**Sweetie Pie is Going on Holiday**

Well everyone! I'm taking a little break for a few weeks because this month is very busy: I'm going abroad for work, and then when I get back I'll be settling into more working hours. I'll be active here the odd bit, sharing silly pictures, as is my wont.

I'm not sure when I'll be writing another blog, but you will all certainly be the first to know!

Thanks for all of your support so far! x

Sausage Rolls (Wheat Free)

For the afternoon tea party this month, I tried making something that I've never ever done before: puff pastry! I decided to use the puff pastry to make some delicious sausage rolls.

Now, sausage rolls made with normal shortcrust pastry are also delicious, but I thought I'd challenge myself. The idea of a picnic conjures up sausage rolls and pork pies in my mind (I knew there was Englishness hiding in there somewhere), so I decided to use it as an opportunity to try something new.

Puff pastry, admittedly, is a little time consuming and fussy. Traditionally, you make a shortcrust pastry, saving some of the butter, and then you sandwich the pastry with the butter, folding and re-rolling repeatedly to make thousands of layers of pastry and butter. This makes it puff and go super flaky on cooking in an extremely hot oven. The only challenge is that everything has to be ice cold, meaning that between each step you have to chill the dough, then fold and re-roll, then chill, and so forth. It takes forever.

So, some enterprising soul somewhere in history came up with rough puff pastry, which is a little bit of a cheat. You use a traditional shortcrust pastry recipe but you prepare it differently. You only rub the flour in halfway, and only mix in the water half way, and then tip it all out on the surface to begin your rolling and folding, freezing for 15 minutes after every third turn and roll. Of course, it's very messy to start with because it's crumbly and uneven, but as you progress it sorts itself out.

Now, I'm not going to outline the process in my recipe, I am, however, going to link you to a great video that shows it in good detail. I've linked it so that it starts where the method is explained, because I use slightly different ingredients.

So, let's get started!

INGREDIMENTS

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) very cold butter, cubed
• 2 to 3 fluid ounces (60 to 90 millilitres) cold water
• Generous pinch of salt
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) sausages of your choice
• Milk for glazing and sticking

METHOD

• Make the pastry using the flour, butter, salt, and water following the method in this video. The pastry needs about 90 minutes to 2 hours to make, so give yourself plenty of time.
• Preheat your oven to 220°C (450°F, Gas Mk.7).
• Skin the sausages and place the meat into a bowl. Mix it with about 2 teaspoons of water to make a manageable paste.
• Flour you work surface and roll the pastry into a long oblong about 1/4 inch in thickness, making the short end about 5 inches (12 centimetres) wide. The length of the oblong will depend on a few things, but make sure the width and thickness are right.
• Brush the pastry with milk and then put the sausage meat in an even line, spanning the length of the oblong.
• Fold the pastry over the meat, and crimp with a fork to make a big sausage roll. Cut the sausage roll into 20 little pieces, or 16 larger pieces is you want bigger rolls. 
• Place the rolls on an ungreased baking sheet and brush them with some milk for a nice gold brown finish. Place in the centre of the very hot preheated oven.
• Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown and puffed. Serve rolls straight from the oven, or allow to cool on a wire rack.

Of course, sausage rolls are very, very high in fat, so enjoy sparingly!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: No blog due to going abroad

Experiments in Homemade Soft Drinks: Raspberry Lemonade and Orange Cream Soda

Ever since I was little, I've always been fascinated by the idea of making my own soft drinks. I would always make concoctions of different squashes and drinks and essences, and some of them were vile. I remember once mixing some artificial peppermint essence and sugar into some water, expecting it to taste like drinking a Softmint, but it was genuinely disgusting.

As I got older, I researched the science of making soft drinks, and their beginnings. I remember doing an experiment in science class at junior certificate level where we distilled some Powerade, and got a jug of crystal clear water and a jug of sticky dark blue gunk, and it clicked in my mind that they're literally a flavoured syrup diluted with fizzy water. This was solidified in my mind when I realised that's how cola taps in fast food restaurants worked.

