recipe – Nannie RaRa

Simnel cake for Easter (or anytime)

1st Apr 2021 Nannie RaRa

Simnel cake is one of my all-time favourite cakes as it combines a rich fruit cake with almond paste. I make it for Easter but it is good any time of the year. Once cooked and decorated it will keep for several days in an airtight tin – unless it gets eaten straightaway 😉

Ingredients for almond paste

10 oz ground almonds
5 oz icing sugar
5 oz caster sugar
1 egg

Ingredients for cake

6 oz butter
6 oz caster sugar
3 eggs
8 oz plain flour
15 oz mixed dried fruit
4 oz glace cherries, quartered
1/2 level teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 level teaspoon nutmeg

Switch on oven to 150 C

Grease and line a 7 ½ inch cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Make the almond paste.

Put the dry ingredients for the almond paste into a bowl. Mix together, removing any lumps in the sugar. Lightly beat the egg and add to the dry mix.

Knead together to make a solid paste. It may appear dry at first but as you work it, the oil from the almonds will make it pliable. Divide in half. Put one half in foil in the fridge until needed later. With the other half make a disc slightly smaller than the cake tin and put to one side.

Now for the cake. In a bowl put the flour, dried fruit and cherries. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg. I use whole nutmegs and have an amazing tiny grater to grate them with. Mix together so that all the dried fruit is separated and covered in flour.

In a separate bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add one egg at a time, beating each egg into the mix.

Fold in the dried ingredients combining them until there are no signs of flour on the fruit. If the mixture does not drop easily from the spoon add a small amount of milk.

Put half the mix into the prepared cake tin, smoothing it and bringing it slightly up the edges. Place the rolled out almond paste on top, then spoon the rest of the mix on top. Smooth the top making a dip in the centre.

Bake in a cool oven, 150 C, for two and a half to three hours.

Cool in the tin on a wire rack.

When the cake is completely cool, remove from the tin and take off the paper that lined the tin.

Take the rest of the almond paste and divide into half. Roll one half into a circle slightly smaller than the simnel cake.

Brush the top of the cake with egg white or melted jam, then place the circle of almond paste on top.

With the other half of the almond paste make eleven balls. Using egg white to stick them, place them around the edge of the circle of almond paste. Paint egg white over the tops of the balls and on the almond paste circle.

Place the whole cake under a medium grill until the tops turn golden brown – there will be a wonderful smell of roasting almonds.

The simnel cake is now complete. Keep it in an airtight tin.

Enjoy!

recipe

Nutty burgers

13th Mar 2021 Nannie RaRa

We call these almond rissoles, nutty burgers. They are a very tasty vegetarian dish. The quantities below will make enough for four. I usually make a batch and give half to my daughter – we then have two meals each. The cooked burgers keep for several days in the fridge and can be eaten either hot or cold.

Ingredients

6 oz fresh breadcrumbs
8 oz ground almonds
small onion
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 egg
1 oz butter

Coating

1 egg
2 oz fresh breadcrumbs

Frying

vegetable or sunflower oil
butter

Mix the breadcrumbs and ground almonds together in a mixing bowl. The original recipe only had half the amount of ground almonds, but I find these better using more almonds.

Grate the onion into the bread and almond mix. I use the smaller part of a metal grater and find that I don’t get watery eyes.

Chop the parsley finely. I prefer curly leaf parsley rather than the flat leaf variety.

Add the onion and parsley into the breadcrumb and almond mix.

Melt the butter and add to the mix along with a beaten egg.

Mix all together, then using your hands form this into a dough like consistency.

I usually make 16 small burgers, but you can make 8 larger ones if you prefer.

The easiest way to make 16 is to divide the dough in half, then each half in half again. You now have four. Divide each of these into half and half again. Shape each of the burgers in the palm of your hand and lay out.

Break the egg for the coating into a bowl, add a splash of water to make it go further, and beat together. Coat each burger by dipping it into the beaten egg and then covering it with breadcrumbs.

Heat a frying pan with oil and butter. Add the covered burgers. My pan holds eight at a time. Cook over a medium heat for a few minutes, then turn the burgers when they are golden brown and cook the other side. Drain on kitchen paper.

They can be eaten either hot or cold. I had my nutty burgers warm, with steamed vegetables. They were delicious.

Enjoy!

recipe

Fresh lemon buns

13th Feb 2021 Nannie RaRa

I’ve recently been baking these lemon buns which are so tangy and refreshing. My 95 year-old father has been making them as well and the grandchildren have been eating them all!

