Jamaican Ginger Bread inspired by the Chelsea Physic Garden

A visit to the Chelsea Physic Garden is like stepping into your very own secret garden. Shielded from the frantic traffic of the Chelsea Embankment by high redbrick walls, it offers greenery-starved Londoners a replenishing oasis just ten minutes’ walk from Sloane Square tube station. Originally opened in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries just beside the house that had once belonged to Sir Thomas More, the garden is the oldest botanical garden in the UK, and was once the world’s most abundant botanical garden.

Today it is a tranquil spot that’s ideal for wiling away sunny afternoons, with special events all year round, including a snowdrop walk in winter, when the garden is transformed into something from A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the delicate plants lining pathways in pearly tufts, and even hanging in a snowdrop-mobile from trees.

A trip to the Physic Garden wouldn’t be complete without a pit-stop at the acclaimed Tangerine Dream Café. In the style of the Petersham Nurseries before they were famous, the café is home to a creative menu of savoury dishes, with vegetables picked from the garden, as well as a colourful banquet of freshly baked cakes (think ginger and lime, and almond and rhubarb. It’s only downfall (I should warn you) is the disorganisation of the buffet, where no one seems to have any idea of who is doing what. But you’re so relaxed by this point, and the food is so delicious, that all is quickly forgiven.

With herbs, spices and all manner of plants from across the globe, I’ve added extra spice to this this Jamaican Ginger Bread recipe from Delia’s Cakes to reflect the aromas and tastes on offer at the Chelsea Physic Garden and Tangerine Dream Café.

Jamaican Ginger Bread inspired by the Chelsea Physic Garden

Ingredients

175g Plain Flour
3 tbsp Ground Ginger
2 tbsp Ground Cinnamon
½ Nutmeg, grated
½ tdp Bicarbonate of Soda
2 tbsp Whole Milk
75g Black Treacle
75g Golden Syrup
75g soft Brown Sugar
75g Unsalted Butter
1 large Egg (beaten)

Pre-heat the oven to 170C or gas mark 3.

Start by greasing a standard loaf tin, and set aside. In order to weigh treacle it’s best to place the tin in a saucepan of gently simmering water to loosen it up.

Meanwhile, sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add all the spices. In a jug mix the bicarbonate of soda together with the milk and set aside.

Once the treacle is softened, measure it out into a saucepan together with the golden syrup, butter and 75ml water over a low heat. Stir until the butter is melted and all the ingredients are combined (don’t let it boil).

Tip the warmed ingredients into the flour and beat until the mixture is smooth. Next add the egg a bit at a time and finally the bicarbonate of soda and milk.
Pour the batter into your prepared loaf tin.

Delia’s recipe says to bake for 1 ¼ – 1 ½ hours, but I find it’s ready in under an hour, so it’s best to keep an eye on it from the 45 minute mark. If you find it’s starting to brown on top but is still raw in the middle when you insert a skewer, then cover it in tinfoil and continue baking.

Allow the cake to cool for 5 – 10 minutes before turning out. Store in a cake tin (if there’s any left after its first teatime outing!).

Perfect Crumbly Honeycomb

The very first time I made honeycomb it was an unmitigated disaster. Rather than snapping into the perfect crumbly chunks I’d been hoping for, my sheet of hardened sugar turned out to not be so hardened after all, and it bent alarmingly. As I strained it in one direction, and then another, it proved itself to be almost unbreakable. And when I finally managed to part an amber shard from the now cylindrical mess on my kitchen counter, the all important taste test confirmed my worst fears: sticky, chewy, gluey clumps of sugar clamped my jaw shut.

I knew there was something very wrong, and decided to dig deeper. Most recipes you read about making honeycomb tell you to watch for the boiling sugar to turn the colour of maple syrup before adding the bicarbonate of soda. But if you’re like me and your mental picture of maple syrup is several shades lighter than the real stuff, or if you’d simply like a more precise way of being sure you’re adding the bicarb at exactly the right moment (because even a minute can make all the difference), then this method is for you.

