Auntie Mary's Green Bean Casserole

I didn’t bake on Monday this week. My husband baked. I came home to a vase of flowers and The Thew making Jetlag Sausage Bake, which was fitting as I’d arrived back from Chicago. Sadly the trip was because my Auntie had passed away and I went over to support my family and attend her wake and funeral. I did think that I should bake something in her memory, which we’ll get to below, but it focused me on all the reasons why I miss her and how the world feels emptier without her presence in it.

My Auntie had many challenges to face in her life and did so with patience, generosity and love. She had three beautiful daughters, my cousins, and the last week spent with them has shown me that all her qualities exist within them and that I can still find her every now and again. Her eldest daughter has the ability to care for others that she shows through her role as a mum and care giver to her two younger sisters. She cares for those with special needs in the same awe inspiring way that her mum did, all the while keeping a smile on her face and finding the joy in situations. My Auntie’s sociability has transferred to her and also her middle daughter, who has to be dragged away from any social gathering. Yvonne lives in the moment and loves to talk to people, meet people and generally help out. Her love of children, another of my Auntie’s traits, can absorb her completely and she patiently tried to get my younger hyper activity self to sit still (without success) so she could lavish attention on me. The youngest, Bernadette, is thoughtful, kind and always likes to look stylish. My Auntie loved to shop for clothes and of all her daughters Bernadette revels most in new things to wear along with getting her nails and hair done. Her eldest daughter gave her two grandchildren who brought her so much joy and they are hitting adulthood with maturity, due to dealing with situations beyond their years, and showcasing elements of her wonderful nature and mixing them with their own to create something new and great.

So this is clearly my Auntie's amazing legacy that she left - her beautiful family that contains elements of her personality that can be found if looked for. Obviously nothing is as good as the real thing, a fact everyone will agree with me on, but it's a pretty decent second best that I'm happy to take right now.

In thinking of a fitting recipe to honour my Auntie my mum jogged my memory about a Green Bean Casserole she used to make. It’s a fairly staple part of American life as many people know about it but I’ll put it down here as it’s delicious. I’ll update with my own picture when I do make it as I need to track down the onions. Comfort eating is going to be one of the ways I get through how I feel right now but at some point I'm going to have to follow her lead and just get on with it. She showed that taking what you get and making the most of it can create fantastic beauty in this world.

Ingredients:

1 can Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup
180ml cup milk
Black pepper
500g green beans
300g French’s French Fried Onions (these are really hard to get in the UK. Sometimes you can find them as ‘salad toppings’ but they are amazing. If you know someone going to the States get them to bring them back).

1.    Heat oven to 180°/GM4.

2.    Mix soup, milk and black pepper in a baking dish. Stir in beans and 150g French Fried Onions.

3.    Bake for 30 min.

4.    Stir and top with the remaining 150g onions. Chuck back in the oven for 5 minutes until they are crunchy and then serve.

Banana Bread with Rum Soaked Sultanas

Inspiration for recipes can come from anywhere and mine came from a rather large plastic bottle of rum from St. Lucia. It was brought back from the honeymoon of one of my work colleagues and is currently sitting on our work bar. No one had cracked into it and I thought that maybe it should be used. Inspiration then hit – the banana bread I make with sultanas soaked in bourbon could be soaked in rum. So after feeling like some sort of social degenerate for filling a plastic water bottle with rum I headed off home.

My banana bread is a favourite with most people and actually helped get me my current job. In my first interview we talked a lot about baking (mainly as I answered the question ‘What is your favourite kitchen implement?’ faster than any other interviewee) and I, in a moment of brazen bravery, said I’d bake them a cake if I got a second interview. It worked and I managed to quite surprise the Creative Director when I actually produced a cake. (The night before I’d been in two minds about whether to do it but as I was going for an Account Director role I thought that I couldn’t fail to meet expectations).  

