Baking with The Great British Bake Off Season 7!

Raspberry and Rhubarb Drizzle Cake

     I have been obsessed with trying recipes from The Great British Bake Off after we saw all of the delicious drama unfold on the BBC during our last trip to England in September. As usual, watching every episode made me wish very much for some dessert, but unfortunately on our trip we had no kitchen, so the only thing to do was to wait until we got home to try my favorites! There were many techniques, flavors and pastries that I had never tried before, so there were many adventures to be had.

     One recipe that caught my eye was the Raspberry and Rhubarb Drizzle Cake with Custard, made by Candice for the drizzle cake signature challenge during cake week (week one). I mean, really, raspberry and rhubarb – with custard? How could I not try it?

You can find the recipe here.

     The outcome of my attempt was not worthy to be seen by Mary Berry and especially Paul Hollywood, but I was pleased with the taste. It is made with ground pistachios, almonds and polenta so it will be gluten free and very moist – but the batter was very moist – so moist that my cake rather fell apart during the transfer from pan to plate. I'm not sure why. I was still getting used to our new oven, so perhaps it needed to bake a little longer. The pan also might have needed a bit more greasing before I poured the batter in. I used a slightly larger bundt pan than the one Candice used on the show, so the batter only came to about 1 1/2 inches below the edge of the pan. I don't think this affected the baking (if anything, it should have made the cake bake more quickly).

     It is nearly impossible to find fresh rhubarb in the stores at any time other than spring in California. Frozen rhubarb, however, does occasionally lurk in the freezer section! Sprouts is my source for the frozen stuff. I only had about two thirds of the rhubarb I needed for the recipe, but there was still a nice rhubarb flavor coming through, so if you find yourself short of this amazing ingredient, don't panic.

     As to the custard... I don't have a fabulous track record with making custard. For one thing, I always have to stand there stirring it over low heat on the stove for two to three times as long as the recipe says is necessary for it to thicken. This attempt was no exception. I always end up turning the heat almost to medium after about ten minutes, and so far I haven't burnt or seriously curdled any custard. It wasn't quite perfectly creamy, but it still had the delicious taste that custard should. I tell you so that you will not despair in your own custard attempts.

     The result was marvelously, fabulously beyond delicious! The tartness of the rhubarb with the mild sweetness of the custard may be one of the best flavor combinations ever attempted. I also liked the slightly grainier texture that the ground nuts added to the cake, especially because the cake is so moist with all of the fruit, custard and syrup. Because it is made of nuts the cake doesn't turn to mush in your mouth.

     I certainly wouldn't mind having an excuse to make this again, perhaps when we have fresh rhubarb in season. I'm always looking for an excuse to make rhubarb desserts! (Well, any dessert, really...)



© Anna Morton 2017

As American as Cherry Pie – or should I say British...

| Making my first cherry pie – a British one! |

     One of my latest baking adventures involved embarking on the creation of a cherry pie. I've never attempted one before, so I decided to consult the experts – which in my case is The Great British Bakeoff: How to Bake cookbook! And just as a British cherry pie seems a twist on it's usual American associations, this recipe gives us something just a little different. Instead of the usual flour, fat and water that you mix together and roll out, we get to have a bit more fun by adding almonds to the dough and grating it!

     Now, if you know much about British desserts you have probably heard of the Bakewell tart, that little pastry flavored by cherry and almond, which gives this recipe even more of a British connection. Then if on top of that fact you confess that you aren't the greatest fan of too much almond flavor, allow me to reassure you that this recipe is as delicious as any cherry pie imaginable – it is fresh, simple and bursting with the flavors of juicy cherries and a sweet crunchy crust!

     For the crust I simply threw everything into a food processor and pulsed it a few times:

• 250g all-purpose flour
• 50g ground almonds (I love the almond flour from Trader Joe's!)
• 175g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
• 100g sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons cream
• 1 tablespoon iced water

     Then you mold it into one big lump, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it. The recipe said to refrigerate it for half an hour, but I left mine in longer while I got distracted doing other things, and it hardened into a nice solid piece, which turned out to be easier to grate than it would have been after only half an hour.

     I have to say, grating crust is not necessarily easier than rolling it out. The dough inevitably begins to soften in your hands so that by the end you're sort of squishing it through the grater. But then you don't have to deal with finding the space to roll it out, or the dough sticking to the counter top, or the dough cracking when you lay it into the pie plate (off-centered, of course...). But I'll admit that the best thing about it – let's be honest – is that it's just fun do do!

