Thanks for the Tools of the Trade

Fanny Cradock encourages us to 'take time off from cooking' with the arrival of Part 24 of the Cookery Programme. She's not suggesting we just sit back, kick off our carpet slippers, pour a glass of sherry, watch some TV and order in some take-away you understand, it's time to grab our clipboards and do a stock-take in the kitchen. How do our tools of the trade match up to Fanny's high standards?

Fanny recognises that we won't all have the array of implements that she has in her dream kitchen, but we need things to aspire to naturally. Fanny says she is 90% certain that all her readers started to cook with the most basic of items, as she herself did, including a jam jar for a rolling pin. she doesn't know but I used an empty lemonade bottle, glass of course, for many years. Although Fanny displays page after page of equipment, she knows she can only show a fraction of those that are used by professionals, a grouping to which she includes herself. Otherwise Part 24 would be an extended 20 part catalogue she tells us. Diane lends a hand by showing how to make her own felt roll for her butchery knives, keeping them safe from temptation harm. Wouldn't want any nasty 'accidents' in Fanny's kitchen.

Fanny discusses all kinds of 'gear' - casseroles, stockpots, rings, tins and assorted home baking equipment, jelly moulds, icing equipment and lastly, not as expected, salad bowls. Her own wooden bowl came courtesy of some Australian friends and a 300 year old tree, how does yours measure up? Fanny is well aware that most readers will have come from families who have to make-do in culinary terms through lack of funds. Fanny is keen to make readers aware that both her and Johnnie came from backgrounds of great privilege and had exceptionally spoilt childhoods as a result.

However, in an attempt to connect with the readers, Fanny states that mercifully for both their characters they lost it all and hit rock bottom. It was this devastating loss and brush with poverty that spurned Fanny and Johnnie to success you see. When she began to earn money, without any training whatsoever, except in how to be a debutant, Fanny had her trustee jam jar for a rolling pin, frying pans without handles which other people had thrown away, tea towels made from cotton garments too shabby to wear and a junk shop piece of marble for her pastry work.

She got by though, and hopes that even the poorest of readers will be inspired to do the same, by scrimping, saving and working hard, like she and Johnnie have done, to have such a gorgeous kitchen. Fanny leaves us with a thank-you, as she spends another happy hour looking at all her things she is reminded that if it wasn't for her readers she would have none of it. So, in many ways she believes it really is OUR kitchen too, as we have enabled it. So, no need to buy all the things at all, just pop round and share in Fanny's super-ness. I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Now, back to the cooking, Fanny has more earning to do!

May All Your Oily Balls Turn Out Like Howards + Book Giveaway

Innuendo. The Fanny Cradock Cookery Programme is full of it. Filthy Fanny, she always has her tongue firmly in her cheek and her ever-higher eyebrows raised as she is writing. You've probably noticed already. It's everywhere in the baking world these days. The whispering mucky undertones have become overt in the Great British Bake Off with Mary Berry trying to steal Fanny's crown. Insinuation King Howard Middleton's new book, Delicious Gluten Free Baking, is full of double entendre too. "Ah yes," Howard tells me "it's a vital part of the secret Bake Off audition process - the innuendo challenge - I did rather well in that!" Future applicants take note...

Fanny had over 40 cookbooks published during her lifetime, dear old Howard doesn't seem daunted by this as his first hits the shelves. "It's very exciting! Writing the book was enjoyable, at times frustrating, and absolutely exhausting. I had to be very disciplined to do it alongside working full-time and I'm not a naturally disciplined person. Another 39 could be a bit too ambitious I think." Well, Fanny's final cookbook was called The Ambitious Cook so aim high Howard!

Howard's book is hilarious to read, just as Howard himself was on Bake Off, but is jammed with fantastic sounding recipes that everyone will crave, whether they are following a gluten-free diet or not. Howards aim was to create recipes that people miss, and I think he's cracked it. Fanny had a cookbook for almost everything, even one about Foil Cookery, so I'm sure she'd have approved. "For some people it's a necessity so can't be a fad, but for those who don't have dietary restrictions I see it as discovering new and usual ingredients that are naturally gluten free. Learning from other cuisines and cultures has always influenced what we eat. Oh, I've just done a search online for Fanny's book of foil cookery, my life may not be complete without it!" Research for book two Howard? But please, stop Googling while we are chatting...

