Oat & Walnut Whisky Balls

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Bourbon balls are one of many items that can be filed under the category of “things I’d never encountered until I moved to the South”.

Invented in the early 20th century in bourbon’s homeland of Kentucky, these little booze infused treats have become a staple at Christmas gatherings in the South.

Variations on the theme exist but the most common versions are made from crushed cookies, chopped pecans, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, corn syrup and of course a generous slug of bourbon. Other versions often use more chocolate and fewer cookies.

After experimenting with a number of permutations, I have settled on the recipe below. Although loosely based on the bourbon ball recipe from the splendid book, “Southern Living Christmas All Through The South”, I have substituted most of the main ingredients with products from the other side of the Atlantic. Balls with a British twist, you could say.

I have seen many recipes over here use vanilla cookies as their base. I have opted for Hobnobs, one of the most popular biscuits in Britain. The recipe uses plain Hobnobs, which are available in the US but harder to find than the chocolate covered versions which many supermarkets carry. They are available online if you can’t find them in a store.

For the key ingredient, namely the alcohol, I have gone for Scotch whisky. The primary ingredient in Hobnobs is oats, which pair well with Scotch, as seen in other delicious Scottish oat and whisky combinations such as cranachan and atholl brose.

I also plumped for walnuts instead of pecans and rather than corn syrup I used Golden Syrup, a popular sugar syrup from back home. These little delicacies are pretty easy to put together but look and taste great.

Oat and Walnut Whisky Balls

3oz walnuts

12 plain Hobnob biscuits (around 6oz)

0.25 cup powdered sugar

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tbsp Golden Syrup

0.25 cup Scotch whisky

Lightly toast the walnuts over medium heat until aromatic, stirring regularly (about 4-5 minutes). Take care not to burn them. Once they have cooled a little finely chop them. Put around one third of the nuts aside to decorate the balls later.

Crush the Hobnobs into a fine crumb. You can put them in a bag and bash them with a rolling pin or whizz them in a food processor.

In a large bowl, mix two thirds of the chopped nuts and the crushed biscuits with the other ingredients. Once thoroughly mixed, roll the mixture into 1″ balls, then coat them with the remaining chopped walnuts.

Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

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Chocolate Stout Ganache

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Young’s Brewery was founded in Wandsworth in south London in 1831. When I lived in London I enjoyed sampling their fine ales whenever I encountered them.

Sadly, their old Ram Brewery in Wandsworth was closed for redevelopment a few years ago and production of their beers moved to Bedford, over 60 miles north of the original brewery, although the old building retains a small microbrewery, enabling the location to still claim to be the oldest site of continual brewing in Britain.

On this side of the Atlantic the only Young’s beer I find with any regularity is their “Double Chocolate Stout”, which not only offers distinct hints of chocolate on the nose and palate from the use of roasted dark malts, but for good measure includes real chocolate and chocolate essence. It is a distinctive and flavourful beer, and with the holiday season upon us I couldn’t resist adding yet more chocolate to it to come up with a unique dessert.

Ganache is usually made by combining chocolate with cream but I substituted the chocolate stout for cream, and instead of rolling into balls to make conventional truffles I poured it into shot glasses to form the basis of a mini “pint”. I used 60% bittersweet chocolate which combined with the beer to make a rich, velvety layer which was then topped off with a white chocolate and cream ganache to form the head of the beer. The sweet creamy top layer contrasts beautifully with the dark chocolate and beer combination, and eaten with a teaspoon from the shot glass it is just the right size for a decadent little dessert.

Chocolate Stout Ganache

8oz bittersweet chocolate (I like Ghirardelli 60% or Guittard 74%)

1 cup (8 fl.oz) chocolate stout

6oz white chocolate

0.5 cup heavy whipping cream

Chop the dark bittersweet chocolate into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl.

Heat the beer over medium heat until it starts to bubble. Do not boil.

