Jammie Dodgers

If there's one thing I love in this world, its British sweets. My first job was at a British lolly shop and they told us we had to try everything. Huzzah! So I developed a healthy(?) love for Jammie Dodgers, Jaffa Cakes, Bassett's Jelly Babies, and all that sort of lark.

Jammie Dodgers are one of the foundations of my relationship with Levi. Those, Russell Brand, and Agrum and Turkish Bread. The latter two because I was trying to explain to him when we met at the ball that I wasn't going to the after party, I was going to a friend's place to have Agrum and Turkish bread, and he didn't know what either of those things were. Then to make sure I would get to date him, I wowed him with my knowledge of British things. Russell Brand wasn't big back then, okay, so it made me look cool. I also think that the week between when we met and when we started dating was the only week I've consistently worn perfume, I don't know why I thought that would help but its been three years so I guess it worked! Anyway, he approves of these, and being English I would say his opinion counts for quite a bit.

JAMMIE DODGERS
Makes 12
Total time commitment: Half an hour, plus 1 hour chilling and 10 minutes cooking
Recipe from Video Jug


160g almond meal
160g plain flour
160g butter
100g caster sugar
One lemon
Raspberry Jam

1. Cream butter and sugar, then add almond meal, flour and lemon zest (I used grated lemon rind). Roll into a ball and cover in cling wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

2. Leave out of the fridge for 10-15 minutes to warm up. Preheat oven to 180C.

3. Roll pastry flat, and cut circles out with a pastry cutter (or a glass, either or). Cut a smaller circle from half of these circles (am I confusing you yet?). I used the wide end of a piping nozzle for the inner circle. Essentially - look at the picture, the top half will have a little hole you can see the jam through, and you want the bottom to not have a hole or it might get messy.

4. Put the biscuits onto a lined tray, pop in the oven for ten minutes. While they're in the oven, melt a few spoonfuls of jam and squeeze in a little lemon juice. Mix together, and then spoon onto the biscuit bases and top with a biscuit top.

Daring Bakers: Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.


This was my first solo Daring Bakers' Challenge, because The uber-blonde is illin' (D:). It was still fun, and you get to see The Boy's kitchen that I used to cook in because... well... Black Ops has taken over our relationship so we need to stay at his house. Although he was quite obliging in taking photos for me because I had pastry hands. 


I used raspberry jam as my crostata filling. Had I not left it to the last minute I could have been more inventive, particularly as I don't actually like overly sweet things, but thats a job for another day! The pastry was really nice, although I overworked it a bit which made it difficult to get into the dish in one piece. In the end, it was easiest to tip the board I was rolling it onto straight on top of the baking dish and let it fall in, then patch up the areas I'd missed. I think I'll make this again, aside from the chilling time it wasn't too time-consuming or complex! Hopefully then I'll have some better ideas for fillings :)

Boyfriend Bakes: Fairy Cakes

This is my first 'guest' recipe - my Boyfriend made these while I was diligently studying yesterday and they were a success, regardless of the fact that I still maintain that they are BUTTERFLY cakes and should not have jam and should have whipped cream, etc etc etc. But thats another post for another day! The basic recipe is from 500 Cupcakes, which is a great book because the recipes are quick and easy enough for him to bake unsupervised :P

ALSO IN EXCITING NEWS - I found out one of my friends also has a food blog! It is amazing and you should read it right now.

LEMON FAIRY CAKES

Makes 12 - 18 large cupcakes

Cupcakes:

225g unsalted butter

225g caster sugar

225g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

lemon zest (he used grated rind of one lemon and some lemon juice)

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Icing:

115g unsalted butter

225g icing sugar

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Other delicious:

Strawberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 175C and prepare the trays with cupcake cases. Combine all the cupcake ingredients and spoon into the cases. Bake those bad boys for about 20 minutes.

2. While the cakes are cooling, combine the icing ingredients.

3. Use a teaspoon to dig out a well from each of the cupcakes. Spoon some strawberry jam into the newly-formed cupcake void and top with icing.

4. Cut the bit that should be sitting where the cupcake is now filled with jam and icing in half to make wings, and stick them on top of the cake.

5. Boil the kettle while you finish assembling the cakes and then eat them with a cup of tea or coffee.