The trick, as I discovered from this incredibly helpful post from The Paddington Foodie, is to ensure the sugar reaches 150C. If you have a sugar thermometer then you are all set, but if not the article above explains perfectly how to test your sugar to make sure it’s reached the ‘hard crack stage’.

This recipe is from BBC Good Food, with added instructions to ensure for perfect, crumbly honeycomb.

Perfect Crumbly Honeycomb

Ingredients
200g Caster Sugar
5tbsp Golden Syrup
2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Unsalted butter for greasing

The most important thing about making honeycomb is to be prepared. And once you’ve done that, it really is very easy. Start by greasing a small baking tray (around 20cm) with unsalted butter and set aside. Make sure you have your sugar thermometer (if using) and bicarbonate of soda to hand, ready for the all important moments when they’ll be coming in handy.

In a large (ideally heavy-based) saucepan, heat the sugar and golden syrup, stirring them gently to combine, until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Next increase the heat, and insert the sugar thermometer into the bubbling liquid. Do not stir from this point onwards or your honeycomb will be tough!

Bring the sugar mixture up to 150C – this tends to take around 10 minutes. As soon as it reaches 150C immediately bring off the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda with a wooden spoon, being incredibly careful as the sugar will be very hot. The mixture will bubble up and turn a lovely amber colour.

Quickly tip the liquid honeycomb into your prepared baking sheet, and leave to cool for at least an hour (you can do this in the fridge to ensure the honeycomb is completely cold).

Once cooled break the honeycomb into chunks. I do this with a pallet knife rather than a rolling pin, as some recipes advise, as I find the sharper edge helps to create cleaner lines.

The honeycomb will keep for weeks in an airtight container. And don’t forget to save the crumbs to sprinkle over ice cream.

Jammy Christmas Biscuits

I must confess I have very staunch beliefs about when it’s too early to start playing Christmas music, unveiling Christmas shop window displays, or lighting Christmas lights. But when it comes to Christmas cooking I find myself in a grey area. Is October too soon for an early mince pie? Is it wrong to hanker after mulled wine in September? I’m really not sure.

And so when I stumbled across this recipe for Christmas biscuits – which are basically just posh Jammy Dodgers – in mid-October I couldn’t resist rolling up my sleeves and making a batch, with the promise to myself that I would freeze the biscuits and add the filling when it got closer to the big day. But once I got started I couldn’t help wanting to see them fully formed, stuffed full of butter cream and jam. So I made them all. And then I made another batch. And then another. And no I’m going to have to find some non-festive cookie cutter shapes so I can enjoy them all year round.

This recipe is from Waitrose Magazine, with only very small adaptions (mostly based on what I had to hand). I’ve also used blueberry jam instead of raspberry as it’s a bit less sweet, but you can experiment with any type of jam you fancy, or make your own if you’re feeling particularly creative.

Jammy Christmas Biscuits

Ingredients

For the Biscuits

425g Flour (extra for dusting)
1/2 tsp Salt
200g Caster Sugar
225g Unsalted Butter (chilled)
1 Large Egg
1 Large Egg Yolk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

For the Filling

125g Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
300g Icing Sugar
100g Blueberry Jam (approx.)

Preheat the oven to 180’C/Gas Mark 4.

First start with the biscuits: pulse the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor to combine. Add the butter and blend until the the mixture looks like light breadcrumbs, before adding the egg and egg yolk and vanilla extract, and blend briefly until the batter starts to come together.

Tip out the dough and kneed gently by hand until it forms a smooth ball. Divide the mixture in half and press each section into an oval. Wrap in cling film and chill for around an hour.

