The Homemade Heart

Firstly, sugared pecans

In the dying hours of the old year, I want to share a couple of baking recipes, whilst I can still write a post respectably labelled 'festive'. Firstly, sugared pecans. These are an annual fixture on my baking calendar, and when that first, cinnamon laden tray starts to bake in the oven, and the house smells of spice and rain (sometimes snow), I know Christmas is here. This sort of recipe is very holiday orientated, as it is low on effort, but requires you to be around the kitchen as it cooks, and if you are making many tray-fuls (as I tend to do) a whole afternoon can easily slip by in a sugary haze. The original recipe comes from a cheerful American publication called 'Sweet Christmas' by Sharon Bowers, which has lots of fantastic festive baking in it. My copy now falls open on the sugar-speckled page containing the recipe for these lovely nuts.

Ingredients

1 egg white (from L egg)

2 teaspoons cold water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

400g pecan halves

200g caster sugar

1 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Method

Preheat oven to Gas 2/150 c

In a large bowl, vigorously whisk the egg white, water and vanilla extract until light and foamy.

Add the pecans and stir thoroughly so they are well coated with the mixture.

Working quickly, add the sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and turn the pecans in the mixture to ensure each is well coated. (You want to work briskly to avoid the sugar completely dissolving in the egg white.) Incidentally, don't be tempted to miss out the salt, as it is essential to round out the delicious spicy, sweet flavour of the coating.

Spread onto baking tin and bake for 30-40 minutes, setting the timer for 10 minute intervals to stir the pecans round, break up any clumps, and move those at the edges into the middle of the tray to ensure even baking. When ready, they should be totally dry,  lightly brown and toasted, with no traces of damp egg white on them.

Tip into a large clean bowl to cool down, and when completely cold, divide into bags and tie with a ribbon, or empty into pretty jars and label. Small bags slipped in a parcel really cheer up a shop bought gift, and they are also lovely to hand out to friends and neighbours with Christmas cards. 

My second seasonal offering is for gingerbread biscuits. These are not exclusively Christmassy; I often make them at Easter too. They are delightfully traditional, and ideal for decorative icing. The recipe comes from Peggy Porschen's  'Boutique Baking'  The quantities given make a substantial amount of biscuits, so could theoretically be halved, but a large batch of gingerbread biscuits is never a bad thing to have around for nibbling with a cup of tea, or to be iced and hung on the Christmas tree, or threaded on narrow ribbon across a window. This year I used some as place markers on the Christmas table.

Ingredients

5 tbsp. water

210g light brown sugar

3 tbsp. treacle

3 tbsp. ground ginger

3 tbsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

250g slated butter, cold, diced

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

560g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

Method

Place the water, brown sugar,treacle, golden syrup, ground ginger, cinnamon, and mixed spice into a deep saucepan.

Bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring continuously.

Remove from the heat, gradually add the cold, diced butter, and stir until butter is melted and all is well combined.

Add the bicarbonate of soda and mix well.

Leave to cool to room temp.

Once cool, sift in the flour and mix slowly until all the flour is combined and a soft, slightly sticky dough is achieved.

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 2 hours approx., or until dough is cool and firm.

Roll out the dough on a lightly dusted surface to a thickness of 5-6mm. Cut out shapes as desired, ensuring that the cookies are all of similar size, to ensure even baking.  If the biscuits are going to be hung on a ribbon, make a hole near the top with a skewer at this stage. Once on the tray, chill again for 30 mins. (Tempting though it may be to dodge this step, it is  very important;  it helps the cookies keep their shape and definition when baked.)

Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on your oven. These bake quickly, so be alert to the edges turning from golden to singed. The cookies are ready when they are slightly darker than when uncooked, particularly round the edges, and feel firm to the touch. Remove to wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

To decorate....

Mix up some royal icing. To do this, I separate an egg, allowing approximately half the egg white to drop in the bowl, setting the rest aside for other use. Start sifting in icing sugar. It is astonishing how much sugar an egg white can hold  (hence only using half), keep adding and mixing until the mixture is smooth and is resisting the spoon a little. It should be quite firm, but still with flexibility and movement, rather like a stiffish, glossy toothpaste.

