Fat Rascals

Fat Rascals - curiouser and curiouser!  Their origin is from Yorkshire, England but their history is somewhat obscure. Nonetheless, intrigued by the name I absolutely had to make them.  If you're a tad on the skinny side I'm sure these lovely biscuits will fatten you up in no time given the amount of lard in the recipe!  

Fat Rascals
450g plain flour
70g brown sugar
100g lard, chilled
125g unsalted butter, chilled
100g currants
150ml milk
Extra caster sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius (conventional).
Place the flour, sugar, lard and butter into a large bowl and mix together with your finger tips until it resembles bread crumbs.
Add the currants and enough milk to form a lovely soft dough.
Lightly flour your bench top and rolling pin and roll out until 1/4 inch thick.
Using a biscuit or scone cutter, cut out circles and place on a tray lined with parchment paper.  Sprinkle with the extra caster sugar and bake for about 12 minutes or until your gorgeous fat rascals are nice and golden.  Allow to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes then pop them onto a cooling rack.

Recipe adapted from Feast Magazine

Fancy Rose Geranium Dainties

Fancy Rose Geranium Dainties
Ingredients
195g pure icing sugar
75g plain flour
155g almond meal
2 eggs
180g unsalted butter, melted gently
6 drops rose geranium essence

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Grease a mini cupcake silicone mould in a fancy pattern with butter. Sift sugar, flour and almond meal into a bowl.  Make a well then add the egg, butter and essence. Combine.  Using a small palette knife fill the mini cupcake moulds with the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.   Allow to cool in the silicone moulds before removing.  Simply dust your fancy dainties with icing sugar or drizzle with lemon icing.  Tip: don't overfill the moulds, make sure the  batter is level. If the cakes start to brown but still aren't cooked place some kitchen towel on top.

Icing
The juice of lemon (gently warmed in the microwave) mixed with sufficient icing sugar to drizzle over these little dainties. 

Vintage Baking - Quince Honey from 1909 turns into Prince of Azerbaijan

It was a tad chilly this morning, minus 3 degrees celsius to be exact.  I could of easily pulled my duvet up over my head and had a bit of a sleep in but instead I decided to get up early and head off to the Farmer's market.  I giggled as I shut the front door as I'd managed to escape the house without the kids waking up.... woo hoo!   I don't often skip but today I did... all the way down our front path to the garage in fact.  Could I manage to get the car out and down the driveway without the piercing screams of little ogres?  You know, the ones that  magically turn into angels as soon as their heads hit the pillow.  My youngest gorgeous girl is watching me now as I type and as I read aloud word for word she starts to look at me in horror and starts to growl - oh no, I'm really scared as she looks like she's just about to turn into a werewolf!  Now, we're both in fits of giggles.  Where was I?  That's right, Quince Honey.  Sounds mysterious doesn't it. Quinces have been around forever and were plentiful at the market today so I bought a couple of kilos worth and decided to not only make a Quince Tagine for dinner and travel to Morocco (flying on the magic carpet under our dining room table of course) but to also attempt a vintage recipe that dates back to 1909 and earlier for Quince Honey.  Not one to always follow recipes I started out with this:

Quince Honey (1)
Ingredients. - 5 large quinces, 1 pint water, 5 lb. sugar.
Boil sugar and water well, then add the quinces, which have been grated. Boil 15 minutes.
Source: Home Cookery for Australia, Third Edition 1909

And, ended up with this:

Prince of Azerbaijan (Your genie in a Jar)
Ingredients. - 3 large quinces, 300 ml water, 1250 grams sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon Monin Rose Syrup, 4 drops rose essence, 1 pinch citric acid

Boil sugar and water until it becomes a thick, clear sugar syrup (about 15 minutes).  Cut, core and grate the quinces.  Add the quinces, lemon juice, lemon zest, rose syrup and essence to the sugar syrup. Boil uncovered for about 15-20 minutes then add the citric acid.  Stir to combine then bottle into sterilised jars. 

Prince of Azerbaijan is the magic genie in your pantry... whenever, you need something a bit exotic remember to reach for this and you'll instantly be transported to magical faraway places.  If you can't afford to travel at least we can pretend.

Vintage Baking - Cockles from 1912

Cockles
Quarter of a pound of flour, 1/4 lb. cornflour, 1/4 lb. sugar, 1/4 lb. butter, 1 small teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt.

Beat butter and sugar together; break in 2 eggs one by one; mix well, add other ingredients. 

Drop in small teaspoonfuls on a buttered tin, and bake in a quick oven.  Stick two together with jam.
Recipe from The Goulburn Cookery Book 1912 Edition

Tips and Conversions:
1/4 lb. equals 125 grams
Use 2 small eggs or 1 large egg (I used one large egg).
The mixture needs to be quite stiff.
Cook on 180 degrees celsius in a conventional oven for 15 minutes. 

I omitted the jam and flavoured my cockles with lavender and dusted them with icing sugar.

What started out as cockles, cockles by the sea shore ended up more like a walk in the English countryside picking narcissus.  As much as I love cockles, I think flowers look much prettier and I thought that it would be lovely for my gorgeous girls to open up their school lunch box tomorrow to find cute edible flowers that tasted of lavender.  I used a mini silicone narcissus cup cake mould.  For this recipe, small teaspoonfuls of batter should be put onto a flat baking tray.  The mixture spreads and you end up with cake type biscuits that look like cockle shells.  They are sometimes sandwiched together with jam.  My gorgeous girls decided that they didn't want the jam, these cake type biscuits are perfect just the way they are!

