Crumpets
It is possible to buy crumpets (Trader Joe’s crumpets have received good reviews from expat friends), and most Britons would, these days. But they’re not difficult to make, either. You will need to find ‘crumpet (or English muffin, or egg) rings’ (Amazon…), or cut the top and bottom out of some small, flat cans (like for tuna or pineapple rings). They need to be three to four inches in diameter and a half to one inch high. Be careful handling them, as they’re hot! May I suggest tongs?
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups water, lukewarm
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon clover honey
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine (table) salt
Butter
Nonstick spray
Heat the milk on the stove until lukewarm. Mix the milk, flour, water, butter, honey, yeast, baking powder and salt until a soft dough forms. Cover and let rise until bubbly, about 1 hour.
Melt some butter in a skillet or griddle over medium heat. Spray the rings well with non-stick spray and set them in the pan; move them around a bit so the melted butter forms a ‘seal’ between the ring and the pan. Fill each ring with about ¼ cup of batter.
Cook until the crumpets are set and the bottoms are lightly golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes. Carefully remove the rings, flip the crumpets over and cook until completely done, another 3 to 5 minutes or so. Wash and spray the rings with nonstick spray between batches.
Deviled Ham Sandwiches
‘Deviled’ anything indicates that the main ingredient (chopped ham, eggs or egg yolks, seafood, or whatever) has been blended with strongly-flavored ingredients like mustard or horseradish. In the case of deviled ham, this usually means mustard. Exact proportions vary, as do the additional ingredients, which may include sweet or sour pickles, minced onion, Worcestershire sauce, chutney, and even hot sauce or peppers. It makes a great sandwich filling, and is an excellent way to use up any leftover ham you might happen to have around.
½ lb cooked ham, cut into chunks
½ c diced red onion, optional
3 T mayonnaise
1 T prepared mustard (Coleman’s, Dijon, brown, coarse grain, sweet-hot or horseradish, but not yellow ball-park)
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 t dry mustard powder
dash hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco, hot wing, or Mexican), optional
2 T chopped sweet or sour pickles, well-drained pickle relish, or chopped chutney, optional
1/8 t salt, or to taste
1/8 t pepper, or to taste
Thinly sliced white bread
Place the ham in a food processor (with the onion if using). Pulse until finely chopped, but still with some texture. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse once or twice until well blended. Spread on a slice of bread, top with another slice, trim off the crusts, and cut into long rectangles, squares, or triangles.
Cucumber-Mint Sandwiches
Cucumber sandwiches are something of a cliché, and range from merely cucumber slices on buttered bread to elaborate collections of multiple ingredients. This recipe falls more into the latter camp. These sandwiches must be made at the last minute to avoid sogginess (the butter will help), but everything can be prepared in advance, ready to assemble.
Wholemeal (British for ‘whole wheat’) bread, thinly sliced
Unsalted butter, traditional but optional
6 T cream cheese
2 T finely chopped walnuts
Leaves from several sprigs of mint, large leaves torn into small pieces
½ English cucumber, well washed
3 or 4 large radishes (optional)
Cut the crusts off the bread and cut rounds out of the slices; spread (not too thickly) with butter, if using, and the cream cheese. Sprinkle lightly and evenly with the walnuts. Scatter the mint over the walnuts and press lightly to adhere to the cream cheese. Peel the cucumber, partially peel it in strips, or score it lengthwise with a fork, and slice it (and the radishes if using) as thin as possible. All the slices should ideally be thin enough to fold and drape artistically. Place the slices attractively on the sandwiches, and garnish, if desired, with another mint leaf.
Coronation Chicken Sandwiches
When Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, there were lots of foreign dignitaries in attendance, many of them from the former British Empire. There was to be a luncheon for them after the ceremony, and the Minister of Works (don’t you love British officials’ titles?) worried that the foreign guests might find British food unfamiliar and uncongenial. A further complicating factor was that everything for the luncheon had to be prepared ahead of time. Constance Spry (who was involved with floral arrangements for the affair) suggested a grilled chicken salad in curried cream sauce, served over cold rice with peas and herbs. The dish became known as Coronation Chicken, but the original recipe wasn’t published until 1956, so myriad variations had already developed. By now, it’s one of those dishes that every cook has his or her own spin on.
Coronation Chicken is now more often a sandwich filling than a composed salad. It’s excellent as a tea sandwich, and (obviously) comes with an illustrious pedigree. This recipe refers back to the original version (hence the tomato paste, not a common ingredient in chicken salad), but it is not a slavish copy.
‘Coronation Salmon’ is also excellent; just replace the chicken with an equivalent amount of flaked salmon. And I’ve even seen ‘Coronation Carrot’ sandwiches offered as a vegetarian alternative!
18 oz cooked chicken breast (skin removed, poached or grilled, or canned in a pinch)
½ c mayonnaise (more or less depending on your tolerance for gloppiness…)
1 T tomato paste
1 T brown sugar
1 T curry powder, or to taste
1/3 c diced celery
2 T diced onion
2 T diced carrot
½ c dried apricots, diced (kitchen shears is the easiest tool for this)
Salt
Pepper
1/3 c chopped cashews*, optional
Equal quantities of wholemeal and white bread, thinly sliced
Cut up the chicken meat and pull into shreds with a fork. Stir in the mayonnaise, tomato paste, sugar and curry powder. Add the celery, onion, carrot, and apricots; stir well. Let stand in the refrigerator for an hour or so to blend the flavors. Taste and add salt, pepper and/or more curry powder as needed.
