Effort and reward to beat the blues

I do hate this time of year. I know I'm not alone in feeling this way but I'm not exactly sure what it is that gets me down. Could it be cycling to and from work in the dark and/or wet and/or cold? Or is it that all my pre-Christmas projects and activities are over and I haven't yet found the enthusiasm to get going with a non-Christmas project, (and it would be wrong to start making Christmas decorations in January - wouldn't it?). I've cleared out the cupboards and sent piles of stuff to the charity shop and recycling centre. I've even planned the spring planting scheme for the garden but can't put any of it into action for at least another 2-3 months.

Let's face it, I'm bored but have too much energy to spend too much time watching films or reading books. So, this weekend having already been to the cinema, finished one book, begun another, done the laundry and cleaned the house I turned my attention to things that I've been meaning to do but haven't.

The first thing was to finish making the set of placemats and coasters that I'd started making back in November. They were taking me ages and I'd shelved the project when I realised I needed a more festive alternative for Christmas. So, yesterday afternoon the needle felting kit was unearthed and I set about making the final 2 placemats and 3 coasters that would ensure I had a set of 8 of each.

I tweaked my technique, using four needles together in a holder rather than the more precise but oh-so-slightly tedious single needle. The result is a slightly thicker end product but I decided they would probably flatten with use and, since people tend to focus on their own placemat rather than the one being used by the person sat next to them, who would really notice? And that's assuming my guests even study them in the first place!

However, I felt just a teeny bit better once I'd completed the set and could properly admire my handiwork. After all, a rainbow is guaranteed to brighten up even the dreariest of days!

The completed set

The second project was one I'd been intending to make since October but had, so far, failed to find a good enough excuse. I normally don't bake unless I am expecting visitors, going somewhere or have volunteered to make the cake for Craft Club. However, I decided that a dull weekend in January could be the only excuse I needed to bake some biscuits. Besides, these weren't just any biscuits. These were from a recipe I'd brought back from Italy last October and had been eager, if a little nervous, to try out.

Whilst in Italy I'd seen this style of biscuits in my friends' local deli and they looked delicious. However, they were made with wheat flour so I was unable to try them. However, the foodie magazine from my friends' local supermarket featured a recipe for a gluten-free version which I'd photographed in order to bring home.

The main problem with the recipe is that it's in Italian and I don't speak Italian. However, with the help of Google Translate and previous experience of biscuit-making I felt I had enough of an idea of what to do to give it a go. I found all the ingredients in either the larger branch of my regular supermarket or my very good local health food shop and so was ready to begin.

Let's say, it wasn't quite plain sailing but I think I got there in the end. Here's my version of the recipe for Chestnut Flour and Cherry Jam Biscuits.

Into a large mixing bowl place 130g chestnut flour (sieved), 50g buckwheat flour (sieved), 50g ground hazelnuts, 40g caster sugar, 5g baking powder and mix well. Then, using a food processor or electric hand whisk, gradually add 4 tablespoons vegetable oil until you have the texture of fine breadcrumbs. Still using your mixer, gradually add enough milk until the mixture had formed a dough. The recipe states this to be 100ml but I found this to be far too much. You can use soya milk or almond milk rather than regular milk in order to make the biscuits vegan and if you can't find ground hazelnuts, just grind up 50g blanched hazelnuts in a mini food processor until they are as finely chopped as they can be.

Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge whilst you pre-heat your oven to 170C or gas 3. Use this time to find some suitable cookie cutters.  You need one about 6-7cm diameter and another about 4cm diameter.

After about 15-20 minutes, remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out between two sheets of cling film (standard practice for dough made without wheat since it's really sticky, even if you haven't added too much milk!). It needs to be about 4mm thick.

As you can see from the photo above, the biscuits are sandwiched together with jam so you need to make sure you don't end up with too many bases and not enough tops. I therefore constructed each biscuit as I went. Using the larger cookie cutter, cut out a biscuit and place it on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Place a teaspoon of cherry jam in the centre and then cut out a second biscuit shape but before sticking it on top of the jam use the smaller cutter to cut a hole out of the centre. I found the perfect consistency of dough enabled it to stay in the cookie cutter to be transferred to the tray. This also enabled the second layer to be lined up on top of the first with relative ease. Keep going until you have used up all your dough, dipping the cookie cutters in buckwheat flour at regular intervals to stop everything getting too sticky.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

The verdict? A dense and nutty biscuit with a hit of jammy sweetness and a real challenge to make (foreign language, sticky dough, fiddly lining up of tops and bases...need I go on?). However, I now feel that I deserve to curl up with a cup of tea and my new book. Oh and with a chestnut and cherry biscuit, of course!

Heirloom restoration

Whilst putting the Christmas decorations back into the loft I came across a box containing some old woodworking tools that belonged to my grandfather - or did they actually belong to my great grandfather? That will have to be a question for my Mum! Perhaps they were tools that actually passed from father to son? Either way, I knew neither of them, one having died before I was born and the other when I was just 3 or 4 years old. I'm familiar with their faces from photographs but coming across objects that were clearly well used by them in their lifetime feels like a connection to be treasured.

The three objects that really took my fancy were the wood planes. Not because I'm a keen woodworker - I feel I need a proper workshop or large shed for such activities and I have no room for either - but because, as you know, I love the process of making stuff by hand and these are the tools that they used to do just that.

My projects list this year contains the need to make two new doorstops. All the doors in my house are on automatic closures but when you have a cat who needs access to outside (via the kitchen) and who you'd also like to give the opportunity of curling up on your lap (in the lounge), or the weather gets hot and you need to enable a through-draft, doorstops are essential. I'd normally make a fabric shape and fill it with sand or rice but the planes gave me a different option. I decided to clean them up and see what would emerge.

