The nostalgia of baking

I should think that most people have a fond nostalgia for baking, usually family baking; the scent of fresh baking wafting through the house, or stopping you in your tracks as you enter the front door; the smell of fresh bread, sponge cakes, crisp shortbread, fresh scones, rich dark fruit cake...........
One of my fondest memories of my granny was her scones - small, floury and as light as air, baked in her range in the front room of her cottage; served with butter and bramble jelly or lemon curd, or a dollop of rhubarb and ginger jam. Brought up in Galloway, childhood memeries abound - drop scones straight off the girdle; Black Bun and shortbread at New Year;clootie cumpling; floury rolls and breads; Selkirk bannocks; Dundee cake;sticky gingerbread; scones of all types, my favourite being treacle.:)
This monring I wallowed in a little baking nostalgia, and made drop scones, ginger shortbread and two Dundee cakes.

One of the very best books on Scottish cookery is "Recipes from Scotland" by F.Marian McNeill; mine is priced on the front cover as 8s 6d.













Every aspect of Scottish cookery is covered, including a good selection of regional dishes. Who coudl resist dishes with anmes such as Urney pudding,Gillie's venison, partan bree,sillocks, sowans,Hattit Kit, kail bros eand crappit heids?
I quote here from the Scottish Educational Journal:
"I cannot imagine that there can be a single Scottish bosom in which its recipes will not stir a nostalgic pang. "

Good Eating

I got this book yesterday from Amazon, a reprint of a wartime cookery book from The Daily Telegraph. It's got some really interesting and do-able recipes in ti I'm very keen to try, so shall give some of them a go and report back. Lovely little book.

Interesting link

I haven't delved into this yet, but thought I'd put up the link before I lost it LOL. Looks quite interesting.

http://www.foodtimeline.org/index.html

War time meat roll

Aha - a recipe that isn't a sweet one LOL. I mad this last night from this book:



8os mince
2oz bacon, minced
3 oz breadcrumbs
handful of parsley
1 egg
gravy or stock to bind
salt and pepper

Mix it all togehter and shape into a roll; can be steamed or roasted. I roasted mine in the oven for convenience, even managing the authentic dripping for the job!

Exceptionally tasty, this recipe, and well worth making, good for stretching a bit of mince. Would feed four adults with vegetables.

Wartime biscuits

I found this recipe in a book I got at the tip for a few pence - the WI book of 650 favourite recipes. Teh recipe is followed by this:

Note: This recipe was broadcast over BBC radio in teh early months of the war and was recommended by Mrs Neville Chamberlain (then the PM's wife) as a good sugar saver.

Golden Syrup biscuits

10z butter or margarine
2 tbsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
4 oz self-raising flour

Put the fat and syrup into a heavy-based saucepan and warm until the fat has melted. Remove from teh heat and mix in the bicarbonate of soda and vanilla essence, then beat in the flour.
Roll out the mixture until safer thin and cut into shapes with biscuit cutters. Place on greased baking sheets and bake in a preheated cool oven (150C/300F/Gas mark2) for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 30


They're not bad little biscuits, and other flavourings could be added to ring the changes.

Zena Skinner

I remember watching her on TV many, many years ago; I was lucky to find this book down at the tip, and home it came. Very much of its time, the recipes were shown on Town and Around, the TV programme. issi was published in 1965.
Not sure about her dip recieps, made with powdered soup and soured cream.......... but I did try the refrigerator cake, which was good, but I had to put extra butter in to get it to hold together a bit better. Worth making if you can get cheapish biscuits. Would be nice iced, or with chocolate drizzled over, or with marshmallows added.............

1/2 lb semi-sweet biscuits (I used Co-op rich tea)
2 oz butter (I used about 3 1/2 oz)
1 oz caster sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp cocoa

Crush the biscuits - I used a potato masher in a deep sided bowl; melt butter, sugar, syrup and cocoa together, then mix well with biscuits. Turn into a greased tin or pan and regrigerte for a couple of hours or overnight. Cut into squares.

I'll be mkaing these again, as theys oon went, and were popular up at the village hall Fair Trade cafe too.
Didn;t get a picture of them as theyw ere eaten too fast...........LOL

Next one to try from this book is the old fashioned Maids of Honour.