Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding #FridayPieDay

Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding is a classic British dessert. It’s essentially a pie with two flakey sweet crusts, top and bottom, baked with an almond custard filling. 

Join me down the rabbit hole, where one book leads to another book, leads to another book.

Five years ago today, I wrote my first post on this blog, created initially to give me a place to join my two loves, cooking and writing. Over the years, as readership grew, it also became a place to connect with the world at large and make friends both in and outside the blogging community. My interest in food, culture and the history of recipes was fueled by my travels and the many countries I’ve called home. Also, I’m a sucker for any memoir that includes food or cooking as a focus.

Last year I came across the memoir, Brian Turner – A Yorkshire Lad, my life with recipes at a used book sale. I had never heard of Turner, apparently a world famous chef with his own restaurant and a successful career on television, but that didn’t stop me from buying the book. His early years were the best part of the story. I love reading about how others grew up and the poor Yorkshire lad who went off to London with just £20 in his pocket did not disappoint.

In the reading of that book, I came across another that seemed worth owning. Farmhouse Kitchen is based on the independent television series of the same name, presented by Dorothy Sleightholme on Yorkshire Television, starting in the early '70s. I found Farmhouse Kitchen online in a used book store and had it mailed to an address in the United States, knowing I wouldn’t get it till I went home in May.

Now I’m back in Dubai again and am finally having a chance to read it. It’s short on descriptions but long on recipes, one after another after another, for classic – read: old-fashioned, down home – British fare. Many use ingredients that were possibly common at the time but harder to come by now, like wood pigeon and lambs’ hearts. On the other hand, a lot of the recipes can be made with store cupboard ingredients. The Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding is one example.

I always keep ground almonds in my freezer because they are an excellent addition to many baked cakes or cookies. (Why the freezer? The cold keeps nuts from turning rancid in a warm kitchen.) The other ingredients, flour, eggs, butter, sugar, jam, everyone will have. But where did the recipe originate and why the unusual name? Mrs. Sleightholme offers no information whatsoever, nor does the contributor of the recipe, one Miss P. M. Cherry of Penkridge.

As an initially all-volunteer unit in the queen’s own army, Staffordshire Yeomanry has a long and illustrious history of defending the crown’s interests, dating back from 1794. The Wikipedia page is full of information about its roles over the years but not once does it mention the pudding that bears the same name.

Clearly more research was necessary which led me to this post on Book Cottages where I learned that the Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding recipe was possibly first developed "during the height of the Boer War, when wives would bake for their returning husbands a luxurious welcome home spread, comprising of the best cakes and sweetmeats they could possibly afford."

But still no mention of why the pudding was named such. Curiouser and curiouser. I had to keep digging. I must confess that I’m still none the wiser, but deep into the rabbit hole of recipe research and book buying, I’ve just ordered Good Things in England: A Practical Cookery Book for Everyday Use first published in 1932, with 853 recipes, some dating back to the 14th century. Once it arrives, I’ll be sure to report back if any light is shed on the origins of Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding. If you happen to know more about it, please leave me a comment.

Meanwhile, if you’ve followed me down the rabbit hole thus far, you deserve some sweet pie! If you've been reading my blog since the beginning five years ago, I owe you much more, but pie and a great big Thank You will have to do.

Ingredients
For the sweet shortcrust pastry:
1 3/4 cup or 220g plain flour
1/2 cup or 113g butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

For the filling:
 1/2 cup or 113g butter
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1/4 cup or 28g ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
1 egg white
2 tablespoons jam

Method
Add the flour and the cold butter, cut into pieces, into your food processor. Pulse several times, until the flour and butter are combined and look like big crumbs.

Add in the sugar and salt and pulse again.

 Add in the egg yolk and water.

Pulse again, scraping down the sides of the food processor in between pulses, until the dough just comes together.

Turn it out of the processor and wrap tightly with cling film. Pop the wrapped dough in the refrigerator to chill.

Start your oven preheating to 350°F or 180°C and make the filling.

In the bowl of your processor or with electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar together until they turn pale yellow.

Mix in the extract, salt and ground almonds. Add in the whole egg and one egg yolk and process until the mixture is well combined, scraping down the side of the processor occasionally.

Roll out 2/3 of the dough and fit it into your pie plate. Spoon in the jam and spread it around evenly on the bottom.

Pour the custard filling on top of the jam and smooth it out.

Roll the other piece of the dough out in a circle and top the filling with it. Push down around the edges to seal the two crusts together. Trim the crusts to end about one inch or 2 centimeters above the filling.

