Lemon Meringue Pie

The last of my baking for taking to my sons, its his all time favourite dessert Lemon Meringue Pie. I actually made 2 cos I know 1 just won't suffice.......will it Danny :-)

 The pastry I made is called Rose Crust Pastry and is very rich and buttery, its quite hard to handle so needs to be well chilled to roll out but is really worth the effort. I have used a fork to stab round the sides and base.

 After 20 minutes in a 180*c fan oven the blind baked cases are ready for the lovely tangy lemon filling.

 Mmmmm nicely filled with yumminess

Next step is to whip up the meringue topping, thank goodness for my Kenwood Chef I would hate to have to do this by hand as it needs to be whisked until quite stiff.

 Swirl on top of the lemon and I used a fork to make peaks, you can pipe it on but why make extra washing up, I much prefer the rustic look.

 I turned the oven down to 120*c and popped them in for 35 mins just until they were tinged with golden brown.

These tins make a lovely deep pie, they are recycled from M&S ready meals, and have been well washed out first :-)
Now for the recipe

Rose Crust Pastry this will make enough for 3 6" foil dishes  I used 2 and froze one for later

225gm Plain Flour
85gm Cornflour
85gm Icing Sugar
225gm Butter or Margarine
1 small egg
Cream butter and sugar . Add flour then bind together with the egg.  If the pastry is too sticky add a bit more flour.  Its a very soft mix and a bit hard to handle so need to be well chilled in the fridge, I left mine overnight but a couple of hours should do the trick.  Divide into 3 and roll out to fit, don't worry if it tears just patch it it will be ok.  Bake blind for 20 minutes at 180*c fan oven. If you only want 1 pastry case you can use the rest for some yummy mince pies.

Lemon Filling for 1 case
1 large lemon  grate the zest and squeeze the juice
2 Egg Yolks
100gm Caster Sugar
1/4 pt cold water
25gm Cornflour
Whisk the lot together in a saucepan and over a very gentle heat cook until thickened, Stir all the time and don't let it stick to the bottom of the pan or it will burn.  As soon as it starts to thicken which it will do very quickly remove from heat and use to fill your pastry case.

Meringue Topping for 1 pastry case
2 Egg Whites
100gm Caster Sugar

Whisk egg whites until stiff and gradually add the sugar whisking all the time. Use to top the lemon, pop into the cool oven 120*c for 35 mins until just golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack then refrigerate until needed.

Sorry for the mammoth post.

Have you baked today?

Thank you for looking

Karen xx 

Cupcakes anyone?

I've had a bit of a baking day today ready for going to see my lovely son and family, I always like to take something homemade with me.  Today it was cupcakes and butterfly buns and a chocolate cake...sorry no photo I wrapped it up before I remembered to take one.

 I find the easiest way to transport them is to put them into boxes so they stack in the cool box with ice pack round the sides.

I had 3 rejects which my lovely hubby made short work of with a cuppa :-)

Recipe

350gm Margarine
350gm Caster Sugar
350gm SR Flour
2 level teaspoons Baking powder
6 medium beaten Eggs

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (I use my Kenwood Chef) gradually add eggs being careful it doesn't curdle, if it shows signs add a little of the flour.  Fold in the rest of the flour and it should be at a dropping consistency.  Spoon into bun cases and bake 180*c for about 20 mins. You might need to adjust temp and time depending on your own oven.  I find this amount makes 3 dozen generous buns.
I made 2 lots of mixture and 1 lot of chocolate mix using a scaled down version of 4 eggs etc, this gave me a 7" sandwich cake (2x7"tins) and 1 dozen chocolate buns

 For the buttercream I used

2kg Icing Sugar
800gm Soft Margarine

This was enough to decorate all the buns and sandwich the cake together. I had a bit left over because I used melted chocolate on the top of the cake instead of buttercream so I popped it into a tupperware pot and put it in the freezer for a later date.

What have you baked today?

Thank you for looking
Karen xxx

Song for Ireland

I know its a bit late but I have been meaning to post this all day.  Happy St Patricks day to you all......better late than never!  Have a listen to this beautiful song its sung by  scotsman Dick Gaughan but I think its the best version ever.  I hope you like it.





Karen xx

Roots!!

