canada as Matrimonial Cake. This was first brought to my attention by my friend Garth the Galloping Buffoon, who happens to be from Winnipeg, and was confirmed by Internet sources. So, I guess he's right. This recipe is from Edna Staebler's cookbook, Food that Really Schmecks. It tastes better than most, because of the addition of orange (rind and juice). I love these date squares. There's nothing more to say except "I do". 

Ingredients for the filling:

• 1 and 1/2 cups of dates
• 3/4 cup sugar
• rind of one orange, grated
• 1 and 1/2 cup of boiling water (or half water, half orange juice)

Ingredients for the top and bottom of the squares:

• 1 cup of softened butter
• 1 and 1/4 cups of brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups of rolled oats

Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Put the dates, rind, sugar and boiling water/juice into a saucepan and gently cook until jam-like in consistency. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, then add the rest of the dry ingredients, mixing until crumbly. Pat half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of a buttered 9-inch square pan, spread the date mixture over the base, then cover with the remaining oatmeal mixture. Bake for 45 minutes.

Nectarine Crumble

There are a number of easy-to-make fruit desserts, which consist of baked fruit covered in various types of crumbs or batter. These go by the names of Brown Betties, grunts, cobblers, crumbles and crisps. They're all variations on a theme.

Because I has recently purchased some seemingly ripe, but actually rock-hard nectarines, I was inspired to design a recipe to both soften and sweeten them, that is, to bake them into submission.

Ingredients for fruit base:
- 7 nectarines sliced (no need to peel because they aren't creepily fuzzy-skinned like peaches)
- 1/2 cup plum jam (apricot jam should work just as well)
- 1 tablespoon flour
- pinch of salt

The nectarines, in a pretense of ripeness.

 Ingredients for topping:
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- pinch of salt


The topping

Instructions:
Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F.

After slicing the nectarines, combine the ingredients for the fruit base in a bowl then transfer to an ovenproof baking dish. Mix together the ingredients for the topping and place evenly over the fruit.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling at the edges of the baking dish and the crumbly topping is golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla icecream.

Flourless Chocolate Almond Birthday Cake - in Absentia

On July 15th, my sister was entertaining our cousins at her cottage on Lake Huron, while I entertained friends at our rental cottage on the St. Lawrence River. She made me this flourless birthday cake from far, far away. I'm sure someone enjoyed it a lot,(you know who you are, Mr. Enthusiasm).

  

Ingredients:

- 6 eggs
- 1&1/4 cups white sugar
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup Dutch Cocoa
- 1&1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups ground raw almonds
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
 
Instructions:

In a large bowl, beat the first 4 ingredients well for 4 minutes. Mix in the cocoa, baking powder, salt and almonds. Pour the whole mixture into a (about 12-inch) springform pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 325 degrees F. Cool before removing from the pan. Ice with ganache or chocolate buttercream.

Chocolate Pudding - Brilliant

This recipe is taken from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by food blogger Deb Perelman. It has received rave reviews. I like it: a) because it receives rave reviews, and b) it is so very easy to make.

Eat it warm or let it cool...it's your pudding, and maybe you're one of those delayed gratification types.

Ingredients:

- 1/4 cup (30 grams) cornstarch
- 1/2 cup( 100 grams) sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups (710 ml) whole milk
- 6 ounces (170 grams) semi- or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (or 1 cup of good chocolate chips)
- 1 teaspoon ( 5 ml) pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Slowly whisk in the milk, in a thin stream at first, so that lumps don't form, then more quickly once the cornstarch mixture is smoothly incorporated. Place over medium-low heat and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary to avoid lumps. After 10 minutes or so, (slower cooking is better), the mixture should begin to thicken. Add the chocolate and continue stirring for another 2 to 4 minutes, until the chocolate is fully incorporated and the mixture is quite thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Rhubarb oatmeal squares - courtesy of my sister

Looks like the Mah-jongg crowd had a pretty fabulous dessert at a recent meeting.  Here' s my sister's recipe for rhubarb squares courtesy of Foodland Ontario.