So over the years I've made a few things, but could never quite ascertain a formula, until I found a recipe for strawberry syrup for pancakes, that mixed equal parts simple syrup with blended strawberries and sieved out the pulp.

I'd never really had an excuse to try making my own soft drinks again, because I'm not a big soft drink consumer anyway. But when the June afternoon tea party came along, I deliberately made it summer themed so I could have an excuse to make some fizzy again. 

For the event, I made two kinds. Firstly: a daintily pink raspberry lemonade!

I thought it would be nice to make a dainty pink lemonade, given the quaintness of the afternoon tea indoor picnic. Usually, the pink of lemonade would be as a result of colouring, or sometimes strawberry syrup, but I thought it would be nice to use raspberry. I'm a big fan of raspberry, and its sweet tartness works very well with lemon. This was the more popular of the two, as it is crisp and refreshing, and such a cute colour; it was even popular with the men in the room...

I found these lovely bottles in the local 2 Euro shop; they have more style than substance though, as I discussed in my full tea party blog.

To make the pink lemonade, follow this recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) fresh lemon juice (about 4 large lemons)
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) good quality raspberry jam
• Warm water

METHOD

• In a bowl, mix the jam with enough warm water to bring it up to 4 ounces (115 grammes). Mix until smooth and free of lumps.
• In a saucepan, heat together the sugar and lemon juice slowly, mixing all the time until the sugar has completely dissolved. Once dissolved, bring to the boil and cook for one minute.
• Add the jam mixture and mix thoroughly. Bring back to the boil, and once it boils remove from the heat.
• Pass through a sieve into a jug and allow to cool; discard the pulp left in the sieve. Allow to cool completely before storing in a glass container in the fridge for up to 3 months.

TO SERVE
Dilute the cordial with still or sparkling water, at a ratio of one part cordial to three parts water. Serve with ice, and strips of lemon zest for garnish, if you like.

The other flavour that I made was orange cream soda, which is based entirely on my favourite flavour of a drink called Jones Soda.

Jones Soda is a Canadian soft drink that was the number one tipple of Goths and skaters in Limerick when I was a teenager, and became the symbol of the alternative scene in the late Noughties. It has since declined in popularity, but I still buy it when I see it for nostalgia's sake.

Cream soda is something I enjoy very infrequently, as it's incredibly sickly. I don't know when cream soda stopped having cream in it, but the version I've always drunk it just a sugary vanilla flavoured fizzy drink. I've often wondered when the cream in a cream soda stopped being a thing. However, mixing it with another flavour makes it a much fuller drink, in my opinion.

The drink in the picture isn't as fizzy as the pink one, because while it was sitting on the table in its bottle, a lot of the fizz escaped through the barely functioning rubber stopper.

Here is how to make the orange cream soda.

INGREDIENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) fresh orange juice (about 4 large oranges)
• Grated zest of 1 orange
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar
• Half a vanilla pod, or 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
• Juice of 1 lemon

METHOD

• In a saucepan, add the orange juice, the sugar, the orange zest, and the lemon juice. If you are using a vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and add the seeds and the pod to the saucepan; if you are using vanilla essence, just add it straight into the mixture.
• Heat all the ingredients together slowly, mixing all the time until the sugar has completely dissolved. Once dissolved, bring to the boil and cook for one minute.
• Once cooked, cover the saucepan and allow to cool completely. This allows the zest and vanilla to infuse fully.
• Line a sieve with a handkerchief and pour the syrup through it into a jug; discard the pod and zest left in the sieve. Store in a glass container in the fridge for up to 3 months.

TO SERVE
Dilute the cordial with still or sparkling water, at a ratio of one part cordial to three parts water. Serve with ice, and strips of orange zest for garnish, if you like.

All in all, I really enjoyed the experience! I will be trying more flavours soon...