     Basically you slice the lump of dough in half, grate the first half into the pie pan and squish it down with your fingers until it's in an even layer on the bottom and up the sides...

....then you put the filling in before taking the second half of the dough and grating it all over the top. Et vòila!

     It seems like quite a lot, but once it's all cooked it flattens out a bit and turns into a deliciously mild, sweet, nutty, crumbly pie crust that ought to be a part of more recipes. :)

The marvelous Warm Cherry Crumble Pie!

© Anna Morton 2016

My Evening with the Poldark Family

I'll take any excuse to dress up, so when I heard there would be a two hour finale of Poldark on Masterpiece last Sunday, I pulled out my cookbook with 18th century recipes and my Georgian dress out of my costume trunk to have a party with my fellow #PoldarkPBS Twitter fans.

These Sunday nights with Poldark with my fellow tweeters (is there an official title for people on Twitter?) have been immensely enjoyable, and getting two hours of Poldark family drama, complete with tears and smiles, plus an 18th century dessert eaten while wearing 18th century clothing meant that this particular Sunday could be no less than a memorable one.

My latest completed historical clothing project was a robe à la Polonnaise, and I have been looking for an excuse to wear it. What better occasion could there be than the season finale of the year's most popular period drama? It was not only for fun; I was also conducting an experiment to see just how comfortable (or uncomfortable) wearing this style of garment would actually be. I have had plenty of experience wearing Regency gowns and all that goes with them, and I consider them to be reasonably comfortable. But the Georgian style has always appeared to be a bit more confining in its fit. Happily, I discovered that this was not the case! It is quite maneuverable, along with being as reasonably comfortable as the attire of the Regency.

Trying to live like an 18th century lady. It's actually comfortable!

I think that personal experience with a particular historical style can really give a person a valuable understanding of what it was like to live way back when. History and so many of the people who lived it are gone forever, but it is possible to value them and learn from them, and one fairly easy way to do that is by dressing in their clothes and eating what they ate. Those two things especially give us insight into their lives because they are activities they did every day. They can tell us so much about humanity. That is the deeper reason that I take the time and effort to do historical reenacting.

Now on to the trivial reasons. Making the food is fun, and it is almost always delicious! I used a recipe from a book titled The Delectable Past by Esther B. Aresty. The book was a birthday present – one of my favorite kinds, too! It includes modern adaptations of recipes from the Roman times to late 19th century America. Someday soon I hope I get to try some of the Renaissance recipes! (Another excuse for a party...)

I chose my recipe from the chapter on 18th century England, of course, and since Poldark was on after dinner, I chose a dessert entitled Snowballs. The main ingredient might surprise you, as it is not coconut, icing sugar, meringue or even whipped cream – it is an apple. Yes, an apple peeled, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, covered with meringue, cored and filled with jam, and enveloped in pie crust. The end result was delicious! I cooked two apples for ten minutes at 450º, then for forty minutes at 375º, but they weren't quite done, so next time I would leave them in a bit longer. They also definitely need to be covered loosely for the last half of the baking time because the crust really begins to brown.

The finished product really looks quite impressive – especially if they are set in a silver dish atop grape leaves, if I say so myself.

My Snowball (apple) covered in meringue and cinnamon and sugar, and filled with jam.

The Snowballs just before entering the oven...

Vòila! They were rather like glorified mini apple pies.

Yours truly tweeting away about #PoldarkPBS.

The inside of the Snowball.

Enough about my efforts – the show was excellently done! The finale was executed in the same spirit of realist drama, idyllic cinematography, and complete emotional chaos. Poldark never allows you to relax. Something either life-changing or life-ruining is always around the corner for someone living on that rocky Cornish coast. I won't give any spoilers, but you can rest assured that the last episode of this series has lost no drama since that which hit us in the first! I would say it has either gotten worse or better, depending on your opinion of the style of a series that takes its viewers on an emotional roller coaster ride every week.

I myself do not like it when there is even a hint a show adds dramatic twists for no reason. If it tries to make itself interesting by doing so, it will almost certainly draw from me a bit of scorn and a move for the stop button. I say all that to make this point: Poldark is composed of legitimate drama. The story of Ross Poldark himself seems especially believable, and Aidan Turner inhabits the character so well. I almost forget that I am watching an actor!

