Peach Macaroon

Last night, Sergio and I were privileged to have good friends from Belfast coming over to the house for dinner, who we've never cooked for before.  The challenge for us, is that Harry and Angelique are both vegetarian, so we planned out a vegetarian feast, largely inspired by my new favourite website, www.gojee.com  - it wasn't a question where the dessert recipe would come from however, as I consulted back to Chrissie's books.  Our starter was thai inspired courgette fritters, followed by camembert-topped tofu and sweet potato feta salad.  We wanted something fairly light after what was a fairly starchy meal, so the recipe for peach macaroons seemed like an obvious choice.  Here's the recipe from Chrissie's book:


8 halved peaches
1 egg white
Almond essence
2oz coconut
1oz caster sugar


Place peaches, hollow side up on foil
Whisk egg whites stiffly
Add sugar, coconut and essence
Fill peach centres with this and grill for 5 mins
*Serve with cream


This was super easy to create, the hardest part in fact was getting the peaches halved without being squished to bits.  Had they been more ripe then it would have been easier.  

American sweetened coconut

The mix took only a few minutes to prepare, and I was surprised that only one egg white was required, but this absolutely sufficed for the 12 half (6 whole) peaches that we used.  I didn't have any almond essence so substituted with ground almond.  It is also worth noting for Brit-American clarity that I used American sweetened coconut rather than the usual UK dessicated coconut.  I prefer the taste and texture of this coconut, it is more coarsely grated and ironically to be appears less sweet than dessicated and more akin to fresh coconut, sure either would work.

Peaches ready for the grill

The peaches were grilled only for a few minutes - I had added some brown sugar on top of each for colour, but frankly they didn't need it.  We finished the peaches with some creme fraiche leftover from a meal earlier in the weekend and it complemented them very well, cream, ice cream etc would also be good. 


A very quick, easy, and not a particularly unhealthy dessert.  Highly recommended! 

Chocolate Coconut Slices

Action Shot mid prep

Well today has taken another baking turn as we tested out yet another of Auntie Chrissie's recipes, today 'Chocolate Coconut Slices'.  Not one that I recall, but the chocolate/coconut combo reminds me of the fridge cakes that we'd often buy as a treat on the walk home from school in Edinburgh.  This recipe is a baked slice, and little guidance is given once more in respect to size of tin and temperature of oven.  This may be because Auntie Chrissie had an old Aga in the house in Milltimber.  Today I'm also baking in an Aga at my parent's house in Edinburgh.  Here's the recipe as transcribed from Chrissie's notebook:


1 cup self raising flour
1 cup coconut
2oz caster sugar
2 teaspoons powdered chocolate
4oz margarine

Melt margarine and pour over mixed dry ingredients
Make into a paste and spread in a shallow baking tin
Bake 20-30 mins in mod oven
Cover with chocolate icing while still warm
Cut in slices


We used cocoa as the powdered chocolate and substituted marg for butter as we were low on marg.  The 'paste' did not quite materialise as there was not enough wet ingredients, it was more of a malleable mush, however easy enough to press into the tin in readiness for baking.   

Paste?

We used a long rectangular tin about 9" x 16" which was indeed too large, but all that we had. So we simply moulded the mush into one end around 3/4" thickness and it didn't shift in baking which worked out fine.  We baked it for around 25 minutes, in the Aga baking oven, around 175 degrees celsius.  Like the sponge, it was slightly over baked, but tasted very good nonetheless, particularly with one of Chrissie's chocolate icing recipes. We cut it into small squares rather than slices when it was iced but still slightly warm, and dusted with coconut for effect.  It was a hit with the family, so a recipe I'd recommend.  Thanks Auntie Chrissie!

The finished product

Sponge

I am a keen baker, and have over the years been perfecting my own sponge recipe which is prepared most frequently as cupcakes.  I'm interested in perfecting the ideal sponge and my own version is a traditional mix which starts with a creamed butter and caster sugar mix.  When I saw a sponge recipe in Chrissie's notebook which followed a method of whisked eggs first mixed with the caster sugar, I was curious to try it to see whether it should impact my own sponge recipe.  This is a fairly common method followed by many as it offers a light and fluffy sponge....let's see.

