Wednesday 16 April 2008

Day fifteen-Abandon ship and Bakewell pudding-Peak district

Our stomachs laden by the Crown Inns monster faggots, we ventured on up to the Peak district. Happy in the knowledge that we could travel for days if need be and not need to eat again. Oskar snoozed peacefully in his tipped back seat in the front of Ruby after many choruses of 'Clap hands' and a 'Crocodile sat on my lap'.

We've been teaching him, colour I spy. He starts with "I spy with my little eye something that is yellow..... We look around and he watches us. His little shining expectant eyes, following ours as we look around. It took us a long while to realise that he was waiting until we mentioned something yellow that he liked and not something he had spied. Still, we all enjoy the game and he is getting it now.

We pulled into a campsite that promised everything and more. A Stable bar serving local ales, a camp shop, selling local produce, family run and an adventure playground for Oskar. Clean hot showers and a little cafe. Unfortunately nearly everything was closed but we paid for our pitch an looked at the ominous dark clouds creeping menacingly towards us. ...the clouds opened and the biggest hailstones I've ever seem started to bombard Ruby. This onslaught was followed by high winds and torrential rains. Ruby couldn't take it anymore and started to leak. With cries of "Abandon ship". We left the site with rain water still trickling through her side door into Oskar’s emergency potty. It was evening now and the first place we found that took children was the Rutland Arms, Bakewell. The home of the original Bakewell pudding.

The story goes that the Bakewell Pudding originated through a mistake by the cook here. A Strawberry Tart was ordered for the guest. Instead of stirring the egg mixture into the pastry, the cook poured it over the strawberry jam. The pudding was so well received by the guest that the recipe became recognised as the Bakewell Pudding.

Recipe for Bakewell pudding

Ingredients

200g puff pastry
85g butter
85g caster sugar
3 free range egg yolks lightly beaten
2 free range egg whites
1/4tsp of almond essence
3 tbsps strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 210 degrees c (gas mark 7). Place a flat baking sheet in to warm up (the bottom of the pie needs extra heat to cook the pastry)Roll the pastry out and use to line a very well floured pie plate about seven inches across and one inch deep with a tiny lip all the way round. Traditionally it should be an oval shape, but it won't change the flavour. Spread the jam thinly on the bottom of the pastry. This is your jam tart, now you need your half made cakeCream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, and work in the egg yolks and almond essence bit by bit. In a separate, clean dry bowl, whisk the egg whites with a clean dry whisk until the mix makes soft peaks (very apt as we are in the Peak District), then beat into the butter and sugar mix. The mixture should be thick but pourable
Pour your cake into your puff pastry, and place in the oven on the pre-heated baking sheet. After about fifteen minutes, check the pie to see if the top is browning. If it is getting quite dark, reduce the heat down to 180 degrees c (gas mark 4). Bake for a further 20-25 minutes. After this time, the pastry should have puffed at the edges, the mix should be risen up and dark on top. It won't be thoroughly solid, but it's actually meant to be slightly soft.Allow to cool slightly. The top will sink very slightly but it’s meant to. Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.

2 comments:

tomfiorina said...

Glad that you survived the hailstorm. I'll need to remember that game that you play with Oskar, so that I can entertain our little ones on our next trip. And, obviously "faggot" means something different in British English than it does in American!

Unknown said...

Simon and Debs brought me back a lovely basket of goodies, including a tea-towel from the original Bakewell Pudding shop, some years ago, when they visited that area. Delicious goodies!
Hope the hail hasn't damaged Ruby's top-knot.
Ros.