Fold the two crusts over together to seal the pie and form an edge and cut three slits in the top crust.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until the crust is golden and the custard inside is set.

Cool on a wire rack for at least 20-25 minutes before cutting and serving.

Enjoy!


My friend and creator of Friday Pie Day, Heather, over at All Roads Lead to the Kitchen has made another classic dessert with a funny name, but from the United States, shoofly pie! Head on over and pay her a visit.

I am pleased to join her on the last Friday of each month for pie and crust recipes, techniques, tools of the trade, and other inspiration.

For more information and recipes, please check out her #FridayPieDay page!

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Coronation Chicken Filled Croissant Horns #FoodieExtravaganza

Curry powder and fruit chutney spice up the creamy sauce for coronation chicken, classic British picnic fare. Serve it stuffed in croissants for a pretty party dish.

I was sitting, nay, lounging (because it was New Year’s Day and there was Champagne!) in the Emirates Airlines lounge in London Gatwick airport just a few days ago, when I decided to check out the cold buffet. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being in an Emirates lounge, you know that the dishes on offer are always tasty as well as presented in a most beautiful manner. But for once, I was disappointed. Oh, the coronation chicken was beautiful, spooned as it was onto a crispy green lettuce leaf, surrounded by fanned out slices of fresh apple and mango. But it was missing the zip of curry and chutney I’ve come to expect with this dish, which is one of my favorites. All in all, it was rather bland. When I expressed my dismay, my husband smiled, “Now you’ll have to make your own, right?” That man does know me.

So here I am with my coronation chicken, a recipe compiled from several found in my cookbooks and on the internet. The unifying theme of each seems to be the sauce, made with varying proportions of cream or mayonnaise and yogurt or even just mayo, with the addition of curry powder and chutney, usually with some lime or lemon juice. Some had apples, some celery. Tomato paste and no tomato paste. Others added blueberries, mango, dried apricots or sultanas to the mix. Some started with roast chicken, pulled off the bones; others with chopped poached breasts and yet others didn’t specify how the chicken should be cooked. Only that it should be. SO MANY RECIPES.

I’m sharing it today stuffed into disemboweled croissants. Yes, I just used disemboweled on a food blog. It’s one of those lovely English words that sounds exactly as it should, don’t you think? This month’s Foodie Extravaganza theme is croissants so I briefly considered making some puff pastry horns in which to serve my coronation chicken. I even own the little metal forms around which to bake the pastry. But it’s been a busy week and, frankly, it’s way easier for all of us to hollow out some fresh croissants from a nearby bakery and fill them.

And don’t they look pretty? Best part of all, of course, is the spicy coronation chicken inside.

With many thanks to Rosemary Hume, the original creator of the recipe for the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II plus Delia Smith, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and all the other innovators who have come along since, this is my rendition.

Ingredients
For the sauce:
3/4 cup or 170g mayonnaise
1/2 cup or 125g plain thick Greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon hot curry powder, or to taste
2 tablespoons spicy fruity chutney (I used my own habanero nectarine kumquat chutney.)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Optional but recommended: 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

For the salad:
1.1 lbs or 500g chicken breasts (Just two large breasts in my packet.)
1/4 cup or 45g pomegranate arils, plus extra to garnish, if desired
1/2 medium-sized tart apple (I used a Jazz weighing about 170g whole.)
Generous squeeze lemon juice (to keep the apple from browning)

To serve:
7-8 fresh croissants
Optional: some small lettuce leaves (They keep your plate clean, if that even matters to you. Otherwise, give your guests a fork as well.)

Method
Slice the chicken breasts in half lengthwise through their middles so they will cook faster.

Poach them in lightly salted water to cover, until just cooked through. This shouldn't take more than about 10-12 minutes, depending on the thickness.

Still slightly pink in the middle. 

Drain and set aside to cool. You can pop them into the refrigerator to speed up the process.

Mix all of your sauce ingredients in a large bowl, big enough to hold your chicken and other ingredients later, with room for stirring.

Add a good squeeze of lemon juice to a small bowl. Peel, core and dice your apple, sliding the pieces off of the chopping board and into the lemon juice, stirring to mix the apple with the lemon juice, as you go.

Once the chicken is cool, chop it into small pieces. Tip it into the sauce with the pomegranate arils and chopped apple.

Stir well. Taste the mixture and add more salt if necessary. This can be used immediately but will taste better if allowed to hang out in the refrigerator for a few hours, covered with cling film.

When you are ready to serve, cut your croissants in half and use a sharp knife to cut all around the inside to remove the middle. Once you’ve gotten as much as you can out, use your index finger to press around inside the half croissant to expand the space.

