Old Recipes: Yorkshire Pudding and Welsh Rarebit

 I tried out two more recipes from the old cookbook. This might be my last post about this old cookbook for a while. I've worked through the recipes I really wanted to work through. It was a really great summer project and something I might do again next summer. Actually, I found a cookbook that has recipes from the Oregon Trail from the 1850s to 1900s...I might try some of them. We'll see. My favorite recipe from this old cookbook: County Recipes of Old England, was Chelsea Buns. I've made them two times already and plan to make them again on Friday. I like them because they aren't as sweet as cinnamon rolls and have more flavor. The kids like them too. The kids' favorite was probably cheese pasties...something I'll try to make again for them sometime. 

Welsh Rarebit. One of my kids liked it; the other two did not.

                  Yorkshire Pudding. My husband thought they were ok and my kids too. I think they'd

                                        be great with some kind of sauce or gravy on them. 

Old Recipes: Ginger Cookies and Porridge

 Yesterday I tried out a recipe for Grasmere Gingerbread. It's different from most recipes because it had chopped almonds in it. I was supposed to put some chopped almonds on top of the cookies before I baked them but forgot...I used them all for inside the cookies. The cookies were supposed to have chopped almonds in the cookie and on top as well. The recipe also called for ginger, not a mix of spices. 

I also tried a barley porridge. I've made lots of porridges before. In China we ate porridge a lot and love it. We'd make oatmeal porridge (with the whole oats, not crushed or chopped), millet porridge, and a mix of different grains porridge. In China, there are shops that sells grains, rice, flour, oil, and spices. They have a huge variety of grains, beans, and mixes for Chinese porridge because it's a very common breakfast there. 

Old Recipes: Scones (cooked in the pan) and Bath Buns

 Yesterday and the day before I tried out 2 more recipes: scones (cooked in the pan) and Bath buns. Bath is a city in England and the buns (rolls) were really nice. The recipe called for carraway seeds on top but I didn't have any so I left them out. A few recipes I looked at call for carraway seeds but I can't seem to find them at the local grocery store. 

Old Recipes: Edinburgh Shortbread and Elcho Scones

 I tried out two more recipes yesterday from the old cookbook. The shortbread was really good and surprised me because both recipes for shortbread in the cookbook use a small amount of rice flour with regular flour. I thought the rice flour was strange but I looked it up in other recipes. One lady on youtube shared her recipe for shortbread (an old recipe for 3 generations) also used some rice flour along with the regular flour. So, I followed the recipe as it was in the book and it tasted really good, just like the shortbread I've had from the store (but better because it was fresh).

The scones were surprising because normally I roll out the dough and use a circle cutter to cut them in circles instead of wedges. However, the recipe said to divide the dough in three and make each third in a circle, then cut in wedges. 

Old Recipes: Scottish Oat Cakes, Crumpets, and Chelsea Buns

 Recently I tried out three recipes from the old cookbook. The oat cakes were ok. I liked them but the kids thought they were just ok (not good, not bad). I also made crumpets. About 3 years ago I bought the molds to make crumpets because it's something I've wanted to try out for a long time now. However, the molds got mixed up in a package to us when we were in Asia and sent back to my family in the states. After we moved here (about a year and a half ago), my family gave me the package and I finally got the crumpet molds! However, I've only made them twice. This time around they turned out much better than the first time! Everyone liked them. 

I also made oat cakes. My hunch is that maybe they are supposed to be thicker than this (?). I was trying to follow the recipe in the book. 

These are the Chelsea Buns. I really liked them- not as sweet as a cinnamon roll and more flavor.

Old Recipes: Northumbrian Girdle Cakes and Shrewsbury Cakes

 These two were a big hit. Northumbrian Girdle Cakes were a big hit. They were similar to scones but cooked in a pan instead of in an oven. The recipe has no eggs in it. 

Of course, some things haven't gone exactly so well...we tried an old recipe for Banbury Cakes. Today Banbury cakes are made with a filling of old cake crumbs and mince meat. The recipe I followed has a bread dough that's wrapped in puff pastry (well, as far as I understood the recipe to say!). It flopped; it was not a big success. I think if you use the filling of mince meat and old cake crumbs, it would be better.

This one, Shrewsbury Cakes, was a success. It's a type of sugar cookie but made with egg instead of baking soda and baking powder to make them rise. They were great fresh, hot from the oven, slightly sweet but not overly sweet. I think they'd be great dunked in a cup of tea.

Old Recipes: Cheese Pasties, Devon Potato Cake, and Bakewell Tart

 Today the kids had some friends over so it was a great opportunity to try out some more old recipes from the 1929 recipe book. I really enjoy these recipes; it's something different than what I normally do for snacks. The Devon Potato Cake was a flop- not that good. It was really dense and heavy. My daughter loved the Bakewell Tart and everyone loved the Cheese Pasties.

Old Recipes: Derby Cakes

 I found an old cookbook from England from 1929 in a shelf of free books at the local library. It's called "County Recipes of Old England" and have recipes that are famous from different counties of England (and also Wales, Scotland, and Ireland). Now that summer has come, I want to challenge myself to cook one or two recipes from the cookbook for fun. Today was Derby Cakes. My kids loved them; they were like really think scones.