Now this is adapted from Nigella’s recipe but I’ve messed with some things. The bananas I had this time weren’t as ripe as I like them but my normal go to £1 a bowl man only had nice bananas. He generally has a couple of bowls of over ripe bananas that he is only too glad to get off his hands. I have no idea what he thinks I do with them. Anyway this is a great loaf cake and only gets better after a couple of days if it last that long.

Ingredients

100g sultanas

75ml rum

175g plain flour

2 heaped teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon of bicarb of soda

½ teaspoon salt

125g melted butter (melt in a large saucepan as you’ll use it as your mixing bowl and save washing up)

50g white sugar

100g brown sugar (light or dark)

2 large eggs

Peeled, mashed bananas weighing about 350g (as ripe as you can get them)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1.    Pre heat the oven to 170°/GM3.

2.    Put the sultanas and rum in a small saucepan and heat until the rum boils. Turn off the heat and cover for about an hour. You want the sultanas to absorb the rum and plump up – yum.

3.    Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a bowl and mix well.

4.    Add the sugar to the melted butter and mix. It won’t blend completely but just so you’ve made a bit of an effort. Beat the eggs in and then the banana. Now I don’t mash the banana well but let my electric whisk do most of the work.

5.    Beat in the vanilla and add the flour mixture, half at a time, and mix well. Then mix in the drained sultanas.

6.    Put into a lined loaf tin and bake for about an hour. It might need a bit longer but test with a skewer after an hour. Then leave to cool but just to check it turned out ok, cut one end off and eat warm.

 

Puff Pastry Mince Pies

I’m not the biggest fan of traditional Christmas food. I don’t like turkey (why not just have chicken which tastes better?), Christmas pudding isn’t my thing and brandy butter, bread sauce and brussel sprouts can all go hang as far as I’m concerned. However I do quite like mince pies but in a slightly suspicious way – it always surprises me when I enjoy one because I don’t like other Christmas food. Rediscovering my love of them every year is like a present all in itself.

So when it comes to making a more traditional Christmas treat for my office I have turned to mince pies. I have done the short crust versions in the past but my ‘hot hands’ and tiny warm kitchen make it very difficult to get right. I have experimented with filo but it doesn’t have enough butter in it for my liking and it tastes a bit mean to me because of that. Therefore this year I’ve decided to make them with puff pastry. And because I’m not a masochist I’ve bought ready rolled.

These are very simple and easy to transport which is useful when taking on the tube. The sprinkling of sugar on top makes them better when serving cold (they rock the eccles cake vibe a little bit) but be careful when taking out of the oven as the hot sugar, and sticky boiling syrup that squishes out the pastry, will burn! Don’t panic if the mincemeat oozes out a bit as I think that this makes them look ‘homemade’ and everyone likes reassurance that something has been made just for them.

Ingredients

1 x ready rolled puff pastry

1 x jar mincemeat

1 egg, beaten

Demerara sugar

1.    Preheat the oven to 190°/GM 5.

2.    Roll out the pastry on a well floured surface as you want it fairly thin.

3.    Cut a round cutter to cut out as many circles as possible. Re-rolling out whatever is left over. I use a 6cm-ish cherry glass! You could use a bigger circle for the one going on top but it’s a faff I can’t be bothered with.

4.    Lay out half of the circles on baking trays and brush with egg. Dollop a teaspoon full of mincemeat in the middle of each and cover with the remaining circles.

5.    Brush the top with egg, sprinkle on sugar and pop a hole in the top to let the steam out while cooking.

6.    Pop in the over for about 15 minutes and you’re done. Easy.

Sticky Cinnamon Rolls

So I’ve had a bit of a clear out. I think I was inspired by Nigel Slater in his new programme where he tries to use up all of his ‘shop’. Although it was less about using up my ‘shop’ and more about getting some room in my cupboards to put things in from my ‘shop’. Anyway I discovered a large packet of bread flour that allegedly was due to go off in February (I’m not sure flour goes off on an exact date – can it? Really?)  along with a variety of half-filled packets and bottles.