Use a disposable icing bag. It can be helpful to stand the icing bag in a mug or jug, with a cuff turned over the top, this leaves both hands free to fill the bag. Fill about 1/3 full, and carefully twist the bag closed expelling as much air from the bag as possible. Then, either snip off the point, and pipe directly on to the biscuits, or, prior to filling the bag, slip a piping nozzle into the snipped off point (I use a number 2 nozzle), and proceed as before. Set the cookies aside until the icing is fully dry.

In The Lull...

In the lull between Christmas and New Year, I meander through the days in a pleasant stupor. The high excitement of Christmas Day is over, New Year is not quite here, and there are few deadlines, apart from meals and dog walks, both of which have assumed a wandering quality, taking place at any time between waking and sleeping (waking and sleeping arrangements also having taken on a certain fluidity), and pleasing everyone just the same. 

Days are spent reading, sewing, catching up with television, and throwing the occasional wash through the machine, or filling the dishwasher. I am glad when the afternoon darkens, and I can light the candles I have scattered all round the house; partly to enjoy their flickering glow and gentle light, and partly to conceal the fact that the floor hasn't been mopped for days.

The house is still full of festive food, and all of it more than edible. We now avoid turkey at Christmas, as no-one ever wanted to eat it the next day. The leftover meat would be frozen on Boxing Day and made in to a curry sometime in February (which nobody wanted then either). After several years of this pointless ritual, coinciding with my meat consumption plummeting to virtual vegetarianism, with the very occasional bacon sandwich, we changed our Christmas Day feast from turkey (with all the trimmings), to ham, beef, and fish (with all the trimmings). This ensures plentiful feasting on the day, genuinely tasty leftovers for many days afterwards, and almost no waste.

Minimal food preparation and ignoring the house being in a state of dusty disarray,  I have plenty of time for reading, and have a pile of delightful bookish gifts to enjoy. I am currently reading Laurie Lee's 'Village Christmas And Other Notes on The English Year'. The writing is sumptuous; lush, specific, poetic, beautiful.

Post Christmas, I also finished my first full- size quilt, which I had been working on throughout the autumn. I  have spent the last couple of evenings stitching the border. As I had opted for the aforementioned candlelight, this felt rather Bronte-esque, stitching diligently in the dim light as the storms raged outside. Here is the finished quilt draped over Isaac's legs. I had barely finished the last stitch when it was pressed into sofa service, which is just as it should be.

A quilt's eye view of the television.

I hope your days in the lull are equally pleasant (and perhaps that little bit more organised than mine). Happy festive times.

The house is quiet.

As I write, it's early on Christmas Eve morning. Everyone else is still asleep. The house is quiet. The radio is humming in the kitchen, and the washing machine is swooshing and swishing the last couple of washes until after Christmas. The tree is glowing beside me, the familiar, treasured decorations gleaming here and there as the reflection of the fairy lights catch the faceted surfaces.

The Christmas cake sits in the kitchen, fatly important in its coat of marzipan, waiting to be iced and decorated later this morning. The gingerbread houses and hearts I baked the other day await icing, they are intended as place-markers on the Christmas table, I am so looking forward to sitting at the kitchen table later to decorate each one with a name; Gran; John, Jonathan, Derek, Penny, Jacob, Isaac. Our dear family Christmas, so precious, so familiar, so much pleasure in preparing for this day of celebration. Not so much a Christian celebration in our house, as none of us are overtly religious, but a celebration of being together as a family, being thankful for and appreciative of our health, our happiness, our peaceful home, our darling boys, my dear wee mum, my darling brother.

My favourite moment on Christmas Eve is when we return from the carol service at our local church, and close the front door. The preparations are complete. The fridge and cupboards are full, the gifts are wrapped, the house is fresh and tidy, the candles are lit. Our Christmas Eve tradition is to have a supper of party food and watch 'Elf' before hanging up stockings for Santa to fill. Very unsophisticated, very simple, and 'very fun' as Isaac used to say when he was small. I hope your Christmas is 'very fun' too. Happy Christmas.

