Apple and ginger cake

There is already a recipe for Ginger Apple Topsy, way back when, on this blog, so my love of this particular combination is already on record.
This recipe however, will work just as well without the ginger, if you are not a fan.
                                         

When Storm Brian had blasted his way through our apple trees, I collected all the windfalls and, as many of them were somewhat bruised by their encounter with bully Brian, I needed to use them up quite quickly.
A significant number of them were simply washed and chopped and thrown into my largest pan, covered with water and simmered until really soft.
I then passed the whole sloppy panful through a cheesecloth and we enjoyed some deliciously fresh and fruity juice, leaving  behind a bowl full of apple pulp, along with some disconnected skins.
Normally, I would push this through a sieve, collecting any pips, cores and skins and creating the smoothest of smooth apple smoothiness... ie purée, not unlike Heinz baby food to be honest.
On this occasion, I didn't bother. I simply discarded any pips and blitzed the skin during the cake mixing process.  HOWEVER, if you are planning on making this cake by hand, rather than in a processor, I strongly recommend some sieve action or a quick blitz with a stick blender before you use the fruit pulp.

120g butter
120g brown sugar
120g apple pulp or purée
25g crystallised ginger, optional
1 dessertspoon golden syrup
2 eggs
120g rye flour

Pre-heat the oven to 175ºC
Chop the crystallised ginger into pretty small pieces and put into a food processor with the butter, brown sugar and syrup.  Mix until much lighter in colour and thoroughly well blended.
Add the eggs and apple pulp and mix well.
Add the flour and process until just incorporated into the mix - do not over beat at this stage.
Grease a 9" Savarin ring and dust with flour.  Tip out any excess.
Spoon the mixture into the ring and spread out evenly.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes.  The cake is ready when it springs back to the touch or a skewer inserted into the centre of the mix comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
We ate this "au naturel", but I reckon that a drizzle of lemon glacé icing might make a nice finishing touch, if you're showing off.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2017 ©

Launching our new baking sheet

At the Ludlow Food Festival in September (2017), we met up again with Val Stones, a star of the 2016 Great British Bake off series and well on her way to becoming a national treasure.

Val has more energy than most hyperactive 5 year olds and as well as all her fantastic baking, she devotes a great deal of time to charity fund raising.  As I write this, she has just come back from walking an arduous section of the Great Wall of China in aid of NSPCC and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust

She posted some wonderful clips on her Instagram feed, please take the time to go and have a look.

But back to Ludlow.... we had a chat about a product that Val wanted and couldn't find; a decent, heavy duty baking sheet with a sensible lip at the front to help lift it our of the oven.
Never one to shy away from a challenge, our creative genius knocked up a sketch, confirmed that it was what she had in mind and hey presto, a new product is added to the range.
The prototype went to Val, after a brief sojourn in the Netherton kitchen to put it to the test.

                                    

I made a batch of shortbread biscuits, which lasted as long as snowfall in summer and Val did a more rigorous like for like test, baking scones on her old baking sheet and her new Netherton one.  you can see her results on Instagram.

Delighted to report that the Netherton baking sheet passed with flying colours - send the creative genius to the top of the class and give him a gold star.

The heavy duty baking sheet is now in production.
What's more, for every one sold £2.00 will be donated to the MS Society, £1.00 by us and £1.00 by Val.

So what better excuse to spend a wet and windy Saturday in a warm kitchen, creating lovely new baking recipes for our lovely new product.

Here's the first one.

Beetroot scones
8 oz self raising flour
2 oz butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp caraway seeds
½ tsp celery salt
1 medium size cooked beetroot, peeled and grated
1 tblsp natural yogurt
Milk - approx 2 tblsp.

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC 
Place the baking tray in the oven to warm - this is a trick I learned from Val.  If the tray is warm when you put the scones on to it, they start to rise straight away and you get a great bake.

