Jam Drops

Jam drops are an old fashioned biscuit that have stood the test of time. I tried to find out the history behind them but Mr Google was not co-operating. All I know is that my Mother used to bake them when I was a child.

Back in my 20's I was gathering together a collection of recepie books, in particular the Women's Weekly ones. I have quite a few of them now, both hard covered ones and soft cover ones. The recepie for these biscuits is in my little hard covered Women's Weekly 100 Delicious Biscuits & Slices book.

Basically they are a biscuit dough rolled in a ball, squashed flat, an indentation made with a thumb which is then filled with jam. They are then baked in an oven until golden.

I make them from time to time, and when I do I make double or triple batches because they always go quickly. 

A White Chocolate Mud Cake

Strawberries have been so cheap lately and I have been trying different ways to have them. Back when we were kids we used to have a strawberry patch, and my Mum would just wash them, cut them up and sprinkle them with a little sugar. These were just left to stand for a while and we would have them with icecream. Now I know this to be called macerated strawberries, but I use icing sugar to make the process a little faster.

Some years ago I used to get free strawberries from my green grocer and I used to do the same, but after a while I looked for other ways to make them go further. Back then I learnt to make chocolate cake in a big muffin tins, and combined with the strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream we had dessert.

This time I tried something different again, a white chocolate mud cake. It's the first time I've made one, and I need to look for a new recepie. This one I found on-line and it was a bit dry. Iced with a white chocolate ganache frosting, sprinkled with coconut, it was the perfect accompaniment to the macerated strawberries.

Jaffa Cake

What do you do when you are given still more oranges? I have made marmalade, orange curd, and orange cake. So this time I decided to make a jaffa cake.

I took a basic chocolate cake recepie, added some orange zest, mixed it up with orange juice, and baked it.

Iced with chocolate orange butter cream and sprinkled with gold sprinkles, it was delicious with macerated  strawberries.

Rhubarb And Apple Crumble

I love rhubarb, always have done. My Mum used to stew it with apple and we would have it with icecream for dessert. Of course, back then it was home grown.

So now when I spot rhubarb for sale, I usually grab a bunch  and make a crumble. At first, I used to make this cake like topping that my Mother used to put on the top of cooked apple. It was always delicious and I continued the tradition, just on the top of cooked rhubarb instead.

Over the years I have always looked at any new recepie I find, and I found one one day for a rhubarb and apple crumble that was different to what I had been doing, and it is so much better.

I  cook the apple and rhubarb in a pot with a very minute amount of water. When cooked, I add brown sugar, golden syrup, lemon juice and cinnamon. This all goes in a heat proof casserole dish to be topped with the crumble mix.

The crumble mix is flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, rolled oats, coconut, chopped pecans and melted butter. It is all mixed together then placed on top of the cooked fruit.

This then goes into the oven for about half an hour or until the crumble is brown & crunchy.

A different take on my Mum's rhubarb, but oh so delicious!