Pour the hot beer over the chocolate and stir well to combine. Transfer the mixture to a jug and pour into glass or plastic shot glasses (I used 1.65 fl.oz (50ml) glasses). Leave space at the top of the glass for the white chocolate “head”.

Put the glasses into the fridge to set (about 1-2 hours).

To make the white chocolate ganache break the white chocolate into pieces and melt over medium heat in a double boiler or a glass bowl over a pan of water. Meanwhile gently heat the cream in a small pan. Do not boil. When the chocolate is melted remove from the heat and gently stir the warm cream into the chocolate. When combined, transfer the ganache to a jug and gently pour on top of the dark chocolate layer in the shot glasses.

Return to the fridge to set for at least an hour or two before enjoying. Will keep in the fridge for 4-5 days.

Yield: 10 x 1.65oz glasses

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Beer Infused Pumpkin Bread Truffles

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This idea came to me as I was trying to think of a little something to take along to a Halloween party.

Every year as Halloween approaches the beer shelves in local stores seem to groan under the weight of an ever increasing selection of pumpkin beers. One local brewpub even serves a draught version straight out of a giant pumpkin.

I have to confess that I’m not a huge fan of drinking pumpkin beer as it comes but I thought it would make a great ingredient in pumpkin bread, adding moisture and flavour. I could then use the beery bread as the basis for an autumnal chocolate treat.

I used this recipe to make the pumpkin bread although you could simplify things by just buying some. I tweaked the recipe a bit. I had an abundance of butternut squash from my CSA box so roasted that and used it instead of pumpkin puree, and I reduced the amount of cinnamon used as I can find it overwhelming in many desserts at this time of year. It is easy to adjust the cinnamon and other flavourings as you make the truffles to get just the right amount of pumpkin spice goodness.

Luckily I didn’t need all the bread for the truffle recipe and enjoyed a few slices for breakfast this week. A recipe I will definitely be making again.

Beer Infused Pumpkin Bread Truffles

8oz pumpkin bread

2oz agave syrup

1oz unsalted butter

0.5 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Salt

8oz dark chocolate

Nutmeg (optional)

Crumble the pumpkin bread into a bowl. Melt the agave syrup and butter together in a small pan over medium heat.

Pour the syrup mixture over the crumbled bread and mix well to combine. Add cinnamon if required and a pinch of salt.

Melt 4oz of the dark chocolate over medium heat in a double boiler or a glass bowl over a pan of water. Add the melted chocolate to the bread and syrup mixture and stir to combine. At this point you can sneak a little taste to check if any adjustments to the seasoning is required.

When cool, place in the refrigerator for an hour or two until the mixture is firm.

Taking a teaspoon full of the mixture at a time, roll into balls to form the centres of the truffles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then return to the fridge to firm up again.

Melt the remaining 4oz of dark chocolate for the coating in a double boiler. Dip the truffle centres in the melted chocolate to coat and place on baking parchment to set.

You can enjoy them as they are or sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg or whatever takes your fancy to get another burst of flavour.

Yield: 25 truffles

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Black Bean / Red Rice Veggie Burgers

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My wife and I often have crazy work schedules with long hours and late finishes. We usually do a pretty good job of meal planning and prepping food ahead of time to make sure we have something tasty and nutritious to enjoy when we eventually get home but like everyone, there are occasions when we resort to takeout or something quick and easy from the grocery store.

One of our staples on these occasions are spicy black bean burgers from the supermarket freezer. They may be convenient, and they have significantly less fat and zero cholesterol compared to a burger made from beef but a quick glance at the ingredient list reveals such delights as disodium inosinate and thiamin hydrochloride as well as unspecified artificial flavors.

I therefore set out to create my own spicy black bean burger, with ingredients I recognise and a customised spice blend to suit our palates.

