Custard Biscuits with Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Posted on May 11, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

With the spring properly here now we are enjoying the fresh flavours that come with the warmer weather. Our garden is coming along with the busy bees arriving to enjoy the blooms. Our gooseberry and black currant bushes are a hive of activity which is wonderful. The garden makes a happy place for the bees and butterflies. Need to work on plants to invite along the hummingbirds.

One of my favourite flavours growing up was strawberry and rhubarb. My mum would make a divine strawberry and rhubarb pie that I loved. I wanted to bake something that would include that delicious combination. I was flipping through the “Sweet” book by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh and found a recipe for Custard Yo-Yos that had a rhubarb icing. I thought I would do a strawberry and rhubarb jam instead for the filling.

Make the jam first to give it time to cool. Use a ratio of 1:1 for the strawberry and rhubarb.

In a small saucepan add the fruit and a bit of water so the fruit doesn’t catch as you bring it to a simmer. Add brown sugar a bit at a time until you get the flavour and thickness desired. You do want this on the thick side so it doesn’t drip too much out of the biscuit sandwich.

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C

In a mixer bowl sift together 175g/1 1/3 cups of all purpose flour, 65g/1/2 cup custard powder, 65g/1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. If you don’t have custard powder ( 🙁 ) you can use cornstarch (cornflour) but it won’t be much of a custard biscuit without the custard! I like using Bird’s custard powder. One because it’s good and two it’s what we can easily find. Cube 170g/3/4 cup of unsalted butter that is at room temperature. Add it to the mixer bowl.

Blend on low until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Next add 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. If you had to use corn starch then make it 1/2 a teaspoon. At this point you will probably be wondering, as I was, how on earth was this dry mixture going to come together. Have no fear! The butter starts it’s job with the vanilla. Start on low then speed up to medium to bring the dough together. It will take 30-60 seconds to happen.

Line your baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll balls of dough of about an 1 inch/2.5-3cm. Place the balls about 1 1/2in/4cm apart.

Dust a fork with flour and press into the tops of the balls. Don’t go all the way through! Just go about halfway.

Bake for 25 minutes. If you use more than one baking sheet, rotate them halfway through. You want the biscuits dry on the bottom and slightly golden. Leave them on the sheet for a couple of minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack.

When the biscuits and jam are cool make sandwiches.

There is nothing like custard with strawberry and rhubarb. Definitely flavours of the beautiful warmer weather.

Sunny Orange, Honey and Saffron to Bring in the New Year

Posted on January 9, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

It always amazes me how much work goes into the holidays only for it to go by faster than a blink of an eye. It seemed this year it went by even faster. But we had a lovely time with the kids and enjoyed a week of just hanging out with them. I look forward to the week between Christmas and New Year’s as it’s just family time. No where to be, perfect.

Of course, now that the holidays are over we faced with bitter, bitter cold. So what better time to bake? Helps keep the kitchen toasty warm. Anything to help keep the heating costs down! One of the gifts my husband bought me was a baking book called Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh. He had heard an interview on the radio with Yotam Ottolenghi and found him very interesting. Particularly the flavour combinations he likes to work with. There are several recipes I want to try. A while back I bought a madeleine pan so the recipe I chose to try first is his saffron, orange and honey madeleines.

This isn’t a hard recipe but it does take a little time. It’s also not completely traditional which allows the cookie to last more than a day because let’s face it, my hips won’t appreciate me trying to eat them all before they get stale. My taste buds will but they aren’t the ones wearing the clothes.

In a small saucepan melt 90g of butter (6 tbsp + 1 tsp) of unsalted butter, 2 tsp of honey and 1/4 tsp of saffron threads. The book says the saffron is optional, say what? I’m not leaving that out! Keep the heat low while you are doing this. Once melted remove from the heat and bring to room temperature.

While the butter is melting prep the next ingredients in a food processor. Add 2 large eggs, 75g (1/3 cup + 1tsp) granulated sugar, scraped seeds of about a 1/4 of a vanilla pod and the zest of a small orange. I used a clementine for this. Pulse until it is well blended. Sift together 90g ( 1/2 cup + 1 1/2 tsp) of flour, 1 tsp of baking powder and 1/8 tsp of salt. Add this to the food processor and pulse again until blended. Next add the butter mixture and blend. Scrape into a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C and prep the baking pan by brushing the molds with melted butter and dust with flour. I only have one pan so the book recommends washing, drying and reprepping between batches.

Spoon batter in to fill about 2/3s of the mold. This was actually harder than it sounds as the flour sticks to the bottom which makes it slippery and hard to position. Bake 9-10 minutes until golden and sponge like.

While they are baking chop up the pistachio nuts. You only need a couple of tablespoons of the nuts. Melt 3 tablespoons of honey in the microwave. Keep an eye on this as it won’t take long to melt.

Brush the madeleine with honey and dip it in the nuts. This was a classic case of chasing the natural light and losing. I was hoping to get it done before it got too dark. I didn’t win the race! But the days are getting longer so it won’t be long. 🙂

I love how these came out, the flavours were nice and bright. Perfect for a winter’s day.