  

 

Ingredients:

- 1 cup all purpose flour

- 3/4 cup large flake rolled oats (the quick cook kind also work)

- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

 

Filling:

2 eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 1/2 to 3 cups chopped rhurbarb (1/4 inch pieces)

 

Instructions:

 

In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats and brown sugar; stir in melted butter until blended. Set aside 3/4 cup for topping. Press the remaining mixture into a greased 9-inch square cake pan, pressing firmly. (It's helpful to line the pan with parchment paper).  Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

 

In a bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, flour and nutmeg until smooth. Stir in the rhubarb. Spread this mixture over the warm  base. Sprinkle with the reserved oat mixture, using your fingers and pressing down gently. Bake for 45 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool completely before cutting into squares. Store refrigerated.

Sweet Marie Bars

 

Sure these bars may contain a lot of sugar, as the name implies, but hey, they're gluten-free.

This recipe was taken from Sue Reidl's column in the Globe and Mail called "The Quick Fix". Sue's also the cheese reporter for the G&M. What a gig.

These bars are named for the Canadian chocolate bar which they so closely resemble. Here's a link to more info: http://www.villagevoice.com/restaurants/canadian-candy-11-sweets-you-cant-get-this-side-of-the-border-6510248

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- 1 cup peanuts
- 2 cups Rice Krispies
- 1 package of chocolate chips

Instructions: 
Place the first 4 ingredients into a medium sized pot and melt together while stirring over medium low heat.(Remember, your pot will need to be large enough to accommodate the addition of the nuts and cereal). Allow the mixture to gently bubble then remove it from the heat and stir in the peanuts and Rice Krispies until well combined. Press into a greased 8 or 9 inch square pan. Pour the chocolate chips on to the still-hot peanut layer, wait until the chips soften, then spread the chocolate evenly. I used about three-quarters of a 350 gram bag of chocolate chips; chocolate chip bag sizes vary a lot in my experience depending on the brand. You don't need mounds of chocolate chips(they won't melt); just  enough to form a single meltable layer. Let the whole thing cool then cut into bars.

Strawberry Cake

My sister made this fabulously whimsical cake for a cottage meal a couple of years ago. I love the look of it. The vivid pink of that frosting comes from the addition of cherry juice to  an ordinary icing recipe.

The original recipe was published as a Canada Day recipe by Pat Trew in the EMC news. You’ll notice in the instructions below that she used whipping cream and fresh strawberries instead of icing; a completely acceptable and patriotic alternative, although not quite as riveting as that glowing pink blanket of sugar on my sister's cake.
 

Ingredients for the cake:

• 1 super-moist white cake mix (enough for 2 layers)
• 1 package of frozen strawberries (or 2 cups)
• 85 gm package strawberry Jello, or other jelly powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs

Topping:

• heavy cream for whipping
• as many fresh strawberries as you like

Instructions:

Partially thaw the strawberries before you start everything else. Grease and lightly flour a 13"x 8" cake pan and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, Jello powder, oil and eggs. Pour off any juice from the berries and add this to the bowl. With an electric mixer, mix the cake batter for 2 minutes. Turn the bowl occasionally to ensure that the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Fold the partially-thawed berries into the cake batter, then spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 325F for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Since it's easiest to serve this cake directly from the pan, cool it completely in the pan.

To finish the cake, whip heavy cream in a small bowl until it holds its shape. Spread this over the top of the cake. Arrange some fresh strawberries on top of the whipped cream with the tips pointing up. Keep chilled until serving time. Serves 12-14

Mace Cake

My sister recommends this recipe for Mace Cake by Cynthia Knauer, which she found in the April 2005 edition of Gourmet Magazine. I've discussed what some might consider its most unusual ingredient, mace, in a previous post. For those who are interested in knowing more about mace and its long shelf life, here's the link.
http://princessbubba.blogspot.ca/2010/02/nutmeg-and-mace.html

Unfortunately, I began to make this cake before checking to see that I had sufficient granulated sugar (it takes a lot of sugar). I substituted some granulated Demerara sugar for the white sugar I lacked. Unlike the relative laxity of cooking in which a seasoned cook frequently changes ingredients and amounts of ingredients in a recipe, an absolute rule of baking is that you measure properly and use the correct ingredients. In other words, do as I say, not as I do. 

