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BigLit Festival

30/8/2021

P.S. Lightfoot digital

We were delighted to have P.S. Lightfoot invited to take part in the BigLit Festival. Given the times we live in, it was impossible for him to be there in person, so we present below a 30 minute video with Mr Lightfoot giving an account of his great-great-grandfather’s unabashedly whirligig life.
With interviews and readings by the actor Tim Bannerman.
Lincoln Lightfoot and the Eccentrifuge

The Winterscar Chronicles

15/6/2021

Cry of the Norwolf

We're very excited... our first children's book has gone to the printer.

This is a wonderful story of Arkyn and his friends and their encounter with a norwolf pup. Should they kill it? After all, norwolves grow as big as a horse and are hunted by Arkyn's tribe.

8 -– 12 year-old readers will love this book, first of a series.

Out 1 July 2021

The right sort of pancakes

16/2/2021

From page 48 of Bill's Kitchen. Go to our shop to buy your copy.

These are proper thin pancakes, not the fluffy kind which I find less delightful.

For pancake fillings/toppings, bacon and maple syrup or ham and cheese are joyous, but it’s hard to beat lemon juice and sugar. With these, try melting a little knob of butter on each one after you’ve flipped it. If cheese is one of your toppings, add it after the first flip so it begins to melt whilst the pancake is still in the pan.

Over 20 years ago I bought two cast-iron, flat-bottomed pancake pans and they have served me well ever since. I only ever use them for pancakes and when I’ve finished cooking I just wipe out any burnt bits and give them a very thin coating of sunflower oil and put them away.
Makes about 12 pancakes using a 20cm diameter pan.

Batter
125g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 egg
330ml milk

Sunflower oil for frying

Choice of toppings
streaky bacon, cooked
smoked ham, thinly sliced
Gruyère or cheddar cheese, grated
lemon wedges
caster sugar
maple syrup
butter
good jam

Put all the batter ingredients in a large jug and whizz with a stick blender for 30 seconds until you have a smooth batter about the thickness of single cream. Leave to stand for half an hour.

Prepare your toppings before you start to cook the pancakes. Fry the bacon and keep it warm. Grate the cheese and have sliced ham ready to use. Have wedges of lemon ready and a bowl of sugar to go with it. Open a pot of blackcurrant jam.

When your toppings are ready, smear a little sunflower oil all over the bottom of your pancake pan with kitchen paper and heat it until it’s very hot, so that a bit of batter dropped in starts to sizzle straight away. Put in a ladleful (I use about 60ml per pancake) and swirl it around quickly so that it covers the whole of the base of the pan. Let it cook for 30 seconds to a minute and then use a metal palette knife to ease it away from the pan all around the edge – you’ll be able to see if it’s cooked on the first side or not. When it’s ready flip it over – I use a palette knife to do this but you may wish to toss it in the air – and cook very briefly on the other side until just beginning to brown. Serve immediately, with your toppings, or stack the pancakes in a warm place until you’re ready to eat.

Of course the other thing that goes beautifully with bacon and maple syrup is eggy bread. Just soak a thickish piece of bread in an egg lightly beaten with a splash of milk and then fry it in a mixture of butter and sunflower oil until golden brown on both sides.

On ice...!

6/1/2021

Champagne corks still not popping. Our launch party for PS Lightfoot's novel, Lincoln Lightfoot, has been postponed, as has much of 'normal' life. When better times arrive, it will be some party!

Fun baking for lockdown kids

22/12/2020

From Page 100 of Val Stones – The Cake Whisperer!

Makes 30-40 small biscuits and around 20 if you use large biscuit-cutters Preparation 20 minutes, cooking 15-20 minutes, plus decorating time
When my children were little I made these delightful buttery gingerbread biscuits, spending hours decorating them while I sang along to carols. When the children came home from school they would help me to finish the biscuits, decorating them with love and personalising them for family members including their grandparents.