Eggnog Cookies

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Our Growing Paynes

I have an obsession. I think my husband might stage an intervention. I get started and I can’t stop, just go down the rabbit hole. What makes me lose track of time so quickly? Genealogy. It’s a time sucking, fascinating hobby. I love the history and the detective work but it’s also been wonderful finding relatives. Not the distant relatives, though that is fun as well, but actual second cousins. Which is just fabulous. I connected with three in the UK and one in Australia. I love it. 🙂

I didn’t get as much baking over the holidays as I would have liked but my daughter was mentioning she had eggnog cupcakes and I thought ooh, I want to make cookies with eggnog. I searched round on the internet for some ideas. I found a recipe on allrecipes that I could change up a bit and that was easy to whip up.

I used the hand mixer for this as you don’t want to over mix the ingredients. In a medium bowl add 3/4 cup/12oz of butter softened, a cup/8oz of white sugar, and 1/4 cup/2oz of brown sugar.

Cream the ingredients together until it is light and fluffy. Add 2 egg yolks, 1/2 cup/4oz of eggnog, and a teaspoon of spiced rum. Mix at medium speed until well blended.

In a separate bowl blend together 2 1/4 cups/18oz of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, and 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon. Gradually add it to the mixing bowl. Don’t over mix the cookie dough, just mix until the dry ingredients are incorporated in.

Spoon the dough onto a cookie sheet that has not been greased. About a teaspoon size. Bake at 300F/150C until golden brown. 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. While this is baking mix equal parts spiced rum and milk then add powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want for the glaze.

When the cookies come out of the oven, drizzle the cookies with the glaze. Then all you have to do is enjoy!

Shortbread for Not so Short

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

My son has taken to calling me shorty. Sigh, problem is that he isn’t wrong. But he thinks it is hilarious that he keeps growing like a weed and he is pretty much out pacing me in any high heels I may have. This ship has sailed.

Even though we are in the throes of a hot summer I wanted to bake for the kids so they’d have a treat after they came back from camp. In keeping with the shorty theme and trying not to overheat the kitchen I decided to make shortbread. I had made this before but my camera setup wasn’t working, turns out I needed to change the batteries on the remote. That was easy to fix but I may be facing bigger issues with the camera. Fingers crossed I’m not but it’s been acting very strange. I love the camera so I want it to behave!

Years ago my parents gave me a cookery book called “Cape Breton Pictorial Cookbook” and it was edited by Yvonne LeVert. It is a collection of recipes from the area and the influences from immigrants.

I used my hand mixer for this to cream the butter and sugar

In a medium mixing bowl cream together a cup of softened butter and a 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

This will take a few minutes. Add a teaspoon of vanilla and gradually add two cups of flour, mixing a bit in at a time. Tip out onto a floured surface.

Knead to form a ball. Now the recipe said to roll out. Which seemed weird but hey I tried it. Wrong! You definitely need to chill for at least a half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 300F/150C. On a well floured surface roll out the dough with a well floured rolling pin. Roll it out to about an 1/8″ of an inch. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes you want and prick the tops with a fork. Bake 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown.

Let cool and enjoy. We’ve been enjoying it with the rhubarb ginger jam I made recently. The tart and sweet go really well together.

It’s an HISTORICAL Snow Sto…I’m sorry?…Oh, It’s a Normal Snow Storm…

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

This was supposed to be an historical storm, in our area they were predicting over two feet. Which some areas will see that but the storm shifted so most of us will see about a foot. Not too bad. I mean it is New England, we get snow but of course people went crazy with shopping for supplies. How much they are planning to eat today, I have no idea. People are funny.

My husband is travelling this week. He was able to fly out before the flights were cancelled, fortunately. So Sunday we made sure I can get the snow blower going and we had working shovels. And thank goodness he thought of the oil! We were on empty so we were able to get some delivered. I am very lucky I have him, he takes good care of us. 🙂

Sunday we did our usual puttering about the kitchen making things for the kids’ lunches and breakfasts. I really enjoy that time with him.

I was flipping through the “The Complete Book of Baking” by Pillsbury and came across the recipe for Ginger Snaps. Boy did this bring back memories. My mum would make these when we were growing up. I love them but it was something that had faded away in the brain so I hadn’t made them before.

In the mixer cream together 1 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of butter that has been softened.

Add in 1/4 cup of molasses and 1 large egg. Mix until incorporated.

Add 2 1/4 cups of flour, 2 tsps of baking soda, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of ground ginger, 1/2 tsp of ground cloves, and a 1/4 tsp of nutmeg.

I’d have a photo here but after about ten tries to get it to upload I’m giving up. Took me long enough for the photos I can show! Internet is being wonky today.

Chill the dough for at least an hour. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.

Roll the dough into 1 inch diameter balls and roll into some sugar to coat. Space the balls about 2 inches apart.

Bake 8-12 minutes. If you want them to stay chewy then pull them out by 10 minutes otherwise they start getting crunchy.

