FIFTEENS

FIFTEENS

Method

15 large marshmallows
15 digestive biscuits, crushed
15 red candied cherries, halved
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Method

Cut the marshmallows in halves using scissors, and place in a large bowl. Toss with the digestive biscuits and candied cherries. Gradually stir in the sweetened condensed milk until the mixture becomes a soft, moist dough. It should not be too dry, so you may need to add a bit more of the milk.
Spread a generous layer of coconut out on a clean surface, and place the dough on top of it. Use your hands to form the dough into a long thick sausage, making sure it is well coated with coconut. Wrap in a double layer of plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
Unwrap the long piece of dough, and cut into slices to serve.

MISS SOUTH'S PINEAPPLE CREAMS

MISS SOUTH'S PINEAPPLE CREAMS

A recipe that just leapt out at me on this traybake inspired cookbook meandering was the now somewhat unfashionable pineapple cream. A small pastry tart case filled with crushed pineapple and whipped cream before being topped with pineapple water icing, these were a real favourite of me and my granny when I was wee. Trips into Lurgan town centre on market day weren’t complete without two of these in their little foil cases from one of the fantastic (and sorely missed) home bakeries every Northern Irish town centre had in those days.
Shelves at places like O’Hara’s, McErleans, Jeffers or Kennedy’s groaned with baps, farls, pan loaves,  gravy rings and sweet buns, biscuits and tarts. You couldn’t miss the pineapple creams with their vivid yellow toppings and we brought two home in a white paper bag to be eaten with a cuppa at the kitchen table. Strangely I don’t remember eating them with anyone’s else except her and I’ve certainly never heard of anyone making them at home, so it seemed time to try both.
- Miss South

Ingredients

    400g shortcrust pastry (not sweetened)
    2 x 425g cans pineapple chunks or crushed pineapple, juiced reserved
    400ml double cream
    400g icing sugar
    100ml boiling pineapple juice
    pinch of yellow food powder or liquid colouring

 (makes one 9″ tart or 12 small tarts)

Method

I have to admit that I used shopbought pastry for this pineapple cream tart because my homemade stuff shrinks like wool on a boil wash and while I’m trying to work out what I’m doing wrong, I rolled out some commercial shortcrust instead. If you are more pastry proficient than me, this Dan Lepard recipe for pastry is a good basis.
Line a 9″ tart tin or a 12 whole small tart or bun tray and chill the pastry for about 30 minutes before blind baking for 25 minutes on 200°C. Remove the lining and baking beans after this and bake naked for another 5-7 minutes to give a golden finish. Allow the pastry to cool completely.
Drain the pineapple chunks and reserve the juice. These pineapple creams always used crushed pineapple with its soft almost sticky texture but this is much harder to get these days than it used to be. Del Monte sell it or you can simply crush your chunks with a potato masher. Drain off any excess juice after this and layer the pineapple into the tart tin.
Whip the cream and spread it over the pineapple evenly. Smooth the top down as much as possible with a spatula or a palette knife.
Pour the reserved pineapple juice into a saucepan and bring to the boil, adding the food colouring now if using the liquid version. Tip the icing sugar into a large bowl and add the pinch of yellow food powder if using. Pour the hot pineapple juice into a measuring jug and add about 25mls at a time, whisking well. 100ml will give you a loose but not pourable texture, but you might want a drop or two more if it is too stiff to spread. It should be a soft yellow colour rather than looking like the background of a smiley face.
Use a spoon to pour the icing over the cream. It should be thick enough to obscure the cream completely. Allow the icing to set for at least 1 hour before serving. The pineapple will begin to leech its juice after a few hours and the pastry will become sticky and a little difficult to cut in a large tart. No one will notice when they are eating it but don’t make it too far in advance. Serve with tea and a certain amount of nostalgia.

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows from the classic English teatime favourite, the lemon drizzle cake. It is a good marriage: I love Italian cooking in all respects save one - I find their cakes both too dry and too sweet. Here, though, the flavoursome grittiness of the polenta and tender rubble of ground almonds provide so much better a foil for the wholly desirable dampness than does the usual flour. But there is more to it than that.  By some alchemical process, the lemon highlights the eggy butteriness of the cake, making it rich and sharp at the same time. If you were to try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it.
- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

for the cake
    200 grams soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)
    200 grams caster sugar
    200 grams ground almonds
    100 grams fine polenta (or cornmeal)
    1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (see NOTE below)
    3 large eggs
    zest of 2 lemons (save juice for syrup)

for the syrup

    juice of 2 lemons
    125 grams icing sugar

Method

    Line the base of a 23cm / 9inch springform cake tin with baking parchment and grease its sides lightly with butter.
    Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F.
    Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
    Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
    Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.
    It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin.
    Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and icing sugar in a smallish saucepan.
    Once the icing sugar’s dissolved into the juice, you’re done.
    Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin.