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: No blog due to going abroad

June Afternoon Tea Party: "Picnic"

Happy Monday all! Here's this month's tea party write-up, and this month's theme was 'picnic'.

It was a low key affair this time, with only a handful of folk there. Here in Ireland everything really does grind to a halt during the summer holidays, and I'd say I'll be closing up the monthly tea party events until September again.

I chose 'picnic' as a theme because it's summertime, and I think of picnics when I think summer food. Picnics also tend to have savouries and fruit, which are not typical features at the tea party events. Sometimes, something different is nice. The meeting room in our community centre was decked out with some nice blankets to simulate a picnic.

I decided to try a bunch of new things for this tea party, and I made some sausage rolls with homemade rough puff pastry, and two kinds of fizzy drink: orange cream soda, and raspberry lemonade. I also made some fruit skewers.

I had never tried making puff pastry before, and for a first try it came out really well! I think I made the dough a bit wet, though, and spent too much time mixing it in the bowl before rolling and folding. But it was still super flaky and delicious! I just used some shop bought sausages, adding some extra herbs and spices.

To make the drinks, I made some simple syrup cordials and topped them up at a 1:3 ratio with sparkling water. I bought these nice glass bottles from the 2 Euro shop, but they are more style than substance; the claps don't seal the bottles fully, meaning that the drinks went flat over the course of the evening.

I skewered some melon chunks, red grapes, and halved strawberries onto some cocktail sticks. I hulled the strawberries after slicing to make them look like hearts. I was going to cut the melon also into hearts, but I didn't want to waste any scraps so I just made it into chunks.

For the sweet teeth in the room, I made some shortbread teddies holding sweeties. I lifted this idea completely from Pinterest, but swapped the suggested mixed nuts for liquorice allsorts. Some of them caught the heat a bit in the oven, but they still tasted great.

Two other women also brought some snacks too, including homemade gluten free crackers with red pepper hummus, and a platter of cucumber stars, with tomato and cream cheese, and balled melon dressed in poppy seeds.

All recipe write-ups to follow!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: Vegan Banana Bread (Wheat-, Dairy-, and Egg Free)

Variation on a Theme: Lemon and Poppy Seed Drizzle Cake (Wheat and Dairy Free)

This variation is a twist on a classic tea bread loaf: lemon and poppy seed drizzle cake!

A few months ago, I tried out making some yeast and wheat free bagels, and as such bought some poppy seeds. Since then, they have just been sitting in my press, feeling lonely. However, I was flicking through a cookery book at home the other day and was inspired by a recipe for lemon and poppy seed muffins. I thought it'd make a nice tea loaf.

I brought this to church for the after service tea last Sunday, and it was quite popular with the grown ups (the children stuck to the chocolate cake).

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Dairy

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking powder
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) poppy seeds
• 2 medium eggs
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) water
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 1 medium lemon
• Caster sugar, for drizzle

METHOD

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Grease a loaf tin and set aside.
• Make the batter according to my low effort sponge recipe, adding the zest of the lemon and the poppy seeds to the wet ingredients.
• Pour the batter into the tin, and bake in the centre rack of the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. You will know it's done when it's springy to the touch, and a cocktail stick of knife poked into the middle comes out clean. Once cooked, take from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack.
• To make the drizzle, juice the lemon into a jug and match the amount with some caster sugar, that is, if you have 1 or 2 fluid ounces (30 to 60 millilitres) of juice, add the same amount of sugar. Heat in the microwave at 30 second intervals until the sugar has melted completely. If you don't have a microwave, you can do this in a saucepan over low heat.
• Poke holes in the cake while it is still warm, and spoon over the drizzle, making sure to wet every inch of the cake's surface with drizzle.Allow to cake to cool completely in the tin.

Tea breads and loaves are very typically served at Protestant church functions, and are a real favourite. This one is a nice and simple one to whip up at short notice.

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: Mint Toffee Slice