Sloe Gin Fizz

I have a dirty addiction - the BBC's historical re-enactments. I've watched historians recreate farms from every era, I'll stalk Dr. Lucy Worsley in anything she does, there's even a show which has Edwardian cooking tips. There goes your afternoon, you're welcome!

While watching the Victorian Farm series, I watched Ruth put together a few bottles of Sloe Gin, traditionally made with blackthorn drupes. She placed it in the pantry for the upcoming Christmas season. If there's two things I like it's foraging and booze!

Unfortunately, here in the western U.S. there is a lack of hedgerows with wild plums in them. Fortunately there is a decorative plum in my front yard! It's got rich purple leaves and bark, and makes small red plums. Not quite the same, but a decent stand in.

I put my small harvest in a jar, covered it in good local gin, and a shake of sugar. Traditional recipes call for a lot of sugar, and I prefer my cocktails less sticky. Plus, watching my weight or something..

The photo above was taken Oct. 1st, this is the end of December, nearly three months! A rich red color and fantastic fruity aroma has occured. It looks really good against that backdrop of fresh fallen snow don't it?

Now, for a Sloe Gin Fizz. A good cocktail must have at least three ingredients - mine has the infused gin, sparkling water, and lime. A Fizz is traditionally done with a whipped egg white, but I am lazy  I wanted to experience the full flavors of the gin.




Full measure of both, on top of ice, squeeze of lime, stir with a knitting needle.

Go outside into the snowy afternoon and enjoy the drink and the sparkling of the sun on the flakes.

Some research shows that sugar is an important ingredient for the chemistry of the whole mess, so I added a bit more and stuck it back in the pantry to infuse more. While it is totally awesome and delicious right now, I was hoping for a fruitier flavor. (I used good Gin, so it's hard to lose, really.) I'll crack it again in January and see how it's doing! Until then, I'll just have to drink mead...

Scones and Tea

 Recently I noticed a strange phenomenon in my fridge. You see, I get a weekly milk delivery, which includes orange juice and butter as well. Now one can only butter so much bread in a week, this order is for baking. In the colder months I regularly make batches of rolled cookies and pies, but that's too much time in the kitchen hovering over a hot oven. So my fridge had built up a pile of one pound boxes of butter - an embarrassment of riches.


So I pulled out an old recipe from my days working at a bakery - scones. The joy of it, is you make a dry part, ass some assorted liquids, and then add all the nommy little morsels you can stand. I use a food processor to cut the cold butter into flour sugar and leavening.You don't want to puree the mess, just get it chopped up into crumbly bits.

I added homemade yogurt (That's what I do if people forget to drink the milk, there are two lactose free folks in the house so I take most of that burden.) and an egg. Then I chopped up fresh cherries. Did I mention that the cherry tree is ripe? I guess this whole project is just baking with perishables... I added cherries and hopped almonds. It's good to have everything cold so that the butter stays stiff in the batter.

Then I formed it into a disc. It should be stiff enough to not slump out when shaping, but not stiff like a cookie dough. I actually baked a test to make sure it was just right, my last batch was too wet and I ended up with cookies instead... I've always cut scones into wedges, tradition perhaps? But it's important for even baking that they are not too much thicker than they are wide.



After a short while in a medium oven the scones are golden brown and ready for dunking in tea. It's been hot enough for iced tea here, but it's still good with scones. Maybe scones and ice cream?

I also like to make savory scones with veggies and cheese, perhaps when our Farm Share starts to arrive next week and we are inundated with fresh vegetables... What's you favorite warm-weather baking project?