I was surprised to find that my croissants had herbs inside. But it was a pleasant surprise. 

Fill the croissant horn with coronation chicken, pushing it right to the bottom with a small spoon. Lay the horn on a leaf of lettuce, if using, or straight on a serving plate, if not.

Garnish with a few pomegranate arils for color.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to this month's Foodie Extravaganza host, Kathleen from Fearlessly Creative Mammas. Check out all the great croissant and crescent roll recipes we've got for you!

• Almond Croissant French Toast by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Bacon Fig Dippers for Melty Cheese by Cooking with Carlee
• Baked Cinnamon Raisin Croissant French Toast by From Gate to Plate
• Beefy Green Chile Braid by Fearlessly Creative Mammas
• Breakfast Croissant Ring by Our Good Life
• Chocolate Croissants by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cinnamon and Apple Croissant Bread Pudding by The Freshman Cook
• Coronation Chicken Filled Croissant Horns by Food Lust People Love
• Croque Monsieur Croissants by Caroline's Cooking
• Pain Au Chocolat by Making Miracles
• Pain Au Jambon by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissant with Maple Dijon Sauce by Tara's Multicultural Table
• Triple Meat Croissants Breakfast Casserole by Cookin' and Craftin'

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out here.

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Raspberry Cointreau Syllabub

Whipping cream, Greek yogurt, Cointreau and raspberries combine to make a simple yet delicious dessert that takes mere minutes to throw together, ready to eat immediately or keep chilled till you are ready to serve.

In a rare occurrence, raspberries are on sale here in the UAE. I have no idea why my local Carrefour Market has marked them down to almost half price, but I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. As I piled the little boxes in my shopping cart the other day, the first thing that popped into my mind was syllabub. It’s an easy dessert usually made with whipping cream and sweet wine. Or perhaps a liqueur.

Syllabub is a typical British dessert, or pudding as they like to call it, but I had never heard of it until a number of years ago when a friend told me the story of a dinner party she was throwing in her home. The kitchen was a disaster zone with preparations, cooking and a sink full of dirty dishes. Somehow, by mistake, the syllabub she had just made for dessert – not yet spooned into serving vessels – was thrown out by her maid who mistook it for leftovers of the worst kind. I must admit, it’s not attractive but if you can ignore its looks and put a spoon in, it is delicious!

Come to find out, syllabub made it to the New World with the colonists and it is, in fact, still served in Colonial Williamsburg as a period dessert. What a shame that it fell out of favorite in what became the United States and I had to learn about it from a British friend! Perhaps it’s time to bring it back?

This recipe is adapted from one on JamieOliver.com.

Ingredients
12 oz or 340g raspberries, divided
3 tablespoons caster sugar
3 tablespoons Cointreau
1 1/4 cup or 290ml double cream
1 cup or 245g natural unsweetened Greek yogurt

Optional to serve: a few sprigs fresh mint

Method
Set aside a few raspberries for popping on top of the syllabub and then place the rest in big mixing bowl.

Sprinkle them with the sugar and Cointreau and set aside to macerate.

Whip the cream to soft peaks in a separate bowl and fold in the yoghurt.

Fold half the cream and yoghurt mix into the raspberry mixture. Squish a few of the berries to turn it a little bit pink, if necessary. My raspberries didn’t seem to break down at all, which surprised me, so I did squish a few.

Now gently fold in the remaining cream and yoghurt mix, trying to leave some parts white and some parts pink.

Divide the mixture between six glasses and garnish each with a sprig of mint and the reserved raspberries. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

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Easter Simnel Marzipan Muffins #MuffinMonday

Simnel cake with marzipan baked inside and lots of dried fruit and candied peel, made easy in the form of these Easter Simnel Marzipan Muffins.

 

Simnel cake with marzipan baked inside is a British spring or Easter tradition that dates back a few centuries, with a much debated history. Whatever its origins, it is made of a rich batter, full of dried fruit and candied peel, topped with yet more rolled marzipan. 

Additionally, it is traditional to decorate simnel cakes with small balls of marzipan to represent the apostles, sometimes only 11 because Judas is excluded, or 12 to represent the apostles and Jesus. These are often browned in the oven before serving. 

I’ve written before in this space about trying to pass on my own American traditions to our daughters. What I may not have mentioned, because it’s really his own story to tell, is that my husband also grew up as an expat, a third culture kid. 

I am sure his mother and father did their best to impart some British traditions to him and his brothers but they went to American curriculum schools and never lived in the United Kingdom so, truth be told, his knowledge of British culture has huge gaps. 

