pecan nut shortbread... memories from my granny

These are my favourite biscuits ever!  Not only are they a delicious short bread with a dusting of icing sugar for sweetness and pecan nut for crunch, but they are also the biscuits my granny used to make for me when I went to spend holidays with her on her farm.  I remember the old biscuit tin they were kept in, drinking sweet hot tea out of my "small" Spode teacup, the cool feeling of slate underfoot and the smell of hot, dry, dusty highveld air.  Treasured memories of the place I most loved being when I was small.

Recently I made them with Miss J for the first time, you can see her "helping" me with the butter.  It is a great recipe to make with children because the dough is rolled into little balls, perfect for little hands.  To make you own follow the simple recipe below, and enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of plain flour
• 250g butter - softened to room temperature
• teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 1 packet (80g) pecan nuts - broken into pieces
• 4 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar
• icing sugar for dusting (around 2 cups in all)

To make:

• Cream butter and sugar until well blended 
• Add vanilla essence & blend
• Add flour and mix until a rough dough forms
• I do all the steps above in my food processor
• Add the pecan nuts and mix the dough gently until all flour is blended.  Be gentle, this dough doesn't like to be overworked.
• Roll into bite size balls.
• Place in an oven preheated to 200C and bake until they are golden but not brown - around 20 minutes.  
• Allow to cool
• Once totally cool roll in icing sugar and store in a well sealed jar or tin

Now simply enjoy with your tea or coffee.  Mmm mmm

Found the lovely birdie cookie jar at my favourite $2 shop.  I am going to take it to the cottage on our farm to store holiday biscuits for my own children, hopefully creating the holiday biscuit memories all over again.

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home made chocolate icecream...no machine required

My granny's home made coffee ice cream was the favourite dessert of my childhood, and remains my favourite ice cream today.  Cooked in a country kitchen decades before the advent of home ice cream machines, you won't believe just how luscious and creamy the results are, or how simple it is to make.  And you read right, you don't need a machine.

Last year I created a Christmas spice version - very yummy - but it never occurred to me to make a chocolate version until a friend suggested it the other day.  I literally flew out the house in my rush to get the ingredients and give it a try.  The results were (even if I say so myself) pretty spectacular.  But don't take my word for it - give it a try yourself!

{Ingredients} Makes around a litre

• 250ml cream
• 1 can condensed milk
• 3 tablespoons of drinking cocoa
• 2 eggs
• 1 packet of Maltesers

{Making the ice cream}  Prep time 20 minutes tops

• Separate eggs and place egg whites in fridge.  There must be no yolk in the whites or they will not stiffen properly.
• Dissolve the cocoa powder in a small amount of boiled water, just enough so that it is all dissolved and there are no lumps.
• Pour cocoa powder and condensed milk into a large mixing bowl and stir until well combined.
• Whip cream in a separate bowl until it forms stiff peaks, don't turn it into butter.
• Fold the cream gently into the condensed milk and cocoa mixture with a whisk.  
• Beat egg whites until they are glossy and forming very stiff peaks.  You should be able to hold the bowl over your head without the egg whites falling out.
• Gently fold the egg whites into the condensed milk and cream mixture.
• Pour into a freezer safe dish or bowl.  I like to use a glass loaf pan, a pie dish is to shallow.
• Drop Maltesers onto the ice cream, let them sink down on their own.
• Refrigerate overnight.

{Top Tips}

• Use a whisk to fold the ingredients together, its the best way to mix the ingredients well without losing the air in the cream and egg whites.
• Clean your beater well between whipping the cream and the egg whites, it needs to be totally clean otherwise the egg whites don't stiffen as well as they should.
• I think Maltesers were the perfect chocolate to add but you could add choc chips or flakes.
• Recipe doubles easily, no matter how much I make it always gets eaten up!

People are always asking me for the original ice cream recipe and I always give it to them.  They are often surprised, thinking I would like to keep it a family secret, but my thinking is that every time it gets passed on it keeps the memory of my Granny Pauline alive.  So make it for your family and friends and raise a spoonful of it in Pauline's memory, enjoy, and please pass it on yourself.

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