As well as black beans I included red rice to help bind the burger together. I’m a big fan of red rice, which is available quite cheaply in big bags from our local Asian supermarkets. It’s nutty flavour not only works well in this recipe but I find it makes a great base for salads. You could cook dried black beans for this recipe but I opted for a can. I used low sodium beans to give me more control over the seasoning

Black Bean / Red Rice Burgers

15oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained

4oz cooked red rice

0.5 medium red onion, chopped

1oz breadcrumbs

1 large garlic clove

0.5 tsp sweet paprika

0.5 tsp smoked paprika

0.5 tsp crushed red pepper

0.5 tsp salt

0.5 tsp black pepper

0.5 tsp ground cumin

0.5 tsp ground coriander seed

Put all of the ingredients in a food processor and process until the mixture is combined but still relatively coarse in texture.

By hand, form the mixture into four patties, each about half an inch thick.

In a skillet or frying pan, warm about a quarter of an inch of olive oil over medium high heat. Let the burger form a good brown crust on one side before flipping. Cook the burgers for about 5 minutes on each side until crisp on the outside and heated through.

Serve them in a burger bun with the toppings of your choice.

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Strawberry Wine: 2016 Vintage

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This year’s batch of strawberry wine started life early one morning in mid April when we headed about an hour south of Atlanta to our favourite pick your own farm. There was a slight chill in the air when we started but we soon warmed up as we filled half a dozen buckets with ripe red berries.

I have been making this strawberry wine recipe for many years. It is a beautifully coloured, fragrant, dry rosé that is delicious when lightly chilled and retains a delicate aroma of strawberries.

The recipe comes from my well thumbed copy of “The Complete Book of Home Winemaking” by H.E.Bravery, which dates from 1979 and is a book I have been using for over thirty years, having started my home winemaking career at a rather young age. H.E.Bravery was a prolific author on the topics of home wine and beer making, publishing many books, primarily in the 1960s, such as “Home Brewing Without Failures” and “Home Booze: Complete Guide for the Amateur Wine and Beer Maker”. Some of his writing now seems a little dated, especially as a lot of the science and equipment used in home beer and winemaking has moved on since he wrote his books but many of the fundamentals are still sound.

This recipe uses what Bravery calls “the Campden method” as it uses Campden tablets, small pills of sodium metabisulphite, which are added to the fruit at the start of the process, killing the wild yeasts and bacteria which could otherwise affect the fermentation process and spoil the flavour of the wine.

I normally make this wine in a one gallon batch but as that produces a mere six bottles I decided to go large this year and make a five gallon batch, so we can enjoy the taste of summer for a lot longer. It does mean a lot more cleaning and sanitising work when it comes to bottling it but it is worth it once you have a good stash of rosé in your cellar.

The recipe below is for one UK gallon (160 fl.oz).

Strawberry Wine

From “The Complete Book of Home Winemaking” by H.E.Bravery

3lb strawberries

2lb sugar

5 fl.oz freshly made strong tea

1 Campden tablet

Wine yeast and yeast nutrient

Approximately 1 gallon of water

Boil the sugar in 3 pints of water for 2 minutes, and leave to cool.

Hull the strawberries and put them in a large food safe plastic bucket. You can get large plastic food containers from restaurant supply stores or plastic fermenting buckets from home wine making shops.

Crush the berries well by hand. I find a potato masher usually does the trick.

Add the tea and mix in half a gallon of water and one Campden tablet, crushed and mixed with two tablespoons of water. The addition of tea might sound slightly odd but it adds tannin into the equation, achieving a much better final result.

Add the cooled sugar / water mixture.

Add the wine yeast and nutrient, cover and leave to ferment for 7 days, stirring daily. You can get wine yeast and yeast nutrient at any good home winemaking supply store. They can advise you on the best choice of yeast for the wine style you are making and the quantity of yeast and nutrient to add to your wine, depending on the quantity you are making.

After this, strain the wine. Cover it again and leave to stand for one hour. At this stage boil some water and allow to cool in case you need to top off the wine in the next stage.