Many times I have felt it incumbent upon me to shore up that side of our daughters' education as well. Mainly because I've been an Anglophile since starting school in the British system in Trinidad, W.I.  Rather secondarily, perhaps, because their father is British. 

Problem is, I’ve never lived in Great Britain either, so my information has been gleaned from those three years of schooling and what I learned reading ancient Anglo-Saxon literature as well as Enid Blyton, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, historical novels, English Renaissance and Romantic period poets, countless biographies of Queen Victoria (I have kind of thing about her.), not to mention The Secret Garden. 

Oh, yes, and watching Thomas the Tank Engine, Rosie and Jim and Wallace and Grommit. So, as you can imagine, I have many cultural gaps as well. Simnel cake is one of them. 

I’ve certainly heard of it and knew pretty much what it was supposed to look like, down to the typical ingredients. But when my friend, Nicky, suggested Simnel muffins for Easter, I’d never made one before.  

Fortunately the internet is a knowledgeable place and I have mixed and matched several cake recipes to come to this delicious muffin conclusion. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Even if Simnel muffins aren’t traditional. 

Ingredients

1.1 lb or 500g marzipan, divided (You may not use quite all of it.)

3/4 cup or 110g whole raw almonds

1 cup or 160g mixed dried fruits (Mine had currants, sultanas, raisins, cranberries and tart cherries)

1/4 cup or 60g mixed candied peel (orange and lemon)

1/2 cup or 120ml orange juice

2 tablespoons dark rum – optional but recommended – sub more juice if not using.

1 3/4 cups or 220g flour

3/4 cup or 170g sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1/2 cup or 120g butter, melted then cooled

2 eggs

1/3 cup or 75ml milk

Method

Divide your marzipan into thirds and wrap two thirds in cling film and refrigerate. 

Cut the last third into 12 reasonably equal pieces. Roll them into little balls and then flatten then into disks that are smaller than your muffin cups. Set aside.

Prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it with butter or non-stick spray, or lining the cups with paper liners.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and put your almonds on a baking sheet in the oven while it preheats. Shake the baking sheet to move the almonds around every few minutes and take them out when you can smell that they are toasting. This will take anywhere from 7-18 minutes, depending on how long your oven takes to preheat. Mine takes at least 15 minutes so my nuts are usually in the whole time. Do not let the almonds scorch! 

Meanwhile, heat your orange juice and rum in the microwave or in a small pot on the stove until they are just starting to boil and pour them over your dried fruit and peel. Leave to steep. 

When the almonds are toasted, remove the pan from the oven and set them aside to cool. When they are cool, chop them in the food processor until they are in small pieces but not ground too finely. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine your flour, sugar, baking powder, mixed spice, salt and chopped almonds.

In a small bowl, whisk together your eggs, milk and melted butter. 

Pour your egg mixture and your mixed fruit, along with the soaking liquid, into the dry ingredients and fold until just combined.

Spoon half of the batter into the prepared muffin cups. 

Press one disk of marzipan gently into the top of the batter. 

Top with the balance of the batter, making sure that the disks of marzipan are completely covered. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes in your preheated oven or until golden brown on top. The toothpick checking trick will give you a false underdone reading because the marzipan in the middle comes out sticky, so you’ll have to trust that, if your oven has been at the proper temperature, after 25 minutes, they are done. 

While the muffins are baking, take the remaining marzipan out of the refrigerator and cut about one quarter off and set that aside. You may need it later when we are making apostles. 

Cover your clean work surface with cling film and put the bigger piece of marzipan in the middle. Top with another piece of cling film. 

Use a rolling pin to flatten the marzipan out until it’s less than a 1/8 in or about 3mm thick. 

When the muffins are done, remove them from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then put them on a wire rack.

Lift the top bit of cling film off of the rolled out marzipan and cut out circles with a cookie cutter.  

Put your hand under the second piece of cling film and raise the marzipan slightly to help peel it off cleanly. 

While they are still a bit warm, top each muffin with a circle of marzipan. The heat will warm the marzipan and help it stick to the muffin tops. 

Now we are going to make the traditional 12 marzipan balls. Scoop up all of your marzipan scraps and roll them into a small log. If there is not much left, add some from the reserved marzipan you cut off earlier. I managed to use just the scraps but you may need more, depending on how thick you rolled out the batch for topping. You want 12 balls of about 3/4 in or 19mm. Or make smaller balls. Anyway, the extra marzipan is there, if you need it. Top each muffin with an apostle or Jesus marzipan ball. 

Happy Easter! 

Enjoy!