PUT

THE
Recipes KETTLE
ON
HERE AT THE SIMPLE THINGS
magazine, we like to stop for a
cuppa and pass around a plate of
home-made biscuits. So here are
some of our favourite recipes.
You’ll find more every month in
the magazine, along with other
ideas and inspiration for taking
time to live well. Full of wit and
forgotten wisdom, we cover
eating and growing, home life,
slow moments and enjoying the
outdoors. We love sharing good
food with family and friends,
learning new skills and the
satisfaction of a job well done. If
this sounds like you, why not give
us a try. thesimplethings.com

Peru biscuit tin, £9.50, marksandspencer.com

ORANGE CHOCOLATE
COOKIES
MAKES ABOUT 20
170g orange marmalade
Pinch of agar* powder
3 large free-range eggs
75g caster sugar
75g plain flour
1 tsp sunflower oil
200g/7oz dark chocolate

1 In a saucepan, mix the marmalade with 4

tsp of water, bring to a boil, sprinkle with
the agar and mix vigorously. Let the
marmalade simmer for 2 mins.
2 Put a tsp marmalade into each cup of a
20-cup mini muffin pan and let it cool to
room temperature. Refrigerate for an hour.
3 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan
160C/350F. Separate the eggs and, with
an electric mixer, whisk the whites with a
pinch of salt until stiff.
4 Sprinkle the sugar over the egg whites
and whisk for another minute. Add the egg
yolks, one at a time, whisking all the time,
and then beat in the flour. Finally, add the
oil and mix gently.
5 Pour the batter onto a baking sheet lined
with baking parchment. Spread it to an
even thickness to cover the baking sheet.
Bake for about 10 mins and then let cool.
6 With a cookie cutter, cut circles about
5cm in diameter, wasting as little as
possible. Set the cut-out circles on the
same lined baking skeet and bake for
about 5 mins to dry the cookies.
7 Spread each cookie with a little of the
refrigerated marmalade mixture and
then arrange on a baking sheet and
freeze for an hour.
8 Melt the chocolate in a bain marie
(a heatproof bowl set just above a pan
of boiling water).
9 Remove the cookies from the freezer
and, using a soft spatula, coat each one
with a thin layer of melted chocolate. The
difference in temperature will cause
the chocolate to solidify almost instantly
into a crisp layer.
10 Transfer the cookies to a rack as soon as
they’re finished to let the chocolate harden
completely before eating. The cookies
keep for up to five days in an airtight tin.

*Agar is a kind of vegetarian gelatin, available in the baking Recipe from Better Made at Home by Estérelle Payany.
section at big supermarkets. Photography by Guillaume Czerw (Black Dog & Leventhal)
PECAN FUDGE
BLONDIES*
MAKES 18
150g pecan nuts
140g vanilla fudge
3 eggs, at room temperature
170g unsalted butter, softened
75g caster sugar
150g soft light brown sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
EQUIPMENT
shallow 30x32cm baking tin

1 Heat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/350F.

Line the baking tin with baking parchment.
2 Spread the pecan nuts out on a separate
baking tray and toast in the
oven for 10–15 minutes. Tip onto a plate
to cool, then roughly chop.
3 Cut the fudge into very small pieces.
4 Break the eggs into a small bowl and
beat lightly, then set aside.
5 Cream the butter and sugars together
in a medium bowl until pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs gradually, beating well
after each addition, then stir in the
vanilla extract with a large metal spoon
or spatula.
6 Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt
and add the chopped pecans and all but
1tbsp of the fudge. Stir well to combine.
7 Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin
and scatter the remaining fudge over the
surface. Bake in the middle of the oven for
about 30 minutes until a skewer inserted
into the centre comes out clean, or with a
few moist crumbs still clinging to it.
8 Remove from the oven and leave to cool
in the tin set on a wire rack. Remove when
almost cooled and peel away the lining
paper. Cut into squares while still warm.

* Blondies? Like better-known Brownies, but without the

dark chocolate, and vanilla or butterscotch in flavour.

Recipe from Leiths’ How to Cook Cakes.

Photography by Peter Cassidy (Quadrille)
RABBIT BISCUITS
MAKES 14
120g unsalted butter, softened
80g golden caster sugar, plus more to
sprinkle
1 egg, separated
200g plain flour, plus more to dust
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
Pinch of salt
80g currants
1 tbsp whole milk
TOOLS
10cm rabbit cutter, or other shape

1 Line two baking trays with baking

parchment. Using a food mixer or a large
bowl with hand-held electric whisk or
wooden spoon, cream the butter and
sugar together and beat in the egg yolk.
Sift in the flour, spices and salt. Stir in the
currants and milk to make a pliable dough.
Do not over-mix, or the biscuits will
become tough. Wrap in cling film and
chill for 30 mins.Preheat the oven to
190C/Fan 170/375F.
2 Lightly flour a work top and a rolling pin
and roll the dough out to 5-6mm thick. Cut
biscuits out quite close together. You need
to press down hard to cut through the
currants! Re-roll the dough and cut out the
biscuits until all the dough is used. (At this
point, you can freeze the cut-out biscuits.)
Place on the baking trays and bake in the
preheated oven for about 10 mins.
3 Remove from the oven, brush each
biscuit with a little ofthe egg white and
sprinkle with caster sugar. Return to the
oven for 5–7 mins, until golden. If you’ve
used a smaller cutter, bear in mind that the
baking time will be slightly less than for
these 10cm-long rabbits, so keep an
eye on them.
4 Leave on the tray for a few mins to
harden a bit, then carefully remove to cool
on a wire rack. These will keep well in an
airtight container for a few days.

