Quintessentially English

Whilst in the UK one of the most enjoyable times I spent was with some friends for a birthday 'house' party (here).

The party venue the morning after,


and just some of the grapes, shame they were not ripe enough to pick.

Magnificent house and a fantastic couple of days - thank you for inviting me.

Whilst there we had a traditional English cream tea, that and the setting, following a game of cricket on the lawn just seemed so evocative of that air of quintessential English-ness that I have been quite inspired and have indulged in some cream tea baking - obviously I have digressed and so my cream tea has more of an international flavour.  I hope that you enjoy the recipes as much as I did.

Lavender Shortbread

50g caster sugar
1/3 teaspoon of dried lavender flowers
175g plain flour
115g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

Preheat oven to 160°C, you will also need a shallow square cake tin.

Whizz up the flowers and sugar in a food processor, then work the butter and flour together with your fingertips to create a crumbly texture, add the sugar and flowers and create a firm dough, working with cold hands.

Press the dough into the tin using the bottom of a glass, prick with a fork and score into fingers.  Sprinkle with a little more sugar then bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  Once baked golden cut along the score lines while hot, leaving the shortbread in the tin to cool.

Strawberry Sablés


225g plain flour
50g ground almonds 
pinch salt
75g icing sugar
130g unsalted butted, diced
1 egg
1 beaten egg for glazing
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
225g small strawberries

Line two greaseproof trays with baking parchment, you will also need a biscuit cutter - I just use a glass with the rim dipped in flour.

Whizz together the flour, almonds, salt and sugar, then add butter and pulse to create a crumbly mix.

Beat together the egg, vanilla and add to the flour until a dough ball is formed, then chill the dough for an hour in fridge wrapped in saran wrap/cling film.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Roll out the dough to 5mm thick and cut out the biscuit shapes, arrange on the trays, prick each one a couple of times with a fork and brush with the beaten egg before baking for 15 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool, then assemble into sandwiches with the strawberries cut in half as the filling, dust with some icing sugar to finish.

Russian tea cookies


75g room temperature butter
25g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
40g roasted hazelnuts finely chopped - or almonds or walnuts
100g plain flour


Preheat oven to 180°C


Cream together the sugar and the butter, then add the vanilla and the nuts, finally sift in the flour to create a stiff dough.


With cool hands roll small sections of the dough into little balls about 3cm in diameter, arrange these on a greased baking tray and bake for 12 minutes.


While they are still hot, roll them in the icing sugar to coat, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. 


Roll in the icing sugar again before serving.


White Chocolate and Cranberry Florentines


50g butter
50g caster sugar
3 tablespoons double cream
25g flaked almonds
75g chopped mixed nuts
4 glace cherries chopped (I always seem to have these knocking around - it must be the Martini cocktails!)
40g mixed peel chopped (optional - I hate mixed peel so never add it but the traditional recipe calls for it)
15g dried chopped cranberries
25g plain flour
100g white chocolate broken into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line two trays with greaseproof paper.

Put the butter, sugar and cream in a saucepan over a low heat, stir until melted then bring to the boil, remove from the heat and stir in the nuts and cherries, peel and cranberries, then the flour.  Mix to combine.

Drop tablespoons of the mixture onto the trays leaving spreading room between them and bake for 10 minutes.  Press flat with the blade of a knife while they are still hot, leave to cool for 10 minutes on the trays then transfer to a wire rack to allow them to harden fully.

Once cool, melt the chocolate in a bowl over boiling water and spread onto the underside of each biscuit, as the chocolate thickens run fork tines through it to create wavy lines.


Classic Scones

225g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons caster sugar
50g butter
75ml milk
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 220°C.

In a food processor whizz together the flour, baking powder and sugar, add the butter to create a crumbly mixture.  Tip onto clean surface and make a well.

Beat together the egg and the sugar, pour into the well and form a soft dough.

To get those lovely round high scones I have found that the best way is to roll the dough with cool floured hands out into a thick sausage shape, about the diameter of a rolling pin usually, then cut into slices about 2 cms thick.

Place the rounds onto a lined tray and brush with a beaten egg, then bake for 8 to 10 minutes until risen and golden brown.

Serve with some warmed jam and cream for a traditional cream tea scone.




OK - writing up those recipes and starting the mammoth task of catching up with myself for the blog entries I missed has truly created an appetite.

Tonight's dinner is coming from the garden - I am so happy to be back in my own kitchen.

Redcurrant Jelly - tutorial

With various voices demanding what I am harvesting at the moment it has been so repetitive to reply with the constant refrain of nothing - it's been too wet then too dry then too wet - but finally there they were, luscious little red berries peeking through the foliage - the first redcurrants of the year.

Now I am not known for my jam making, I make very little of it because we generally eat very little of it. In fact show me a ripe fruit and my first reaction is to throw it into some alcohol and make a liqueur not to smear it on some bread during the winter months.

But I was feeling all domestic goddessy today so with a colander full of redcurrants I decided that jelly not jam was the way.

Before you ask I don't know the proper differentiation between jam and jelly but to my mind it goes like this - jam has bits in, and jelly is strained to create a clear liquid.  I make grape jelly, quince jelly and raspberry jam, and then there are compotes which are just stewed fruit and not set like a jam or a jelly is.

Redcurrant Jelly tutorial 

First catch your redcurrants.
The easiest way I have found to strip the fruit from the bushes is to use a fork, just run the tines along the fruit clusters and the ripe red berries will pop off into your bowl.

As you may have noticed from many of my recipes I am not a great fan of measurements, but unfortunately for jam/jelly you do need to do some measuring.  So I have simplified everything into cup measurements.  I have no idea how large a 'cup' is supposed to be in terms of conversion tables for American recipes, but for this as long as you use the same cup throughout you will be fine.

I use the plastic water beaker from my bread machine as my basic cup size.
Boil your redcurrants in water to the following ratio - 2:1 - 2 cups of fruit to 1 cup of water.  Boil until they are dissolving - about 15 minutes.

Then strain either through a very fine mesh sieve, or through a jam sieve.  Leave to drain for about an hour, then put a weight in and leave for another hour.

 I just used a can of tomatoes wrapped in some cling film as my weight, straight on top of the fruit in the jam sieve.
 If you have the time, you can add some additional weights and let the juice continue to drain for longer.

Once you have your liquid, measure the volume - again I do this in cups, and pour back into the saucepan. Then add a cup of sugar per cup of fruit juice, and bring to the boil, stirring continuously.

Once at a rolling boil, stop stirring and let the liquid cook for 5 to 8 minutes, skim off any scum that may form on top.  The jelly should reach setting point at about 104°C - but I don't have a jam thermometer so do the saucer test instead - take a teaspoon of the jam mixture, put on a cool saucer and leave for 60 seconds by which time it should start to form a skin.  If not let the mixture cook for another minute.

You will need to have some sterilised jars ready - the easiest way to do this is to pour some boiling water into a clean dry jar, put the lid on, shake well and leave to cool for a couple of minutes, pour away the water and immediately pour in your mixture.  You can also sterilise jars in the oven, and also once filled you can boil them in a water bath.

Pour your jelly mixture into your jars and turn upside down for a few minutes to create a good seal, then pop the right way round and leave to set.

Once opened they will keep in the fridge for a while, or store in a cool dark place until Christmas for Goose with Redcurrant jelly.

If for some reason your jam or jelly does not set - open the jar back up, reboil with some more sugar, preferably preserving sugar which has added pectin and pour into a clean sterile jar to set.


Oh I do feel all domestic goddess like now!