Cake Ingredients:

- 4 large eggs

- 2 cups white granulated sugar

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 2 tsp. baking powder

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 1 tablespoon ground mace

- 1 cup milk

- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

Topping Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp. ground mace

Instructions:

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 13 x 9 inch baking pan, knocking out any excess flour.

 

Beat the eggs with 2 cups of sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until they have tripled in volume. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and 1 tablespoon mace in another bowl. Bring the milk and butter to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan, then remove from the heat. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture, stirring until just combined. Then stir in the hot milk mixture again until combined. (This is a thin batter.)

 

 

Pour the batter into your prepared baking pan and sprinkle evenly with 1/2 cup of sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp. of mace. Bake until the cake is a pale golden colour and a skewer/toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool the cake in its pan on a rack.

 

This cake keeps in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days. A butter icing can be used instead of the sugar/mace topping if you like. 

Not your average Rice Krispies Squares

Sure, they might look like the squares you've made dozens of times, but there are subtle differences that make these ones irresistible. Most notably, brown butter and sea salt. As you can see from the photo, this recipe comes from Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.

Ingredients:

- 8 tablespoons (or 1 stick or 1/4 pound) of unsalted butter (plus more for greasing the pan)
- heaping 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
- one 10-ounce (or 285 gram) bag of marshmallows
- 6 cups (170 grams) of Rice Krispies (or more generically, puffed-rice cereal)

Instructions:

Butter (or coat with non-stick spray) an 8-inch square cake pan.

Now here is the somewhat tricky part...browning the butter. Melt 1 stick of butter in a large pot (ultimately, it needs to be large enough to hold the marshmallows and cereal too) over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn a golden colour and then start to form brown bits. Stir the butter frequently, scraping bits from the bottom as you stir. You must not leave the pot unattended since there is a very fine line between browning and burning the butter.

As soon as the butter takes on a nutty colour, turn off the heat and sprinkle on the salt. Stir in the marshmallows. If there is not enough residual heat to melt them, turn the heat to low. When the marshmallows are mostly melted, remove the pot from the heat and fold in the cereal until it is evenly coated. Then turn the mixture into your prepared pan and gently press it with the back of a spatula until flat. Let cool and cut into squares.

Try not to eat all the squares yourself.

Raspberry Jam Bars

The finished product.

My husband has a tendency to buy in bulk when something is on sale. Does it matter that I don't really need 5 jars of artisanal raspberry jam? Not when it's a buck a bottle. He doesn't even like raspberry jam.

Because I baked this dessert in a round pan and cut it into wedges for serving, my husband referred to it as Blueberry Pie, which confused me temporarily.

Ingredients:

- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 cup sugar

- 1 cup chopped pecans (I used almonds...better with raspberries)
- 1 cup butter, softened

- 1 egg

- 3/4 cup raspberry preserves/jam

Here's the crumb mixture. I added too much flour because I was making these things at 7:30 in the morning and failed to read the recipe properly. Best to follow the recipe...the crumbs will be more buttery if you do.

Instructions:

Pre-heat your oven to 350°F. Line an 8- or 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, (or a similarly sized round pan), extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Then grease the foil.

Combine the first 5 ingredients and beat at a low speed, scraping the bowl often, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press about half of the crumb mixture onto the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Spread the raspberry jam over the pressed-down crumb layer, then crumble the reserved crumb mixture over the top. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and cut into bars.
  
 

Bars, squares or wedges...it matters not. They all use up the raspberry jam.

Walnut Pie



I'm on a roll with walnuts.

I've been making food for fisherman to take on a weekend adventure into the Canadian wilderness. One of the requests is for pecan pie. I didn't have any pecans in my cupboard this morning, and my car is currently having a rear bearing replaced, so with no vehicle and no pecans, I was a bit stuck for making pecan pie. Sorry boys.  