Pour carefully into a gallon jar leaving behind as much deposit as you can. Fill up the jar with cooled boiling water to where the neck begins, fit a fermentation lock and leave it until all fermentation has stopped.

At this stage you can bottle the wine, siphoning it into sterilised bottles before corking them.

This wine is best drunk young. It will happily last for a year or two stored in the right conditions but it isn’t one to stash away in the cellar and pull out in ten years time.

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Spicy Pan Fried Dill Pickles with a Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

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It was in a bar in the deep south that I had my first encounter with fried pickles. Down here it is easy to strike up a relaxed conversation with the complete strangers sitting next to you, especially when you throw in the added novelty of an English accent.

When their bar snacks arrived they urged us to share and that is how I came to first experience the wonder of fried pickles. On the surface of it, slices of pickled cucumber, breaded and then deep fried and served with a side of ranch dressing do not sound like a culinary masterpiece, but these were just the perfect combination of crispy, crunchy, oily, spicy and salty to make the ideal accompaniment to a cold beer. I was hooked.

This summer I have been experiencing a glut of cucumbers and have been happily preserving the surplus into pickles and relishes for future enjoyment. I made a batch of garlic dill pickles using this recipe from the excellent foodinjars.com blog. The garlic and pepper gave them a nice kick and I thought they would be the perfect candidate for transforming into spicy fried pickles. I added a little smoked paprika to the cornmeal mix to add to the taste sensation and made a cooling blue cheese and yogurt dipping sauce to partner them. The end result is a tasty and quite addictive snack.

Spicy Pan Fried Dill Pickles with a Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

8oz dill pickles, drained (I made mine using this recipe, or you can use shop bought pickles)

2 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

0.5 cup cornmeal

0.5 teaspoon salt

0.5 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

0.5 teaspoon smoked paprika

Vegetable oil

For the dipping sauce

1 cup blue cheese crumbles

0.5 cup plain yogurt

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

To make the sauce, place the blue cheese, yogurt, vinegar and black pepper in a food processor and blitz until combined but still slightly chunky. Check for seasoning.

Drain your dill pickles.

Beat the two eggs and place in a bowl.

Mix together the flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper and paprika in a shallow bowl or plate.

Heat a 1/4 inch of oil in a skillet over medium high heat.

Dip the pickle slices in the beaten egg, then dip them in the flour mix until well coated and then carefully place them in the pan. Fry until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side.

Drain on paper towel before enjoying, ideally with a cold beer.

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Blueberry and Mascarpone Tart with a Pecan Crust

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Oliver Farm is located about 150 miles south of Atlanta and has been owned and operated by the same family for five generations. In recent years they have started producing cold pressed oils from pecans, sunflowers and peanuts, as well as pecan flour.

I discovered them at a local farmers market and picked up a bag of their pecan flour as well as a bottle of pecan oil. They sat in my kitchen for a while as I pondered what to make with them, before I came up with the genius idea of checking out the recipe suggestions on the Oliver’s own website. A few caught my eye but I was particularly intrigued by the “pecan pat-in crust” recipe which used both the oil and the flour and seemed both simple and versatile.

Having made my crust the next question was what to fill it with. Luckily, our CSA box from Riverview Farms has been supplying us with an abundance of blueberries in recent weeks so I combined the sweet berries with a rich creamy filling of eggs, mascarpone and vanilla to complement the pecan crust.

The result is a tasty and eye catching dessert that is quick and easy to make.