INGREDIENTS
1 medium egg
25g molasses (black treacle)
200g caster sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
250g butter
5g baking powder 350g plain flour

For the royal icing
1 quantity of royal icing (see page 15)
1 teaspoon of lemon juice (this flavours the icing and makes it hard)

METHOD
1 Set the oven to 160°C fan, 180-190°C, 350-375°F, gas 4-5.
2 Line and grease a baking tray.
3 Place eggs, treacle, sugar and spices in a bowl and beat well.
4 Melt the butter in a small pan on the hob, or in the microwave on medium for two minutes (or until melted). Let it cool, then stir into the egg mixture.
5 Sift the flour and baking powder and stir into the mixture, binding with a spoon or by hand to make a dough.
6 Wrap the dough in clingfilm or foil and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes; this firms it up and allows the glutens to do their thing.
7 Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface, until it is about 7mm thick (about the thickness of a one pound, dollar or Euro coin).
8 Use a biscuit cutter to cut the shapes you want, then put the biscuits on the baking tray.
9 Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes before checking; they may take up to 20 minutes depending on the thickness of the biscuit. They are done when just firm to touch.
10 Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes on the tray before lifting them onto a cooling rack.
The biscuits can be decorated as soon as they are cool.

To decorate
11 Use royal icing (see page 15), and place half the mixture in a piping bag fitted with a plain small-hole nozzle. Pipe onto the biscuits as you choose. Use up the rest of the icing as you need it.

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Bill Sewell shows star quality

21/12/2020

From page 215 of Bills Kitchen

We don’t start Christmassy stuff at the cafés too early but as soon as we start making these they are scoffed at a challengingly speedy rate.
I love mince pies but I only love really good mince pies. What I want is a high proportion of mincemeat to pastry; excellent well-balanced and fruity mincemeat; and a good crumbly pastry. These mince pies are the business. The recipe includes a bit from Gary Rhodes, a bit from Delia and a bit from me. I think it’s well worth making your own mincemeat – actually it’s very straightforward and gives you the chance to customize the recipe to suit your taste.
The pastry makes about 12 pies depending on the size of your pie tins/moulds.
Makes about 2.5kg of mincemeat (enough for 100 mince pies)

Mincemeat
500g Bramley apples, cored and diced very small (pea-sized), no need to peel
250g pre-shredded vegetarian suet
500g raisins
375g sultanas
250g mixed candied peel, diced
350g light muscovado sugar
2 lemons, juice and zest
2 oranges, juice and zest
2 dsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
100ml ginger wine

For making the mince pies
Mince pie pastry – see page 251
1 egg, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt for glazing

To make the mincemeat
Put everything apart from the ginger wine into a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl with some foil and put in the oven at 120°C (fan) for about 2 hours until the apple is tender. Take out of the oven and stir in the ginger wine. Store in pre-warmed sterilized jam jars or in Tupperware in the fridge.

To make the mince pies
You can make the mince pies any size you like; I use pie moulds which are 7cm diameter and 2.5cm deep with flat bottoms (you don’t get enough filling in the sloping-sided ones). The pastry will come about threequarters of the way up the sides of the mould, so any overspill of mincemeat juice won’t go all over the place.
Roll out the pastry quite thin and cut out circles using a 9cm-diameter cutter (keep some pastry aside to make small stars for the tops). Place the pastry neatly in the pie mould, pushing it well into the corners and making the top rim reasonably even.
Put 35g mincemeat (one good dsp) into each one and then top with a star of pastry. Brush with a little beaten egg and bake for about 15 minutes at 180°C (fan oven) until golden and crisp. Leave to cool for 10 mins in the tin and then transfer to a cooling rack. Dust generously with icing sugar to serve.
These mince pies stay good for days, but they are at their very best when still just a little warm from the oven.

From page 251 of Bill's Kitchen

Mince pie pastry

This is an exceptionally delicious and rich pastry, perfect for mince pies, but probably a bit over-the-top for other sweet tarts.
Makes 1kg of pastry, sufficient for about 40 mince pies (see mince pie recipe on page 215).
500g plain flour
½ tsp salt
350g butter, chilled and cubed in 2cm pieces
150g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs

Whizz flour and salt and chilled butter cubes together in a food processor until the mixture is like breadcrumbs. Add sugar and whizz again very briefly.
Mix egg yolks and whole eggs together. Add to flour mix and pulse a few times until the dough has just come together. Don’t overwork it or it will get tough. Divide into two manageable-sized blobs and put in clingfilm. Allow to rest in the fridge for at least an hour before using.

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