Duck Egg Sponge Cake

I was given a dish of duck eggs and decided to take the opportunity to try them out in some baking.  I had heard that they make wonderful sponge cake.

My mother used to love duck eggs and would eagerly seek them out, although she preferred to eat hers fried.

The first surprise I got was when I cracked the shell open, though I shouldn't have been surprised really, had I given it more thought.   The shell was almost bouncy and felt exactly as I had always imagined a turtle egg, more tough parchment than shell.

The second surprise was the smell, completely unlike that of our own hens' eggs.   Obviously they were larger, too.    The yolk was the same colour as the rich yolks which our girls produce on their diet of free-range pecking, hen food, grain and spinach (which they adore).

I followed a very basic recipe for a Victoria Sponge cake but baked it for longer as the resulting batter was rather greater in volume.

Once cooled, I sandwiched it together with some strawberry conserve which I made last week.

The sponge was so different from a regular sponge.  Definitely fluffier, very moist, and something I cannot quite explain.  Max loves it.   It has become his new favourite cake, but then Max really likes cake.

So that is teatime sorted out.

Home grown strawberries made into strawberry conserve and freeby eggs made into a moist and delicious cake.   Simple, delicious, frugal, low food miles.  Shame about the calories!
xx

The Village Show

It is that time of year again.    Time for the Little Bunting Village Show.   Last year we were told that there wouldn't be another show.    Not many people paid attention.

Until now.  I have written a post about it on Felicity at Parsonage Cottage.

Suddenly things have changed, a show is to be organised (in 4 short weeks) for the middle of August.   Eeeek! on all fronts.   Shall we be able to pull this off, can we possibly achieve in 4 weeks that which normally takes at least a six month run-up?

Of course we can, although it may not quite be as slick as the normal production.

It does mean that I shall have to hand back my 'Best in Show' for cookery, plaque.  Dash it!

On the plus side, it means that we all get to try again and share some laughter along the way.

Long live the Village Show!

Tried and tested or new bread recipes need to be perfected.

Scones was always a hotly contested class, although I don't think they used that category last year, which is a shame.

Cakes, cordials, jams and biscuits - and let's not forget the flowers and produce, arts and crafts, photography.

Fun for all.

Hard work for a few.
x

A Birthday Cake for Max

Last week I bought a punnet of gooseberries then quite forgot about them until this afternoon when I found them in the back of the salad drawer.    Mmmmn.   Well we have been busy working down at Cowslip Cottage, trying to get it finished in time for the return of Miles and Poppy, our son and daughter in law.    They fly in from Shanghai next week, along with their beautiful cat, Boy.

He is an indoor cat so once he gets used to being in England and living in Cowslip Cottage, he is going to enjoy watching these handsome animals in the parkland beyond the back gate.

He'll also enjoy watching the rabbits, squirrels and birds which visit the gardens.    Life is about to become very exciting for him.

Back to the gooseberries.   I decided to experiment, after all, Max loves the rhubarb and custard cakes which I made earlier in the year, so i reckoned it was worth swapping out the rhubarb for the equally tart gooseberries.

I originally posted about the rhubarb and custard cake here just substitute gooseberries for rhubarb.

I made it in the same way, baked it for the same amount of time, and then let it cool in the tin.   By the time Max came home from the cottage it had cooled and was ready to serve, with a scoop of really good vanilla ice cream, although it would work equally well with a drizzle of cream, creme fraiche, Greek yogurt or yet more custard.

It was declared a total success.    I'm delighted, that is puddings sorted out for this week.


Happy Birthday Max!
xxx

Leftovers

Earlier in the week, after my baking session, I found that I had a decent chunk of pastry leftover so I decided to rustle up a savoury flan/tart for lunch.    

The choice of a savoury filling was something of an experiment for me, because the potato pastry mixture was slightly sweetened with a little sugar.  (ie leftover from the Apricot, Raspberry and Potato Tart which I posted about previously.)

I hesitated for a moment, but then decided that if I added some sharp cheese to the custard mix, it could work, in the way which fruit cake and cheese work together.   I crossed my fingers.

I used a deep pie dish of about 7 inches  diameter, simply because that was to hand and I had enough pastry to cover it.   I baked it blind for 15 minutes while I prepared the filling.

Two field mushrooms were roughly chopped and sauted in butter, along with a couple of sliced spring onions and some snipped chives.  I set them aside to cool while I made the custard.

There are lots of 'rules' about what proportions of egg, cream and milk to use, what should and what should not be put in, none of which I follow.   I just made the custard in the way which my family like eating it.

I used 3 eggs, approx 12 fl oz of milk, a good handful of grated Wensleydale cheese and a generous pinch of good old English mustard powder.   (Max hates English mustard, so I keep that little secret to myself, but I think it adds a little extra to the taste.)   Just whisk them all together.

Place your sauteed vegetables into the pastry case, pour on the custard, sprinkle with a few more chopped chives  and bake  at 180C for about 40 minutes.

I could hardly wait to try this.   Would the pastry be too sweet and overwhelm the rest of the dish?

However, it turned out to be very flavoursome and the very slightly sweetened potato pastry worked really well with the savoury filling.  