Poldark may be a bit of an emotional roller coaster, but the realistic quality of the ride makes it all the more thrilling! Not to mention more of an inspiration for historical reenacting!



© 2015 Anna Morton

Throwback Thursday: My first Regency Party

The very first of my Regency parties was a dinner I gave in honor of myself and my twenty-first birthday, and what an adventure that was! I acquired The Jane Austen Cookbook and got completely carried away delving into the Regency world, making as authentic a menu as my knowledge permitted, complete with soup, a first course, a second course, dessert and tea. It was thrilling! And complicated.

My family and friends are indulgent enough to go along with my historic reproduction fancies, and took part in the celebration and the dozen or so dishes of food with a very satisfactory enthusiasm. Some of them even dressed up with me. I am pretty blessed.

We re-decorated the house as nearly as possible to the Regency style, putting up paintings everywhere which had been painted by my talented grandmother, making silhouettes, laying out old books, putting out lace doilies and lighting candles everywhere. We even had a folding screen to cover up the TV - those come in very handy for hiding things.

I tried to do everything properly, including written invitations. Plus, I got to use my wax and seal to close them up. :)

Our dinner invitations.

It is a little daunting trying to acquire enough china, glasses and silverware for everyone and for every course, not to mention the napkins and chairs. But thanks to the collecting nature of our family and the kindness of my dear friends, I was able to collect enough bowls, salad plates, dinner plates, goblets, dinner forks, dessert forks, dessert bowls, dessert plates, soup spoons, knives, tea cups and saucers for fifteen people, and squeeze them into our dining room.

Our Regency table set for dinner.

The menu went like this:

• We began with Swiss Soup Meagre, accompanied by Regent's Punch and Lady William's Muffins.
• The first course contained a roast Turkey breast and Jaune Mange.
• Followed by Jugged Steaks with Potatoes, Vegetable Pie, and A Receipt for Pudding, accompanied by sparkling Pomegranate juice.
• Then came dessert: Ice cream, plums, tangerines, dried cranberries, toasted almonds and walnuts, with more Punch and Pomegranate juice.
• Lastly, we had tea, which included Mrs. Perrot's Pound Cake, black and herbal teas, and coffee.

Our soup course with Regent's Punch.

I could not follow each recipe exactly, especially since not all of the ingredients are available in the U.S., but nearly all of them can be made! The Jane Austen Cookbook makes these recipes very accessible, converting the original eighteenth century instructions and measurements into the sort our modern minds can understand. This book is a must-have for everyone who wants to recreate Jane Austen's world in their kitchen or on their dining table.

Every recipe was a success, too! One of our friends who came is still raving about the Vegetable Pie, and the Pound Cake recipe is one I continue use for even ordinary occasions.

The Soup is a cream-based recipe with greens, cucumbers, onions and herbs - a rather different sort of soup than 21st-century Americans are used to, but one which was enjoyed by each of us at the party, all the same. The Jaune Mange is a sort of orange-flavored gelatin poured in a mold. The pudding was fun to make because it is based on a poem written by Mrs. Austen. It's basically a bread pudding with currants, which give it a nice, subtle tartness.

If the Vicar you treat,

You must give him to eat,

A pudding to hit his affection;

And to make his repast

By the canon of taste,

Be the present receipt your direction. 

...

A Receipt for a Pudding, by Mrs. Austen 

The rest of the recipes are pretty self-expalantory. I attempted to build a pyramid with the fruit... I employed toothpicks to position the fruit, which barely worked, making my structure a bit unstable. It would have been more successful, I suppose, if I had made some sort of cone to put in the middle. But I didn't, and relied on the stability of a couple dozen round objects stacked upon each other. I wouldn't recommend this method if you want any peace of mind while watching it on the table, but I believe that it worked well enough for a first attempt. 

My attempt at a fruit pyramid...

The tea things were arranged in the "drawing room" (a.k.a. our living room), where I had wheeled in a round table (an unfamiliar object in our living room, unfortunately). After finishing dessert at the dining room table we did things properly by having the ladies withdraw into the drawing room while the men remained to talk about things like hunting and farming (or things like that). Once the men rejoined us, we gathered into three teams to play one of the Austen family's favorite parlor games. Each team is given the same group of several words, and must compose a poem that includes every one of those words. Our words were: flamingo, piano, pink, beach and twenty one (the theme of the words was about me...). I have the brilliant result of one team that I can now share:

Twenty pink flamingos standing on one leg each,

One lonely flamingo walking along the beach.