CLAUDIA RODEN'S MIDDLE EASTERN ORANGE CAKE

CLAUDIA RODEN'S MIDDLE EASTERN ORANGE CAKE

Ingredients

2 large oranges, washed
6 eggs, beaten (use 5 if large)
250 gms ground almonds
250 gms sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder

Method

Wash and boil the oranges unpeeled, in water to cover for 1 1/2 hours or until they are very soft.
The oranges float, so you might put something (like a saucer) on top to keep them covered with the water. Let them cool, then cut them open, remove the pips and turn them into a puree in a food processor.
I have tried microwaving the oranges for about 8 minutes on high as an alternative to the boiling. Seems OK to me!
Beat the eggs in a large bowl.
Add all the other ingredients, mix thoroughly and pour into a buttered and floured cake tin with a removable base if possible.
Bake in a preheated moderately hot 190ºC oven for about 1 hour.
If it is still very wet leave it in the oven for a little longer. Cool in the tin before turning out.

APPLE SHARLOTKA

APPLE SHARLOTKA

Ingredients

6 large, tart apples, such as Granny Smiths
3 large eggs
1 cup (200 grams)  sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour

 Oil for greasing pan

 Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper.
 Butter the paper and the sides of the pan.
Peel, halve and core your apples, then chop them into medium-sized chunks. (I cut each half into four “strips” then sliced them fairly thinly  -  about 1/4-inch -  in the other direction.) Pile the cut apples directly in the prepared pan.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, using an electric mixer or whisk, beat eggs with sugar until thick and ribbons form on the surface of the beaten eggs. Beat in vanilla, then stir in flour with a spoon until just combined. The batter will be very thick.
Pour over apples in pan, using a spoon or spatula to spread the batter so that it covers all exposed apples. (Updated to clarify: Spread the batter and press it down into the apple pile. The top of the batter should end up level with the top of the apples.)

Bake in preheated oven for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a tester comes out free of batter.
 Cool in pan for 10 minutes on rack, then flip out onto another rack, peel off the parchment paper, and flip it back onto a serving platter.
Dust lightly with ground cinnamon.

NIGELLA LAWSON'S APPLE AND ALMOND CAKE

APPLE AND ALMOND CAKE

Ingredients

for the apple puree

    3 tart eating apples (such as Braeburns)
    1 tablespoon lemon juice
    2 teaspoons caster sugar

for the cake

    1 splash of vegetable oil to grease tin
    8 large eggs
    325 grams ground almonds
    275 grams caster sugar
    1 tablespoon lemon juice
    50 grams flaked almonds

Method

Peel, core and chop the apples roughly. Put them in a saucepan with the lemon juice and sugar and bring the pan to a bubble over a medium heat. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes or until you can mash the apple to a rough puree with a wooden spoon or fork. Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/180ºC/350ºF; oil a 25cm / 10 inch springform tin with almond or a flavourless vegetable oil and line the bottom with baking parchment.

Put the cooled puree in the processor with the eggs, ground almonds, caster sugar and 1 tablespoon - or generous squeeze - of lemon juice and blitz to a puree. Pour and scrape, with a rubber spatula for ease, into the prepared tin, sprinkle the flaked almonds on top, and bake for 45 minutes.

 It's worth checking after 35 minutes, as ovens do vary, and you might well find its cooked earlier - or indeed you may need to give a few minutes longer.

Put on a wire rack to cool slightly, then spring open. This cake is best served slightly warm, though still good cold.

DOVE'S FARM BUCKWHEAT AND ORANGE DROP SCONES

DOVE'S FARM BUCKWHEAT AND ORANGE DROP SCONES

Ingredients

100g Buckwheat Flour
1 tbsp Icing Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Cinnamon
1 Egg
1 Orange rind and juice
140 ml Water
1 tbsp Sunflower Oil

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.
Grate the orange and squeeze the juice into a measuring jug.
Add water until you have 150ml/5floz of liquid (you may not need it all, or slightly more than specified depending on the orange) . 
Mix the egg into the liquid then pour everything into the flour.
Stir to make a smooth batter.
Lightly oil a heavy frying pan and heat well. 
Put a large spoonful of batter into the hot pan, smoothing to a circle.
Cook until bubbles form and the bottom is golden, then turn over and cook on the other side.

