I'll know that Newfoundland has really changed (for the worse) when you can go into a corner shop and not find date crumbles somewhere among the baked goods. This one classic dessert has lasted and lasted, despite the invasion of Jos Louis cakes, jam-jams and rice crispie squares. But they're even better when home-made. We started making them for church events here in Polwarth a few years ago and were amazed at how people loved them and asked for the recipe. So, here it is. It's another one from the Cream of the West cookbook, which I have blogged about before. Enjoy. Hope it brings back good memories. Filling: 2 cups dates (250g) 1 cup dark brown sugar (160g) 1 cup hot water (237 ml) (1 teaspoon lemon juice - optional - add after the mixture has cooled a bit) Combine and cook until dates are very soft - you may need to mash them a bit . Set aside to cool. Crumb:
1 1/2 cups flour (190g) 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (bicarb) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups oats (165g) (we use porridge oats rather than rolled oats) 1 cup dark brown sugar (160g) 3/4 cup butter (112g) Mix flour, soda, sugar and salt together. Cut in soft butter with a pastry blender or a long tined fork. Then add the oats (The original recipe says to add the butter last, but then you end up chopping up the oats more than I like. A compromise might be to add some of the oats, but keep some back to add after the butter's been mixed in and a nice crumbly mixture is formed.) Press half of the mixture into a greased 8 inch x 12 inch tin, or a 9x9 square one (I wouldn't line the tin. The best part of this is the crunchy edges and corners where the date filling oozes out and cooks on) We've also had good luck with a lakeland individual traybake tin for which we do sometimes use liners. Cover with the date mixture, then add the final crumble to the top. Bake at 375F / 190C for 25 minutes (a bit less for the small ones). Cut into squares while still warm.
Gingersnaps at the top; Snickerdoodles at the bottom
Gingersnaps
2 cups flour (280 gr)
1 tablespoon ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves (more?)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening (crisco/trex) (170 gr)
1 cup sugar (200 gr)
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses (treacle)* (85 gr)
Extra granulated sugar for rolling
Mix first 6 (dry) ingredients together in one bowl. In a second bowl cream shortening and sugar. Beat in egg and molasses. Add dry ingredients and blend well.
Form into small balls and roll in granulated sugar. Bake at 350 F on a greased or lined tray, 10-12 minutes until tops are rounded and crackly.
*my mother's tip: spray inside cup with oil before measuring the molasses
The two staple cookies of my childhood were recipes from my great-grandmother, whose family was of Dutch origin, which probably explains the snickerdoodles (another post for that recipe). These gingersnaps are similarly a New England version of the European - chewy not crisp, despite the name. We're making them today as a Mother's Day treat. Will try to get some UK measures up for the ingredients shortly.
This ia another one of those family favourites that I didn't really miss until I moved out. Then I had to learn how to make them on my own. I'll describe the ingredients first, then the process -- as seen in the animation -- which seems daunting until you do it for the first time.
First you need to buy some phyllo/filo pastry, and thaw it if its frozen. Although some supermarkets carry it, I'd buy it from a Middle Eastern shop. In Edinburgh, we usually go to Maqbouls near the central mosque. It never tastes quite as good as I remember, but most of the brands are okay. Lately we've been buying 'Theos' which is made in the UK, or some Turkish made versions. Then you need a good sized block of butter - most recipes call for unsalted. Make sure you also have a good pastry brush - not one that will lose bristles, or that's been used for bbq sauce. And a sharp knife. And a ramekin or glass measuring cup that can go in the microwave oven. Melt a good chunk of the better, and keep it ready. And make sure you have a clean baking tray ready.
My mother usually makes the filling with a combination of feta cheese and cottage cheese, but I now usually use the cartons of white cheese that are sold in halaal shops for the Middle Eastern market - mostly made in Denmark or Germany. The other main ingredient is spinach -- I use frozen spinach that has been thawed and drained. You can also steam or microwave fresh spinach, or saute it with onions. If it is whole spinach (fresh or frozen), make saure you chop it roughly. Either way make sure you squeeze all the excess liquid out. To the cheese, I add a small grated onion (or half), and an egg and some pepper. Some recipes call for nutmeg, but I don't think that's very authentic. Mix all these together with a fork. Proportions really don't matter too much, as long as its not too liquidy (pour off any excess).
So, now to the assembling. Take the filo out of the cardboard packaging and cut one section off - about 2.5 inches wide. Leave the rest in the plastic for now. Then carefully separate one strip of the pastry and lay it out at full length (as in the picture below). Make sure your hands and worksurface are dry. Immediately brush the strip of pastry with butter, then put a small spoonful of filling in the very bottom corner. The fold it into triangles. This is the bit that looks hard, but really is easy (see the video below).
After you've folded one strip up, brush its top with butter and pop it onto the baking tray. Then move quickly back to the pastry and repeat until you have a full tray to bake. They should bake in an oven around 200C, in about 10-12 minutes. They're done when they're golden brown. Let cool a little and eat. They freeze beautifully if you have any leftover. The one crucial thing to remember is to never let the pastry dry out - it will just crack into little bits. So you have to work quickly. But once you've done it, you'll see how easy it really is. And, after that, you can experiment with fillings. My mother used to make an amazing version with various sorts of grated cheese, but we usually go for spinach, since the kids love them and it gets them an extra vegetable portion!
Update: had a request for a pic of the final product, but can't find one (we ate them). But, I did find this handy video, which I've uploaded to youtube.
