Stir up Sunday

Stir up Sunday - Wikipedia tells me that the name comes from the collect in the Book of Common Prayer which is read on the last Sunday before advent, I associate it with The Archers where I first heard the term in relation to baking. It’s also the traditional day to make Christmas pudding and mincemeat, and if it doesn’t need a long time to mature it’s also a good day to make your Christmas cake.

Coincidentally I did make my first Christmas cake yesterday, but only discovered the synchronicity with the dates afterwards, it’s going in my diary for next year (just so I know). If the cake is good it’ll become a fixture and I have to admit that it’s really going to test my patience waiting another 5 weeks to see if it’s any good. I have an inkling that it will be acceptable because the top got a bit crispy and I decided to slice it off and in the process I tried a little bit. The recipe used was the Dan Lepard I’ve been sitting on for the last year and if nothing else it’s made my flat smell amazing.

I didn’t make the cake in my new toy – I wanted a bigger bowl and it’s not a recipe that calls for much mixing bar the folding in of the fruit and – well it just seemed more appropriate to do it by hand. However the Scottish one has been encouraging me to use the Kitchen Aid (part of me still thinks I should have waited but it was a part easy to ignore) and so I thought perhaps I should. So I did and made another Lepard cake – Hazelnut and Prune – there’s a link to it on the Christmas cake page. It’s pretty good but calls for quite a lot of nutmeg which I will halve next time because currently I feel it tastes a bit virtuous and a little unbalanced; which is as much a reflection on my heavy handedness as anything else – I may have erred on the side of excess.

The hazelnut and prune effort went through the mixer which was extremely satisfying, so satisfying that I felt I had to bake something else and so opted for the Gugelhupf recipe in ‘Tanta Hertha’s Viennese Kitchen’. It’s turned out well but I’m not sure it’s for me (hard to tell at the moment because I burnt my mouth on a very hot piece of lamb stew and everything tastes a bit off). This version doesn’t use alcohol which might add a bit of richness – instead its lemon and almond based and perhaps a bit subtle for someone geared up to Lebkuchen and heavier fruit cakes. I’ll keep eating it until I’m sure. I could probably have carried on baking all night but perhaps fortunately ran out of ingredients. I love my new Kitchen aid.

I couldn’t be more excited

I don’t know how he knew it was what I wanted (unless it was the incessant hinting) but the Scottish one has given me a kitchen aid (it shouldn’t officially be mine for another 3 weeks but I picked it up last night and was actively encouraged to unwrap it). I’ve wanted one of these beauties for ever – or at least for the last fifteen years. I am unbelievably excited, as is my mother who has a theory that you’re not a proper woman until you have a food mixer – getting her first Kenwood chef was a seminal experience apparently. Still she may be right, she normally is, even when saying things that might raise an eyebrow. I know you shouldn’t get too carried away by things but having wanted one of these for such a long time having one in my home – neither Christmas nor birthdays have been this exciting for almost thirty years, and now all I have to decide is what to mix in it first. 

Lebkuchen

Monday afternoon off and I’ve spent a fair chunk of it finishing off yesterdays baking. More Lebkuchen which have managed to find an appreciative audience (and I’ve still got quite a lot of dough left, the promise that it would make 40 seems to have been a bit conservative but I’m not complaining). I got a new electric whisk on the way home and fresh yeast as well so I could have another go at the current buns. They rose this time – erupted might be a better description, I turned my back for a few minutes and the whole lot came damn near to escaping.

The buns are now out of the oven and have had a vote of confidence from both myself and the Scottish one – still annoyed about yesterdays rubbish results, and having walked into John Lewis as they unpacked the Kitchen Aid of my dreams (a rather fetching dark blue) I’m somewhat underwhelmed with the new whisk (not a fetching blue colour) but at least I feel like I’ve regained control of my kitchen which is something.

I liked the Lebkuchen so much that I’m giving a slightly amended version of the recipe (tailored to what I had in the cupboard) in ‘Tante Hertha’s Viennese Kitchen’:

250g runny honey

125g golden caster sugar

1tsp ground cloves

3tbsp ground cinnamon

80g unsalted butter

90g of dried apricots

150g of mixed nuts – I used mostly hazelnuts with some almonds as the original recipe suggested but imagine walnuts would be nice too.

2 large eggs + another egg to glaze the biscuits

500g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in a tbsp of water.

Mix the honey and sugar in a pan and bring to a gentle boil stirring until the sugar is melted, add the spices and set aside to cool a little.

Melt the butter.

Whizz the fruit and nuts in a blender until they’re at bread crumb consistency and add the flour.

Beat the two eggs until frothy and then mix all the wet ingredients with the dry. It’s a stiff mixture, I started with a wooden spoon and ended up kneading it altogether with my hands which worked much better. Flatten into a manageable slab, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for a good few hours.

When the dough is good and cold and hard heat the oven to 160°C/ gas 3, roll it out to about half a centimetre thick, and glaze the biscuits with beaten egg before they go in the oven. They will be done in about 20 – 25 minutes, are wonderful, and will apparently keep for about a month in an air tight container (some chance).