A light bulb moment occurred and I thought that it was be fab to make some sort of bread with lots of stuff in so that I could use up some things. I had thought about Chelsea Buns but wasn’t really in a currant mood. Then I saw a half empty bottle of honey, near empty packets of different sugar and some hazelnuts. Bingo – a plan had formulated.

This may seem like a lot of steps but trust me when I say it doesn’t take that long to make the dough. Making bread based food is great and once you see how simple it is to make dough you won’t look back. The other bonus is that this gives you a tray of buns that need to be ripped apart which is always satisfying for some reason.

As a variation you could put dried fruit inside the dough before rolling it up or chunks of dark chocolate or a mixture of seeds or grated cheese or .... well, you get then picture. Crap - now I have to buy more bread flour, which will take up space again, and make some other versions of this recipe.

Ingredients

1kg strong bread flour

1 x 7g packet easy bake yeast

1 tbsp runny honey (or a generous squeeze)

1 tsp salt

600ml tepid water (use about 150ml boiled water with the rest topped up with cold)

200g soft butter

100g brown sugar (light or dark)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Hazelnuts (I had 80g but up to 150g would be fine and almonds would work as well)

More honey if you have it

50g demerara sugar

1.    To make the bread put the flour, yeast, honey and salt in a food processor and slowly add the water until it becomes a dough.

2.    Then turn into a bowl and use the dough hooks on your electric whisk. They’re the weird spirally ones that come with it that you never use! They work amazingly well so about 6 minutes will do. You can knead it by hand but I sometimes can't be bothered to have to scrub dough out of my fingernails. That stuff sticks!

3.    Take the dough out of the bowl. Grease the bowl with some olive oil. Put the dough back in, cover with a tea towel and put somewhere warm. You want to dough to double in size so anything from 30 minutes to an hour.

4.    While waiting toast the nuts in the oven for about 6/7 minutes on 180°/GM4. (Keep the oven on as you’ll need it later). Once done smash them into pieces. The most fun way to do this is to wrap in a tea towel and whack the crap out of them with a rolling pin.

5.    Add the nuts to the butter, put in the cinnamon and brown sugar, and mix together.

6.    Once the dough is done then roll out on a well dusted work surface. You want it about 50cm x 40cm but about 1cm-ish thick and it can be a bit bigger.

7.    Dot with the butter and nut mix and spread out as evenly as you can with the back of a spoon. Don’t panic about it being too even. Then drizzle some honey over it if you have it.

8.    Then pick up the long edge carefully and roll into a sausage. Cut into slices about 3cm wide.

9.    Get a baking tray with sides (as the honey will run out as bit) but not too high. I use a roasting tray about 26cm x 36cm. Place the slices on with the swirl showing and keep them fairly snug.

10. Put a tea towel over and put back to prove for another 40 minutes of so. You want them to double in size again so they get wonderfully plump.

11.  Sprinkle the demerara sugar on top. Bake for about 25 minutes until golden brown on top, allow to cool slightly when out and then turn out so the sticky honey bottoms can cool.

12.  Devour – ideally while warm, or bring into work for breakfast and watch them go.

Gingerbread and Custard Cake

I have also baked on Thursday this week. I made a birthday cake for Sam, who I work with, for his 24th birthday and his request was for the gingerbread I'd made a couple of weeks ago. However as I made a special cake earlier this week I thought I should at least change it up a bit.

When I brought in the gingerbread before someone suggested that it would go well with custard. So, inspired by a previous Blackout Cake I've made which uses a thick chocolate pudding between layers, I thought that a custard version of that would do it. And it did!

It came out quite thick as the custard powder most probably had a thickening agent in it so I'd probably go easy on the cornflour next time. However it did work and taste good so sometimes if it ain't broke ....

So first you make this cake and put in two round tins to make the layers, cooking on GM3 for 25 - 30 minutes.

Ingredients

125g caster sugar
1 tsp golden syrup
30g custard powder
50g cornflour
20g butter

1.    Put the sugar, syprup, custard powder and 150ml of water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and whisk away to make sure it’s smooth. Take off the heat.

