Golden Syrup Steamed Pudding #recipe from @MysteryMacRae

 

The last recipe I shared was for homemade Golden Syrup, and I promised my next post would be this recipe for Golden Syrup Steamed Pudding. Steamed pudding is a classic British dessert made in a thick crockery dish called a pudding basin or a pudding bowl. I have a lovely blue and white striped one from Cornwall. 

The pudding turned out exactly as I’d hoped – a warming, comforting, not overly sweet dessert for a cold day. I'm not thrilled about using parchment paper and aluminum foil, only to toss them afterwards, but don't know of a good alternative. If you do, please let me know in the comments. We all enjoyed the pudding immensely. Here’s how you can make one, too.

Ingredients

110g (1/2 cup) golden syrup – divided

175g (12 Tablespoons – 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

125g (5/8 cup) brown sugar

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g (1 1/3 cup) self-rising flour

1/4 cup milk

More golden syrup to serve (we didn’t add more, though next time I might make pouring custard to go with the pudding).

You'll also need a 2 pint pudding basin, parchment paper; aluminum foil; heavy cotton string; a large deep soup kettle with lid; a heatproof saucer, trivet, or steamer basket for the pudding basin to sit on inside the kettle 

Directions

Butter a 2-pint pudding basin then pour 1/4 cup golden syrup in the bottom. Set aside.

Beat the remaining 1/4 cup golden syrup, the butter, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in half of the eggs, then stir in half the flour. Stir in the rest of the eggs and flour along with the milk.

Spoon the mixture into the pudding basin (it shouldn’t come up above 1-inch from the top). Smooth the surface.

Cut a circle of parchment twice the diameter of the top of the pudding basin. Make a 1-inch pleat down the middle of the circle. Repeat with the aluminum foil. The pleats allow the pudding to rise as it cooks.

not exactly round, but it worked

Cover the pudding basin with the pleated parchment circle with the pleat over the center of the basin. Cover the parchment with the pleated foil.

Tie the pudding tightly around the rim with the string. Make a lifting handle by crossing more string across the top of the basin. This will help you lift the pudding out of the kettle after its cooked. Trim excess paper and foil, leaving a 1-inch border, and turn the edges in on themselves to seal.

Put a heatproof saucer, small trivet, or steamer basket in the large, deep kettle. Put the pudding basin on top. Add enough just-boiled water to the pan to come halfway up the sides of the basin. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid (I added a layer of foil across the top of my kettle because the lid has a steam hole in it).

Cook, over lowest heat, allowing the pudding to steam in gently simmering water for 1 3/4  hours. Make sure the kettle doesn’t boil dry – add more just-boiled water if necessary.

The pudding is done when a fine skewer inserted into the middle of the pudding (through the foil and parchment) comes out clean. Turn off the heat. Carefully lift the basin out of the kettle and let stand for 5 minutes.

Cut the string from the basin. Discard the foil and parchment. Run a flat-bladed knife around the edge of the pudding to loosen the sides. Carefully invert onto a plate and remove the basin. Cut into wedges and serve with extra golden syrup, pouring custard, or vanilla ice cream. 

In bookstores and libraries now!

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

S.C.O.N.E.S. and Scones – A Potluck, Spotlight Special by @MysteryMacRae

 

Current scones

Maya Corrigan, our usual Potluck Monday host, kindly shared today with me. Thank you, Maya! And just like a community potluck, today’s post is some of this and some of that—half Spotlight Sunday, where I’ll introduce you to myself and to the S.C.O.N.E.S., and half Potluck Monday where I’ll ask whether you eat scones or scones.

I grew up in a family with six kids, a variety of pets, magazines, newspapers, shelves and shelves of books, and a mom and dad who read to us at bedtime long past the point we could read to ourselves. As a crew, we were quite spread out. Mom and Dad had someone in high school every year for twenty years. Wow. We ate supper together every night. I loved the reading and the family meals. I love my family.

All the wild MacRaes c. 1960
Mom took the picture, Dad is in the back of the boat, I'm in a life jacket on the right.

My sweet boys in 1986.
Ross, with the pot, does most of our cooking these days.
Gordon has two boys of his own who like to cook with him.

From pesky sister to wife and mom, and through jobs as a museum curator and director, independent bookstore manager, and connecting children with books at the public library, stories and books have been a common thread in my life. My first short story came out in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in January 1990. My fifteenth book, Argyles and Arsenic, comes out March 1^st. You can find a list of my stories and books here.

Argyles and Arsenic is the fifth book in my Highland Bookshop Mysteries. Writing these books has been my way of returning to Scotland where I spent a year studying British prehistory at Edinburgh University. I love Scotland and don’t get back often enough. The series’ ensemble cast—four women who buy Yon Bonny Books in Inversgail on the west coast of the Highlands—are natural amateur sleuths. Of course, right? They’re so good that they’ve been dubbed the Shadow Constabulary of Nosy Eavesdropping Sleuths (S.C.O.N.E.S.)

