a fashionable hobby – in those days, it was a necessity. I also looked up economical recipes in magazines and created my own recipe book, adapting recipes to our personal taste and often for cheaper ingredients. One of my favourite recipe books was one that my sister Denise gave me. It was by Michel Roux Senior and I worked my way through it, trying out both sweet and savoury dishes. This was my time for learning – it was when I first tried out different pastries, cakes and puddings. As the children grew I returned to teaching, but never lost my love of trying out fresh ideas. At the same time, I had to juggle a family and a job, so I needed to develop quick, economical meals and bakes to fit into the family’s busy week. My recipe book continued to grow until it contained hand-written recipes from my mum, my husband Ian’s mum and both our grandmothers. I would have a schedule for baking in the school holidays – bread one day, pastries the next, made-up
meals and so on, then I would freeze things. This way I always had something home-cooked on hand when I came home from work and it wouldn’t be long before a meal was hot and on the table. Having taught for over 30 years – eventually becoming a head teacher – I learned the art of planning ahead, using both store-cupboard and fresh ingredients. I shopped once a month for the cupboard items and had even saved up a years’ worth of shopping lists (showing the prices paid) – something that used to entertain my fellow bakers on The Great British Bake Off! But I have always tried to use the best healthy ingredients whilst remaining cost-conscious. Over the coming editions of Sherborne Times I will share some of these recipes with you and this month, we are starting with something sweet. bakerval.com
SPELT AND GINGER BISCUITS
I
have always used spelt flour for bread, but recently I’ve been experimenting with it. These biscuits are crisp with a little bit of a chew in the middle and full of ginger flavour, as I use both stem ginger and ground ginger. They are quick to make and bake in 8-9 minutes. Perfect with a cuppa and ideal to bag up and sell for school fairs, charity events and gifts when you visit friends and family. Makes about 25 Ingredients
50g unsalted butter 50g golden syrup, (I weigh into a small dish, adding about an extra 10g to make up for the stuff that gets left behind when you scrape it out!) 50g stem ginger, finely chopped – don’t use all the juice 50g caster sugar 50g light soft brown sugar (the two sugars are good because the caster sugar helps the crispness and the brown sugar the chewiness) 1 egg yolk 150g white spelt flour 1 1/2 tps ground ginger 1/2 tps bicarbonate of soda 1 tps vanilla extract Method
1 Set the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 2 Place the butter, golden syrup and stem ginger in a
microwaveable bowl and heat on medium heat until they are just melted – about two bursts of one minute. 3 Beat in the two sugars, then the egg yolk, flour, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda and finally the vanilla extract. Stir well until combined and you have a soft dough. 4 I use my digital scales at this point to make sure that the biscuits turn out the same size, using a small piece of silicon to stop the dough from sticking. Each one should weigh 16g, which makes a nice little biscuit. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment, spaced about 6cm apart as the biscuits spread out when baking. 5 Bake for 7-9 minutes. They will rise and become golden around the edges, but don’t let them go too dark as they can taste burnt. 6 Remove them from the oven, let them cool for a moment then use an offset spatula – much better than the straight ones – to lift onto a cooling rack. 7 Once cool they can be stored in an airtight tin and will keep for up to a month – but you will have eaten them before then! 8 For a variation on these biscuits, replace the ginger with 50g finely chopped dried apricots and a teaspoon of mixed spice. Alternatively, also in place of the ginger, soak 50g of raisins in the juice of an orange for at least one hour before adding to your dough, along with the zest of an orange and a teaspoon of cinnamon. www.sherbornetimes.co.uk | 59