Author: Joanne

cakes · cooking · Mum · nostalgia · recipe

Parkin

JoanneLeave a comment

Staying with the same theme as my last food post for Eccles Cakes, I have another recipe from England, also my mother’s recipe and another recipe that I enjoyed making as a child and teenager myself.

In fact, as a teenager, I would often make Parkin on the weekend to take to work with me during the following week for my morning tea each day.

Parkin is at its best two or three days after baking, by which time the flavours of the ingredients have had time to “marry” and the flavour of the ginger is intensified. It will keep for two to three weeks, stored in an air-tight container.

The history of Parkin is of interest to me, as it originated in Yorkshire, England and is also widely eaten in Lancashire. Although my mother came from Cheshire, her mother’s (my grandmother’s) family came from Yorkshire. Which leaves me wondering, did my grandmother pass this recipe on to my mother?

Parkin is traditionally served on bonfire night, known as Guy Fawkes Night in England. It was at a bonfire night that my parents first met.

With so much personal history associated with Parkin, is it any wonder that I love it so much myself? 🙂

Parkin

110g self raising flour

220g fine to medium oatmeal

110g brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon cinnamon

80g butter

220g treacle

1 egg

5 tablespoons milk

Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees C.

Mix together in a bowl the flour, oatmeal, ginger and cinnamon.

In a small saucepan, heat together the butter, treacle and brown sugar. Stir over a low heat until the butter is melted.

Add the treacle mixture to the dry ingredients along with the milk and egg.

Beat together until you have a smooth batter.

Place the batter into a greased and lined 18cm x 28cm baking tin.

Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until the cake is firm. Leave in the baking tin to cool. Cut into serving sized squares a day or two after baking.

Australia · autumn · gardening · herbs · pecan nuts

Autumn In My Garden

Joanne1 Comment

“What was Paradise? But a garden, an orchard of trees and herbs, full of pleasure, and nothing there but delights” ~~ William Lawson.

When autumn arrives, my life takes on a whole new meaning. After the long, hot, humid summer that I must endure every year over the Christmas season, it is such a pleasure to once again venture out into my garden!

How beautiful the garden is looking right now, as if all of my plants have collectively heaved a sigh of relief that the heat is over and they have all burst into flower at their happiness!

Most of the days now are warm and sunny, allowing me to spend all day hard at work outside, without so much as breaking into a sweat! I must admit, though, that when I am in “garden zone” I lose all concept of time and reality, becoming completely ensconced in my outdoor paradise.

It has become a regular occurrence that I will often be temporarily startled by a rustling noise nearby, only to discover a friendly bird has dropped by to say hello. I’m amazed at how tame the birds in my garden are! Or is it just momentary confusion on the bird’s part, believing me to have grown in the garden also, having spent so much time out there??

My most recent additions to the garden beds have been broccoli, cauliflower, marjoram, oregano, lemon grass, pineapple sage and lavender. We have collected bucket loads of pecan nuts and have enough limes to last us for months! I am especially proud of this year’s tomato crop. They are planted companionably next to my basil, perhaps being the reason they have been particularly generous with their crop this year.

When my home grown produce makes it to my kitchen I am constantly searching through my recipes, often feeling rather indecisive as to what I will make next. Decisions, decisions….I want to make them all! 🙂

Helper on a Break
cooking · dad · Mum · nostalgia · recipe

Eccles Cakes.

Joanne2 Comments

When I smell dried fruits and spices they remind me of happy days, spent with my mother, baking in her kitchen. When heat is added to the fruits and spices, the aroma is even more intense.

These are my memories now, as I bake Eccles Cakes again.

Mum never baked them often enough for my liking. Funny though, I have only realised today that my own children do not know the pleasure of tasting a freshly baked Eccles Cake! I’m sure they will enjoy them as much as I do.

Dad knew Eccles Cakes by another name, “Dead Fly Pies”, but don’t let that name put you off trying them!

Not surprisingly, these delicious delights originated in Eccles, being first sold commercially at a corner shop in 1793. Eccles is a town in the City of Salford, which is part of the greater Manchester area. My own family originates from this area.

A similar recipe for Eccles Cakes has even been discovered which dates them back to 1769 in Cheshire, however the recipe I am sharing with you today is my Mum’s recipe, origin unknown.

