Recipe#018: Crescent Cookies

Another Christmas staple at the Bass homestead. These are like shortbread fingers with nuts and don't sit on the plate very long before their gone.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine
6 tblsp icing sugar
2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup of chopped pecans.

Instructions:

Mix together and then form into crescents on
ungreased cookie sheeet.
Bake @ 350º till light brown

Done

Recipe#017: 'Clootie' Dumpling

Clootie refers to the cloth that this fruit pudding is traditionally made in. Delicious served hot with custard. Leftovers can be fried in a wee bit of butter to re-heat and have with a cup of tea. It was traditionally made for special occasions like a birthday, Hogmanay or at Christmas time when trinkets, coins and lucky gifts were dropped into the mixture, wrapped in greaseproof paper. Joan made this for a few of our fondly remembered birthdays. Finding money in food is always a good surprise.


This traditional Scottish recipe, makes a rather large heavy pudding serving roughly 10 people.
In more resent years, a smaller more lighter tasting carrot pudding has replaced this one at Joan's.
It will follow in a future post.

Ingredients:

1 lb self-raising flour
1/4 lb currants
1/4 lb sultanas
1/4 lb shredded suet
3-4 tblsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
3-4 tblsp sugar

Instructions:

Mix all dry ingredients.
Blend to stiff dough with milk
make into round shape on floured board
Place in large wet piece of cotton folding corners over into the middle
Lie loosely in dish towel
Place on plate in large pan
Fill pan 1/3 fill with water careful not to get any into pudding bowl
Boil for 2 hrs keeping enough water in pan
When done, let sit to dry in warm oven

Serve presently, with warm vanilla custard

Recipe#016: Uncle Billy's Dundee Cake

This is a transcribed recipe from Yorkshire TV's ' Farmhouse Kitchen' show hosted by Grace Mulligan. Joan's late brother, Billy, wrote down the recipe and baked this cake many times afterward. On one occasion while visiting Kilmarnock in the early 90's the cake was shared with a cup of tea and the cake became an instant family favorite. The measurements are in the metric scale and a scale may be needed to measure correct amounts. The recipe make 1x20 cm round cake (8 inch)and is best made in a spring-form pan. It's a lighter almond flavoured fruit cake for those who prefer a non-alcoholic and less dense option.


Ingredients:

3 large eggs, beaten
175g margarine (at room temp)
125g light soft brown sugar
3-4 drops almond essence
200g plain white flour sifted
175g sultanas,(or raisins) washed & dried
175g currants, washed & dried
50g glacé cherries washed, dried and chopped finely
25g ground almonds
1 level teaspoon baking powder
50g whole blanched almonds

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325º F (160ºC)
In a large bowl thoroughly cream margarine, sugar and almond essence ensuring there are no lumps in sugar.
Sift flour and baking powder into another bowl and stir in the fruit, cherries and ground almonds.
Fold the fruit mixture into the creamed mixture together with the eggs and combine thoroughly. Do not beat.
Grease and line the 7-8 inch round spring-form tin with baking parchment paper.
Spoon mixture into the tin and level the batter surface.

*-Hint: How to blanch almonds;
Put almonds in a bowl and pour boiling water over and let stand for 2-3 minutes. The skin should slide off easily.

Arrange the blanched almonds in circles on top of the cake mixture.
Bake in 325º oven for 1-1/2 hours or until cake is firm and shrinking from the sides of the tin.
This cake stores up to 3 months and tastes better with age.
Other recipe variations involve soaking the fruit in brandy or rum overnight and include mixed peel and zest, but that makes it more of a heavy Christmas cake and less of a light traditional Dundee cake.

Recipe#015: Joan's Dark Christmas Fruit Cake

This cake is sometimes made in early in November in order to 'nurse' the cake with brandy or rum through to the holiday season.
Don't over do it as you don't want the cake dripping with booze and highly flammable by December 25th!
Some people don't like alcohol in their cake. It is used mainly to keep the fruit plump and the cake moist but can be omitted if you bake your cake closer to Christmas. Soak the fruit in water or apple juice previously instead of brandy.



