Recently I've mostly gone off sweet
things, and therefore haven't had them in stock. But this evening I
really fancied a nice biscuit. I now faced a choice:
1. Get changed out of my pyjamas and
make my way to the corner shop to take a chance that they had
something nice in stock.
or
2. Make something myself.
I went for option 2.
Still not being in total sweet-toothed
mode I was feeling quite picky about what sort of biscuit I was going
to make. It would have to feature ginger or lemon. Having done a lot
of ginger baking
recently I opted for lemon. It being reasonably late I didn't want
anything too complex so had in mind some sort of lemony shortbread. I
found a recipe for orange shortbread and felt that it would be
reasonably safe to substitute the orange for lemon.
Not wanting to feel left out Matt, my
husband, decided that he wanted to take part in some kitchen based
activity too. He announced that he was going to make a crumble
(probably his second favourite non-chocolate pudding). We usually
have plenty of fruit in the freezer, the current selection being
cherries, gooseberries
and raspberries (or maybe loganberries). After persuading Matt that
none of these were likely to make a good combination (there's a
conspicuous absence of apple which goes with everything in a crumble,
a bit like yeast extract in savoury dishes) he settled on just
defrosting the gooseberries.
Meanwhile he made the crumble topping.
This is one of the most reliable recipes that my mum has ever given
to me and requires just a little manipulation of ratios:
- 3 parts flour (you can substitute some with oats, but Matt didn't today)
- 2 parts sugar (a reasonably grainy sort, Matt used caster, granulated would probably have been fine or even including a bit of demerara. You can actually reduce the amount of sugar)
- 1 part fat (I think butter is best)
For a usual sort of size crumble 1
part = 50g is fairly good. Matt mixed the dry ingredients
together and then rubbed in the butter.
It was a good job that my shortbread
recipe didn't require the rubbing in of butter as this is to be
avoided whilst in a dressing gown. Instead I whisked together the
butter and sugar and lemon rind, stirred in the flour and only had to
use my fingers to pull it all together into a ball. I tried a new
technique for rolling out. On a popular television baking contest I
have noticed that the contestants often use their rolling pin on top
of a piece of greaseproof paper. Not wanting to waste greaseproof
paper I used my rolling pin on top of a thin plastic chopping board
(at least that's what I've always used them for before today, I think
mum gave them to me). This worked really well to get an even roll and
no unwanted stickage.
Matt was now concentrating on applying
the crumble topping to the gooseberries and I was getting tired. When
I get tired get very bad at making decisions so I slightly distracted
Matt and asked him what shape lemon shortbread he would like: hearts.
I can do hearts and not having totally lost my decision making
faculties decided to go for smallish hearts – this would make more
which would hopefully mean the whole lot would last longer.
Both of our creations were ready to go
in the oven at the same time. The lemon shortbread were ready after
10 minutes or so. The crumble would take a little longer.
Unfortunately my biscuit craving wouldn't be met for a few minutes
yet as I had to wait for the shortbread to cool. But that few minutes
passed quickly enough and the first test was with the mis-shapen bit
that was left over after I made all the hearts. A little bit of warm
lemon shortbread was just what I was after and then I was ready for
bed.
But Matt was keen that I try his
crumble, so I agreed to a spoonful. But spoons come in different
sizes and the kind of spoon that Matt had in mind was clearly larger
than the kind of spoon I had in mind. Still, it was tasty, not too
sweet and the top was nice and crunchy (yet slightly gooey – in a
good way – where it met the fruit), and I slowly made my way
through my portion.
I was definitely ready for bed now and
Matt agreed to package up the food. The crumble would make a good
Sunday pudding. The recipe said that the shortbread would keep for 2
weeks in an airtight container – obviously the recipe does not take
into consideration the resilience of the householders when faced with
something delicious.
When it came to pudding time on Sunday
I was slightly confused. When we went to bed there was definitely
enough for a bowlful of crumble each. Now all that was left was some
gooseberries. According to Matt the rest of the crumble had just
disappeared somewhere. On further questioning it transpired that it
had disappeared into his mouth. But I had psyched myself up for
pudding so undeterred decided to turn the remaining gooseberries into
a fool. I am not sure what the technical definition of a fool is but
I basically added some crème fraiche and tinned custard (about the
same amount of each) to the gooseberries, so that overall there was
approximately a 1:1 ratio of fruit to creamy stuff. It was absolutely
delicious. Possibly (but don't tell Matt) even more delicious than
the original crumble.
As for the shortbread, I give them half
a week max.
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