Viennese Whirls...

I recently decided to 'resurrect' these biscuits. They follow a family recipe of my aunt's and I'd not had them for years.

Forget Mr. Kipling's, and make your own very quickly and very easily. These are seriously simple, but so tasty.

• Preheat oven to 150°C
• In a food processor (or by hand) mix 6 oz butter and 2 oz icing sugar until creamy.
• Blend in 6 oz self raising flour and 2 oz custard powder.
• Spoon into small teaspoon-sized blobs onto a baking sheet and press down with a fork to flatten/pattern (or use a piping bag for a swirl if you'd prefer a true 'whirl').
• Bake for 10-15 minutes until slightly golden.
• Leave to cool for around half an hour.

Filling:
• Beat together butter and icing sugar (about a 1:4 ratio) until creamy.
• Spread generous blob of icing on a biscuit.
• Spoon a little jam onto the centre of that and sandwich another biscuit on top.
• To finish dust with a little icing sugar.

Notes:
• If you dont have custard powder you can also use a mixture of cornflour, vanilla essence and yellow colouring as this what custard powder is made from anyway.
• If the jam is quite sticky, blast it in the microwave for 10 seconds or so to loosen up.

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Bakewell Slices...

A classic cake slice, so much nicer when you make it yourself with the hint of real almonds, rather than the fake strong almond essence flavouring.


Pastry base:
(Requires 150g flour and 75g butter)
• Blend the butter and flour to the breadcrumb stage, then bind with a little cold water, milk or beaten egg, whichever you prefer. You can sweeten the pastry a little with some icing sugar if you like but it's not necessary.
• To keep things simple I pressed this dough mixture into 2 greased 20cm sandwich tins to approx 3mm thickness. You can of course roll it out and line the tin that way for slightly better results!
• Spread jam over the pastry and bake at 170°C for 5-10 minutes until it is beginning to harden slightly.
• Remove from the oven and cool in the tins.

Cake:
• Beat butter and sugar until creamed and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs and fold in the flour and ground almonds.
• Pour/spread over the jam tarts to no more than 1cm deep.
• Sprinkle flaked almonds over the top then bake at 170°C for 20-30 minutes until golden on top.
• Cool in the tins slightly then remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
• Mix the icing sugar with a little water until the consistency is just runny enough to drizzle over the tarts.

Notes:
• Makes 2 x 20cm tarts, 8-10 slices per tart. Could use a 22cm square tin or individual tarts.
• Raspberry or blackcurrant jam is best

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Strawberry & Blueberry Jam...

I’ve spent my whole life enjoying the smell of jam making in summer & autumn and then the taste of home-made jam through the rest of the year. However, until recently I’d been wary of making it as it seemed so complicated.

That’s not really the case, but you’ll need about 2 hours of clear time with no distractions to tackle this. It’s relatively simple really, you just have to keep an eye on it.

• De-stalk the strawberries and chop up.
• Put a saucer in the fridge to chill (1).
• Place the fruit and lemon juice in a large, heavy-based saucepan and simmer until lots of juice has formed and the fruit is softened.
• Remove from heat and stir in the sugar until fully dissolved.
• Return to a very gentle heat (2), gradually bringing to a rolling boil (5-10mins).
• Whilst boiling gently skim any scum from the top of the liquid.
• Taking note of the scum line on the edge of the pan, once you see a noticeable reduction in volume, begin testing whether the jam has reached setting point (1).
• When ready, transfer to sterilised jars, cover with a wax disc or greaseproof paper and leave to cool (3).

Notes:
(1) You use the cold plate to determine whether the jam has reached its setting point.
Place a little of the syrup on your cold saucer and return to the fridge for a minute.
Run your finger through the liquid, when you see a slightly creased skin the jam is ready to be jarred.

(2) Don’t rush this part of the process, If you boil it too quickly you’ll end up with jars of toffee.

(3) To sterilise jars wash with soapy water and then dry in a medium heat oven, or run through the dishwasher.
To avoid the jars cracking when the boiling hot jam is poured in, keep them warm in the oven beforehand.

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