Oh dear its that time again when my roots are showing through amongst the grey :-(  Even though I am a natural blonde I'm not yet ready to go grey, in my head I'm only 30 its when I look in the mirror and see the grey I'm reminded that 30 was a long time ago.

 So it was time to get out the gloves and the hair dye and give my hair a make over.  I started using this brand after being recommended by my daughter in law and I have to say its so easy and it really does only take 10 minutes and gives good results.  Its on offer at Amaz*n at the moment for £5 free delivery so it might be time to stock up on  a few.

 Ahhhhh thats much better.  The best thing is it would have cost me £50 at the hairdressers so thats a saving of £45 :-) plus I still have the tube of conditioner to pop into my holiday wash bag to save carrying heavy bottles.

A pleasing result all round.

I also went back to the Dentist for treatment yesterday......blimey what a drilling....I was in there over an hour and my poor face looked as though I had had a stroke, I popped a few pain killers last night and today everything is fine.

Just need to go to the opticians for some new specs and I'm sorted!!!

Enjoy your day
Karen xx

Spring Giveaway Winner!!!!

I'm so sorry I'm a bit late doing the draw for my little giveaway, I have had such a busy few days at work and yesterday was a little hectic too.

 I had 8 entries, thank you all so much ladies you make my day when you all leave such lovely comments.

 I asked my lovely hubby to pick a winner and he picked.............. Angela  from Tracing Rainbows. 

Congratulations Angela, if you could email me at           will0w.gran@btinternet.com
 with your address I will post your prize out to you, I hope the cards and doily are useful and you enjoy the chocolate.

Thank you all for taking part and especially for reading my chunterings and leaving your comments.

Karen xxx

A little Spring Giveaway

With not a lot happening at Chelmarsh Towers at the moment I thought I would do a little giveaway, nothing much just a few of my handcrafted cards, a stitched bookmark, the crocheted doily (made by my Mum) and of course I will include some yummy chocolate.  

All you have to do is to leave me a comment on this post.

I will do the draw next Sunday March 11th.  Its over to you .

Thank you for looking

Karen xxx

Silly Hats Day

Its a cold and blustery day here in Doncaster but the sun is shining. We decided to pop our boots on get wrapped up and go for a walk round a local lake, the wind was blowing and the lake quite choppy so we stepped it out. Its definitely a day for silly hats.........I don't really care, I was toasty warm!!

This was taken a few weeks ago when the snow was around but I wore the same silly hat and scarf today, we forgot to take the camera. By the time we got home it was lunchtime and we had some lovely fresh crusty bread and ham with a yogurt for afters..

Thank you for looking

Karen xxx

Something different

We had something a little different for tea, Ostrich burgers with salad. They used to be a bit of a regular meal here in the days when I baked for our local farmers market and we hadn't had any for ages until we had a trip to the farmers market last month and I couldn't resist buying some.  They are delicious and very low fat so quite healthy, although they are pricey  its not bad for a treat and much better than Mc D's

 We had our with a thick slice of homemade bread and a few mushrooms and onions sauted in a little olive oil.They don't shrink when cooked as they are very meaty and don't contain loads of extra fat to bulk them out.

Delicious and filling.

You can read more about OSLINC and their produce here  they also sell Kangaroo meat.

What have you had lately that's a bit different? 

Thank you for looking

Karen xxx

Dates Mystery

Well they say things come in threes, it certainly seems that way where my calendars are concerned.  Just before Christmas I bought the usual calendar ready for the new year, the first thing I do is to copy all the birthdays and anniversaries and anything to do with the cars....mot..service etc plus reminders for the dentist, all the usual stuff. When I got to September it was missing....what happened to that? I couldn't take the calendar back to the shop because I had written on it! well it was only a pound and it would have cost more to take it back, so September will be a printed one from the internet.  Then, my lovely grandaughter bought me a new diary for Christmas, a pink one, my favourite colour, again I was filling in my shift pattern for work and noticed double pages for the beginning of most months, that threw me completely. Then this morning......................

Look what happened when I tore off February's page to reveal March.....the 18th &19th are mixed up with 11th & 12th!!!

I wonder how many of the faulty ones are in circulation?  No wonder I never know what day it is :-)

Have a lovely weekend
Karen xxx