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Nut Biscuits

We are travelling back to the 1930’s with the Bestway Cookery Gift Book.

The tagline reads:

“A book that will take you, step by step, through the Everyday Dishes to Delightful Experiments in high class Cookery!”

If that doesn’t inspire you what will?! 😁

This one starts with the filling first, a bit like eating your dessert before dinner, which is something that sounds good to me!

Cream 3/4 oz butter with 2 dessert spoons of caster sugar and stir in a tablespoon of ground Brazil nuts and a few drops of vanilla essence.

Now onto the main event – the dough..

Sieve 3 oz flour, 1 oz cornflour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Rub in 1 oz margarine with a mini blender if you’re feeling lazy (like me 😁), add one egg yolk and a spoonful of milk and water mix until it comes together as a dough.

Roll it out on a floured board into a thin oblong shape and spread it evenly with the filling. (Here’s something I prepared earlier moment.) Rolling it up like a Swiss roll and cut it into biscuit sized slices.

Pop them into a ‘fairly hot oven’ (I picked 180C) for ten to fifteen minutes.

They come out lovely and crunchy and a the taste is a lot like biscotti.

Do try it and let me know what you think 😉

Thanks again for visiting my little blog, hope to see you back again soon.

 

2023-06-17T17:29:21+12:0017 June 2023|Bakes, Bestway Cookbook, Biscuits, Vintage cookbook|0 Comments

Trefoil Treats

Welcome to a special Girl Guide addition to our trip into the world of vintage cookbooks.

These small fundraising cookbooks are often a goldmine of a variety of different recipies. It’s so much fun to hunt through to find one that takes your fancy. There is nothing that indicates when this one was published but the advertisements inside have phone numbers comprising of 5 numbers, so if anyone has any idea what era this would be please leave a comment. 😊

I decided to pick a recipe I’ve made a few times in the past as a fun twist on a scone recipe, this one has wholemeal flour so that makes it healthy, right? 😊 Let’s just run with that idea I say as I bite into another one.

Today I’m whipping up some super quick Cinnamon Pinwheels.

Our ingredients include:

1/2 cup plain flour, 1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1/4 tsp Salt

2 tsp Baking powder

1 Tbsp Butter

1/3 cup Milk

And For The Filling:

2 Tbsp Brown sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 Tbsp Butter

 

The oven gets put onto 200 Celsius to warm up and all the dry ingredients are sifted into a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips (or my cheat’s way of whizzing it in my mini Kenwood to mix it in super finely). Then the milk also gets whizzed in to make a dough, or traditionally mixed in with a knife.

Turn out the dough onto a floured board and roll it out into a rectangle.  Melt your butter for your filling in a saucepan (or cheat microwave) and brush over your dough. The sugar and cinnamon get mixed together and sprinkled over the buttered dough.

Roll your dough up from one of the long sides and cut evenly into thick slices. Then pop them into your hot oven for 10-12 minutes, easy as that! So quick to make and a nice rustic version with the wholemeal flour, sooooo good warm from the oven!

I hope you have a go at this recipe for yourself as it’s super yummy as an afternoon treat.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you back here soon!

 

2022-08-08T19:13:22+12:008 August 2022|Bakes, Fundraising cookbook, Kiwi bakes, Scones, Vintage Kitchen|0 Comments

Coconut Cream Sandwich

Welcome back all you lovely people – It’s been a while but I’m ready to jump back into a new recipe today!

We will be travelling back to 1935 and diving into the world of  ‘Everyday dishes to Experiments in High Class Cookery’ with the Bestway Cookery Gift Book.

The recipe I have chosen is delicious and a fantastic addition to your high tea party. Made similar to a sponge with some lip smacking add ons, is the decadent Coconut Cream Sandwich!

Don’t be confused by the word sandwich, this is very much a cake, this just refers to the creamy filling which sandwiches the two layers together.

