Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

Amaretti with port-soaked cranberries and white chocolate

These are a lovely December treat with just a hint of something special. The ingredients given make enough for 40 plump biscuits which was fine for me as I took them to both churches. You could easily halve the ingredients (using 2 medium sized eggs for the whites and the juice of a small lemon.) Don’t leave the chocolate chunks too large as some biscuits can end up without the chocolate’s creamy smoothness which contrasts well with the slightly boozy juiciness of the cranberries.

Ingredients

270 g ground almonds

180 g golden caster sugar

grated zest of a big lemon

100 g dried cranberries soaked in about 120 ml port

3 egg whites from large eggs

1 teasp of warmed honey or a squirt of agave nectar

icing sugar to dust the amaretti both before and after cooking

Soak the cranberries in the port for a couple of hours or, if time, overnight. Then put the soaked cranberries in a mesh sieve and let the liquid drain out of them for 20 minutes or so. Press ever so gently so the cranberries are not too soggy. (You won’t be using the strained liquid so find a member of the family who will happily find the slightly cranberry flavoured port a real treat.)

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C/ 150 degrees C for a fan oven/325 degrees F/gas mark 3

Line 4 baking trays with baking parchment (or do in 2 batches, which is what I do).

Put the ground almonds, caster sugar and lemon zest in a bowl and mix together. Add the port-soaked cranberries (you could chop these. I left them whole) and smallish chunks of white chocolate.

In another bowl whisk up the egg whites and the honey/agave nectar until soft peaks form. Now fold this mixture into the dry ingredients in the other bowl until a paste forms. Gather this into a ball.

Dust your hands with icing sugar/ extra ground almonds and pinch off walnut sized pieces of the paste, roll them into bowls and drop them in a bowl of sifted icing sugar. (If you have more ground almonds, I often shake some into the icing sugar but it is a bit extravagant when you’ve already used 270g). Put them on a baking sheet, flattening them slightly.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. (for each batch if you have to reuse your trays, though do let the tray cool first).

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. While still hot, sift a little more icing sugar over them.

This is my first church biscuit post since August. I have made biscuits since then but somehow I’ve never got round to blogging them – I even have a draft harvest post which includes some ‘fat rascals’ (a sort of apple scone) but, unlike the harvest, the draft never reached fruition.

Altar frontal for Ipsden Ch. Oxon: bluebell (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

With new sewing at a dangerous low – i.e. projected Christmas presents only in evidence on the drawing board – I am relieved to be able to call upon a couple of flowers finished recently for the altar frontal. Bluebells and harebells are not exactly seasonal but I take heart from the current Persephone post that while bluebells may not be the flower of December thinking about them is none the less tremendously life enhancing.

Altar frontal for Ipsden Ch. Oxon: harebells (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

I first blogged the harebell here at a time the bluebell was in full flower but since then I decided all the embroidered flowers would look better on a black background. So here is the revised harebell and a bluebell, both with the right background.

Altar frontal for Ipsden Ch. Oxon: harebell (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

The true British bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), like the red squirrel, is under threat from introduced species, in this case the interloping Spanish bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica) and their hybrid (Hyacinthoides x massartiana) which is even more of a problem than its Spanish parent and which seems to have spread prolifically in the wild due at least in part to the unregulated dumping of garden waste. A recent survey of British bluebells has shown that both the Spanish species and the hybrid are more vigorous than the native and those that have studied these things say that we have reached the stage where growth of the former two species should be controlled in gardens close to woodlands with English bluebells. Considering that the hybrid was first recorded in the wild in 1963, its spread if not rapid looks at least to be very secure and determined. As Britain has about 50% of the world’s H. non scripta, we must take good care of what we have. At the very least we should stop planting the other 2 species in our gardens and possibly we should even be removing and burning these plants.

Altar frontal for Ipsden Ch. Oxon: bluebell (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Identify your bluebell, the main differentiating characteristics:

1. The native bluebell’s flowers hang from the same side of the stem which gravity causes to bend over in a characteristic curve. The spanish and hybrid stalks are thicker and bend less.

2. Native flowers are more narrowly tubular and curl back upon themselves more flamboyantly.

3. Native flowers are generally a darker, more purplish blue.

4. Pollen in native flowers is creamy, while that of the others is noticeably pale green or blue.

5.Only the native plant has the characteristic strong, sweet smell.

It should be noted that identification is easiest when the plants are young. As they get older the native species becomes paler, the identifying pollen has been dispersed and plants of all species tend to curve over. I now think the plants in the vicarage garden are alien interlopers and with massed native bluebells in the woods nearby, I shall be alert and prepare for the cull if necessary when flowers appear.

Do read this BBC article for more information.