Fraser brought me a cookbook of Scottish Teatime Recipes. Upon receiving it, I said, "now, this isn't really a present for me, is it?" He just grinned, like this:
So far, I've only tried one recipe in it, which is the same as this one for flapjacks, which are absolutely nothing like pancakes. I've made these before, but they're so good it's worth repeating. The recipe calls for golden syrup, which I couldn't find, so I used maple instead (note: not artificially-flavored pancake syrup, but real maple syrup). The batch I made to send home with Fraser had cinnamon and raisins added, mostly because every time we passed a bakery case or grocery shelf that had oatmeal-raisin cookies on it, he'd sigh and go "mmmmmmmoatmeal cookieeeeeeeeeesmmmmmmmmmm," but then move on because there were already baked goods at home.
I had already made what Fraser calls shortcake but has nothing to do with strawberries. The recipe I used refers to it as "Millionaire's Shortbread," but he said it was exactly right, and even bestowed upon it the ultimate compliment: his Gran would have approved of it. The recipe calls for either premade dulce de leche or homemade caramel. I made the homemade caramel, and I like to think that (since it was really time consuming, though not difficult) this was the extra touch that prompted him to roll his eyes back in his head and profess his undying love for the cook.
Working together, we made another favorite of his Gran's, which was new to me in its entirety. The closest thing I've ever eaten to Tablet is the maple candy you can get in Canada and New England. It's hard to describe, but imagine a sort of caramel fudge or soft toffee. It's as sweet a thing you can eat without digging into a bag of sugar.I love the commentary attached to the recipe, such as "if black streaks appear, you've burnt it and good luck cleaning the pan." After a half hour or so of mostly stirring, we were awarded with a tray of melt-in-your-mouth, caramel-colored squares of what my best friend referred to as "holy sugar coma, Batman!" I discovered by accident that a bit of it dissolved into a cup of coffee is a nice alternative to artificially-flavored creamer. I don't usually sweeten my coffee, but since half my piece of tablet just broke off and landed there, then dissolved instantly, I went with it, and it was good!
We took some of that, along with the results of another recipe I'd never heard of, Empire Biscuits, with us to visit Spike. Yep - same Spike of The Paul & Spike Show. If you remember, I was a guest on the show along with some other Pop Bunker contributors, prompting Spike to play matchmaker and set me up with his best friend. As a tiny thank-you, I had Fraser find out what kind of baked things Spike might be partial to, and he came back with these. I followed this recipe, except Fraser said that his Gran always put a gumdrop on top instead of the cherries called for, so that's what we did.I struggled a bit with the shortbread, but I attribute that to the 98 degree heat and extremely high humidity. When the dough is half butter, it just won't stay firm in those conditions. Still, after lots of grumbling and getting the dough as chilled as possible in the fridge, I did manage to get it to work. I was afraid they'd be tough after having to re-roll it a few times, but thankfully, they were not. Fraser said they "taste like childhood," so I'll take that as a good sign!
There are lots more recipes in the little cookbook, and I'm sure even more out there, and I'm enjoying having them introduced to my life.