The ingredients list is as follows:

2 Tbsp desiccated coconut

1/4 lb Flour

1 Tsp Baking powder

1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk

3 oz Caster sugar

1 oz Margarine

Milk to mix

Jam & Coconut for the top

Filling:

4 oz Icing sugar

2 oz Butter

Vanilla essence

1 Tbsp Desiccated coconut

The flour and baking powder are sieved into a bowl and the coconut is mixed in.

Whisk the eggs and sugar in a separate bowl until they are thick and creamy (this takes about 3 minutes with a good mixer). Then the warmed melted margarine goes into the egg mixture with around 2 tablespoons of milk and your flour mixture.  I mixed this gently so as not to disturb my frothy egg mixture, and keep the mixture light.

Pour your mixture into a greased and lined cake tin (sandwich size if you have one) and bake at 190C for 10-15 minutes.

Now comes the patience test…make sure it is cooled on a rack before cutting horizontally in half through the middle and spread it with the creamy coconut filling.

The filling is super easy, just beat the butter and icing sugar into a creamy mix and add the coconut and few drops of vanilla essence  (I love coconut so much I doubled the amount of this in the filling).

Pop your top half back on (the cake that is 😉) and spread the top with your favourite jam and go wild again with the desiccated coconut over the top.

This is such a lovely take on the traditional sponge and, if you are a lover of coconut like I am, you are in for a treat!

Enjoy this recipe lovely readers and I hope to see you back real soon for more delicious traditional recipes.

2022-06-07T17:54:27+12:007 June 2022|Bakes, Cakes, Kenwood, Vintage Kitchen|0 Comments

Kenwood Cookbook – Coconut Macaroons

This bake is a well loved goodie in our family, it can be found in many cookbooks and the vintage recipes are definitely the best.

Going back to my Kenwood Recipe Book c1960 I will be baking something both my grandmothers made time and time again.

Todays recipe is Coconut Macaroons, and if you are looking for something simple with minimal washing up then this recipe is for you.

Laid out on my bench is: 3 egg whites, 2 teaspoons flour, 8oz sugar, 8oz desiccated coconut, vanilla essence (approx 1/2tsp).

Starting off with separating my eggs I beat the whites in my Kenwood mixer until stiff, (don’t throw the yolks away as I have the most delicious recipe using only the yolks – Let me know below if you would like this), lowered the speed to 2/3 and put in my flour. Next to go in was the sugar and I whisked that until it was glossy. Lastly I folded in the vanilla essence and coconut with a spatula.

You will have a lovely bowl of coconut gloss now, I used a paper lined tray for my baking so that I didn’t risk any sticking. I will need to head down to invest in some silicone sheets soon, with all this baking going on.

Drop spoonfuls onto your baking sheet and bake in a fan bake oven at around 160C or just below 180C if you are not using the fan, for around 25 minutes.

I got two trays of pretty decent sized golden macaroons, they have the right amount of crunch on the outside with a lovely chewy coconutty centre.

Hope you enjoyed this quick and easy bake, don’t forget to like and leave a comment if you would like my egg yolk only cake recipe.

2022-04-01T12:32:39+13:001 April 2022|Bakes, Biscuits, Coconut, Kenwood|0 Comments

Mrs Beeton’s Adventures – Breads

Welcome back to my lovely readers, I thought I might go in a different direction this week, from my usual sweet bakes.

I don’t think you could find many out there that don’t love one of these delicious beauties heated with butter and lashings of golden syrup. Yes today I’m heading into the wonderful world of the golden crumpet!

The glorious crumpet is said to have originated in Wales and the earliest recipe was written way back in 1769. Originally cooked on a iron griddle pan over an open fire, which you will be relieved to know I won’t be attempting today. 😁 No need to ring the fire brigade, lol.

I started out with a quart of milk warmed, this is rather a lot so make sure you have plenty left over for your accompanying cuppa. A quart is equal to 4 cups or 1 litre of liquid. I then added 1/2tsp of salt and 1 1/2 ounces of yeast and stirred that up to froth. This recipe doesn’t actually give any quantities other than the milk so I used a bit of previous knowledge of breads and a bit of good luck.