There are so many recipes I want to make in the book, but there is one that I had to make straight away in Fanny's honour. Doughnuts. Dutch ones, Oliebollen, or Oily Balls as Howard refers to them, allegedly this is the Dutch translation. Mucky. I told you he was innuendo obsessed. Or is it me? The recipe is easy to follow, and in between giggles I get my deep-fat fryer on the go ready for these gluten-less bready balls of joy speckled with dried apple and raisins. They turn out light and golden, with fluffy centres... Just as Fanny said hers should be, just as you'd expect doughnuts to be!

What would Fanny reckon to these doughnuts? "I remember her as a wonderfully trenchant character, barking at Johnnie and her audience with dogged aplomb. She was also one of the icons in that transition from black and white TV to colour (I'm now feeling very old), with her vibrant clothes and make-up... and vivid food! And your blog reminds us of that, with hors d'oeuvres of blue eggs and the multi-coloured cartwheel trifle! I do have a weakness for that sense of style - the book has a recipe for Snowball Cocktail Cakes, which is my boozy, kitsch homage to my late great aunt, Auntie Olive's unique approach to baking, and the lure of her drinks cabinet. I hope Fanny would approve." Booze, kitsch, vividness? Of course she would! I do love a Snowball too, must bake these tout de suite! And everything else...

Fanny had Johnnie, Mary has Paul, Mel's got Sue, but who would be Howard's dream sidekick, apart from Fanny obviously? "I think Fanny would've made mincemeat of me!" Omelette of course. "I have to say my partner, Peter, is my dream sidekick don't I? I recently did a demo at the Bakewell Baking Festival and he kept popping up just off stage when I needed a bowl or a spoon or something. My sister and young nieces were in the audience - she was explaining to them that we were like Fanny and Johnnie!" So maybe the 40-book deal isn't so far way? "I'm fairly easy going. I never expected half the opportunities that have come along, so I'll continue to go with the flow. I've got lots of demos coming up, and I'd love to do some more writing. Fingers crossed the future is as bright as a Fanny frock!" Wink. Raise eyebrow. Look knowingly. Innuendos at the ready? Bake!

Thanks to Howard for being lovey and answering my questions! Howard's publisher, Little, Brown sent me a preview copy of Howards book, Delicious Gluten Free Baking, to enjoy and one for me to giveaway... Simply leave me a blog post comment telling me what bake you'd like to make Gluten Free and fill in the rafflecopter thingy-me-jig which will select the winner! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Can I roll it like Fanny?

"Basics are the Golden Threads which link almost everything of any importance which we shall cook together. Without them we are all lost."

Strangely the Cradock Cookery Programme begins with a guide to making a perfect Featherweight Swiss Roll... Even stranger still, there is no recipe as such, instead Fanny treats us to a step-by-step photo guide showing us how to make a Swiss Roll which does NOT crack... Perhaps if she was still around it would be a blog-post or You Tube tutorial. The strangest thing is that although I have been cooking and baking for years, I have never, ever made a Swiss Roll. However, not wishing to be 'lost' I dive in and get myself prepared!

It all seems suddenly alien to me, I am reading about techniques I would never have thought would work and measurements to convert and get my head around - how much is 2 1/2 ounces of self raising flour? Fanny asks me, or rather tells me very sternly, to remember that without self raising flour I will not have enough raising agent to 'lift a single hair on poor old pussy's tail'... I'm not sure who pussy is, but I am not arguing.

Fanny tells me to scald my caster sugar in a very hot oven for 6 minutes and then beat it into my eggs. I fear scrambling instead of a featherweight Swiss Roll, but resisting every bit of knowledge, experience and gut feeling I have gained over the years, I do as I am told. Wow, it looks lovely and voluminous after a few minutes. Maybe Fanny knows a thing or two after all? Finally I add the flour, combine, and spread my mixture in my well prepared tin (of course), making sure to push it into the corners - Fanny warns me that I will have trouble rolling it if I don't. She's been right so far.

After a nerve wracking 8 whole minutes in the oven, I remove my PERFECT, pliable sponge just as Fanny said. Fanny recommends it should look like a golden feather bed and nearly as wrinkly as her husband Johnny. It seems to! The rolling was where I was sure to mess things up, right? So, I spread my jam, take a very, very deep breath and very carefully follow my picture instructions... And Voila! 

With Fanny's help I seem to have mastered a basic skill, and one which I have been without for many, many years. With this Golden Thread under my belt, Fanny assures me that I will have confidence to tackle anything that is to come in the subsequent part-works. This all began strangely, felt strange to do, but strangely I believe her!