2.    Mix the cornflour with 50ml water to create the weird paste thing you get when cornflour gets mixed with water. Add this slowly to the pan and whisk it in. (It may go lumpy so you can always blend it but as it’s going inside a cake you can probably get away with it).

3.    If you think it looks a bit thin you can put it back on the heat but basically you’re going for wallpaper paste style thickness.

4.    Leave to one side to cool and then sandwich the two cakes together.

Victoria Sponge

Sometimes I bake on other days of the week. Like last night - a Tuesday. In thanks for sponsorship for a sleep out I did for Centrepoint I said I'd bake cakes for a couple of people at work. One of them chose to have it as her work birthday cake and requested a Victoria Sponge. So here is is. Filled with strawberry jam, whipped double cream and berries. It basically got inhaled by everyone. Success.

Porter Cake (Fruit Cake with Guinness)

Family recipes are a gift and something to treasure. Mostly they are handed down with care and attention, including amendments or improvements so the next generation can continue to evolve and make the recipes their own. Not so with my mum. Ingredients such as ‘a lump of butter’ appear in her recipes and when questioned on what size a lump is all you get is, “Oh you know. A lump.” I spend my time trying to decipher them and keeping my fingers crossed that it will all turn out ok.

One recipe which is a Christmas staple is my family’s ‘Porter Cake’. Basically a boiled fruit cake with Guinness which tastes amazing. There is something about soaking the fruit in lots of butter and Guinness that not only creates a fantastic smell but also a wonderful liquor that the rest of the ingredients get mixed into. My husband thinks the sound it makes when stirred is great!

I was talking to my mum about it, as I was due to make it, and mentioned that the fruit drops in the cake most of the time on me. She then proceeded to ask me some questions about how I make it and I confirmed that I follow the recipe she gave me. Then the bombshell – the recipe was more a guideline than an actual representation of how she makes it! So I put too much Guinness in and not enough flour. WTF?! It’s already bad enough that the recipe calls for 4 or 5 eggs. She found this all rather amusing needless to say.

So I’ve experimented a little bit, not too much as following the original recipe made a pretty good cake, and below should mean you won’t fall foul of dropping fruit. I’ve left in the 4 or 5 eggs though as it wouldn’t be a family recipe for me without something a little vague, with the same going for the cake tins you need. I urge you to make this as it can all be done in one large saucepan and makes a welcome Christmas gift.

Ingredients

330ml Guinness (roughly)

350g raisins

350g sultanas

75g candied peel

75g glace cherries, chopped (I use the natural colour glace cherries as I don't like the lurid red of the other ones contrasting with the darker fruit in this cake but up to you)

200g brown sugar (I use whatever I have - light or dark or a mixture of the two)

250g butter

450g plain flour

2 tsp bicarb of soda

4 or 5 large eggs

1.   Get a large saucepan.

2.   Put the butter, sugar, raisins and candied peel in. Turn the heat on low and bring to a simmer.

3.   Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. This allows the fruit to soak up the moisture and absorb the flavours. It needs to be left at least a couple of hours.

4.   Preheat the oven to 150°/GM1.

5.   Add the chopped cherries (I just cut them in with kitchen scissors) and then the eggs. Add the plain flour and bicarb. Mix well. Now this mixture might need a bit more flour, a bit less, depends on how much moisture the fruit has soaked up and if you used 4 eggs or 5.

6.   The difficulty with the recipe is that it was clearly put together for a random mammoth sized cake tin that is now lost in the midst of time. I sometimes make one round cake and one loaf cake, or 3 loaf cakes. Sorry – it’s another issue with this recipe – no set tin size. Just shove it in and I’m sure it will be ok. It always is for me.

7.   Cook for anything from 1 hour to 2 hours. If it's a loaf cake test after 45 minutes but if you have a mammoth cake tin you’ve put the whole mixture in then you’ll need about 2.