Four seasons cookery books

Crush the digestive biscuits. Melt the butter and stir into the crumbs with the castor sugar. Press into an 8 inch/20 cm. pie dish and bake in a moderate oven (350°F, 180°C, Gas Mark 4) for 5 minutes. Cool. Stir the ice cream to soften and spoon into the biscuit crust. Place in the freezer. Combine the dates, water and sugar in a small saucepan. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Stir in the lemon juice and let cool. Spread half the date mixture over the ice cream. Whisk the cream lightly: fold in the castor sugar, vanilla essence, chopped walnuts and remaining date mixture. Spread over the date mixture in the biscuit crust. Freeze. Serves 6-8. Peel the oranges, removing all the white pith. Dice the orange flesh and combine with the chopped dates and orange juice. Allow to stand for 1 hour. At serving time, pile up the scoops of ice cream in a serv- ing-dish. Pour the orange and date sauce into a chafing dish and heat until slightly thickened. Stir in the toasted almonds. Warm the Cointreau and brandy. Pour over the sauce and ignite. Ladle the flam- ing orange sauce over the ice cream. ig) ¢ Glacé fruits Imperial/Metric 1 seedless satsuma or clementine 3 0z./75 g. sugar 3 tablespoons water 12 black grapes Hostess specials Toiling over puddings may not be your forte, but some delightful home-made delicacies need no cooking. Making mincemeat is merely an assembly task, and even the tiresome chore of mincing the fruit can be omitted. Chop, grate, squeeze and stir all together; then it is ready to pot. Petits four have always been expensive, and some are rather elaborate confections. Using packet almond paste, these exotic little numbers are quick to make and cost far less than those bought from a continental patisserie. As for glacé fruits, I have always wondered why my guests regard these with awe. Anyone who can boil sugar and water and is deft enough not to burn her fingers with the caramel can make them in a few minutes. But the paper sweet cases do add a professional touch. American Peel the satsuma and divide into segments, 1 eee satsuma or removing as much white pith as possible. it Cemennne Place the sugar and water in a small 3 cup granulated sugar ; ; 3 tablespoons water saucepan and bring slowly to the boil 12 Tokay grapes making sure that the sugar dissolves be- fore the mixture boils. Once sugar has dissolved do not stir. Boil until syrup just begins to turn pale straw colour. Immedi- ately drop pieces of fruit one at a time into the syrup, removing with two skewers on to a board. Spoon any remaining syrup over the fruit before it sets. Place in paper sweet cases before completely cold and set to avoid them sticking to the board. 4 Marrons glacés Imperial/Metric 2 |bs./1 kg. large chestnuts 1 Ib./450 g. sugar 2 pint/3 dl. water pinch cream of tartar 2 teaspoons vanilla essence second syrup: 1 Ib./450 g. sugar 4 pint/15 dl. water 1 teaspoon vanilla essence NU ¢ Petits fours Imperial/Metric 4 0z./125 g. fresh or boxed dates 8 02z./225 g. marzipan red and green food colourings 4 0z./125 g. plain chocolate (ox Se Py ms iy ie a) uM So Ee, Neti nee . ~ Ky “ < American 2 |b. large chestnuts 2 cups granulated sugar 1% Cups water pinch cream of tartar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract second syrup: 2 cups sugar generous 3 Cup water 1 teaspoon vanilla extract American ¢ cup whole dates 8 oz. almond paste red and green food colorings 4 oz. bitter chocolate ep x ty PD on %) ‘( J , fy fl} $b, |