If desired, stir in the cashews just before serving. (They will get soggy if added too early. *Also remember that cashews can be a serious allergen – if someone’s allergic to cashews, they’re likely to be really allergic – so caution is advised if you don’t know your guests well. Or you could just ask…)
Spread the filling on a slice of bread, put a slice of the other kind of bread on top, cut off the crusts and cut into narrow rectangles or triangles. The sandwiches may also be made open-faced, garnished with a sprig of cilantro, mint, basil or other herb.
Sticky Ginger Cake
Sticky Ginger Cake is a ‘nursery sweet’, the kind of thing once served to ‘seen but not heard’ upper-class children by their nannies. But it could also be served to adults at tea, perhaps spread with a little unsalted butter, and many ‘nursery’ dishes are still nostalgic British comfort food.
Lyle’s Golden Syrup is a much-loved ingredient; there is no real substitute, but it’s available in some grocery and import stores, or online. Stem ginger is preserved in sugar syrup; crystalized ginger, more available in the US, is drier and coated in granulated sugar.
1 ¼ c + 3 T golden syrup
½ c black treacle (or strong American molasses)
1/4 c (55 g) unsalted butter
4 t ground ginger
3/4 t ground cinnamon
3/8 t ground nutmeg
1/8 t ground cloves
1 ¾ c (285 g) flour
½ t baking soda
½ t salt
½ c + 2 T milk
2 eggs, beaten
½ c drained stem ginger or crystalized ginger, finely chopped (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350o F. Butter a loaf pan and line it with parchment.
Melt the golden syrup, treacle, sugar, butter and spices together in a saucepan and let cool a bit. Stir the flour, soda, and salt together. Mix the milk and eggs together. Add these two mixtures alternately to the butter/syrup mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in the candied ginger if using. Transfer the batter into the pan and bake about 1 – 1 ½ hour. Let cool about 15 – 20 minutes before removing from the pan, and let cool completely.
Wrap the loaf in foil or place in an air-tight container and store for two days to a week before eating. Serve cut in thick slices, spread with unsalted butter if desired. Also excellent when lightly toasted.
Maids of Honor
Maids of Honor are a traditional British tea-time sweet, said to date to the time of King Henry VIII, and to be named either for Anne Boleyn (who served as a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon) or for her own maids once she was Queen. As with many ‘traditional’ foods, though, there are numerous recipes and variations. The ‘Original Maids of Honor’ tea shop in London makes theirs with puff pastry and an egg-based custard, but other pastry shells, almonds and red jam appear in many recipes, like this one, as well.
Bob’s Red Mill (some stores, particularly of the health-food or organic persuasion, or online), King Arthur and Trader Joe’s make good ground almonds (aka almond meal). Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur blanch their almonds before grinding them, but Trader Joe’s leave the skins on, so their version has little brown flecks throughout.
1 c unsalted butter
½ c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
¼ t salt
2 c flour
2 eggs
½ c sugar
½ tsp vanilla
1 ¼ c ground almonds
red jam or jelly (raspberry, strawberry, red currant, mixed fruit)
Preheat the oven to 325o F. Spray a mini-muffin pan with cooking spray.
Cream 1 c of butter with ½ c sugar. Beat in 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, and the salt. Stir in the flour. Drop a small ball into each mini-muffin cup, pressing the dough over the bottom and up the sides to form a crust about a scant ¼ in thick. Chill the crusts while you make the filling.
Beat the remaining 2 eggs with the remaining sugar and vanilla. Stir in the almonds.
Place a small amount of the jam or jelly in the bottom of each tiny crust; the exact amount will depend somewhat on the size of the wells in your pan. Fill the crusts with the almond filling.
Bake about 20 – 27 minutes, until delicately browned and set.
Eccles Cakes
Eccles Cakes are a specialty of the city of Eccles, in Lancashire, and have been made and sold since the 16th century. After the English Civil War, however, Eccles cakes and mince pies were banned by the Puritans in 1650. An act of Parliament decreed that anyone caught eating a currant pie would be imprisoned, thereby proving the accuracy of H. L. Mencken’s definition of a Puritan as a person with a ‘haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.’
4 T unsalted butter
1 c dried currants
2 T mixed candied citrus peel, chopped
½ c granulated sugar
½ c dark brown sugar
¼ t cinnamon
¼ t freshly grated nutmeg
½ t allspice
1 pkg frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg
large-crystal sugar (white, crystalline, or raw/turbinado, your choice)
Preheat the oven to 400o F. Line a baking sheet with a sheet of parchment or a silicone liner (eg, Silpat).
Melt butter over medium heat and stir in currants, peel, the sugars and the spices. Mix thoroughly until the sugars are melted and fruit is coated. Let cool to room temperature.
Make an egg wash by mixing the egg with a little water. Roll out the puff pastry sheets until you can cut 24 circles, roughly 2½” in diameter. Divide the fruit filling evenly among 12 of the circles. Brush the edges of each circle with the egg wash, place another circle on top, enclosing the filling, and seal well around the edges. Place the pastries on your baking sheet and slash the top in the traditional three parallel lines to expose the filling.
Brush the pastries with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle with the large-crystal sugar. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until puffed and golden. Serve hot or at room temperature.
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