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English Muffins
Posted by Rudy2 11/28/2001 5:25 am
1 cake or package yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded
1/4 cup melted shortening
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups flour
After kneading, place in greased bowl and let rise until
double.
Roll out to 3/4-inch thick.
Cut with 3-inch cutter.
Cover
circles and let rise until very light.
Bake on greased electric
skillet or at 375 degrees F in the oven.
English Battenberg Cake
Posted by Olga 9/22/02 1:51:17 pm
A two-colored sponge cake, baked in an oblong tin, usually
covered with almond paste; named in honor of the marriage of Queen
Victoria’s granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg, 1884.
An attractive sponge cake in a two-colored, checker-board
design, Battenberg Cake is usually iced with almond paste.
Make the
cake two days before you need it because it has to stand for at
least 48 hours before it is cut.
6 servings
1 cup (8 ounces) butter
1 cup castor sugar (extra fine white sugar, fruit sugar, or
take regular sugar and blend in blender until it
is fine)
2 cups SELF RISING flour (8 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 to 4 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons apricot jam
Almond Paste
1 cup confectioners’ (icing) sugar (4 ounces)
1/2 cup castor sugar (extra fine white sugar) (4 ounces)
1 1/3 cups ground almonds (8 ounces)
1 teaspoon lemon juice a few drops almond essence
1 egg, lightly beaten
Preheat the oven to fairly hot 375 degrees F (Gas Mark 5,
190C).
Prepare a 9 x 6-inch cake tin by cutting a piece of heavy
aluminum foil the exact length of the base, but 2 inches wider than
the width.
Fold a pleat in the middle so that the foil lies quite
flat on the bottom of the tin and the pleat stands up, forming a
wall which divides the tin into two oblongs of equal size.
With a wooden spoon, beat the butter and sugar in a medium-size
mixing bowl, until the mixture is very light and creamy.
Add the
eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition, along with 1
tablespoon of flour.
Stir well to mix.
Fold in the remaining flour and the vanilla essence.
Mix in a
little milk, if it is necessary, to make the batter of a
consistency that will drop easily off the spoon.
Pour half the cake
batter into one half of the prepared cake tin.
Mix the cocoa into the rest of the batter, add a spoonful of
milk, if necessary, and pour it into the other half of the tin.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
When the cake is cooked, set it
aside to cool.
While the cake is baking, make the almond paste.
Sift the icing
sugar and the castor sugar together into a medium-size mixing bowl.
Mix in the ground almonds.
Add the lemon juice, almond essence and
enough beaten egg to bind all the ingredients into a paste.
Sprinkle your working surface with a little icing sugar and put
the paste on it.
Knead the almond paste until it is smooth.
Be
careful not to over-knead as the paste will become oily.
Remove the cake from the tin.
Trim the two halves to equal size
and cut each in half lengthways.
Spread the side of one piece of
white cake with the apricot jam and place a brown piece next to it.
Spread jam on top of the two halves.
Repeat with the other two
halves of the cake, alternating the white and brown, and place on
top of the jam covered layer to form a checker-board pattern.
Press
gently together.
Spread the remaining jam over the top and the
sides of the cake.
On a lightly sugared board roll the almond paste into an oblong
large enough to encase the whole cake.
Wrap it round the cake,
trimming the edges to leave the ends of the uncovered.
Crimp the
top edges to make a border and, with a knife, score a criss-cross
pattern on the top.
Keep the cake in a tin with a tight fitting lid
for two days before serving.
Toad in the Hole (English Yorkshire Pudding with Pork
Sausages)
Yield: 2 to 3 servings
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound sausages
1/3 cup water
In a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in a blender,
blend flour, milk, eggs, salt and pepper for 5 seconds.
Turn off
the motor and with a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the
container.
Blend the batter for 20 seconds more, transfer it to a
bowl and let it stand, covered with plastic wrap, for one hour.
In a skillet, combine sausages, pierced lightly with a needle,
and water.
Bring the water to a boil over moderately high heat and
boil the sausages, turning them, until the water is evaporated.
Sauté the sausages, adding oil if necessary to keep
them from sticking, for 7 minutes or until they are golden
brown.
Transfer the sausages with a slotted spoon to a plate.
Pour 3
tablespoons of fat from the skillet into an 8-inch square baking
pan and heat the pan in a preheated 450 degree F oven for two
minutes.
Stir the batter, pouring about 1/4 of the mix into the hot dish,
being very careful.
Bake for two minutes, or until it is set.
Arrange the sausages on the batter, pour the remaining batter over
them and bake the mixture for 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to 375 degrees F and bake or 10 to 15 minutes more,
or until it is puffed and golden brown.
Serve the dish immediately
with hot English mustard, if desired.
Japonnaise Cakes
3 egg whites
6 ounces ground almonds
6 ounces caster sugar (fine granulated sugar)
A few drops of almond extract
Line a shallow baking sheet with oiled grease-proof paper or use
non-stick baking parchment.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Lightly stir in the ground
almonds, sugar and extract.
Spread the mixture in the baking tray
to a depth of 1/4 inch.
Bake until the mixture is almost set.
Remove from the oven and gently mark out rounds with a 1
1/2-inch cutter, making the marks as close as possible to each
other without overlapping.
Leave them in place and return the
baking sheet to the oven and bake until quite firm, golden and
crisp.
Remove from oven, and carefully remove the rounds to a wire
rack.
Return the trimmings to the oven for a short while so that they
become a darker gold.
When the trimmings are cold, crush them with
a rolling pin and reserve.
Spread half the cakes with coffee or
vanilla flavored butter icing and gently press the remaining
circles on top.
The butter icing will ooze out of the sides.
Spread
this around the edge of each cake, adding more if necessary, and
roll cakes in the reserved crumbs.
If desired, the tops can be
decorated with a blob of glace icing.
NOTE: Butter icing is made by beating confectioners’ sugar into
softened butter until the consistency is like thick cream, then
adding flavoring of choice.
The icing hardens as it sets.
Raspberry Cranachan (Raspberry Pudding – Scotland)
4 teaspoons medium oatmeal
4 teaspoons vanilla essence or Drambuie
10 fluid ounces double cream (chilled)
2 tablespoons castor sugar
8 ounces fresh raspberries
Mint leaves (to decorate)
Toast oatmeal lightly in a heavy skillet.
Whip vanilla essence (extract) and Drambuie until soft peaks
form, adding sugar slowly.
Fold oatmeal into cream with half of the
raspberries.
Decorate with remaining raspberry and mint.