Blueberry and Mascarpone Tart with a Pecan Crust

For the crust (taken from this recipe for “Pecan Pat-In Crust” at oliverfarm.com)

1 cup pecan halves

0.5 cup pecan flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons of pecan oil (or substitute vegetable oil)

For the filling

1 egg

8oz Mascarpone

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

A few drops of Vanilla Extract

8oz Blueberries

Preheat your oven to 350F and position rack in the middle of the oven. Place the pecans, flour and sugar in a food processor and pulse until they are coarsely ground. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and pulse again briefly. Then check to see if the mix is sticking together. If it isn’t, add a little more oil and blitz again in the food processor. Once the ingredients are combined put the mixture into a pie dish and use your fingers to press it evenly across the bottom and up the side of the dish. This quantity will fill a 9″ pie plate, or you can do as I did and use two 4″ cases to make two smaller tarts. Bake for around 10 minutes until the crust is dry to the touch and starting to colour a little. Remove the oven and set aside to cool.

For the mascarpone layer, separate an egg and then beat the yolk with the tablespoon of powdered sugar. Stir in the mascarpone and a few drops of vanilla extract. Beat the egg white until stiff and then fold into the mascarpone mixture. Spread this on the pecan crust and place in the fridge to set.

Finally, arrange the blueberries on top of the tart. Keep chilled until you are ready to enjoy.

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Sourdough Pancakes with Serviceberry Syrup

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When I lived in Britain I had a pretty good grasp of plants that I could forage for locally: wild garlic and hops in the spring, blackberries in late summer, sloes in the autumn.

Moving to Georgia meant a different seasonal calendar as well as new, unfamiliar plants. One fruit that was totally new to me was the serviceberry, also known as the juneberry or saskatoon berry. I first heard about them through the work of Concrete Jungle, an Atlanta based non profit that harvests fruit and nuts from thousands of untended trees around the city and donates them to the poor and hungry. Their map of food sources in the area shows an abundance of serviceberry trees around the city. Last year I stumbled upon a solitary tree on public property in my neighbourhood and tried these delicious, sweet little purple-red berries for myself. This year I managed to pick a few cups of berries to experiment with whilst leaving plenty for other foragers and the local birdlife.

I turned my haul of serviceberries into a gorgeous bright purple syrup that paired beautifully with a stack of sourdough pancakes but would also be great on waffles, or stirred into oatmeal.

Serviceberry Syrup

4 cups serviceberries

1 cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

Add the water to the serviceberries in a saucepan and crush. I used a potato masher.

Slowly bring to the boil over medium-high heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool a little and then strain through a jelly bag or muslin. This yields about 1 cup of juice.

Add 1 cup of sugar to the cup of juice and heat over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the sauce has thickened a little. Do not let it boil.

Once it is cool pour it into a jar or bottle and it will keep in the fridge for two months.

To enjoy my syrup I whipped up a batch of sourdough pancakes. My go-to pancake recipe is this one from kingarthurflour.com which calls for sourdough starter and the preparation of an overnight sponge, so it takes a little planning. I found it worked perfectly for me as I left the berries to strain overnight whilst the sourdough batter bubbled and worked its magic. If you have less time on your hands this is a great alternative recipe.

Once you have a stack of freshly cooked pancakes, drizzle generously with syrup and enjoy.

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Sticky Toffee Pudding Truffles

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Sticky toffee pudding is considered to be a British classic. A sponge cake studded with chopped dates and drizzled with toffee sauce, it is a staple on many dessert menus across the pond.

It is in fact a relatively recent invention, with a number of claims and counter claims as to who exactly came up with the recipe. It first came to prominence in the 1970s at the Sharrow Bay hotel in the Lake District, who declare their version to be the original. According to this article by English chef Simon Hopkinson their recipe may have actually come from a Mrs.Martin of Lancashire whose recipe appeared in the 1971 book “The Good Food Guide Dinner Party Book”, and there is conjecture that she received the recipe some years earlier from a Canadian source. Another Lake District location, the Village Shop in Cartmel, also claims to be the birthplace of the pudding.

Whatever the origins of sticky toffee pudding, I thought it was a perfect candidate for turning into a bite sized truffle. Obviously I needed to start by making a sticky toffee pudding. Thankfully there are no shortage of recipes; it seems that almost every British chef or food writer has at some point published their own version. I opted for this version from Nigel Slater.