As you’ll guess from the title, the latest adventure for the S.C.O.N.E.S. involves arsenic. Also argyle socks, a knitting competition, an evening of decanting and decluttering, a food truck, baked potatoes, murder, and scones—not necessarily in that order.

Words fascinate me as much as stories and books. I like knowing where words come from, how old they are, how they’re used, and how people pronounce them. For instance, if I offer you one of those slightly sweet baked goods that resemble biscuits but aren’t biscuits at all, will I offer you a scone, which rhymes with cone? Not if we’re in Inversgail with the S.C.O.N.E.S. Scone, in Scotland, is almost universally pronounced so that it rhymes with gone and Sean (Sean also rhyming with gone and not bean). In Ireland you’re likely to get a scone (cone). In England and Wales you can’t quite be sure which one you’ll get.

In a massive effort, Cambridge University mapped the variation in scone pronunciation throughout the UK and Ireland. You can see the map here. And you can read a short history of scones at Food Reference.com.

Orange almond scones with cardamom

So do you eat scone-gones or scone-cones? When I lived in Scotland, I was a goner. These days I’m more of a scone-coner. Whichever way you say it, do you have any idea how much we love scones at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen? As of July 30, 2021, we’ve featured 55 recipes for them on the blog (thank you, Vicki Delany, for counting). Here are links to four of the recipes.

Apple-Cheddar Scones from Leslie Budewitz

Traditional Afternoon Tea Scones from Vicki Delany

Savory Herb Scones from Daryl Wood Gerber

Orange Almond Scones with Cardamom from Molly MacRae

If you’d like even more scone recipes from the blog—or if you’re interested in other recipes we’ve featured, particular ingredients, earlier editions of Potluck Mondays, specific authors, etc.—scroll down the right side of the blog until you get below the line of our latest book covers. When you see the search box for our “Blog Archive,” scroll just a little farther and you’ll see “Search This Blog.” Type your search term in the box, hit enter, and you can search for recipes galore (galore is from the Scottish Gaelic gu leóir meaning sufficiently enough).

Thanks for spending time with me today. For anyone who’d like to, you can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

 

Did you know that pre-orders make the publishing world go round? Part of a publisher’s decision for continuing a series depends on how many books are pre-ordered before the publication date. Writing and publishing are an interesting business. That said, Argyles and Arsenic is available for pre-order in e-book and hardback at Independent booksellers, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon, or ask for it at your public library.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. 

 

My husband Mike and me at a signing for my first book, Wilder Rumors, in 2007. 
We've lived in Texas, Tennessee, and Illinois.
Mike makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches in the world and he paints.

 

 

 

 

Roasted Sweet Potato Spears with Molasses and Horseradish from @MysteryMacRae

 

My mother made candied yams a few times, when I was growing up, but as far as I remember she never made the sweet potato and marshmallow combo one often sees at holiday meals. I think the marshmallow might have turned her off. I feel certain, though, that Mom and Dad would both have loved this recipe, with its savory twist on candied yams, as much as my family and I do.

I’ve been making Roasted Sweet Potato Spears with Molasses and Horseradish since Thanksgiving 2003. But that Thanksgiving I got caught up talking and laughing on the phone with my sister Jenny and I roasted the potatoes quite a bit longer than the recipe called for. The partially caramelized spears that resulted were a revelation! Darker than the picture in the magazine, but with a terrific, dark flavor. The original recipe called for running the molasses horseradish mixture through the blender and then straining it to make a glaze. I didn’t do that. It seemed like a waste of time (not to mention messy), and a waste of horseradish.

These sweet potato spears will make you stand up and cheer. We certainly do. It wouldn’t be the holiday season without the Molasses Horseradish Sweet Potato Spear cheer.  

Roasted Sweet Potato Spears with Molasses and Horseradish

(adapted from the November 2003 issue of Gourmet)

preheat oven to 450℉ with oven rack in lower third

 

Ingredients

3 lb medium sweet potatoes, peeled

¼ cup vegetable oil

¾ teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ teaspoon salt

⅓ cup molasses

⅓ cup bottled horseradish, including juice (straight horseradish, not creamed)

 

Directions

1.      If potatoes are longer than 6 inches, cut them in half. Cut the halves (or the whole potatoes) lengthwise into spears half an inch to an inch at their wide ends.

2.      Toss potatoes with oil and salt in a large bowl, then spread in a single layer in a large shallow baking pan (1 inch deep.) 

3.      Roast in lower third of oven, turning once or twice, until tender and beginning to caramelize, 30-35 minutes. Leave oven on.

4.      While potatoes roast, bring butter, molasses, horseradish, and salt to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring as the butter melts. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened and reduced to about ¾ cup, 10 or 15 minutes.

5.      Pour molasses horseradish mixture over roasted sweet potatoes and gently toss until coated. 

6.      Just before serving, return sweet potatoes to oven and reheat 5 minutes or so. 

Note:  Sweet potatoes can be roasted 2 hours ahead. Toss with molasses horseradish mixture and reheat before serving.

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022!

