You can't do that with a yogurt! Or what is life without blancmange?

Yogurt is all very well if you like that sort of thing, but blancmange is just wonderful!  I grew up in a world before yogurt, they hadn't invented Angel Delight although there was a similar thing called Instant Whip which tasted very artificial.  The best children's parties had a pink blancmange rabbit surrounded by green jelly grass.

Very few people make blancmange these days, indeed you can't always find it in the shops.  The good news is that you don't need to!  The boxes of blancmange that my mum used to buy said on the front "Brown and Polson's flavoured cornflour" and that is just what blancmange is, cornflour.  With a packet of cornflour, a pint of milk and the sweetener and flavour of your choice you have a simple, delicious, softly wobbling pudding.  You can add colouring if you choose, but part of the fun in this house is to play guess the blancmange by not adding colour, or if I am feeling perverse I make yellow blancmange that tastes of strawberry or blue that tastes of caramel!

The way the ingredients are written look a little strange, but they are based on historical tradition.  Blancmange was always made with a pint of milk which translates to exactly 568mls and because I took the original weight of cornflour from a sachet of blancmange after they started to use metric measures the cornflour is 37g.  Measurement is rather precise for this recipe as you want your blancmange to set, but you want a gentle wobble rather than bounce and just 1g either side can affect the texture quite considerably.  So I always weigh my ingredients on a digital scale, weighing the liquid as well as the dry ingredients.  Conveniently for milk and water millilitres and grams are interchangeable so it is easy to weigh.  I use electronic scales for accuracy and convenience, as you can re-set them easily to zero.

So
568mls of milk
37 grams of cornflour
4 teaspoons of sugar or more to suit your taste
Natural flavouring of your choice follow any guidlines on the bottle for jow much to use, or start out with a small capful and check for taste.
Colouring if you want, used sparingly if you don't want it fluorescent!

I make my blancmange in a jug in the microwave.  It is very difficult to give timings for this as microwaves vary so much.  If you do decide to try it in the microwave then you will need to use a microwave proof two pint jug to avoid it boiling over and until you are sure of your timings I would recommend standing it on a large microwavable plate to avoid a horrible mess on your turntable.  If you make it in the microwave you will need to stir it every thirty seconds after you have added the cornflour.  Do read the traditional method before embarking on it in the microwave as the steps are the same.

I'll give you the old fashioned method here.

Measure your milk and pour all but a couple of tablespoons or so of it into a saucepan and bring it to a boil.  Keep an eye on it as you measure out the other ingredients as burned milk stinks and cleaning the cooker top is a nuisance.

Mix the remaining ingredients into the the small amount of milk you reserved, you will need to mix this very thoroughly to make sure that your cornflour has no lumps.  I use those cheap little whisks which look like they have a spring on the end, I find them easier than a ballon whisk and better than a spoon.  If you don't have  a whisk try beating it thoroughly with a fork.

As soon as the milk comes to a boil take it off the heat.  Give your cornflour a final thorough mix as if it has stood for more than a few minutes the cornflour can congeal into a solid lump.

Pour about half of the hot milk into the cornflour mixture beating it all the time, then give it a really good stir to make sure it is well combined.  Then tip this back into the saucepan and stir it thoroughly to combine the remnaining milk.  NB do not use a wire whisk in your non-stick saucepan or it won't stay non-stick!  Use a wooden spoon or a silicone spatula.

Put the saucepan back on the heat and stir it continuously until it comes back to the boil, then reduce the heatu and let it simmer very slowly for a couple of minutes stirring all the time.  It will thicken as it comes to the boil, but you need to continue to simmer it to make sure that the cornflour is thoroughly cooked.  You need to keep the heat low and stir all the time, right into the corners of the pan to make sure it doesn't burn.

Pour it into your serving dish or dishes and leave it to cool for an hour or so before eating.  It will keep for a couple of days in the fridge.

This looks difficult when written down, but it really is very straightforward.  If you get lumps don't panic, pour it into your serving dish through a sieve.

If you want to make it in a mould to turn out on a plate there are a few more steps to it, but I'll talk about that another day!

Enjoy

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Natural Flavouring

As in my previous posts I have talked about trying to use natural flavours whenever possible.  As you can see I have a huge collection, but if you are wanting something a little out of the ordinary they can be harder to find.  I mentioned the Lakeland custard flavour, but they have a whole range available both in the shops and online I have tested some of the range and been happy with the flavours, I intend to work through the rest!

