And to celebrate, I made something totally English and very wonderful. Gingerbread - a copy of "Grasmere Gingerbread" - recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver.
I do love ginger, in the right quantities! When I clapped eyes on this article from Apartment Therapy The Kitchen, I knew that the recipe would queue jump all others in the ever growing pile. I've not eaten the "original" Grasmere gingerbread, but I would like to try it to see how it compares with Jamie's recipe.
This gingerbread is more like a biscuit/cookie, soft and crunchy at the same time, and the ginger isn't over the top, especially if you grind the crystallized ginger quite fine. I think that if you served the gingerbread warm with some vanilla ice cream, you would be in heaven!
Jamie Oliver's Ultimate Gingerbread
Adapted from here.
400g shop-bought shortbread
170g coarse demerara sugar
3 level teaspoons ground ginger (divided into 2 t and 1 t)
40g mixed peel, finely chopped
40g crystallized ginger, finely chopped
70g plain flour
a pinch of baking powder
40g golden syrup (adding a bit more will make the gingerbread softer)
40g treacle
70g unsalted butter
Preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF/gas 3. Line a 9" x 13" baking sheet with baking parchment.
Put the shortbread, sugar and 2 teaspoons of the ground ginger into a food processor and pulse until you have fine crumbs. Remove 100g of the mix and keep this to one side. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon of ginger to the food processor, along with the mixed peel, crystallized ginger, flour and baking powder, and pulse until well mixed.
In a large saucepan, melt the syrup, treacle and butter together. When melted, pour the mixture from the food processor into the saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon until everything is thoroughly mixed together.
Tip the mixture onto the baking tray and spread out evenly. Press it down with a spatula or the back of a large spoon. When the mixture is flat and even, put the tray in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, take the tray out of the oven and sprinkle the hot gingerbread with the reserved crumbs, pressing them down well with a spatula or back of a spoon.
Carefully cut into good-sized pieces with a sharp knife, and leave to cool in the tray before eating.
Note: I ground the crystallized ginger and mixed peel in a small processor at the start to make it really fine and cut the ground ginger by 1 teaspoon - just my personal preference!
You can leave out the mixed peel and it still tastes really good.
(Printable Recipe)
My blog turned 2 this week, and I wanted to say a big thank you to all my readers and to everyone who has taken the time to comment or make a recipe from this blog.
Thank YOU!
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And as you can see, we have been busy in the garden - there's going to be a ton of chillies of all varieties, along with lots of other wonderful veggies.
The photo of the chilli seedlings in this post is my entry for this month's 'Click', a monthly theme-based photography contest hosted by Jugalbandi. This month’s theme is: Spring/Autumn
You can view the gallery here, it's updated as the photos come in.
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