Lemon, nut and thyme dressing

Occasionally I say to myself ‘No more vintage cookbook buying. You have lots [28 and at least 7 leaflets], you even have some you’ve never cooked from. No more new ones until you’ve had a good go at the ones you have.’

Then I go into the British Heart Foundation shop on Holloway Road and  I just can’t hold back:

Linzertorte

Guest Eurovision blog from Zakia follows:

I took on the Austrian cake Linzertorte which I was reliably informed by Alix would be “simple to make but look impressive”. That’s an aspiration to live by, which made me keen to try it out. It’s apparently the oldest cake recipe in the world, dating from 1693, and became internationally known from the 19^th century. This is one of the Marguerite Patten 1970s recipe cards.

Almond Ginger Cookies

After the simplicity of the butter cakes, I swung in the opposite direction with some biscuits where the  quantities of spice listed were borderline worrying – how much clove?!

Recipe
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
½ cup molasses
1 tablespoon ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons cloves
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup blanched almonds, chopped
3 ½ cups sifted enriched flour

Cinnamon Balls

Inspired by Foodista’s recent newsletter about Passover cookery, I decided that, as promised, now was a suitable time to try Florence Greenberg’s cinnamon balls. I’ve never had cinnamon balls before, but love all the ingredients and was optimistic about the outcome.

Recipe
Ground almonds 6oz
Castor sugar ½lb
Cinnamon 1 tablespoon
Whites of 3 eggs

Pitcaithly Bannock

This recipe was emailed to me by a loyal reader after she visited friends. It is from the splendidly protestant-sounding “Plain Cooking Recipes” written for the Edinburgh School of Domestic Science in 1932.

Pithcaithly Bannock

6 oz plain flour
1 oz rice flour
3 oz caster sugar
4 oz butter
1 oz blanched, chopped almonds
1 oz candied peel, finely chopped

Almond-Spinach Croquettes

In which health-giving spinach is mixed with white flour, butter, salt, anchovy sauce and then fried. (From Beverly Pepper’s Potluck Cookery, Faber and Faber, 1955).

Almond-Spinach Croquettes

LEFTOVER: COOKED SPINACH
Chopped and drained, at least 1 ½ cups

AND

Butter or margarine, 3 tablespoons
Flour, 4 tablespoons
Milk, 1 cup
Salt ½ teaspoon
Pepper to taste
Minced toasted almonds, 2 tablespoons
Worcester sauce, 1 tablespoon
Flour
Beaten egg, 1 with 1 tablespoon water
Bread crumbs
Fat

Cinnamon Slices

I am greatly enjoying broadening my baking repertoire through this blog and today is opportunity for another experiment. I genuinely have no idea how these will turn out – firm? Crunchy? Crumbly? (This recipe from the Good Housekeeping Institute’s Cookery Compendium,Waverly, 1955).

Cinnamon Slices

Ingredients
6oz ground almonds
8oz icing sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
A little egg white
1 tsp flour

Chocolate Cinnamon Gâteau

This one’s from Cooking With Herbs and Spices by Josceline Dimbleby, published in 1979.  As David Dimbleby’s first wife this book is an intriguing insight into the bizarre eating habits of the rich and famous. Only kidding, it’s a collection of dubious seventies dishes, including Surprise Meatballs – “I love meatballs and there seem to be endless variations to try out. My husband suggested stuffing them with a nugget of cheese…” (It is my experience that if a dish has the word ‘surprise’ in the title then the surprise is very likely to be cheese*). But I wasn’t looking for savoury cheesy treats, but cake recipes, and went for this sumptuous sounding one.

Pineapple and Cherry Loaf

Apparently 48 hours is as long as I can go without cake. I had some after lunch and now I want some more.

Pineapple and Cherry Loaf

Preparation Time: 35 min
Cooking Time: 1 ½ hours

Ingredients:
6 oz. glace cherries
1 ½ oz. glace pineapple
3 oz. ground almonds
Grated rind of half a lemon
6 oz. butter or margarine
6 oz. caster sugar
3 eggs
3 oz. self-raising flour
3 oz. Plain flour
Pinch salt

Jumbles

Today’s recipe comes from The Cookery Year which was published by The Reader’s Digest Association from 1973 for about 20 years, I have the 1976 edition. It has many contributing authors including Katie Stewart and Jane Grigson. The book contains a mix of  information such as cake making and meat carving as well as recipes, grouped by month, of wildly varying complexity. Of course, I bought it for the pictures.

I decided to crack it open as I was looking for a simple biscuit recipe to use as a second item for an afternoon tea. This ‘Shaped cookie’  (their category) recipe is from the  Basic Cooking Methods section by Margaret Coombes and Suzanne of Wakelin of Good Housekeeping Institute.