custard creams...

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me". 

So said C.S.Lewis and while one small cup of tea a day is plenty for me, I do feel sad when a good book is finished. My real love will always be children's books, the feel of the paper, smell of the ink, the weight of a hardback in my hand, and the charm and colour of the illustrations.

There is nothing quite like a feast of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl or Edward Lear to keep me happy, except maybe my little people to read them to. A good book demands tea and the accompaniment of a proper biscuit. These are the most proper of all biscuits, the classic custard cream. They are great to make with children as they are so easy, quick and fun. They taste so much better than the packet ones and they are another way for me to use up the big canister of custard powder I have been left with after Aunty Angela's unexpected septuagenarian romance allowed me to purchase the wretched stuff. For those of you wondering, custard powder is basically just cornflour (cornstarch) and a touch of yellow food colouring and can be substituted for same.

Ingredients
Biscuit
100g butter
120g flour
50g caster sugar
2 tablespoons custard powder
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Filling
40g icing sugar
25g or two tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 teaspoons custard powder

Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Cream together the butter and sugar, sift in the flour and custard powder and bring together with the vanilla essence until a roll-able dough is formed. Alternatively combine all ingredients in a food processor, and then form the dough by hand.

Flour a surface and roll out dough to roughly 6mm thickness. Press your choice of cutter in to the dough, ensuring there is a duplicate of each shape you cut. Place shapes on a baking tray, greased and floured). Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Beat the icing sugar and vanilla together in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Sift the icing sugar and custard powder together and beat gradually into the butter, and then use to fill the custard creams once they are cool. Place a bit on the bottom of one biscuit, and sandwich with another on top. Once set the custard creams can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.

starry, starry nice

"Ah, Mrs. Corry. A story for you.


Your daughters was shorter than you.


But they grew."

My daughter has asked me if she could have some stars to eat - gosh! How fanciful of the child, I thought to myself. Alas, it became clear after a while that it was not a leap of imagination that had made her long for the stars - but those awful frosted 'Lucky Charms' adverts on TV that had done it. 

I find this type of cereal offensive for two reasons - One, there are so many lovely things to have for breakfast… Porridge with your choice of topping, muesli, yoghurt, fruit, a myriad of breads and pastries, eggs a dozen ways, pancakes, beautiful bacon or a nice bit of artisan pudding - why would anyone want a box of cardbord coated in sugar?

The other reason is, of course, that the character on the box is offensive to all Irish people, because none of the leprachauns that live near me look anything like him!

It did remind me, though, of a story I  read as a child 'Mary Poppins'. In the books, Mrs Corry and her two "great galumphing giraffes" of daughters Annie & Fannie, ran a bakery. Mrs Corry had exceptionally long fingers, made of sticks of barley-sugar which she would snap off and hand out as treats to the children who were visiting her shop. They sold pieces of " ... gingerbread so studded with gilt stars that the shop itself seemed to be faintly lit by them." At night and under the cover of darkness, all three Corry's would paste the gingerbread stars into the night sky." I loved that book and must have read it a dozen times. 

So, here is my recipe for gingerbread - stars from the night sky are entirely optional.

Gingerbread Recipe

Ingredients:

100g plain flour

100g wholemeal flour

50g soft brown sugar

50g sultanas 

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

A pinch of salt

100g butter 

2 tablespoons golden syrup

2 tablespoons treacle 

1 egg lightly beaten

150ml milk

Method:

Mix together the dry ingredients. Melt the butter with the syrup and treacle and stir into the dry ingredients with the egg and milk. Spoon into a greased and lined 18 cm/7 in cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 160ºC/325ºF for 1 hour until just springy to touch. Allow to cool a little and turn out to cool completely on a wire rack. This is the old style of ginger cake that will be much improved after keeping wrapped in an airtight container for 3 days to 1 week! Serve warm with custard or with toffee sauce - or go mad and serve with both!

Toffee Sauce

Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter

115g light muscovado sugar

140ml double cream

Method:

Put all the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has thickened and darkened in colour. 

To serve, cut the gingerbread into squares and pour or drizzle over the toffee sauce. Add stars to taste.