While the dough is chilling, make the butter cream. In a large bowl cream the butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually mix in the icing sugar. Once both ingredients are fully combined turn the electric mixer speed to high and beat until light and fluffy. From this stage the butter cream can be refrigerated for a couple of days, or frozen, but I’d recommend removing from the fridge/defrosting fully at least an hour before you want to use it as otherwise it will be too hard to spread on the biscuits – I’ve broken several biscuits by becoming impatient about waiting for the buttercream to reach room temperature again)

Once the dough has firmed, roll it out on a floured surface until it’s around 3mm thick. Using a round cookie cutter (approx 8 inches or whichever size you prefer). Cut as many discs as possible. Re-roll out the excess and cutting more circles (if the dough begins to get too soft place back in the fridge before rolling again).

Use a small festive-shaped cutter to cut out the centre of half the biscuits. Place all the biscuits on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden/brown at the edges.

Allow the biscuits to cool completely on a wire rack before adding the filling – otherwise the buttercream will melt into a sugary buttery mess when you try to spread it. From this stage the biscuits can be frozen, unassembled, or kept in an air-tight container for 7-10 days).

Once the biscuits are cool, spread or pipe the butter cream onto the bases, and top with a tsp of jam. Carefully place a cutout biscuit on top and press down gently.

Serve with mulled wine or a cup of tea.

 

Glorious (Sugar-Free) Granola Bars

I was forced to come to terms with the fact that granola is basically just bits of biscuit in bowl or bar form when I read Marian Keyes’ new novel The Woman Whol Stole My Life as part of a (soon to be published) book review for Stylist. When the narrator casually dropped in this poignant point I put the book down on my lap and stared into space for several minutes, mourning the loss of my dilusional healthy lifestyle. ‘But surely granola and yoghurt is better than a bowl of Coco Pops?’ I wanted to cry. But didn’t, as suddenly I wasn’t so sure.

And so I set upon searching for a healthy vesion for granola, without sugar or butter. One I could eat smugly with dried fruit packed in for extra fruit points (no brownie points allowed here). Having experimented with several different options, this peanut butter version was my favourite, and you can make it as gooey or crunchy as you like by adjusting the amount of honey/peanut butter to dried ingredients ratio (these ones are on the crunchy side).

Glorious (Sugar-Free) Granola Bars

Ingredients

200g Rolled Oats
1 Jar Honey (approx. 340g)
1 Jar Smooth Peanut Butter (approx. 340g)
50g Raisins
100g Whole Peanuts (Crushed)
50g Mixed Seeds (Sesame, Golden Linseed, Sunflower and Pumpkin Seeds)
(Optional: dried dates; dried apricots – sliced)
 

Preheat the oven to 175C.

Start by melting the peanut butter. Scrape the contents of one jar (yes, these really are best if the whole jar goes in) into a small saucepan and melt over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally.

While the peanut butter is melting combine the dry ingredients (the oats, raisins, crushed peanuts and seeds).

Once the peanut butter is melted add to the dry mixture together with the jar of honey. Stir all of the ingredients together until well combined.

Tip the mixture into a baking tray lined with baking parchment and press down so that it fills any gaps. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes (until lightly golden, or even a bit brown, on top).

Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing into bars with a sharp knife.

 

Yoghurt and Blueberry Pancakes

Like Harry and Sally, salt and caramel, and popcorn and the movies, there are many things that go together in this life so well that they should hardly ever be separated. And blueberries and pancakes are one of them.

I was first introduced to this magical combination by my aunt in America many years ago. As I helped her stir the thick, cloying batter, and drop handfuls of plump round blueberries into the mixture, I was sold almost immediately. And when I took my first bite of the warm pancakes dotted with sweet purple explosions and drizzled in sticky maple syrup, the deal was done.

This recipe is a slight variation on the classic American Blueberry Pancake as the batter is made with yoghurt, which, like frozen yoghurt versus ice cream, adds a note of bitterness that plays beautifully against the sweetness of the blueberries (and whichever topping you choose to add).

This version is very much based on Mary Cadogan’s No Weigh Cinnamon and Yoghurt Pancakes recipe, with just some small tweaks (and of course the addition of blueberries).