Ingredients

2 eggs
4 oz butter
4 oz caster sugar
4 oz self-raising flour
Juice and zest of lemon
2 oz caster sugar for topping

Switch on oven to 180 C

You can either use the weights above or weigh two (or three) eggs, in their shells, and use their equivalent weight in butter, sugar and flour.

Put paper bun cases into muffin or cake tins. I prefer muffin tins as this gives a higher bun. The two-egg recipe makes approximately 12 buns.

Weigh the flour and add the zest of the lemon to it. Leave to one side.

Weigh the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and cream them together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each egg.

Add the flour and lemon zest beating well again. Some recipes say to fold in the flour but I find beating it in produces a finer cake.

Put a large teaspoon of the mix into each bun case. Divide any remaining mix between the buns.

Put the tray of buns into the oven for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.

While the buns are cooking, weigh out 2 oz caster sugar and add the juice from the lemon to it. Stir well until the mix becomes syrupy.

When the buns are cooked, remove from the oven and place on a rack. Either using a teaspoon or a brush put all the lemon syrup over the tops of the buns while they are still warm. Some of the syrup might run over the edge but don’t worry.

The lemon syrup gives an extra tang to the buns and makes them moist.

Enjoy!

recipe

Jean’s lemon freezer cake

23rd Dec 2020 Nannie RaRa

My neighbour, Jean, gave me this easy-to-make lemon dessert recipe that is simply delicious. It can be made and kept in the freezer, taking it out and cutting a slice to eat whenever you want.

Ingredients

4 oz (114 g) icing sugar
Zest and juice of lemon
300 ml double cream
2 oz (57 g) meringue nests
half a 300 g jar lemon curd
2 lb loaf tin (or similar) lined with clingfilm

Put the icing sugar plus the juice and zest of the lemon in a large bowl. Mix together until the icing sugar has dissolved.

Mixing lemon zest and juice with icing sugar

Add the double cream and whisk all together until it forms soft peaks.

Roughly crumble the meringue nests into the mix, add teaspoonfuls of lemon curd as well.

Using a metal spoon gently fold the meringues and lemon curd into the cream. This does not need thorough mixing, finding areas of lemon curd when eating is good.

Spoon the mix into the lined tin. Cover with clingfilm and place in the freezer for a few hours.

Spoon the mixture into the tin and cover with clingfilm

The cake is now ready to eat.

Take the cake from the freezer and remove from the tin.

Turn it out onto a plate and remove clingfilm. You now have the lemon dessert. Single slices can be cut from the cake as you want them with the remainder returned to the freezer just wrapped in the clingfilm. It will keep for up to three months.

Jean's lemon freezer cake — Jean’s lemon freezer cake

Enjoy!

recipe

Nannie Crumble

20th Nov 2020 Nannie RaRa

My grandchildren enjoy the apple crumble I make, but call it Nannie Crumble. Here’s how to create it.

Ingredients

1 lb cooking apples
3 oz sugar ( 2 oz for the puree, 1oz for the crumble)
2 oz porridge oats
2 oz self raising flour
2 oz butter

Firstly make the apple puree for the crumble. Peel and roughly chop or slice two or three large cooking apples dropping them into water as you go to prevent them from browning.

When all the apples are chopped, take them out of the water and put them in a saucepan. Add some water to the bottom of the pan to prevent the apples sticking – depending on the variety of apple you may need more or less water. Add 2 oz sugar to sweeten the apples. Cook the apples on a medium heat until soft.

I then mash the apples using a potato masher. You can leave them in soft chunks if you prefer. Put the apples in a baking dish.

For this particular dish I used 15 ounces of cooked pureed apples that I had prepared from the apples on my fruit trees and frozen earlier this year.

While the apples are cooking you can prepare the crumble. In a basin put equal quantities (2 oz each) of porridge oats, self raising flour and chopped hard butter. You will also need to add sugar – I use half the quantity of sugar to the other ingredients as I do not like the crumble too sweet.

Oats, flour, sugar and butter for the crumble

Rub the butter into the other ingredients rolling it between your thumbs and fingers until the whole mix is like large bread crumbs.

Sprinkle the crumble mix on top of the apples and bake in a hot oven (190C) for fifteen to twenty minutes until the crumble is golden.

Nannie Crumble ready to eat — Cooked Nannie Crumble

Eat either hot or cold with custard or cream or ice cream.

My grandchildren like eating the crumble cold with custard. I place the crumble in the middle of a dish making an island with the custard. Sometimes I add swishes of custard around the crumble so that it is a flower with custard petals. How do you like to eat it?

Enjoy!