However, you will recall from my previous post (Coffee Walnut Muffins) that I did have access to walnuts. With necessity being the mother of invention, the pecan pie morphed into Walnut Pie. The fishermen will just have to live with it.

The following recipe is an adaptation of Edna Staebler's Old-Fashioned Southern Pecan Pie from her cookbook entitled 'Food that Really Schmecks'. I simply replaced the pecans with walnuts.

Ingredients:   

- pastry for a fairly large pie. I happened to have homemade pastry in my freezer, but you could use a frozen pie shell from the grocery store.
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 Tbs flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tbs melted butter
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup corn syrup
- 1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:
Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all the ingredients together and pour them into an unbaked pie shell and bake for 45-50 minutes.

Eccles Cakes

Eccles cakes are generally larger in circumference and flatter than these, but these were made for a Cinderella tea party....and tiny little mice were coming.

The following recipe for the English 'tea cake' known as Eccles Cake was taken from the Unofficial Downtown Abbey Cookbook by Emily Ansara Baines. Notwithstanding the very funny review of this cookbook that follows, this recipe works for the most part, although I have modified it slightly and have always ended up with about twice too much filling to fit into the available pastry. So, I've simply frozen the extra filling and used it to flavour other desserts such as Apple Crisp. 

 

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup dried currants
• 2 tablespoons candied mixed fruit peel, chopped
• 1/2 cup white sugar, plus extra for decoration
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 package of frozen puff pastry, thawed
• a little milk
• 1 beaten egg

Instructions:

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in currants, fruit peel, white sugar, brown sugar, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly until the fruit is well coated. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool. 

Preheat oven to 400°F, then thoroughly grease a large baking sheet and cover it with parchment paper.

Roll out thawed pastry on a clean, lightly-floured surface until it is about an 1/8-inch thick. Cut out eight circles, each roughly 5 inches in diameter. Place a reasonable amount of currant mixture within each circle, then moisten edges of the pastries with a little bit of milk, fold together, and pinch to seal. Then turn these 'pastry packets' upside down onto the baking sheet and carefully roll out to make a wider and flatter pastry. Be careful not to break the dough.

Brush the 'cakes' with beaten egg, then sprinkle with white sugar. Make three parallel cuts across the top of each cake. Bake the pastries in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and sprinkle with a little more sugar.

The Eccles Cakes have been placed on the tea table.

 

 

And now for a very funny review of the 'Unofficial Downtown Abbey Cookbook'....

 

'Do Not Attempt These Recipes at Home'

By Trerantay

"This book was a gift.

Notwithstanding the cutesy chirps introducing the recipes, e.g., Lady Mary would "... enjoy this soup while in the midst of a fiery debate with Matthew," (yeah, right), anyone who cooks beyond the microwave will find at least four inexcusable errors in the first 60 pages. This does not inspire confidence in the remaining 182:

-"Smoked Salmon Mousse," where no smoked salmon is called for
-"Velvety Cream of Mushroom Soup" informs us that Georges Auguste Escoffier is recognized "... as the finest master chef of the twenty-first century ..." Escoffier died at age 88 on 12 February 1935 having predeceased the 21st Century by 66 years
-"Mrs. Patmore's Particular," calls for 6 cups of ham stock from boiling one ham hock, and further stretches our credulity by suggesting it might be too spicy, and if so we can "... distill [sic?] with some water"
-"Lobster Thermidor" serves 4. You need to keep this in mind. Ms Baines' recipe calls for green beans with onion and bacon as a bed for the Thermidor; so far so good. The "bed" is prepared with 1-pound of bacon, 2 cups of "julienned" onions, and ½ cup green beans. Per serving you can expect: ¼ lb. bacon (plus drippings!), and two green beans. The onions are the challenge, here. Julienned? Really? Could we see a demo, please?

The publisher, Adams Media, should be held responsible for the typos and research errors. The proof reader was either sick that day or smoking something - but not, obviously, the salmon. Ms Baines, on the other hand, should be held responsible for her cynical opportunism. "Downtown Abbey" fans deserve better. Go write a "Sons of Anarchy" cookbook, dear."