Having produced my pudding and separate toffee sauce it was then a case of combining them with some chocolate to form the truffle centres and then coat them in yet more chocolate to finish. I was delighted with the result. The dark chocolate coating balanced with the sweetness of the centre to make a delicious treat.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Truffles

4oz toffee pudding (from this recipe)

4oz toffee sauce (from this recipe)

4oz milk chocolate

6oz dark chocolate

Melt the milk chocolate over medium heat in a double boiler or a glass bowl over a pan of water.

Crumble the pudding and place in a bowl. Add the toffee sauce and the melted milk chocolate and stir to combine. When cool, place in the refrigerator until the mixture is firm.

Taking a teaspoon full of the mixture at a time, roll into balls to form the centres of the truffles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then return to the fridge to firm up again.

Melt the dark chocolate for the coating in a double boiler. Dip the truffle centres in the melted chocolate to coat and place on baking parchment to set before savouring this bite sized British classic.

Crème Fraiche Drop Biscuits

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“Biscuit” is probably one of the better known words which has a completely different meaning on one side of the Atlantic from the other. Back in England, biscuit brands such as Rich Tea, Digestives, Hob Nobs and Custard Creams are crunchy baked products, which Americans would call cookies and which are incredibly popular, especially when dunked into a cup of tea.

In the States on the other hand, biscuits are soft, flaky and scone-like and are commonly eaten for breakfast. Here in the South, they are particularly loved and even though they are traditionally made with just a few ingredients (flour, buttermilk, lard or butter, baking powder and/or soda and a little salt), there is much debate over exactly which combinations of ingredients and techniques produce the best biscuit. I’ve tried quite a few biscuit recipes over the years before settling on a couple of reliable options which I regularly return to.

I’m a fan of this recipe from Leite’s Culinaria which uses just self rising flour, butter and buttermilk but produces great results. Many Southerners swear by the legendary White Lily self rising flour which is already blended with leavening and salt, making the job even easier.

An even simpler but still very tasty biscuit recipe is the one for “Miracle Drop Biscuits” from Sheri Castle’s excellent book “The New Southern Garden Cookbook“. It uses just self rising flour, heavy cream and a little butter. The recipe calls for minimal handling of the dough so they are hand shaped rather than rolled and cut, which results in a slightly craggy appearance but they are none the worse for that.

I decided to experiment with the miracle drop biscuit recipe, replacing the heavy cream with home made crème fraiche. More commonly found in Europe than here in the States it is a thick, rich, slightly sour cream that is a versatile ingredient in the kitchen. Over here it can be hard to find and quite pricey when you do come across it but it is simple to make by adding 2 or 3 tablespoons of buttermilk to a cup of heavy cream and just leaving it at room temperature for a few hours until it thickens and develops a characteristic sour flavour. It can then be kept in the fridge for a week or so.

With the added tang from the buttermilk in the crème fraiche I thought it would add another layer of flavour to the drop biscuits, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Crème Fraiche Drop Biscuits

Adapted from Sheri Castle

2 cups self rising flour (I used White Lily)

1 cup home made crème fraiche

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 475F.

Mix flour and crème fraiche together in a bowl and stir to make a soft dough.

Divide the dough by hand into 6 equal parts and place on a baking tray.

Brush the tops with melted butter and bake until golden, 12-15 minutes.

Serve warm.

Brit In The South

A Blog from the Deep South with a British Twist

Oat & Walnut Whisky Balls

Chocolate Stout Ganache

Beer Infused Pumpkin Bread Truffles

Black Bean / Red Rice Veggie Burgers

Strawberry Wine: 2016 Vintage

Spicy Pan Fried Dill Pickles with a Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

Blueberry and Mascarpone Tart with a Pecan Crust

Sourdough Pancakes with Serviceberry Syrup

Sticky Toffee Pudding Truffles

Crème Fraiche Drop Biscuits