Before...

As you can see by the photo they were ingrained with a combination of what I imagine was sweat (surely, woodwork with such tools is an activity that would build up a modicum of perspiration?), dust and general dirt that anything living in a shed or loft would pick up. So, I stocked up on fine sandpaper for the wood and some wire wool for the metal and set about cleaning them up.

It soon became clear that much of the metal had originally be painted black and what I was removing with the wire wool was mainly rust. I therefore thought that a reapplication of some black metal paint may be the way forwards. I had just intended to paint the top, leaving the sides and bottom bare but a careless drip of paint down one of the sides soon meant I was amending my plans and all upper and side surfaces were duly painted, leaving the base and sharp-end of each blade as bare steel. Interestingly these were also the only totally rust-free bits of metal.

The wood was much easier to sand, not least because the wooden planes are really such simple structures. All they then needed was a couple of generous applications of wood oil of the sort that you would use on a wooden kitchen work surface or chopping board.

I have to say, I'm quite pleased with the results.

...after

I just now have to decide which rooms in the house deserve to have a family heirloom as a doorstop. There's also nothing to stop me from using them as woodworking tools at some point in the future. Perhaps seeing them every day will act as the inspiration I require?

Chocolate Panforte - not just for Christmas?!

It was the first Craft Club of 2016 yesterday and, as regular readers may know, we all contribute some food towards the day - cake, main course, side dishes etc. Before Christmas I couldn't decide which Christmas cake to make for the family and had bought ingredients for both a Chocolate Panforte (a sticky Italian cake or sweet traditionally made at Christmas) and a Sticky Toffee Christmas Cake (a Dan Lepard, gluten-free cake recipe based on the classic dessert Sticky Toffee Pudding).

In the end I decided the Sticky Toffee Cake may be more popular with the younger members of the clan and so made that. However, this meant I still had all the ingredients for the Chocolate Panforte so I had volunteered to make this as my culinary Craft Club contribution.

It's a very sticky and chewy concoction made up of nuts and dried fruit held together with boiled sugar, honey and maple syrup, pepped up with various spices and natural flavourings and, in this case, chocolate. The finished cake is only a few centimetres deep but very rich and packed with flavour so a small slice is all you need. However, the claim that the recipe makes about 30 slices may be pushing it a bit (or we are all just very greedy!)

It proved so popular that everyone took home extra slices and asked for the recipe. So, here goes:

Preheat the oven to 180 C/gas 4 and spread 100g each of blanched almonds, blanched hazelnuts and Brazil nuts in a large roasting tin. Toast the nuts for 8-10 minutes. Once removed from the oven, set the nuts to one side and reduce the oven temperature to 140 C/gas 1.

Grease and line the base and sides of a 23cm diameter springform cake tin with baking paper.

Melt 100g dark chocolate either in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water or in a microwave.

Place 75g plain flour (I used gluten-free with a scant pinch of Xanthan Gum), 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ground mixed spice, a pinch of salt, 175g dried figs (cut into quarters), 100g mixed peel, the zest of an orange and mix well. Add the toasted nuts, cutting the Brazil nuts in half but leaving the others whole.

Now place 50g light brown soft sugar, 150g clear honey, 100g maple syrup, and 75g unsalted butter into a small pan and gently heat. Stir until all the ingredients have melted and the sugar dissolved then increase the heat and heat to 118 C or the 'soft ball stage'.

Carefully pour the sugar mixture over the fruit and nut mixture and stir; fold in the melted chocolate and, once all is well combined, spoon the mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes. The mixture will appear unchanged except for perhaps a few bubbles on the top but it will set as it cools. Leave to cool in the tin and dust with icing sugar before serving.

I have to say this could be my new Christmas cake of choice from now on, although I may not be able to wait until Christmas for my next slice. Perhaps Christmas cake shouldn't be just for Christmas? Or maybe I should pretend I don't know it's a traditional Italian Christmas dish and just call it 'cake'?

New Year, New Baby, New Blanket

I'm delighted that the first blog post of 2016 is all about new beginnings. Huge congratulations go to Becksini on the birth of her daughter, Rose. OK, so baby Rose did actually arrive in 2015 but she got to go home and meet her big brother on New Year's Eve. I'd like to think that meant celebrations all round but I rather imagine it meant no sleep for anyone, and not for partying reasons.

Anyway, the happy news was all the cue I needed to get out the fabric box and sewing machine to conjure up a blanket. I also worked on a new design, one inspired by the fact that I spent a whole day in October trying to crochet an elephant from Edward's Menagerie. I clearly need to go on a crochet refresher course or just learn to relax more since my tension was hopelessly tight and the body of the elephant, even at the 5th attempt, looked more mouse-sized than elephantine. I very reluctantly abandoned the project but clearly still had elephants on the brain.

Knowing the new nursery is painted in multi-coloured stripes, I felt that a rainbow of elephants may be appropriate so had fun lining all my fabrics up in shade order. I say fun because, yes, I'm also the sort of person who has their music and book collections in alphabetical order too. So, with fabrics chosen and a new elephant template drawn, the blanket quickly came together.

I used a striped grey thread for the appliqué which, I think, gives it a bit of an illuminated quality. Or perhaps the illusion that the elephants are squirting water at each other?

Naturally, the blanket stitches had to be done in a shade of 'rose' - in this case quite a deep pink. Let's just hope Mum and baby like it - oh, and are far too busy to be reading this blog between me hitting 'publish' and being able to deliver the blanket!