Although it was a staple of our holiday table, when I was a child, I didn't much care for Cranberry-Orange Relish, preferring partridgeberry jelly (aka low-bush cranberry, lingonsylt, preiselbeeren). As an adult though, I've come to love the tart contrast with roast turkey and game. It was always a production to make - my mother would get out our old-fashioned food-grinder that was screwed on to the table top, and the whole family would join in the hard work. Just after I moved to the UK, Delia introduced cranberries over here, but everyone seemed to make jelly, which I find bland. Luckily, with cranberries now available in the shops, I was able to reinvent the family relish, despite not having the food-grinder.
It turns out that any sort of food-processor works just fine. For years, we used our immersion blender, but we now have a mini food-processor. The recipe is very simple - one bag cranberries (fresh or frozen) - pick over and take out any that are brown or very wrinkled. The proportions are rough, so don't worry too much about the size of bag. One average sized orange, washed and roughly chopped (peel, pith and all). In small batches, blend the cranberries and orange together until well chopped, but not pureed.
Then add 1 cup (200 gr) granulated or caster sugar (in volume terms, this is about 1 part sugar to two parts cranberries). Mix well, and let sit to macerate, then refrigerate.
Ideally, this is made a few days before it it needed to let the flavours blend, but at a pinch, even just a couple of hours will do.
Another Dan Lepard classic here. I've not changed much, except that I soak the cherries in aquavit or sacred gin (which is flavoured with botanicals, not juniper), and then use that to libate the loaf when it comes out of the oven.
100g unsalted butter 125g caster sugar Finely grated zest of an orange ½ tsp each ground cardamom, cinnamon and cloves ½ tsp salt 1 medium egg 150g quark cheese 325g plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 50g ground almonds 150g sour cherries 200g marzipan Rum (or other booze), melted butter and icing sugar
Beat the butter, sugar, zest, spices and salt until smooth, then beat in the egg and quark. Add the flour, baking powder, almonds and cherries, and mix to a soft, even dough. On a floured worktop, pat out to an oval roughly 20cm long x 15cm deep. Roll the marzipan 18cm long, and lay in the centre of the dough. Fold the dough in half and seal with water. Place on a tray lined with nonstick baking paper, and bake at 190C (170C fan-assisted)/375F/gas mark 5 for 40 minutes, until just golden and baked when a skewer is poked in. As soon as it's out, brush first with rum and then lots of melted butter. Once cold, brush with more butter, and dredge heavily with icing sugar. Wrap well and leave to mature for a week
This is my version of a Dan Lepard recipe that appeared in the newspaper the week after my daughter was born - Stir up Sunday as it is called in England. We'd never made a christmas pudding before, but it has now become family tradition. It's ideally suited to being at home with a baby because you just add all the ingredients gradually to a big bowl, then steam for ages - as long as you don't need to go out, you're fine. Nowadays I usually steam it in a slow cooker overnight, but above is a picture of last year's pudding on the stove top.
200g raisins 150g candied fruit peel 50 g dried or candied cherries
75g beef suet 200g dark brown muscovado sugar
100g treacle 125g brown bread crumbs 50g plain white flour ½ tsp baking powder 1 tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp grated nutmeg 2 eggs, beaten 50g grated carrot (about one medium carrot) Zest and juice of an orange
125ml dark ale
After mixing all the ingredients together, simply spoon into a buttered pudding basin, cover with parchment and foil, tie string around (or just use a plastic basin with lid), and steam for 4 hours, or over night in a slow cooker. The original recipe called for the wrong size bowl, and we've never figure out what size it is supposed to be. We usually make either two large puddings or 3 small ones.
Never having made a pudding before, the whole pudding basin, foil and string thing is definitely the worst bit for me - and worrying that I've done something wring and it will go mouldy. But every year it turns out just fine. A very forgiving cooking style.
My Dad took up baking after he retired. This is probably his best recipe - no idea where he found it. But we make it a lot (and can never find the recipe, which is why I'm posting it here).
It can be halved (use 2 eggs), or freeze leftover pancakes between small sheets of grease proof paper / baking parchment, and toast to reheat. The oats gives them more substance than most recipes and keeps them moist for re-heating.
This is the recipe pretty much as he gave it to me (caps and all). One of these days I'll try to get the ingredients translated into weights for the UK cooks. Update! The ever-amazing Alli Coyle suggests the following weights/metric volume for you to try (slightly adjusted by me). Thanks Alli!
OAT PANCAKES
1 1/2 CUPS porridge OATS 150g
2 CUPS MILK 500ml
1 CUP FLOUR (WHITE OR WHOLE WHEAT) 125g
2 TBSP BROWN SUGAR (OR WHITE)
2 TSP BAKING POWDER
3/4 TSP SALT (LESS)
3 EGGS
1/4 CUP OIL 60ml
---------------------------------------------------- Mix oats and milk in a small bowl; set aside for about 5 minutes.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Blend well.
Add eggs and oil to oats. Beat well.
Combine all and beat well,
Pour by 1/4 cupfuls on to heated griddle, cook and turn after bubbles have formed. (Make sure griddle is hot before starting.)
Press half of the mixture into a greased 8 inch x 12 inch tin, or a 9x9 square one (I wouldn't line the tin. The best part of this is the crunchy edges and corners where the date filling oozes out and cooks on) We've also had good luck with a lakeland individual traybake tin for which we do sometimes use liners. 