Put the flour, butter, salt, celery salt, caraway seeds and beetroot in a food processor and mix until it all resemble pink breadcrumbs.  Alternatively, put all those ingredients, except the beetroot into a large bowl and rub the fat into the flour until you reach the same stage, then stir in the beetroot.

Add the yogurt and just enough milk to bring it together into a stiff dough.

Roll out on a floured surface to around ½" thick and cut into 9 or 12 scones, dependent on the size of your cutter.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place the scones directly on to it - no need to grease or line it.
Pop them back in the oven for approximately 20 minutes.

Take them out of the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.
Serve warm.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2017  ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Middle Eastern influences

Dates seem to fall into the Marmite category - you either love them or hate them, few people can take or leave them.
OH is particularly fond of them and we can always rely on his mother to keep us stocked up with these sticky delights.

They are great for snacking on, although I am not so thrilled that sticky fingerprints remain very much a thing in our house, despite there no longer being any toddlers around.

But they offer so much more potential than simply a biscuit substitute.
Much loved throughout the Middle East, dates find their way into a wide range of sweet and savoury dishes and, closer to home, are an integral part of a true sticky toffee pudding.

This tart brings together a number of Middle Eastern flavours and textures into a tart (galette?) which can either be eaten as a dessert, with Greek yogurt, or simply with a cup of strong, black coffee.

Pastry
150g self raising flour

100g cold butter

50g icing sugar

1 egg

Milk

Chop the butter into small cubes and add to the flour and icing sugar.  You can either pulse this mixture in a food processor or rub the butter into the flour by hand until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the egg and just enough milk to bring the whole mix together into a stiff dough.
Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for an hour

200g chopped dates, soaked for 20 minutes in just enough boiling water to cover and then blitzed to a coarse purée

100g chopped walnuts

2 level dessertspoons tahini

2 level dessertspoons set honey

Splash of orange blossom water

2 tsp sesame seeds

A little melted butter

Sugar  

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC

In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the date purée, walnuts, tahini, honey and orange blossom water.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out into a circle approximately 32 cm in diameter.

Lay the pastry onto a baking tray, if you are using one of ours, you will not need to grease it.

Use the 12" serving and baking tray, as shown below, one of the griddle plates or the heavy duty baking sheet we designed with Val Stones, star of the Great British Bake Off 2016.

And make a special note - every time we sell one of these baking sheets, we will donate £2 to the MS Society, Val's designated charity.

Spread the date filling over the pastry to within 2.5cm from the outer edge.

Fold in the outer edge of the pastry, but leave some of the filling exposed.

Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle the sesame seeds over the exposed filling. Brush the pastry with melted butter and scatter on a generous sprinkling of caster sugar.

Return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

Serve at room temperature.

Netherton Foundry 2017 ©

www.netherton-foudnry.co.uk

The voluptuousness of figs

Indifference is not a word you can associate with a fig. The take it or leave crowd are not at home to receive this luscious offering, it's more of a Marmite than a national treasure.  We are divided in the Netherton household; one half of us love them and the other half would rather they didn't exist.

From the smooth, purple suede-like skin to the sensual magenta flesh there is something utterly shameless about a fig.
Favouring many partners, from Parma ham, to lamb, blue cheese and goat's cheese, the fig is truly a slut of a fruit.

This recipe, designed to show off our blini pans and made in small quantities for the fig lovers here, pairs them with honey, thyme and walnuts, with a splash of red wine to add to the wantoness.

4 figs
1 tablespoon runny honey
4 small sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoons of red wine

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC
Make a cross cut in the figs, without going through to the base.
Place the figs in a 1lb loaf tin or an oven proof dish.  Place a sprig of thyme in the centre of each fig, drizzle over the honey and add the red wine to the tin.
Place in the oven and roast the figs for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and set aside...... leave the oven switched on.