 

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Raspberry Cheese Pie from @MysteryMacRae

This pie is easy, festive, decadent, and delicious. What more can you ask for in a holiday dessert? We only make it for Thanksgiving or Christmas, never both in one year, and not every year – it’s really that rich. I should make a note to myself, though, to make the pie this summer when raspberries are fresh, and then decorate the top with extra berries. And the next time I make it for Christmas, why not decorate it with crystalized ginger and a bit of candied orange peel? Now visions of even more decadence are dancing in my head!

 

Chocolate Raspberry Cheese Pie

(adapted from Fast, Fabulous, Foolproof Holiday Desserts – a free recipe booklet from the Borden Foods Corporation, 1997)

Ingredients for the pie:

6 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

1 ready-made chocolate pie crust

Ingredients for the glaze:

2 ounces semisweet chocolate

¼ cup whipping cream

 

Directions for pie:

Heat oven to 350℉. With mixer, beat softened cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Add egg, lemon juice, and vanilla; mix well.

Arrange raspberries on bottom of crust. Slowly pour cheese mixture over fruit.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool.

Directions for glaze:

When pie is cooled, melt chocolate in cream over low heat. Cook and stir until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat and pour over pie, spreading glaze to meet rim of crust. Garnish however you like (or just eat it up).

 

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022!

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win!

Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

Savory Fennel Apple Tarte Tatin - #Thanksgiving #Recipe from @MysteryMacRae

  

This savory version of tarte Tatin is a delicious vegetarian addition for your Thanksgiving feast. The dish is, traditionally, a dessert—a French upside-down apple tart made by covering the bottom of a shallow baking dish with a little butter and lots of sugar, adding apples, and covering the whole with a pastry crust. The butter and all that sugar turn into caramel while the tart bakes. The caramel becomes the topping when tart is inverted onto the serving plate.

This version also has apples, but only a passing nod to the load of sugar in the dessert. The fennel caramelizes into an amazing experience, while the apples and sage become a delicious sauce. Topping the whole with crumble goat cheese, when the tart comes out of the oven, is optional, but it’s a superb touch.

During this season, I’m thankful for family, friends, and food. My boys have cooked
beside me since they were old enough to watch from their highchairs. Here’s my youngest, Ross, helping a few years ago (34 years ago!). He helped with the Savory Tarte Tatin, too, and we wondered where the name tarte Tatin came from.

We turned to our trusty Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst (a wonderful reference book). They told us the tart was created by a pair of French sisters who lived in the Loire Valley and earned their living making it. Further research found Friends of the Tarte Tatin, a website full of pages of information, including pictures of the sisters—Stéphanie and Caroline—more history of the tart, a recipe, and a bibliography. A fun site!

Savory Fennel Apple Tarte Tatin

Adapted from The Complete Plant-Based Cookbook, by America’s Test Kitchen

 

Ingredients

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed (9 ½ by 9-inch), store-bought sheets are a great convenience

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon plus one pinch table salt, divided

2 fennel bulbs, stalks discarded (1 bulb cut into 6 wedges, 1 bulb halved, cored, and cut lengthwise into ½-inch-thick slices), look for bulbs that will be about 4 inches tall after trimming

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, halved, and sliced ½ inch thick

4 teaspoons chopped fresh sage

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

2 ounces (½ cup) goat cheese, crumbled (optional – although it’s a terrific addition)

 

Directions

375 ℉

Adjust oven rack to middle position. Unfold pastry onto lightly floured board or counter and roll into 11-inch square. With pizza cutter of sharp knife, cut pastry into 11-inch circle. Transfer to parchment-paper lined baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate while preparing filling.

swirl

Swirl 2 tablespoons oil over bottom of 10-inch nonstick skillet or seasoned cast iron skillet, then sprinkle with sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt.

arrange

Arrange fennel wedges in pinwheel shape, fanning out from center of circle. Fill in gaps with sliced fennel.

cook

Cook, without stirring, over high heat until fennel turns deep golden brown, 7 to 9 minutes (if pan isn’t sizzling after 2 minutes, cook slightly longer.

Off heat, sprinkle with apple, sage, and ¼ teaspoon salt. (Forgot to take a picture at this point - oops.)

be careful - hot skillet!

Carefully transfer chilled dough to skillet, centering over filling. Being careful of hot skillet, gently fold excess dough up against skilled wall all the way around. With a paring knife, pierce dough evenly over surface 10 times.

mm-mmm, chocolate pockets

We took the scraps of puff pastry, made little pockets, and filled them each with 5 or 6 chocolate chips. We baked them on a small baking sheet while the tart baked (about 15 or 20 minutes).

bake until deep golden brown

Bake tart until crust is deep golden brown, about 45 minutes. Transfer skilled to wire rack and let cool 10 minutes.

Run knife around edge of crust to loosen. Using potholders or dish towels, carefully place serving platter on top of skillet, and, holding platter and skillet firmly together, invert tart onto platter. Transfer any fennel that sticks to the tart. Sprinkle with goat cheese. (Also forgot to take a picture with the cheese!)

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022!

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop mysteries

In the latest novel in the Highland Bookshop Mystery Series, a murder at a baronial manor leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse—with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.