When adding the flour you need to make sure the dough is more like a batter than a dough, so more on the pouring scale. Then I exercised a bit of patience, yes I know, I’m learning. 😁 Leaving it to sit for at least half an hour to rise and get all ‘bubbly’ (the technical term).

Now make sure you have more than one crumpet ring or you will be stood at the cooktop until your legs give way (gained from experience 😁). Spray oil is a fantastic invention to grease the rings before filling with batter, making them much easier to remove.

I cooked them in a hot pan until they were golden on both sides. When you flip over with a spatula you may get some oosing of batter, no problem, just push the ring down and this gets chopped off so they are all evenly round.

If you manage to wait until they are all cooked you can heat or toast them, or you can eat them deliciously hot off the stovetop with a cute little butter pat and some golden or maple syrup.

Please don’t forget to let me know how you get on with your crumpet adventure and don’t forget to tune in for more Mrs Beeton’s adventures!

 

2022-03-23T13:13:38+13:0023 March 2022|Bakes, Breads, History, Mrs Beeton's Cookbook, Vintage Kitchen|0 Comments

Mrs Beeton’s Adventure Dessert Biscuits

These dessert biscuits are fantastic for Holiday treats in the lead up to Christmas!

 

Halloween is over and I am definitely one of those Christmas fanatics – so bear with me here.

My latest bake is a lovely soft biscuit with a outside crunch and as Mrs Beeton says “With whatever the preparation is flavoured, so are the biscuits called, and an endless variety can be made in this manner”.  So go with whatever flavour your little heart desires – today I chose ground ginger to add to my biscuit batter to get everyone in the Christmas spirit.

As per the usual routine I started off with my ingredients set out ready to go.  The recipe needs; 1 lb Flour, 1/2lb Butter, 1/2lb Sifted Sugar, the Yolks of 6 eggs and flavouring to taste.  If your mind is blank as to options for flavouring here are some ideas – Cinnamon, Lemon zest, Currants, Ground ginger, Cocoa powder…let your imagination soar.  If you are feeling fancy, make half and half different flavours!

Soften your 225g (Yeah I know, it’s a lot!) of Butter and beat it vigorously until it resembles cream instead of butter.  I used my mixer for this so as not to wear out my arms this early in the bake, haha.  Then I added in the flour “by degrees”, which is just really a posh way of saying ‘a bit at a time’ until it is mixed in.  Then in went the icing sugar and the flavouring, and followed up by your lovely egg yolks (previously beaten until light and frothy).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your mixture will end up a soft dough, but still be able to be moulded with your hands into tablespoonful balls.  This mixture made 5 trays of cookies, but you can reuse your trays after removing the cooked biscuits if you don’t have a neverending supply of cookie trays.  Grease and flour, or line them with baking paper – the reusable type is a fantastic save for the environment, it may be more expensive to start with, but in the long run it is worth it.

The cookies need to go into a ‘slow oven’ for around 15 minutes, making sure they don’t gain too much colour (don’t burn them – it does not add to the flavour, haha).  I put my oven at around 160 degrees Celsius and this worked well.

The average cost back in the day was apparently 1s, 6d to make these and you will get around 4 dozen biscuits out of the one dough.  This is why it is such a fantastic recipe to make and gift for Christmas, or pop it on the table to let the gannets help themselves as my family did.  I started out with 52 and now have one plateful left, that’s how moreish they are.  I think they would look super cool decorated with some red or white royal icing and a cherry on top.

I hope you enjoyed this bake and I hope you come back to visit me again soon.  I am over the moon with this fabulous new website and have to credit Yellow Banana Design for all their hard work.  Remember if you are a fan of YouTube also this recipe will be up to view on there very soon under Sweet Sensations NZ.

 

 

 

2021-11-10T09:04:39+13:009 November 2021|Bakes, Biscuits, Makes, Mrs Beeton's Cookbook, Vintage Kitchen, Xmas|0 Comments
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