Orange Biscuits

 From Jubilee by Toni Tipton-Martin

You can also make these by rolling the dough 3/4 inch thick and spoon the marmalade into a little dip pressed into the center of the biscuit. 

Ingredients:

2 C all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/3 butter or shortening, chilled and cut into pieces

2/3 C heavy whipping cream

2 tsp grated orange zest

2 tsp fresh orange juice

1/2 C orange marmalade (I used canned apricot pie filling)

1 Tbsp butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Lightly butter a 9 inch baking pan (or pie plate). 

2. Combine dry ingredients. Cut in the shortening. 

3. In a small bowl, combine the cream, orange zest, and orange juice. Using a form gradually blend three quarters of the cream-juice mixture into the flour mixture, stirring gently. Stir in enough of the remaining cream-juice mixture to make a slightly sticky dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. 

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 8-10 times until the dough comes together and is smooth. 

5. Roll or pat the dough into a rectangle 12 in long, 1/4 in thick. Spoon the marmalade over the dough and spread it out. Roll up the dough and cut into 1 inch slices. Place the biscuits in your pan, leaving no space between. Brush with melted butter.

6. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce oven to 375F and bake another 10 min until puffed and golden brown. Serve warm.

Malva

Reviving the recipe blog after several years dead, in which time I have become a much better cook by pivoting from online to cookbook-based cooking. My phone is getting cluttered with snapshots of recipes and it would be easier to just get back to blogging them than sifting through my phone! But this is an internet recipe and I made this for Three King's Day in 2021 and it was very easy and very pleasing and wholly new, from: https://www.food.com/recipe/malva-pudding-south-african-baked-dessert-118545

Ingredients:

For the pudding:

3/4 C or 180 g white sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tbsp apricot jam

1 C or 150 g all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda (maybe do half and half baking soda baking powder?)

1/2 tsp salt

1 generous Tbsp butter

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/3 C milk

For the sauce:

3/4 C fresh cream

7 Tbsp butter

1/2 - 2/3 C sugar

1/3 C hot water

2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 deg F/180 deg Celsius. 
• Grease an oven dish. I used a 7 x 7 x 1 1/2 inch Pyrex dish. (18 x 18 x 4 1/2 cm)
• Beat or whip the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer until thick and lemon coloured, then add the jelly (jam) and mix through.
• Melt the butter (don't boil) and add the butter and vinegar to the wet mixture.
• Sieve, or simply mix together: the flour, soda and salt.
• Add this mixture with the milk to the egg mixture in the processor or mixing bowl. Beat well.
• Pour into an oven-proof dish and bake until pudding is brown and well-risen -- depending on your oven and oven dish this will be between 30 - 45 minutes. (Mine was done in 30 minutes this time).
• In a pot, melt together the ingredients for the sauce, and stir well.
• Pour it over the pudding as soon as it comes out of the oven.
• Leave to stand awhile before serving. Serve warm. Because it's rich it does not really need enhancement (agree), but if you want, serve with vanilla ice cream.

Sour Cherry Thyme Glaze and Glazed Ham

The Robber had never had a real Easter dinner before, and so it fell to me to provide it for him. So we made everything: ham, rolls, potatoes, salad, green beans, pie. Goodness, so delicious. For the ham I wanted to try something new, so I got this little recipe from the NYTimes. Unfortunately it was a little bit of a disappointment. Not bad-- but not my favorite either. Maybe because we used black-cherry instead of sour-cherry preserves? I thought the cherry flavor wasn't strong enough, neither was the thyme. It was all overpowered by the shallots and the mustard. Of course we didn't use sherry so the Robber substituted orange juice and ended up adding some brown sugar and it was all very strange. But in case this sounds good to somebody else and they want to try it out, here is the link and the recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/dining/202hrex.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/dining/201hrex.html

Ingredients:

1½ cups sour-cherry preserves

½ cup chopped shallots

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1½ tablespoons sherry vinegar

1½ tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon crushed dried red pepper

1 6- to 8-pound bone-in shank-half ham, or 15- to 17-pound bone-in whole ham, fully cooked

1 tablespoon whole cloves

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Transfer to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and store in refrigerator until needed. Making glaze a day in advance allows flavors to bloom and thickens glaze, which makes it easier to apply.

2. Place rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Trim tough rind from ham, leaving as much fat as possible. Place ham flat-side down and score the rounded side all over with diagonal cuts about 1½ inches apart and ¼-inch deep, forming a diamond pattern. In center of each diamond insert a single clove.

3. Place ham in a roasting pan and bake until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest part reads 135 degrees, about 15 minutes a pound. One hour before ham is done, remove it from oven and brush all over with glaze.

4. Return ham to oven and continue to bake, glazing ham once or twice more until ham is done. Remove ham from oven, tent with foil and let rest 10 minutes before carving.

Time: 2¼ hours for a half ham, 4¾ hours for a whole ham

Yield: 1¾ cups, enough for a whole ham, 10 to 12 servings for a half ham, 24 to 26 servings for a whole ham.

Linzer Cookies

My sisters made these over the Christmas break for the Rawle-Matheson bash. They are so good! My sister-in-law R requested the recipe, so Mom sent me this and I blog it here in case I want to make these cookies some time in the future.

Linzer Cookies

Cookies inspired by the famous jam-filled Linzetorte. These are ideal for any occasion. This recipe taken from the insert which came with the linzer cutters.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups of whole nuts, hazelnuts or almonds
1 c. butter
2/3 c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
2 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1 t. lemon zest
Confectioner's sugar for dusting
1 c. seedless jam

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Place nuts in a food processor and process until medium fine in texture.

3. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside until ready for use.

4. Beat butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium high until light and creamy in texture.

5. Add eggs and beat until smooth.

6. Add in the vanilla and beat until combined.

7. In a separate bowl, combine flour, nuts, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and lemon zest.

8. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat to combine.

9. Place in freezer until firm, approximately 30-40 minutes.

10. Dust a clean surface generously with flour, and roll out the dough to approximately 1/8 inch thickness.

11. Using the linzer cutter without an insert, cut out cookies (at least 36) and transfer to the prepared cookie sheets--these will be bottom pieces.

12. Next cut out 36 more with an insert shape in cookie cutters--these will be the top pieced of the cookies. You can either re-roll the cutouts or bake them.

13. Bake all cookies for about 8 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled.

14. Sift confectioners sugar over top pieces of the cookies.

15. Spread about 1 t. jam on each of the bottom halves and place the top half (cut out piece) on jam covered bottom half.

15. Cookies can be stored carefully in an airtight container for up to one week.