Twenty one hermit crabs dragging a piano from the sea,

The flamingos looking on with great curiosity!

One flamingo playing with intensity,

Twenty flamingos singing with great jubilee!

It was certainly entertaining hearing each of the results! So I can imagine how much fun the Austen family must have had, witty as they all were, sitting around in the evenings and laughing hysterically at each others' humorous creations. Oh, how I would love to have seen that!

A few of us young ladies graced the company with some performances on the piano, and we had a reading of one of Jane Austen's written prayers that my cousin kindly agreed to recite for us. It was night of suitably refined and edifying entertainment.

Above all other blessings Oh! God, for ourselves, and our fellow-creatures, we implore Thee to quicken our sense of thy Mercy in the redemption of the World, of the Value of that Holy Religion in which we have been brought up, that we may not, by our own neglect, throw away the salvation thou hast given us, nor be Christians only in name. Hear us Almighty God, for His sake who has redeemed us, and taught us thus to pray.

An Evening Prayer, by Jane Austen

Playing 'My Father's Favorite' :)

I opened some birthday gifts, and then it was time for tea, which meant the evening was coming to a close. But before we all completely dispersed, there were a few of us that were still up for dancing! So I turned on a YouTube video of 'Northanger Abbey' and we all attempted to imitate Henry and Catherine in the assembly rooms. My cousin and I had watched a few of the dancing scenes from the movies over and over and over again to figure out what in the world they were doing, which helped, but there are inevitably many moments of confusion and even more of laughter when a group of people are attempting to learn one of these dances... But we were having at least as much fun as it looks like Henrietta and Louisa are having during their impromptu dance in the 1995 adaptation of 'Persuasion'. :)

Our tea table.

Then it was time to return to the twenty-first century. That is never something I look forward to... Mostly because it means we have to clean up the monstrous mess in our kitchen. But it also makes me sad to leave a moment that seems closer to that amazing time in history than any moment  that I have had in my life before.

This experience definitely made me appreciate the need for household staff to smoothly pull off such an operation. What I would have given for a cook and a couple of maids! No one minded that I had to leave the room to bring in more food over and over again, causing long interruptions in between courses, and neither did I, but only because it was a new experience and we wouldn't know the difference. I'm sure Mrs. Norris would have been appalled...

Pretending to be back in time... Can I just live this way?

Reviving My Favorite Starbucks Drink

Of course I am drinking coffee at 11:00 at night, which nearly everyone, myself included, considers as not a very wise thing to do if you would like to sleep. But once I explain the circumstances, I think everyone will understand.

Five years ago Starbucks came out with a new drink: the Dark Chocolate Cherry Frappucino. For me it was love at first sip! Ah! It was so deliciously chocolately with a hint of something different and delectable. I bought as many of those as I could for two Springs running, since it was a seasonal drink, but in that third Spring, after checking the menu on every visit with disappointing results, I realized the DCCF was no more. It was a very sad moment for me.

Now, after three years of disappointment I have at last attempted to make this drink for myself! You may wonder why it took me so long, and honestly, so do I. But I have finally invested in some Toriani cherry syrup and my life is now complete. ;)

So, I am drinking coffee at 11:00 pm because it is a dark chocolate cherry Frappucino!

And I shall share the recipe with you:


Lady Anna's Dark Chocolate Cherry Frappucino

Serves 1

• 3/4 cup of milk
• 1 tablespoon of heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• a couple shakes of stevia
• 1 1/2 cups of ice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 pumps of cherry syrup
• 3/4 cup double strength coffee (two spoonfuls)

1. Brew the coffee and chill it until it reaches room temperature. (It takes about 10-15 minutes when I stick it in the freezer.)
2. Mix all the ingredients in whatever blender you're using, and voila!

It's fun to experiment, so just have fun mixing in more or different ingredients. Chocolate syrup would make it a little sweeter, but the cocoa gives it a stronger chocolate taste to me. And sugar can be used instead of stevia - we're just a bunch of stevia nuts around my house. :)