Footnote :  I made my batch of sixteen Eccles Cakes today at around 2pm. It is now 6pm and there are only two left. The decision is unanimous, my family all want more Eccles Cakes! 🙂

Eccles Cakes

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C.

Mixture in the rounds

Mix in a small saucepan over a low heat –

100g currants

60g mixed peel

60g melted butter

50g brown sugar

A pinch each of nutmeg & mixed spice

Stir until butter has melted and allow the mixture to cool.

Cut 16 x 10cm (4 inch) rounds out of 4 sheets of ready rolled puff pastry.

Place 1 teaspoon of cooled mixture into the centre of each round of pastry. Draw up the edges of the pastry around the mixture and pinch together to seal. Turn over and gently roll the rounds until the imprint of the currants show through the pastry.

Ready for the Oven

Cut 2 slits in the top of each round and glaze with a lightly beaten egg white. Sprinkle the top of each round with raw or caster sugar.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Eccles Cakes
cooking · desserts · lemon · pies · recipe

Lemon Meringue Pie

Joanne2 Comments

Don’t you just love a dessert recipe which is not only easy to prepare, but it looks as though you slaved away in the kitchen all day to prepare?

My Lemon Meringue Pie recipe is not only one of the simplest recipes ever, it is also eye catching and the taste is, well, simply divine!

The meringue will be more light and fluffy if you remember to take the eggs out of the refrigerator an hour or two before baking, bringing them to room temperature. You will know if the egg whites are beaten enough by tipping the bowl (carefully!) upside-down. If the egg white sticks to the bowl, you know they are ready!

Served hot or cold, this desert is a firm favourite.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Pastry – 2 cups plain flour

Lemon Meringue Pie

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon icing sugar

185g butter

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 to 2 tablespoons icy cold water

Sift the flour, salt and icing sugar into a basin. Chop butter roughly and rub into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add the lemon juice and sufficient water to mix the pastry to a firm dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll out the pastry on a floured board to fit a 23cm pie or flan plate. Trim the edges, prick the base and sides of the pastry with a fork and “blind bake” in a moderately hot oven for approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow the pastry base to cool.

Lemon Filling – 4 tablespoons plain flour

4 tablespoons cornflour

Grated  rind of 1 lemon

¾ cup lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1 ¼ cups water

90g butter

4 egg yolks

Combine the sifted flours, lemon rind, lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan, add the water and blend together until smooth. Stir over a low heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Reduce the heat and cook, stirring,  for a further two minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter and lightly beaten egg yolks. Keep stirring until the butter has melted. Allow to cool. Place the filling in the pastry base.

Meringue – 4 egg whites

2 tablespoons of water

pinch of salt

¾ cup caster sugar

Combine the egg white, water and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the sugar is dissolved and the egg white mixture is shiny.

Top the pie with the meringue mixture, spreading the meringue to the edges of the pastry to seal. Bake in a moderate oven (190 degrees) for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the meringue is lightly browned.

cooking · Mum · nostalgia · recipe · traditions

A Taste Of Nostalgia…Malt Bread

JoanneLeave a comment

This is one of my Mum’s recipes, so for me it conjures up images of my childhood, but most of all, to me, it’s comfort food.

I wonder…can a cake-type treat be described as “comfort food”? Perhaps not, unless you were with me in my Mum’s kitchen, when I was a child, looking forward to our malt bread coming out of the oven!

Mum had one particular loaf tin that she cooked this recipe in, and now I have the same tin. There are no signs of rust on the tin at all even though the tin must be around fifty to sixty years old, bought around the time that my parents emigrated to Australia from England.

The recipe is very basic, only requiring seven ingredients. I recall that it was the very first loaf that I made alone, without Mum’s help. I will include both imperial and metric measurements here, as my recipe is actually in ounces.

So here it is, my taste of nostalgia!

Malt Bread

Malt Bread

Put into a jug – ¼ pint of milk (1/2 cup) and ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.

Warm in a pan – 2 tablespoons each of Golden Syrup and Malt Extract.

In a basin – 8oz. Self-raising flour (225g)

4oz. Sultanas (120g)

1 egg

Add both the milk mixture and the malt mixture to the basin and beat together well.

Cook in a well greased and baking paper lined loaf tin at 350 degrees F (180deg. C) for ¾ to 1 hour.

Serve in slices with butter.