Yoghurt and Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

75g Blueberries
125g Plain Flour
1tbsp Demerara Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
125g Natural Yoghurt
1 Egg
1 tbsp Milk
Knob of Butter
Maple Syrup to Serve

Serves 4 – Makes approx 12 small, but perfectly formed, pancakes

Start by whisking together the flour, sugar and cinnamon, and set aside. Next whisk up the egg, gradually adding the yoghurt and milk.

Add the yoghurt mixture to the flour mixture and stir until the batter comes together. Drop in the blueberries and mix in until they’re evenly distributed.

Put a frying pan on the hob at a medium heat and add the butter, moving the pan around until the melted butter covers its surface. Use a piece of kitchen paper to wipe out the butter so only a thin film is left.

Spoon three dollops of mixture onto the pan, leaving space between each one, and flip over with a spatula once cooked on the bottom. Repeat until all the mixture has been used up. Serve with maple syrup or a handful of fresh blueberries and runny honey.

Summer Plum Cake

This recipe was inspired by one of my favourite cookery blogs of all time – Smitten Kitchen by the amazing self-taught cook, Deb Perelman, who I’m sure needs no introduction. My version is based on her Purple Plum Torte, and is almost the same, except I’ve used yellow plums instead of purple ones here, which give the cake a golden hue, but an equally sweet taste.

I was introduced to Smitten Kitchen via the cookbook, which is a beautifully photographed collection of incredibly unusual, mouth-watering recipes, and more classic dishes with a twist (think popcorn cookies and peach and sour cream pancakes). Deb Perelman has a wonderful ability to take the reader through experimental yet comforting recipes with the assuredness of an experienced cook, and her anecdotes at the beginning of each dish make it feel like you’re cooking alongside a great friend.

Whenever I get my hands on a new cookbook I go through each page, tabbing up the recipes I want to make as soon as possible. With Smitten Kitchen there was barely a page un-tabbed – certainly a very good sign about this book.

This recipe is in fact from the blog rather than cookbook – an even more exciting collection of recipes that one can (and does) spend hours exploring and experimenting with. Having received a punnet of organic yellow plums (which are in season at the moment) fresh from the farm via Abel & Cole, I set about looking for a way to use them and celebrate their summery flavour. And I had a feeling Smitten Kitchen would have the answer.

Deb Perelman recommends leaving her Plum Torte to sit for 24 hours to let the juices of the plums seep through the fluffy cake dough, and this was very much my intention. But living with four hungry flatmates means food doesn’t stay around for long, and only a few crumbs were left by the end of the day. However, the juiciness of the plums had certainly begun to work their way through the cake. I can only imagine how much better this cake would be if I took a leaf out of Deb Perelman’s, er, blog.

 

Summer Plum Cake

Ingredients

1 Punnet Yellow Plums (approx. 6 – 8)
125g Plain Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
Generous Pinch of Salt
200g Caster Sugar
115g Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
2 Large Eggs
2tsp Lemon Juice
1tbsp Ground Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to around 175°C.

Start by halving and pitting the plums, and setting aside. Next whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. In a separate mixing bowl use an electric whisk to cream together the butter and 170g of the sugar (keeping the remaining 30g to one side) until fully combined and the mixture turns a light golden colour. Stir in the eggs, and then tip in the flour mixture, stirring lightly until all of the ingredients come together.

Line a round 9 inch spring-form cake tin with a sheet of baking parchment, cut to size, and lightly butter the edges. Spoon in the mixture, using a spatula to make the top of the cake flat.

Lay the plums on top of the batter cut-side down (I like to arrange these in a circular pattern). Scatter the remaining sugar on top, along with the cinnamon and lemon juice. (The sugar will add a satisfying crunch that offsets the squidgyness of the rest of the cake).

Place in the oven for around 40 – 45 minutes, until golden on top and cooked in the middle. Remove the cake from the tin and set it on a rack to cool (or enjoy warm with a dollop of crème fraiche and grated lemon zest).