Plum Brandy and writing in the cracks

Home made plum brandy is a gorgeous drink, perfect at Christmas, being rich, aromatic and sweet without being cloying. Just right for sipping in the evening in front of the fire, or to pour into the bottom of a glass before topping up with champagne on Christmas morning. It makes an excellent gift too. I give away bottles of it to those kind souls who drop in around Christmas for a cup of tea or to hand in Christmas cards. Sending someone away with a small bottle of something warming and home-made tucked in their coat pocket feels like the essence of the festive hospitality to me.

Although I have made plum brandy this Christmas, the alcohol and fruit elements are interchangeable, lending themselves to many variations. In recent years I have made bramble brandy and redcurrant gin (particularly delicious!). Home made liqueurs are not a last-minute option, as they have to be started in the late summer. Making the liqueur is the earliest Christmas preparation of every year, and tucking the newly filled Kilner  jars into the dresser cupboard in late August engenders a delightful sensation of preparedness that is sadly lacking elsewhere in my life. We must take our comfort where we can, and jars of plum or bramble brandy do it for me. 

So whilst time may be against you for making and enjoying plum brandy this Christmas, please consider it next summer (I will try to remember to put a reminder on the blog for those who are interested!). This is how it's done:

Plum Brandy

 325g fruit of choice

200g caster sugar

600ml spirit of choice

Check over the fruit, discard (or eat!) any that is over ripe. Stone fruits, or those fruits with a slightly thicker skin, such as plums or sloes, should be  pricked with a sharp knife or skewer; soft fruits such as brambles or redcurrants should be left whole, though any stalks should be removed.

Sterilize 1litre Kilner or other jars with an airtight lid (I put jars and lids through a hot wash in the dishwasher, then place in a low oven to dry out).

Pour the sugar into the bottom of the jar, followed by the fruit, then pour over the spirit. Fill to the top and screw the lid on tightly. Invert the jar a few times to encourage the sugar to dissolve and disperse throughout the jar. Wipe the jar/s down with a wet cloth and place them in a cool, dark cupboard. Every few days for the first couple of weeks, take the jars out and give them a gentle shake. Leave for a minimum of three months.

When ready to bottle up, sterilize some pretty bottles and leave in a low oven to dry out. Pour the brandy through a sieve lined with clean muslin or a thin dish towel into a large jug, decant into bottles, wipe down and label.

Next, a brief nod to the fact that I have been absent from my desk for some weeks. No sinister reasons for this, just an increase in family commitments, combined with a particularly hectic November, meant that suddenly it was four weeks since I had sat down to write, then it was five, then six...

I missed writing here, and reading, and generally enjoying the sensation of belonging to a blogging community that embraces its members yet constantly reaches out with welcoming arms. It is a creative, supportive, and kindly community, and I have missed it. I  have realised (once again) that keeping this blog is important to me. It is in part a loose journal of events: when I read an old post (usually whilst looking vainly for a recipe and then suddenly thinking 'Oh, it's on the blog, I'll get it from there') I am very effectively reminded of time and place, the atmosphere of the moment when I was writing. The writing and photographs become an aide memoir and a (slightly haphazard) history of  family life. It is also an exercise in creating short written pieces that others may enjoy reading, and when someone does enjoy something I have written, I am deeply gratified. Gratification is not available by the spadeful, so a little sprinkle of it from blogging friends is warmly welcomed.

I also realised that my writing is done in the cracks; in the little slivers of time between other commitments; writing and photography is something that makes me feel fulfilled, yet it is the first thing to drop when life speeds up. I treasure it, but I don't value it. Having time to write feels like a luxury, not a right. How do you feel about your writing? Do you do it no matter what, or do you constantly push it to the bottom of the 'to do' list?

All being well (and it is) I should be back with another seasonal post pre Christmas.