Butterscotch 1

I love butterscotch. It used to be the sweet for travel. Before a long road trip with may parents, we’d buy sweets  – and my job en route would be to hold on to and dish out the sweets. one of the favourites would be butterscotch. I remember it came in a flat packet – similar to a small pack of playing cards with sticks of butterscotch – each stick individually wrapped, with a line in the middle to conveniently snap into to standard size lozenges. Was it Callard & Bowser? maybe. I can’t remember.
1lb demerara sugar
1/4pt water
2oz butter
Put the sugar in a tall pan (tall, because it’s going to bubble up) along with the water. Heat until the sugar dissolves.
 Bring to the boil, then boil until the temp reaches the soft crack stage 132°C (270°F), (when a drop of the syrup in cold water makes hard but not brittle threads). 

Add butter a little at a time, stirring until dissolved before adding more.

Pour out into a greased 18 cm (7 inch) square tin. Mark into squares when almost set with the back of a knife. When set, break along the marked lines. Keep in an airtight container.

Sweet Popcorn

I can’t remember when I started making popcorn- under 10 though. (I was very young though.) The beauty of this recipe is that it all goes in one pan, but makes really good sweet crunchy popcorn. It doesn’t keep very long at all – hours- so make it hot when you need it, and don’t try to store it! It only takes a couple of minutes to make though!

1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup pop corn kernels
1/2 tsp salt

Put a large pan (with a lid) on the stove to heat. Add the oil, then all of the other ingredients. Shake briskly to mix it all up. Leave on the highest heat until you hear the first kernel pop.

Once you hear a pop, shake the pan hard every couple of minutes. The popping should get more frequent, then begin to drop off. One it all starts slowing, get ready to pour the popcorn into a big bowl. There’s a fine balance to this bit- leave it too long, and the toffee coating starts to burn and taste bitter. Don’t leave it long enough, and there are too many un-popped kernels in the popcorn.

Butterscotch

150ml/1/4 pint of water
450g/1lb Demerara sugar
50g/2oz butter

Poor water into pan and bring to boil add sugar and butter, heat slowly stirring till sugar dissolves and butter melts, bring to boil and cover pan and boil gently for 2 mins

uncover continue to boil with out stirring for about 12 mins
(or until little of mixture dropped into cold water separates into threads)
Pour into a buttered tin.

Flapjacks

 Preheat an oven to 160°C for soft flap Jacks, or 170°C for crispy ones

10oz butter
4oz brown sugar
1 tblsp golden syrup
20oz oats

Melt the butter  in a large saucepan. Add sugar and  golden syrup.

After all of the fat has melted and sugar dissolved,  stir in the oats to produce a uniform mixture.

Spread the mixture evenly in a baking tray. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 – 20 minutes, the longer it is baked, the crispier they will be.

Flapjack 2

300g oats
225g soft light brown sugar
225g butter
100g raisins
a small knob of ginger, cut into tiny bits

Grease a baking tray (mine’s about 20cm/9” square). Set the oven to 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3. Melt the butter in a saucepan and once melted add the sugar. Warm gently, then remove from the heat and stir in the oats, raisins and ginger. Press into the baking tray (if your hands are wet I think the mixture sticks to you less).

Bake for up to 20 minutes. Don’t wait for the flapjack to turn brown, as if you leave it too long it’ll end up far too hard. Cut into squares or slices while it’s warm, then leave in the tray to cool.

These amounts give me 16 chunky squares using my baking tray. You can leave out the raisins and ginger if you like. And you can add 90ml/6 tbsp of golden syrup when adding the sugar; this gives you flapjack that’s more sticky than crumbly. This recipe’s a combination of one in a modern Mrs Beeton book and one my grandma used to make.

Flapjack 3 (Auntie Gwen’s recipe)

100g butter
75g brown sugar
3 tblsp golden syrup
175g rolled oats
50g plain flour
pint of salt

mix as usual, and pack into a 20cm square tin. Cook at 170°c  for 30mins.