DOVE'S FARM BLINIS

DOVE'S FARM BLINIS

Ingredients

2     Eggs
150 g    Buckwheat Flour
2 tsps    Baking Powder
300 ml    Milk
2 tbsps    Oil

Method

Whisk the eggs until frothy.
Mix in the flour, baking powder and milk.
Beat well to make a smooth batter smooth.
Heat a little oil in a heavy frying pan.
Put tablespoons of the batter into the hot pan to make 5cm/2” pancakes.
Cook until small bubbles appear and underside is golden.
Turn over the blini and cook the other side.
Continue until the batter is used.
Cover the blini with film or foil until required.

FLORENCE GREENBERG'S ALMOND MACAROONS

ALMOND MACAROON

These are an absolute Passover classic. I remember plates piled high with fragrant, chewy macaroons whenever I went to my grandmother's house during Passover.

Ingredients



4oz ground almonds
8oz caster sugar
Whites of two large eggs
1oz matzo meal
Split almonds


Method


Mix the almonds, matzo meal and sugar, then add the very slightly whipped egg whites and mix thoroughly. Oil a baking sheet and place teaspoonfuls of the mixture on it, leaving room to spread. Put a split almond on each macaroon and bake in a slow oven until a pale golden brown - about 35 minutes (350F/180C/Gas 4). Leave to cool

FLORENCE GREENBERG'S PASSOVER APPLE PUDDING

FLORENCE GREENBERG'S APPLE PUDDING

Ingredients

1lb/900g cooking apples
4tbsp ground almonds
4oz/100g sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
juice and rind of 1 lemon
3 eggs
Flaked almonds to sprinkle on top

Method

Peel apples and grate.
Whisk egg yolks and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add apples, almonds, cinnamon, lemon juice and rind and mix thoroughly.
Whisk the egg whites into stiff peaks and fold into the apple mixture.
Turn into a greased oven dish, sprinkle a few flaked almonds on top and bake for about 1 hour at 180 celsius.

FLOENCE GREENBERG'S HONEY CAKE

HONEY CAKE

Ingredients

2/3 clear honey
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4  cup vegetable oil
2 cups of all purpose flour sifted with 2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice
1/2 baking soda
2/3 cups of warm water

Method




Grease and line a 9 in/23 cup cake tin. warm the honey in a sauce pan until it thins.
Beat together the eggs and sugar till thick and creamy.
Sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice.
 Dissolve the baking soda in warm water.
Fold the sifted ingredients and water alternatively into the beaten mixture to make a smooth and thick mixture.

 Pour into the prepared cake tin and place into the center of a moderately hot oven (325 F, 160 C, Gas mark 3) for about 1  1/4 hours.

FLORENCE GREENBERG'S PESACH SPONGE

PESACH SPONGE

Ingredients

4 large eggs separated
1/4 cup of sugar
grated lemon rind and juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon of sifted cake meal
3 tablespoons of sifted potato flour

Method

Beat the egg yolks with half the sugar till they are thick and creamy then fold the juice and rind of the lemon. 
Whisk egg whites till very stiff and add remaining sugar. Fold the egg whites into the yolks then fold in the sifted cake meal and potato flour.
Pour mixture into a greased and lined cake pan.
 Bake in moderately hot oven 375 F 190 C  gas mark 5 for 30 mins. Leave in the tin for 5 mins. then turn onto a wire tray to cool.

MRS COLE'S WHEATEN BREAD

MRS COLE'S WHEATEN BREAD

Ingredients

450 grams of wholemeal flour
50 grams of wheatgerm
2 tsp of brown sugar
1 tsp of baking soda
2 tsp of sunflower oil
pinch of salt
275ml of buttermilk




Method

Mix all the dry ingredients together then gradually add the oil and buttermilk.
Divide between two greased loaf tins.
Bake at 175 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes and then at 150 degrees centigrade for a further 30 minutes.

CLAUDIA RODEN'S PLAVA

A spongc cake without butter or any other fat is the all-purpose
Jewish cake, made every week to be eaten for tea or after supper
with fruit salad or compote. So many people have told me oftheir
mother's biscuit tin from which the wonderfully ever-so-light cake
(it is called plava in Britain) came out, and how you could never
stop eating. It is thought that the origin of the cake is the Sephardi
pan d'Espanya.
- Claudia Roden

Ingredients

5 eggs, separated
250g caster sugar
grated zest of l lemon
a pinch of salt
175g plain flour

Method

Beat the egg yolks with about half the sugar, till thick and very
pale, then stir in the lemon zest.
Beat the egg whites stiff with the salt. Add the remaining sugar
and beat to a very stiff, shiny meringue. Then fold in the yolk
mixture. Sprinkle the flour on top and very gently fold in as lightly
as possible.

Turn into a deep, oiled, non-stick springform cake tin about 23
cm (9 inches) in diameter and bake at 350°F 180°C gas 4 for about
I hour, until browned on top.