I would definitely make this again, the mix of sharp cheese and ever-so-slightly sweet pastry worked well.

Apricot, Raspberry and Potato Tart

The pastry is made with mashed and sieved potato, so is the topping.   Both taste wonderful, have a great texture, and do not taste of potato.

A pastry base, raspberry filling and a sponge topping with apricots and ground almonds.  Scrumptious and very easy.    Can you tell that I am still enjoying my small forays into the use of vegetables in sweet dishes?

My real life is filled from morning to afternoon with cottage renovations;  in less than three weeks Miles, Poppy and the cat will be home from China and living in their cottage.    

Playing about with these old recipes is how I choose to relax - Max enjoys eating the fruits of my labour.

Potato Pastry

12oz plain flour
3oz butter
3oz vegetable fat or lard if you prefer
6oz potatoes mashed and sieved
30g caster sugar


Raspberry Jam (or any flavour you prefer)
Pre-soaked apricots, soft and moist - as many or as few as you like

Sponge Topping

3oz mashed and sieved potatoes
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
3 medium eggs
1 tsp almond extract
4oz sr flour
3oz ground almonds
Milk if required to give a good consistency - you could also add the grated rind of a lemon for a little extra zip.


Make the pastry by mixing all the ingredients together, no liquid required.  You could use a food processor, a fork, or my favourite implement, no idea what it is called, it has a wooden handle and several sharp and mean blades to cut through the fat.

Merry's favourite is the flour shaker...

Roll out the pastry and line a 10 inch flan tin.  I used my perforated flan tin, so need to bake blind, otherwise I would suggest baking it blind for 10-15 minutes.

Spread the pastry base with jam and then add the soft apricots.

Cream the potato, butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy and then gradually beat in the eggs and almond extract.  Gently fold in the flour and ground almonds, add a couple of tablespoons of milk if necessary.

Spread the mixture on top of the jam and apricots, smooth the top.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes at 200 degrees C/400 degrees F or until golden brown.

Delicious eaten hot or cold, served with cream, custard or ice cream.

I had some pastry leftover, I'll tell you what I made with it next time - and for once it wasn't a sweet dish, despite the sugar in the pastry mixture.

A Chip Butty Loaf

I haven't had much time for baking, although I have had time to write down a list of things I would like to have a go at.  

Some of it is weather-dependent.  
The flowers I require should be gathered dry and in the sunshine.   I live on the east coast of Lincolnshire where the weather has been far from summery and sunshiney.   Right now it is very cold, grey and breezy.   Darn it.
 

I was stuck at home, waiting for a parcel to be delivered so I decided to have a go at making a recipe which I had seen in a Dan Lepard book.    (Despite my definite preference for browsing around and playing about with the recipes from my old books, I do own quite a few modern ones.)

The recipe was for Flash Bread, or Bread in a Flash - something like that.  It can be found in Dan's book, Short and Sweet.     It took about 2 hours from start to finish and was very easy.

What I loved about it was that the recipe called for malt vinegar and grated potato...need I say more, you know how much I enjoy using vegetables in my baking.      I have a wide range of vinegars in the pantry but I used bog-standard malt vinegar.

The resulting loaf had a wonderfully crisp crust.    The bread itself was moist and delicious.  I can't say that it really tasted of potato and vinegar, for it didn't, although the flavour was excellent for such a quick loaf.

I had a good slice of it decently slathered in butter and it was really tasty.   It didn't taste of potato, nor did it smell of vinegar.  

However, my brain kept feeding me images of chip butties (years since I had one of those, perhaps it is time for another) so perhaps you wouldn't want to eat it with jam or lemon curd on top, but served with butter or cheese, or perhaps with soup, it really adds flavour in a subtle way.

I will be making it again, it was quick, easy and tasty.

Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies with a Victorian Flavour

These biscuits won't win any prizes for their beauty, that is for sure.

However, one bite reveals their inner beauty - a wonderful combination of dark chocolate, lemon zest and spice, all wrapped up in a crumbly and delicious, chocolate chip studded cookie.

I was out walking the dog (of course!) when I had the idea for using that fabulous flavour combination which I wrote about here to spice up my next batch of cookies, for the people who are working down at Cowslip Cottage.

This quantity makes an enormous batch, so you may want to halve the quantities, although they should store pretty well, given the chance.

Rich, Spicy, Chocolate Chip Cookies        Oven Temp 350 degrees

400g butter
50g good quality dark chocolate, melted
250g icing sugar
450g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
50g good quality cocoa powder
600g chocolate chips
freshly grated zest of a lemon
1 rounded tsp cinnamon

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the melted chocolate, sift in flour, salt, cocoa powder and cinnamon and then stir in the lemon zest and chocolate chips.  Treat the dough just as you would do for shortbread, work until it all comes together in a nice lump.

Take a dessertspoonful of dough, roll into a ball, place on a baking sheet, flatten, mark with a fork and then pop them into the oven for approximately 15 minutes.

Cool on a rack.

I hope you enjoy the flavour combination as much as my family do.   The cinnamon is not overpowering and the lemon zest simply becomes 'citrus' which works so wonderfully well with the rich, dark chocolate.

They are good.