2oz butter
2oz sugar
2oz self raising flour
A handful of walnuts
1 egg
Grated zest of half an orange

Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together until very light in colour.
Place a tablespoon of the flour into a mortar, add the walnuts and grind coarsely.
Beat the egg into the creamed butter mix and then fold in the flour and the crushed walnuts.

Lightly grease 2 blini pans -  if you haven't got blini pans, use Yorkshire pudding trays.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the pans.  Gently press 2 of the roasted figs into each tin and pour over the gooey wine syrup from the roasting tin.  You can scatter on some chopped walnuts and a few thyme leaves if you wish.

Place in the oven and cook for 15 - 20 minutes.
Leave to cool for around 10 minutes,then carefully remove from the pans, using a palette knife, and place them on a cooling rack.  
Serve at room temperature with a dollop of Greek yogurt.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2017 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Apples

Having been held responsible for the downfall of womankind, when Eve tempted Adam; hailed as the first superfood, an apple a day keeps the doctor away;  the ultimate scholarly bribe, an apple for the teacher and despite not being a native to these shores, the apple has a long and cherished place in our culture and is an intriguing indicator of how our relationship with food evolves.

The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale in Kent has over 2000 cultivars of fruit trees, many of which the majority of us will never have heard of, seen, let alone tasted.
There are cookers, eating apples and cider apples, each with their own characteristics and uses.  We have 3 old apple trees in the garden and I think they are Howgate Wonders, but I can't honestly say I am 100% sure of that.

There was a time, not too long ago, when the choice of apple available to the consumer shrank and shrank and those of you of a certain age will remember when English varieties were completely overwhelmed by the demand for the insipid French Golden Delicious apples.  The supermarkets' desire for uniform, pristine fruits led to a triumph of appearance over taste and our senses became dulled as a consequence.
Fortunately we have seen a revival in interest in flavour over looks and a genuine desire to protect, preserve and promote old varieties.  
Our stockist in Dulwich, Franklins Farm Shop has the best selection of apple varieties I have ever seen on sale in one place.  Well worth a visit if you are in that part of London, a taste of the countryside in town.
If you want a fascinating read about how a new/old variety of apple was found in a hedgerow not far from us, please take a look at this lovely read from a fascinating man, Ivan Rendall, who sadly died last year.  The Wychenford Wonder lives on in the hedgerow.

So many apples, so many recipes. Just a quick reference to my recently inherited copy of Mrs Beeton came up with several pages of recipes, including 3 for apple water and there have been countless recipes written since.  What's more it is the perfect partner for blackberries, plums, oranges, dried fruit, almonds, pork, sausages, cheese .....................

I have concluded that it is impossible to come up with a completely new recipe using apples, for me at least.

And what I am going to share with you is not even a recipe, as I haven't weighed out the ingredients, so you, clever reader, will just have to take this as it is intended; an inspiration to make your apple pies a bit differently once in a while.

Cook 2 large cooking apples in just enough water to stop them burning and carefully dry off as much liquid as you can.  You want a smooth puree.
Make enough sweet pastry to line a 10" prospector pan or a pie dish;  I use 8 ounces of flour, 4 ounces of butter, 2 ounces of icing sugar, 1 egg yolk (you will be using the white for the filling) and enough cold water to bind it together.
Any leftovers can be rolled out and baked as biscuits, then iced when cold.

Grease the prospector pan and line it with around ⅔ of the pastry and set the rest aside.
Blind bake for about 10 minutes at 180ºC and then remove from the oven.  Allow to cool and then spread the base with a thin layer of raspberry or damson jam.
Sprinkle over a thick layer of ground almonds.
Whisk the egg white with 2 ounces of sugar until it forms soft peaks.  Carefully fold this into your apple puree and spread this over the almonds.
Roll out the remaining ⅓ of the pastry and carefully lay this over the apple meringue mix.  Seal the edges.
Bake at 180ºC for 20 minutes.
Serve at room temperature.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2017 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk