Recipe 57 - Swedish Visiting Cake

I'm sure I've chosen a recipe from the Technicolor Kitchen before. This one looks good to me. We'll be making Swedish Visiting Cake.

We shall need:
200g superfine sugar + a little more for sprinkling
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise, seeds scraped with the back of a knife – or use ½ teaspoon almond extract, as per the original recipe
140g all purpose flour
113g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
about ¼ cup sliced almonds (blanched or not)

I may skip the almonds I think!

His Results - Coconut Cookies

It's been a while since I used my food processor. It was good to get some more use out of it and it made these a breeze to make. It took longer rolling the balls in the coconut than all the rest of the process combined





I added a pinch of salt to these and used salted butter. They are really, really good! I can highly recommend the salt. They have a nice chewy exterior and a creamy soft interior. They are pretty much macaroons but with a slightly chewier outside. Good stuff!

His results - Lemon Ginger Bars

I was out of candied ginger and they didn't have any at the only shop open when I went to pick up ingredients for this. Instead I used candied peel and grated fresh ginger. Other than that I more or less followed the recipe apart from adding in a pinch of salt and doubling the quantities. I thought these were delicious. I wish I'd added a little more ginger but I'm a huge ginger fan. They were pretty cakey rather than crisp or chewy which are the two directions bars tend to go. I can certainly recommend them!

Recipe 55 - Lemon Ginger Bars

She is a fiend for ginger and I'm a fan too. I know she'll approve of this week's choice!

You can find the recipe here at serious eats.

We'll be needing:

• 300g plain flour
  
• 50g sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 230g unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 40g chopped crystallized ginger
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
• 200g confectioners’ sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

His results - These Lemon Muffins

I made a loaf rather than muffins. It was an easy recipe, low on washing up which is always appreciated. It was pretty good. Moist enough and with a good texture but to be honest I can't see why it has got so many rave reviews. We've made plenty of better cakes. Solid but not outstanding I'd say.

His results - Scones

These turned out pretty well. There were a couple of things that would have pushed them over the edge into awesome I think. First on the list is cream. I bought some from the shop which was a week inside its best before date but when I opened it it was inedibly gone off. I was pretty gutted.

I could also have done with a proper cutter as could She. Using a mug like I did gives slightly fluted sides and doesn't let hm rise perfectly. Still they tasted nice and had a good texture. Fat is key though. Scones love cream and so do I.

Recipe 53 - Scones

I have eaten a lot of scones in my life. A lot.

Good ones are thoroughly fantastic, the worst are like eating sawdust. This article from the Guardian purports to contain the very best recipe for scones. Fingers crossed they're right about that.

We'll be needing:

350g self-raising flour, sifted
50g butter, softened
50g lard, softened
100-115ml milk