As with many others in Chrissie's repertoire, the instructions were limited, the recipe written as follows:

Fellow baker, Pamela
Abernethy

Sponge

4 eggs, separated

4oz self-raising flour

2 oz cornflour

4 oz caster sugar

Vanilla

1/2 oz of butter

4 tablespoons of boiling water

Beat egg whites stiffly

Whisk in sugar till glossy

Whisk in yolks 1 by 1

Fold in flours

Melt butter in water and add

Bake in 2 tins for 20 minutes

My mother, Pamela Abernethy, provided a helping hand in this cooking experiment.  One of the basic, yet crucial techniques for any baker is the whisking of the egg whites.  For anyone who is unfamilar, my mother has provided her top tips:

We were nervous to add the melted butter in case it did remove the air from the batter, but a quick stir in prior to transferring to our pre-greased tins did the trick.  We used two 8" tins, however with hindsight 7" would have been preferable.  We baked at approximately 325 degrees farenheit (using an Aga so temperatures are never guaranteed).  Again, would have preferred a hotter oven - perhaps 350 degrees.  Due to the heat of the oven, the cake did not develop a particularly deep golden colour, so we perhaps over baked it.  I wouldn't expect this cake to take much colour, nor did it rise a great deal.  I would suggest baking for 15 minutes and testing it after that point to see if it's ready.

The results were good, a very light sponge and quite a structured sponge, maintaining its shape.  I imagine this method would be effective for a more formal celebration cake such as a wedding cake.  In memory of Chrissie, we sandwiched the sponge with a raspberry jam and whipped cream filling and dusted with icing sugar.  It went down very well!

 

An introduction to this blog

Today, I'm an adopted Londoner, living South of the River and working a fairly corporate life north of the river, but when time allows I'm happiest creating in the kitchen.  This is undoubtedly an impact from a childhood far from here, around 500 miles north, growing up in Deeside, a few miles west of Aberdeen.  

The recipe books

Many of the women (past and present) in my family have been keen cooks and bakers, and this is indeed the case for me.  My parents recently uncovered a series of recipe books carefully documented by my Great Auntie Chrissie which both remind me of my childhood, but also provide a historic record of recipes more common to times past in the UK and some specifically Scottish.  Chrissie began her recipe documentation in 1922 and her books appeared to date up to the 1970s/1980s, I know as one recipe is attributed to my own mother, who she would have only met in the early 70s.  

1985 - Chrissie with great-nieces - l-r Lynsey (me), Kate
& Jane

Together with my Grandmother, Agnes Abernethy, these two women conjure wonderful culinary memories from my childhood out in Deeside.  My memories persist of my Grandma particularly in her kitchen which I remember as very dark, iron and formica-filled (this was the early 1980's after all).  Whereas my grandmother baked and cooked practically blindfolded, relaying the quantities as a "bittie o' this and a bittie o' that", Chrissie was  a disciplined documenter and patiently scribed each of her recipes into a series of notebooks, the first is dated 1922 and is most likely from her time at the "Do' School" - a neatly transcribed book of "Cookery Recipes" beginning with instructions on how to cook stock and including recipes such as 'Boiled Salad Dressing' and 'Brain Cakes'. Whereas I never experienced Chrissie's 'Brain Cakes' - perhaps one that never graduated into her repertoire - I do recall many a wonderful meal with her.  

As much of my cooking today takes inspiration from other cuisines, I thought it would be a fun experiment and a good record to test out some of Chrissie's recipes and provide my own views on how these could be tweaked for our modern tastes.  

Some recipes are somewhat brief and require some invention, so I hope that you can enjoy these too and I do welcome any thoughts from yourselves in the comments.

To learn a bit more about Chrissie, read her intro page, an except below:

Chrissie, far right, at the
Do School

Christina Reid Forbes (née Abernethy) was born in 1904 at her parents' farm, Bakebare, in Drumoak, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  Chrissie came from a large family, the second youngest of eleven (from two mothers) and the only daughter of the second family.  (Her mother was also named Christina, née Greig.)  My Grandfather, Douglas, was in fact the baby of the family.  

Inevitably Chrissie developed an interest in cooking and baking, one can only assume through supporting her mother in feeding her large collection of brothers, and certainly cemented through her attendance at the Aberdeen School of Domestic Science (the "Do' School") and perfected through the following twenty years keeping house for her mother. 

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