Recipe from Seasonal Baking by Fiona Cairns

(Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
NORDIC GINGER
BISCUITS
MAKES 50–70
550g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
pinch of ground allspice
pinch of salt
150g butter at
room temperature
200g golden syrup
100g granulated sugar
100g dark brown sugar
150ml double cream
½ tsp orange zest
icing sugar, to dust
EQUIPMENT
cookie cutters
baking sheets lined with baking
parchment
1 Mix the flour and bicarbonate of soda
with the dry spices and salt. Add the butter
and all the other ingredients and mix until
you have an even dough. It may still be
sticky, but shape into a log and wrap in
clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge
overnight before using. Try to resist eating
the dough every time you pass by the
fridge. Yes, we know it is hard to do!
2 Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan
180/400F.
3 Roll out the dough thinly on a floured
surface and use cookie cutters to cut
your desired shapes. You want the biscuits
to be thin.
4 Bake in the preheated oven on lined
baking sheets – each batch will take 5–6
mins, depending on the thickness.
You want the biscuits to be a darker
shade of brown.
5 Remove from the oven and cool on a
cooling rack. Dust with icing sugar
and serve, or keep in an
airtight container.

Recipe from The Scandi Kitchen by Brontë

Aurell (Ryland Peters & Small).
Photography by Peter Cassidy
 NOTES ON TEA

BE IT STRONG, HERBAL OR CAFFEINE-

FREE, IF TEA RULES YOUR LIFE, FILL THE
KETTLE AND ENJOY EIGHT OF THE BEST
DARJEELING EARL GREY
LEAVES FROM THE FOOTHIL LS OF THE
Photography: ROSIE BARNETT HIMALAYAS COMBIN E WITH ITALIAN
BERGAM OT (OIL FROM THE RIND OF AN
ORANGE ) TO CREATE A FRAGRA NT TEA
THE RAJ COULD ONLY DREAM ABOUT

Harvested for
just two weeks a
SILVE R TIP S W
TH E PU RE ST,
HITE
MO ST EXCLUS
MA DE OF FR
IVE TE A
ES H
year, at dawn!
YO U CA N FIN D. EY ’VE
UN G TE A BU DS BE FO RE TH
YO R
RL ED . DE LIC AT E IN FL AVOU
UN FU E
IN TA NN IN AN D CA FF EIN
AN D LOW

Little sticks of CHA MOM ILE

A RELA XING , SOOTHIN G AND
HER BAL DRIN K. CHO OSE ONE
SOP ORIFIC
THAT USES

detoxifying delight WHO LE FLOW ERS, NOT GRO

UND -DOW N
BITS . WILL ALSO LIFT THE COL
BLO NDE HAIR WHE N USED
OUR OF
AS A RINS E!

LEM ONG RAS S

N, AND SWE ETER
EXCE LLEN T FOR DIGE STIO
MOR E CITR USSY THA N YOU MIGH T
AND
YOU R NEW FAVE HAN GOV ER CUR E
IMAG INE.
 Y ER BA M
ATE
LOV ED BY
C H E G U EV
PR O N O U AR A AND
N C ED ‘Y ER
H OT D R IN BA M A H -T
K D ER IV ED EY ’, TH IS
SU C K ED FR FR O M H O
OM A GO LLY IS
TUN G TING OOLONG SI LV ER ST U R D TH R
G, R AW K N O OUGH A
ALSO KNOWN AS DON GDIN WN AS A
B O M B IL LA
OR BLUE TEA , THIS STRO NG,
SE
PART-FER MEN TED TAIWANE
TEA IS CON SIDE RED TO BE
GOO D FOR GEN ERA L HEA LTH

g el y healthy
Hu .. .

MATC HA GR EE
N
US ED IN JA PA
NE SE TE A
CE RE MO NI ES
FO R HU ND RE
OF YE AR S, AN DS
D RE LIE D ON
ME DITATIN G BU BY
DD HI ST MO NK
TH IS POW DE RE S, ROO IBOS
D GR EE N TE A
NOW A HE ALTH IS POP ULA R WITH THO SE KEEN
CR AZE
TO D ITCH THE CAF FEIN E, THIS
WN
DISTINCTIVE RED DISH -BRO
DRIN K IS ADO RED FOR ITS
E
SLIG HTLY NUT TY, MALTY TAST

gr a ss i th a smidge of
w
on hon
p lem ey
n u
ete
Swe