Cooking made easy

Back in November 2009, I posted about a great little magazine I used to buy in the early 1980s called Home and Freezer Digest, it was one of the few home cooking magazines about at that time and I learned a lot from its pages.  You can read the post HERE

Although I gave most of the magazines to a charity shop, I did keep the four little books that you could buy at various times from Home and Freezer Digest:

I think this little book was the first one that I got from H&F Digest, it was invaluable for looking up how to freeze different foods, whether they needed blanching and how long you could keep them in the freezer.

This was the first Christmas from the freezer book and it has lots of great ideas to help you get ahead ,  I certainly made quite a few things from this book.

This little book is well thumbed and has some great recipes that I have made a few of them a number of times, the Apple Pickle recipe is particularly good.

Going by the price this is the last of the books, it has some of the same recipes as the first Christmas book, but lots of different ones too.

Serves 8

4oz (100g) plain chocolate

4 eggs

4oz (100g) self-raising flour

1 oz (25g) cornflour

pinch of salt

7ox (150g) butter, softened

4oz (100g) caster sugar

1/2 pint (300ml) double cream

3 tablespoon black cherry jam

Decoration

4oz (100g) plain chocolate

black cherry jam

1. Break up chocolate and melt in basin over hot, not boiling, water

2. Separate eggs. Sift together flours and salt.

3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Add melted chocolate and egg yolks, beat well.

5. Whisk egg whites stiffly. Fold four into mixture, then the egg whites.

6.  Put into a 7in (17.5cm) greased and lined tin.  Bake (325F, 170C, Gas 3) about 55 mins

7. Cool cake in the tin, then turn out. Whip cream.  Split cake in two.

8. Spread with black cherry jam, then a third of the cream.

9. Sandwich cake together.  Spread a second third of cream smoothly over top.

10. Fill remaining cream into piping bag and pipe 8 rosettes on top of the cake.

To serve now: grate block of chocolate on cheese grate to make curls and arrange on cake.  Take  8 cherries out of jam if possible and place each on a rosette.

To freeze:  freeze until solid, then pack in a container, seal, label.  Use within 3 months.

The recipe in 

The Complete Freezeaway Christmas Cookbook is different, here it is:

Serves 8-10

2oz (50g) butter, softened

1oz (25g) caster sugar

3oz (75g) plain flour

3oz (75g) self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1oz (25g) cocoa powder

4oz (100g) caster sugar

4oz (100g) soft margarine

2 eggs, size 3

15oz (425g) can red cherries, stoned

1 teasp arrowtot

3 tabsp kirsch or cherry brandy

200g bar dark chocolate

1/2 pint (285ml) double cream and 1/4 (140ml) singel cream

2 tablsp red jam

8 rose or strawberry leaves 

1. Make base: cream butter and sugar. Stir in flour. Knead lightly till smooth.  Press 3in (7.5cm) wide strip of shortbread into the length of a greased 7 x 10 3/4 in (18 x 27cm) tin.  Prick over with a fork.  Bake  (325F, 190C, Gas 5) 15 mins.  Cool 5 mins in tin. Turn out on a wire rack.

2. Make sponge: sift dry ingredients into a bowl, add fat and eggs.  Beat together till smooth. Spread in same tin, greased, lined.  Bake as above 25 mins.  Turn out on to wire rack.

3. For filling: drain cheries, reserving juice.  Blend 4 tablesp juice with arrowroot in a pan, boil till thick and clear.  Add 1 tbsp kirsch and all but  8 cherries, cool.  Mix remaining kirsch with 3 tabsp reserved juice, set aside.

4. Make decorations, grate half the chocolate into curls, using a potato peeler.  Reserve.

5. Melt remainder in a basin over a pan of hot water. Dip leaves in chocolate to coat the leaf tops only. Leave to set.  Cool remaining chocolate.

6. Whip creams together to a soft peak.

7. Assemble cake, spread jam over the shortbread base.  Cut the sponge in half lengthwise, then split each piece and trim to give four 3 x 10 in (7.5 x 25 cm) strips.

8. Place one strip on top of shrotbread.  Sprinkle with half juice mixture.  Spread some cream over.  Place second strip on top.  Spread with cherry mikxture.  Place third layer on top, sprinkle with remianing juice mixture, then spread with more cream.  Place final layer on top.  Trim shortbread.

9. Add cooled chocolate to rest of cream.  Place 3 tbsp in a piping bag fitted with as star tube. Smooth remainder over top and sides of cake.  Pipe a zig-zag rope down the centre of the cake.

10. Coat sides with reserved grated chocolate

11 Carefully peel leaves away from chocolate  arrange with the cherries down centre of cake.

To serve now:  place on serving plate. Slice.

To freeze: open-freeze till sold.  Pack in a polybox.  Label, use within one month.

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