Index:

Apricot Pickle
Chocolate Brownies
Cumbrian Rum Nicky
Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
Mulled Apple
Plum and Almond Cake
Toffee Apple Tart
Date Slice

Apricot Pickle

Chocolate Brownies

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Cumbrian Rum Nicky

Rum and brown sugar were popular Cumberland delicacies, arriving via Whitehaven’s slaving ships from the West Indies or smuggled in as contraband over the sands and dunes of our wild west coast . . .


12 oz sweet short crust pastry
4 oz chopped dates
2 oz chopped ginger
2 oz margarine
1 oz soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons of rum
1 beaten egg

Line and grease a pie plate with half the pastry. Cover it with chopped dates and ginger. Beat the sugar, butter and rum together and spread it over the dates. Cut the remaining pastry into strips to cover the pie. Brush with the beaten egg and bake for approx 35/40 mins at 150 ºc.

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Gluten Free Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake

1.
8oz Plain choc
8oz Butter

2.
8oz Sugar
12oz Ground Hazelnuts (or almonds)
6 Eggs

Melt 1. Whisk 2. for 5 minutes approx
Add 1 to 2 and whisk for 5 minutes approx
Put in round 8" lined tin
Bake for 1 hour 150ºc

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Mulled Apple

1 litre apple juice
1 cinamon stick
2 cloves
Juice and zest of ½ orange
1oz demerara sugar

Put into pan. Bring to boil. Leave to cool. Strain and bottle.

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Plum and Almond Cake

Preparation time: 25 mins
For The Cake 185g (6oz) unsalted butter, softened
175g (6oz) castor sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
75ml (3fl oz) milk
125g (4oz) plain flour
125g (4oz) self-raising flour
95g (31/2oz) ground almonds
About 540g (1lb 3oz) plums quartered (or halved if smaller plums) and stoned
Salt

For the topping
75g (3oz) golden castor sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
50g (2oz) unsalted butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten
23cm (9in) spring form cake tin, either non-stick or greased and lined

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Quickly beat in the eggs, one after the other, then the milk. Fold in the flours and pinch of salt to make a soft dropping consistency. Spoon into cake tin to about half the depth of the tin to allow for rising. Sprinkle over ground almonds. Arrange plums on top.

The topping
Melt butter in a pan. Stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Remove from the heat and cool briefly before mixing in the egg. Spoon the topping over the plums.

Bake on middle shelf for 1hour 20 mins or until a fine skewer comes out clean when poked through the middle. Leave for 15mins before removing the cake tin and cool on a wire rack.

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Toffee Apple Tart

12 oz Short Crust Pastry
397g can condensed milk
3oz soft brown sugar
4 Cox’s apples
Juice of 1 lemon
4oz butter, softened
2 large eggs, beaten
2oz ground almonds
4oz self-raising flour

Preheat oven to 200 ° c. Roll out the pastry to fit a 30cm, (12”) flan tin. Prick all over with a fork then bake blind for 10-15 minutes. Remove the beans and bake for a further 5 minutes. Mix 175 ml (6 fl oz) condensed milk with the sugar, cook on a moderating heat until golden brown, to make the toffee, then set aside

To prepare the apples, peel, halve and remove the core of each and sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent discolouration.

Next make the sponge mixture by whisking the remaining condensed milk with the rest of the ingredients. Once the pastry is cooked, spread the toffee mixture over the pastry base. Slice the apple halves into thin slices and arrange in the pastry case. Spread the sponge mixture between the apples. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes until the sponge is well-risen and golden brown.

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