Ingredients:

1 cup butter (8 oz)
1/2 lb dark brown (muscovado) sugar
1/2 cup honey
4 large eggs, beaten
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cocoa
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 allspice
1/2 cup molasses/ or treacle
3/4 lb raisins
1/2 lb currants
1/2 lb mixed peel & cherries
1/2 lb nuts (blanched almonds)
1/4 cup flour [for dried fruit]
350 ml Brandy

Instructions:
Clean and stem fruit and soak in brandy for 3 days stirring occasionally*
*Alternately, use water and soak overnight

Prep 2 loaf pans with foil
Drain excess brandy from fruit mixture and let stand until most of the liquid is drained away;
[Spoon the fruit out of the soaking bowl and put into a sieve leaving the grit from the fruit at the bottom of the bowl]
Place fruit in large bowl
Add nuts and 1/4 cup of flour and mix well
Cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy
Add honey to beaten eggs
Beat egg mixture into butter mixture
Combine and sift all remaining dry ingredients in another bowl
Add dry flour mixture to batter alternatively with molasses and fruit & nut mixture
Pour mixed batter into pans to 3/4 full
Bake @ 300º F for 2 1/2 hours

When cool, wrap in extra foil and store in dry container, coating with 1 tblsp of brandy once per week leading up to Christmas.
This recipe doesn't involve the more English tradition of using marzipan icing, but it can be added if desired after the 'nursing' period is complete to your satisfaction.

Recipe#014: Rum Balls

Joan makes these well ahead of time as they keep well in the refrigerator or freezer.
Sadly, she usually has to make more, finding most of them eaten by her sneaky booze-addled children.



Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Captain Morgan dark rum
3/4 cup of sultanas
1/2 tin of Sweetened condensed milk
10 digestive biscuits- crumbled in a food processor
1 cup of desiccated coconut
3 tblsp drinking chocolate powder
2 oz margarine melted
Dutch quality milk chocolate shot [sprinkles]
2 tblsp Frys cocoa

Instructions:

Overnight, soak sultanas in dark rum

The following day, drain off the rum from the fruit
Mix next 5 ingredients together and roll small balls in chocolate shot and cocoa
Refrigerate for an hour before serving

Recipe#013: Birds Nest Biscuits

A staple in the Bass home at Christmas, these biscuits are addictive little bites with a shortbread-like texture and the added bonus of toasted coconut and a pool of chewy jam! As in the photo, some recipes call for chopped nuts instead of coconut, we say, why not try both together!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2-3 cups flour
1 egg separated
1 cup desiccated coconut
Jar seedless jam [raspberry or strawberry]

Instructions:

Cream butter, sugar until light and fluffy
Add flour and yolk of egg
Mix [ short dough but not too crumbly]
Roll dough into 1 1/2 " balls
Lightly beat egg whites
Dip dough balls into egg white and immediately roll in coconut until coated
Make a small indentation in each ball
Bake for 5 minutes in 350º oven then remove
Put small amount of jam in each dent
Return to oven for 15 minutes

Christmas Baking!

Here we have a few of the tasty bites Joan bakes for the festive season.



If you have any requests, get them in soon!

Recipe#012: Marg Flynn's Lemon Loaf

This is a long-time staple in Joan's kitchen. Margaret Flynn gave this to Joan after she tasted it at a church function in the '60s. Made quickly knowing a guests will be arriving, the smell of fresh lemon loaf is always a welcoming scent for guests as well as a thick slice of cake with a cup of tea. There's never any left over.


Ingredients:

1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup of shortening/ or margarine
2 eggs
1/3 milk
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Zest from 1 lemon
1/2 chopped pecans (optional)

Instructions:

Sift together flour,salt and baking powder
Beat sugar and margarine until fluffy
Add eggs alternatively with flour mixture and beat
Pour into greased loaf pan
Bake @ 350ºF for 1 hour
While warm, mix 1/4 cup of sugar with juice of 1 lemon and pour over top of cake
Let stand 15 minutes before serving