Another brand I found in the foodhall  in Baker's and Larner's of Holt a fabulous shop which will no doubt crop up again as a source of ingredients.  They had a nice range of Uncle Roy's flavours.  However the range in the shop is nothing compared to what is available direct from the company, and the mail order charges are ok if you buy a few.  They are also available in independent deli's so perhaps you can persuade your local shop to stock them.  My greatest excitement was to find maple flavouring, which I have hunted for for years, maple syrup being expensive and not always suitable for some recipes as it is quite liquid.  If I were to have a criticism of these flavourings, it is that the strengths vary.  They say to use six drops, however if you use six drops of the strawberry it is so strong as to be unpleasant two to three is generally enough, whereas with the raspberry it takes around 18 drops to achieve a good raspberry flavour.

This blog is starting to look like some kind of crazed infomercial!  It isn't intended to be, but I do find it endlessly frustrating to read blogs which mention products but don't tell you where to buy them!

Happy shopping

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Battenberg Biccies

Inspired by yesterday's post about almond flavour I decided to make raspberry and almond flavour cookies.  Hence the name battenberg biccies.

I used my basic cookie dough making it in two half quantities.  I flavoured one half with natural almond and flavoured the other half with natural raspberry, which I also coloured pink.  I divided each flavour into sixteen equal balls then pushed one ball of each flavour together then pressed them onto the baking tray.

The end result is not as pretty as it could be.  I think it needs more pink colouring.  Perhaps mixing the two doughs together would have produced a marbled effect, but the cookies inevitably will brown a little in the oven.  However the proof of the pudding as they say!

Edited to add that these were approved by That Man, who doesn't like almond flavour (if it is artificial).  They were also approved by That Boy.  Handy Boy sadly didn't get to test them as The Boss (who is also his dad) approved of them so much that he ate them all before Handy Boy got back to the shop!

Enjoy

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Almond

Almond as a flavour seems to be a love or hate thing, many people detesting marzipan, or bakewell pudding (tart).  However not liking these things may not be the same as disliking almonds themselves.

Lots of recipes contain ground almonds which give a lovely texture to your baking.  What you may actually dislike is almond flavouring, in particular artificial almond flavouring.  Unlike vanilla, much less seems to have been said about almond flavour, but I believe that artificial almond is probably far more unpleasant than artificial vanilla.

If you don't actually like even natural almond flavouring (I don't) as it can be very strong, it does not mean that you won't like baking that contains just the nuts.

For those who do like almond you will find that Dr Oetker (which is currently in my collection) make a natural almond flavour which is readily available and not too expensive.  Some supermarkets I'm sure will offer their own brands too.

I also noticed that Doctor Oetker Marzipan does not contain any flavouring, just almonds, so perhaps we may all rediscover a love for marzipan on home made battenberg!

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Vanilla

Vanilla is actually one of the hardest ingredients to buy, because there are so many different ones to choose from.  Telly chefs just confuse things further by insisting that what you buy must be labelled extract, not essence or be very extravagant and use of whole vanilla pods!  Telly chefs don't live in the real world when it comes to price, availability, or labelling.

Vanilla can be paste, essence, extract, sugar or bean.  One is not necessarily better than another, the important word is natural, ie it is actually made from real vanilla.

The other important thing to realise is that different brands of vanilla can taste very different depending on the where the beans are grown.  Just because the flavouring you choose is the most expensive does not mean you will like the way it tastes!  It took me a while to realise this, and then a little while longer to find the brands I like best.  One is very cheap the other is a little more expensive.

For everyday flavour in cakes and cookies I find that the Lidl Belbake Natural Flavouring suits just fine.  Conveniently it also costs less than £1 a bottle!

If I want to make blancmange or custard I prefer the Lakeland Natural Professional Flavour that they call Custard.

It tastes more like your old favourite custard powder we all used to use, but somehow more so - hard to explain unless you taste it!  It costs rather more, but it is more concentrated and if you buy two at a time they are a bit cheaper.

Telly chefs seem to favour scraping the beans out of a vanilla pod or even putting the whole bean into some sugar and running the whole lot through a food processor to make vanilla sugar.  It really is far to extravagant for everyday baking and entirely unnecessary.

It may take a few bottles to work out which flavour you prefer and some experimentation to decide how much to use as strengths vary hugely.  For the Belbake I usually need two capsful in an average recipe, but for the Lakeland it is so concentrated I only need six drops.

Of course if you don't like vanilla then use a flavour you do like, it's your baking so you can choose!

Enjoy
Karen Lizzie
xxx