(Not up for the chitchat? Completely get it. Click the email title to go to a web-based version then jump straight to the recipe or Cultural Fun.)
I’m fine but feeling a bit emotionally volatile. My godmother died at the weekend. She was 84 and it was expected but still very sad. I got the news in the middle of a weekend spent with an old friend visiting from abroad so everything felt quite intense.
Judith was a great godmother and a true one-off. Neither of us was religious but she was an interesting and interested grown-up in my life, a trusted non-parent adult, generous with theatre trips and practical presents. I still have a wooden-handled screwdriver she gave me in my early 20s saying: “all women should have their own tool kit”. Good advice! She did a lot: had a successful career in IT right from the beginnings of the field, was a chamber music lover and talented cellist and travelled widely throughout her life.
I always admired the way she lived her life: pleasing herself but also putting effort into the causes she believed in. She was getting arrested for XR until a couple of years ago!
In tribute to Judith I’m bringing you a rare, unfermented recipe today. Although she graciously accepted a gift of sauerkraut on one of my visits she told me she “didn’t really believe in vegetables”. But these oat biscuits were often around and make a good accompaniment to a cup of tea.
Recipe: Judith’s Oat Crunchies
Makes about 20 biscuits
Ingredients
170g light brown sugar
220g margarine
1 tbsp black treacle
1 tsp vanilla essence
generous pinch salt
220g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
120g rolled oats
Method
Heat the oven to 185°C.
Cream the sugar and margarine together. I used a handheld electric beater, stopping when things were evenly combined but before they got too fluffy.
Add the treacle or golden syrup, vanilla and salt and mix again.
Add the flour, baking powder and oats and mix to an even dough.
Roll the dough into balls and place on a baking tray. The balls should be about 25g each - roughly the size of a walnut.
Bake for 15mins on until golden brown. Let cool and enjoy with a cup of tea.
Notes (If Ifs And Ands Were Pots And Pans…)
Marge on the left, butter on the right
I’ve always been a bit snobby about using margarine in baking so I experimented with a version using butter too. The margarine dough was stickier and harder to roll into balls and baked to a slightly softer biscuit. The butter ones spread less and came out crunchier. They also kept slightly better but, controversially, I think I preferred the taste of the biscuits made with margarine.
You could use golden syrup instead of black treacle.
These are nice as they are, a plain unfussy biscuit to have with a cup of tea. They’re also sturdy enough to take on a walk and eat up a mountain. They’re not fancy and not trying to be. But you could add 100g chocolate chips, raisins or other dried fruit for a little extra something.
Instead of rolling into balls, you could roll the dough to a half centimetre thick sheet between two sheets of baking paper. Remove the top one and score into rectangles with a knife before baking. Break along the lines for biscuit bars.
Cultural Fun
I am just back from a trip to to see Bruce Springsteen at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light. It was immense. Rainy but wonderful. Waitin’ On A Sunny Day was an apt opener.
A bunch of aging rockers in the rain. Bruce Springsteen was there too.
Springsteen and the “heart-stoppin’, pants-droppin’, Earth-shockin’, hard-rockin’, booty-shakin’, earth-quakin’, love-makin’, Viagara-takin’, history-makin’, legendary” E Street Band have been playing together for half a century now and you can see it in a) just how good they are and b) how happy it still seems to make them. He’s 74 and played for three hours!
We got all the hits you might want (including my all-time favourite Dancing in the Dark) but more more low-key, emotional moments too. Did I do a small cry during The River? Or was it just more rain? Who can say? During the introduction to Last Man Standing, Bruce spoke about how he is now the only guy left from the first band he formed age 15: “Grief is a good price to pay for loving well.”
Bye! See you next week!
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In Good Taste is a Sycamore Smyth newsletter by me, Clare Heal. You can also find me on Instagram or visit my website to find information about my catering work, cookery lessons and upcoming events.
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