They are so good right out of the oven! And they go well with hot chocolate. 🙂

Lemon Cookies with Strawberry Mint Ginger Jam

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Our Growing Paynes

Stateside we just had our Labor Day Weekend. The last hurrah of summer. Best thing about it? We had the kids! Saturday was gorgeous so we took advantage of it and spent most of it outside. Our daughter is trying out for the school’s soccer team and she wanted to practice her shooting. Off we traipsed to play a bit of footie at the local playground. Nearly did a split trying to get the ball! Not a good thing. Still it was a blast running round with the kids.

And the holiday weekend is never complete without our annual trek to the go-carts. But dang it if I didn’t get the slow car again! It was like a Sunday drive. I want a car with oomph!

The weekend was topped off with marathon sessions of Settler’s of Catan. That game is seriously addicting.

I came across a delicious recipe for lemon cookies with strawberry jam that looked super easy. And if you are going to have marathon sessions of games with the kids there needs to be treats available!

First I made the jam. I usually do the jam with ginger but I wanted to add another layer of flavour. We have a ton of mint in our garden and I thought it would give a nice balance to this cookie.

In a small sauce pan add about 1 1/2 cup of chopped strawberries, 2T of lemon juice, and a small handful of mint. Grate fresh ginger over the strawberries to your taste and bring to a simmer.

Remove from the heat once it gets to the jam consistency. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C

For the cookie dough you will need:

1 cup butter

2/3 cup sugar

zest of 1 lemon

Cream the butter and sugar together and add the lemon zest.

Add the flour and mix well. If the butter is cold like mine was because I spaced on getting the butter out of the freezer in time you may find it crumbly but that is ok. The cookies may not spread out as much as warmer butter but it will still be delicious!

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls. Use a finger to make dents into the dough and fill with a small amount of strawberry jam. Bake for 9-11 minutes.

While it is baking mix up a glaze of 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp almond extract, and 2T of milk. Mix with a whisk. If it is still too thick add more milk.

When the cookies are still warm drizzle the glaze over the cookie.

Not only these really easy to make they are fabulously delicious! And it was a great way to use up some leftover strawberries.

Another Snow Day – The Kids Rejoice

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Our Growing Paynes

The adults have had enough. The kids don’t want it to end. Not sure what age marks the switch of loving the cold and deep snow to longing for spring and warmth. Granted some adults are in their element with skiing and winter sports. When they were talking about the current winter storm yesterday my son was cheering and applauding. He’s nine. We could get 8-14 inches today and tonight. The kids are having a PJ day and just enjoying being kids.

I’m taking this day to try to catch up with everything. I haven’t posted in nearly two weeks and I miss it. It will probably be like this for another two months as I get through the tax season. The first peak is almost done so I hope to have time to actually cook different things so there is something to post about! That was the main issue. I’ve relied on the old tried and true recipes. The quick things that don’t take any effort. I did find at the co-op some pork belly so I’ll be making some soon as well as trying my hand at homemade bacon. That’s the plan anyway.

But I do love doing taxes. I spend most of the year nurturing my creative side but this allows me to exercise the math side of my brain. I love numbers. But I also find the people fascinating. You see the whole spectrum of life doing people’s taxes. Young people starting out not having any idea how their decisions affect their taxes, where they will go for jobs, kids having kids, the newlyweds. My favourite clients are the elderly couples that have been married forever. I have a few that are still sweet on each other and it’s so much fun when these couples come in. The tough ones are when they come in and they just lost their spouse. I wish the IRS would give them a year’s grace period but they don’t. You have to help them find their feet. As they continue to come in year after year you start to see them find their strength again and the smiles come a little easier. I hear so many fascinating stories. None of which I can share but I understand why the Humans of New York is so popular.

Even though I am not doing taxes today I’m not cooking because our daughter just turned 13 and we will brave the storm to take her to dinner tonight. It’s funny the reactions when I mention we now have a teenager. Those that currently have teenagers or who had them are wishing us luck and those that haven’t made it to the club yet are very excited for us. Fortunately she’s a wonderful kid. I know there will be bumps along the way but I’m sure we’ll come out the other side in one piece. 🙂

I did find the time to bake today. My husband’s favourite cookies are oatmeal raisin cookies. Since it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow I thought I’d make him some. As long as he shares!

Pre-heat the oven to 375F/190C. I used the recipe from the Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking.

In a mixture add 1/2 cup of softened butter, 3/4 cups sugar, and 1/4 cup of brown sugar packed.

Mix together then add one large egg with a tsp of vanilla.

Add 3/4 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp of salt and mix well. If you use 1/2 tsp of salt like I did by mistake it still comes out ok.

Add 1 1/2 cup of quick oats, a little over 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, and a little over 1/2 cup of raisins. The recipe calls for raisins and nuts but my husband doesn’t like nuts in his baked goods so I use chocolate instead. So much better!

Spoon the mixture onto the cookie sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes. Let cool a minute or so before placing on the cooling rack. Quality check immediately of course. It’s amazing the number of quality checkers that come out of the woodwork. 🙂

Here is a view from our den window with the snow coming down. The wind has started to pick up so it could be a wild night.

Our Growing Paynes

A journey about cooking, traveling, gardening, and crafting.

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