Monmouth Pudding

This year's St. David's day recipe is Monmouth Pudding. It's an old-fashioned kind of dessert, popular in Victorian times and similar to the English Queen of Puddings. This Welsh incarnation doesn't however have a meringue topping although a lot of the recipes you see for it do include the extra layer. 

Looking at the list of ingredients you might be fooled into thinking it's stodgy and heavy but it's really not. It's light, fruity and just sweet enough. You can serve it either with cream or, my preference, a fresh raspberry sauce to really enhance the fruit flavour. Monmouth pudding is at its best about 10 minutes after it's come out of the oven, still warm but not scaldingly hot. 

Traditionally, this pudding was one of those thrifty type of recipes that used up stale bread, milk and fruit from the garden to make something so much more than the sum of its parts. My version is not quite so austere; I've used cream and brioche crumbs to give an updated, more luxurious taste. I hope my Welsh ancestors would approve.

Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus.

RECIPE - serves 4-6

225 ml milk
200 ml double cream
25g caster sugar
grated zest of one lemon
175g brioche crumbs
2 eggs
200g jam (strawberry, raspberry or any other kind)

You can make this as one large pudding or 6 individual ones, as in the photo.

For the large one, you need a 23x20cm ovenproof dish, buttered. For the individual ones, 6 buttered ramekins. 

Pre-heat oven to 150°C.

Pour the milk and cream into a pan, add the sugar and lemon zest and heat gently until just boiling. Remove from the heat, pour over the brioche crumbs and leave the mixture to cool for 15 mins. 

When cooled, separate the eggs, stirring the yolks into the crumb mixture.

Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks then gently fold them into the crumb mixture with a metal spoon.

Heat the jam until it's runny, then drizzle half over the bottom of the prepared dish.

Spoon half the crumb mixture on top. 

Repeat the jam and crumb layers, making sure that the final layer of brioche mixture is level.

Bake in the oven for about 30-40 mins until the top is golden. The pudding should be set but still with a slight wobble.

Leave for about 10 minutes before serving. 

Jammie Dodgers (Biscotti alla Marmellata)

I rarely buy biscuits. The long list of ingredients on the side of the packet is enough to put me off and most of them don't taste great either. I make an exception with shortbread - I love it, in all its forms and even the cheapest brands are fairly unadulterated, listing just flour, butter, sugar and salt.

Homemade biscuits however are a completely different proposition. They are a joy, both in taste and to make. There's something very therapeutic about rolling out the dough and then cutting it into pretty shapes, like the star biscuits here. I didn't intend them to be Christmas biscuits, it's just that stars are the only cutters I have with a matching small shape for the open centre. Looking at the photo, I realise that the shape, together with the raspberry red middle, makes them look very festive indeed. I'll certainly be baking these again nearer to Christmas.

This recipe comes from Pam Corbin writing in The Guardian but it is originally from the River Cottage Handbook: Cakes by Pam Corbin. It is similar to shortbread but with the addition of an egg yolk which makes the dough more pliable and the biscuits hold their shape better too. 

As this month's letter is 'J' in the brilliant Alphabakes challenge by Caroline at Caroline Makes (this month's host) and Ros from TheMoreThanOccasionalBaker, I'm sending this as my entry. I always enjoy seeing what everyone comes up with for this imaginative challenge!



RECIPE (from River Cottage Handbook: Cakes by Pam Corbin)  - Makes 6-7

175g plain flour
Pinch of sea salt
75g icing sugar
125g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g raspberry jam (or whatever flavour you like)

2 large baking sheets, lined with baking parchment
6–7cm biscuit cutter

2.5cm heart, square, round or animal biscuit cutter

Sift the flour, salt and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and lightly rub into the flour mix, using your fingertips, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk and vanilla extract together. Make a well in the centre of the flour mix. Add the egg and vanilla mix and work together to form a soft, smooth dough. Seal the dough in a polythene bag and chill in the fridge for 25–30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Divide the dough into two equal portions. Place one portion between two pieces of lightly floured greaseproof paper and, using a rolling pin, roll the dough to approximately a 4mm thickness. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Remove the top paper


With the larger biscuit cutter, cut the dough into discs (make sure you have an even number). Using the smaller cutter, cut out and remove the centre of half the biscuit discs; the cut-out pieces can either be kneaded back into the remaining dough or baked just as they are.

Place all the discs on the baking sheets. Bake for 15–20 minutes until just firm and barely coloured.

Remove from the oven and place a teaspoonful of jam in the centre of each whole biscuit. Spread to 1.5cm from the edge. Place the cut-out rounds on top. Return to the oven and cook for a further 5–6 minutes by which time the biscuits will be evenly cooked and the jam sufficiently hot to stick the biscuits together.

Leave the biscuits to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

Chilli Jam

I have always loved the idea of having a larder stocked with home-made jams, preserves and chutneys but in reality, the demands of a full-time job don't leave me much time for this type of cooking. However, since moving into our new house a few years ago, I have managed to make at least a few jars of chutney each year, spurred on by a reluctance to waste the windfalls from my apple and pear trees if I didn't. The whole operation of chutney-making was so much simpler than I had imagined (apart from my almost OCD obsessiveness about sterilising the jars) that I was encouraged to try my hand at some other preserves.

Although marmellata di peperoncino originally comes from Calabria, famous for its powerful chillies, I first tried this chilli jam in a trattoria in Tuscany. It was one of those rustic places, without pretension, all wooden tables and brown paper mats, serving plain but delicious local food. We had platters of Tuscan meats and cheeses - cinta senese (a rare breed of pig from the Siena area) salami, wafer thin slices of finocchiona, a wonderfully scented salami flavoured with fennel seeds, silky slices of lardo di Colonnata produced from pigs that dine on acorns and chestnuts served on chunks of warm toasted bread, ash-covered wedges of pecorino from Pienza ... The chilli jam accompanied the cheeses and it was perfect, not only, as I had expected, with the more mature ones but also combining wonderfully with the young, fresh pecorino.

My version comes from Nigella's Christmas book. I have tried others but this is my favourite - it's so simple yet yielding fabulous results. I love the clear, vibrant red jelly, with its fragments of chilli floating inside. Don't save it just for the cheese board though - it goes wonderfully with bacon sandwiches, burgers cooked on the barbecue, grilled chicken, cold meats...

You can find Nigella's recipe here (http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chilli-jam-2692).

I'm sending this over to the amazingly alliterative monthly blogging challenge Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen (of the inspirational Lavender and Lovage) and Kate (from mouth-watering What Kate Baked)  - the theme is Jam, Chutneys, Curds and Conserves. Kate is this month's host and having seen both her entry and Karen's, I'm sure it's going to be a fantastic round-up!