Vintage Baking - Queen Cakes from 1912

 Queen Cakes is a recipe from 'The Goulburn Cookery Book'.  According to the Southern Tablelands History Matters website, The Goulburn Cookery Book was compiled by an Irish lady by the name of Mrs William Forster Rutledge of Gidleigh, Bungendore. She gave the copyright to the Church Society of the Anglican Diocese on 2nd October 1899, and for thirty years the cookbook brought in a steady income to Church funds, selling 205,000 copies in thirty editions.  By the thirty-sixth edition in 1936, the book had been reprinted almost every year with either 5,000 or 10,000 copies.  There were three more editions, the last in 1945.  I have the Twelth Edition from 1912. The pupils of the Goulburn Public School Cooking Class contributed several recipes, and three are from the National School of Cookery, London. 

Girls living in the country were brought up to manage a household and to be self-reliant.  There was much work to be done to provision a country house.  Milk from the dairy was set in flat open pans and skimmed for cream.  Butter was churned by hand, the surplus clarified and used for cooking.   

So lovely ladies apply your brightest red lipstick, pop on your tiara, a pretty dress and a retro apron and let's get baking.  I made my Queen cakes miniature size.  They look absolutely gorgeous when served up on a vintage plate for afternoon tea.  Guaranteed, when you eat one of these little darlings you'll feel like royalty!

Queen Cakes
Half a pound of flour, 1/2 lb. sugar, 6 oz. of butter, 1/2 lb. of currants, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 4 eggs, a little salt, 1 teaspoon brandy.

Beat the butter and the sugar to a light cream; add the yolks of the eggs; sift in flour and baking powder; add whites of eggs, beaten till stiff, add the currants.  

Blending the currants & stiff egg whites into the cake batter.

Put into buttered patty-tins and fill half full. Bake from 15 to 25 minutes, according to the heat of the oven.  These cakes are nicer if the baking powder is omitted; but in that case the mixture must be beaten for an hour.  The brandy may be omitted.

Ready to be popped into the oven.

As a six generation Australian, I am sooooo proud to say that I can still buy products in the supermarket that were around over a hundred years ago! 

White Wings Flour Australian Owned & Milled for Over 100 Years!

Since 1926 Sunbeam Australian Grown Currants

Australian Western Star Butter since late 1800's

Anchor Since 1854 Baking Powder Proudly Made in Australia

Now you may be wondering... mmmm, how much is half a pound or how much is 6 oz?  Worry no more as I've included conversions and tips below :)

Half a pound is equal to 250 grams
6 oz is equal to 180 grams

Tip:  I decided to make miniature Queen cakes so took the chance of omitting 2 eggs to obtain a stiffer cake batter.  Luckily, they turned out just perfect.  I cooked them at 170 degrees celsius in a conventional oven for 15 minutes. The only problem I had was trying to prevent my gorgeous girls from eating them before dusting them with icing sugar! 

Pink Rose Sugared Pistachios

If you really want to impress someone special why not try making some pretty pink rose sugared pistachios.

Here's what you need:

100g unsalted pistachios

100g caster sugar

20g water

red food colouring

2 drops rose essence

Place the sugar, food colouring, rose essence and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil.

When the syrup reaches 135 degrees celsius remove from the heat and add the pistachios.  Stir with a chopstick and pour onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper to cool.

Making the Rose Syrup

Raw Pistachios

Voila!

Fairy Floss Marshmallows (Guimauve Barbe à Papa)

   

Tomorrow is mother's day and my little gorgeous girl has organised a picnic hamper with baguettes, lemon and chocolate ganache tarts, elderflower cordial, fruit, cheese, nuts and crackers and more....   Since she's done all the hard work I thought that I'd make her some little Fairy Floss marshmallows - perfect little powder puffs for a little lady.  

Belvoir Elderflower Cordial

Little Lemon & Chocolate Tarts

GUIMAUVE BARBE à PAPA
Ingredients for the Bloom
21g powdered gelatine
fairy floss essence
75ml water

Ingredients for the Sugar Syrup
150ml of water
500g caster sugar
75g glucose syrup
pink food colouring

Ingredients for the Meringue
6 egg whites
25g extra caster sugar

Powder Puff Mix
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cornflour

1. Line a non-stick lamington tray with parchment paper and lightly spray with canola oil.
2. To make the bloom, place the gelatine, fairy floss essence and 75ml of water in a small bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes then gently heat in a small saucepan to dissolve the gelatine. Alternatively, if you're in a bit of a hurry and don't want an extra saucepan to wash just add the gelatine mix as is in Step 7.
3. Place 150ml water, sugar, glucose and food colouring in a medium saucepan.
4. Bring the sugar syrup to the boil until it reaches 130 degrees celsius.

5. Start whisking your egg whites when the sugar syrup reaches 120 degrees celsius. Add the extra 25g caster sugar when the egg whites become white and frothy.  Continue to whisk until well combined.

6. The meringue and the sugar syrup need to be ready at the same time.
7. When the sugar syrup is nearly ready add the gelatine mix and combine. Pour into the meringue in a slow steady stream.  Whisk on medium-high for 7-10 minutes until the mixture becomes thick, fluffy and glossy.

8.  Pour into the lamington tin and leave to set overnight.

9.  Cut the marshmallow into squares with an oiled knife.
10. Combine the confectioners sugar and cornflour and use this powder puff mix to coat the marshmallows.

11. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freeze them in little zip lock bags.
12. Perfect with a hot cup of tea or bubbly champagne.
Recipe adapted from Laduree 

We'll be eating our fairy floss marshmallows for afternoon tea with posh little cups filled with "T2 Rose by the Sea - a warming black tea blushing with floral blossoms of safflower, cornflower, lavender and red rose buds with citrusy freshness of orange.  Just gorgeous with rose buds and pretty petals bobbing around for our affection".