Raspberry Cordial

Earlier this week I ran out of Raspberry Cordial. By the end of the week I had made some more as I really didn't want to be without this surprisingly useful ingredient for long.

So what can you do with Raspberry Cordial?

Firstly, you can drink it - either diluted with water as a soft drink, or splashed into alcoholic drinks as a mixer. On the drinking theme, you can also put a little into milk to make a lovely raspberry milkshake. This is perhaps how I use up most of my stocks.

Along similar lines, it can be used to flavour plain yoghurt or rippled through ice-cream. A little dish of it is lovely to use as a dip with other fruit such as slices of apple or banana or even just mini doughnuts or biscuits. And a drizzle of it can lift a fruit salad.

I have in the past also made a very quick and easy cheesecake by mixing it with some marscarpone - and we all know how much I love cheesecake!

Mmmm... did someone say cheesecake?

The front cover of the August Good Food Magazine has on it a Peach Melba Cheesecake and it has been taunting me all month. Peach Melba - a dish traditionally consisting of peaches, vanilla ice-cream and raspberry sauce... So, having re-stocked with Raspberry Cordial, I now had an easy way to adapt the recipe to make it even easier to make.

Peach Melba Cheesecake

55g melted butter
55g digestive biscuits
55g ginger biscuits
300g soft cheese
55g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
150ml double cream
Raspberry Cordial
200g diced peaches

Line the base of a loose bottomed circular tin. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor and mix thoroughly with the melted butter. Press into the bottom of the tin and chill in the refrigerator. In a bowl, combine the cheese, sugar and vanilla. Add the cream and whisk until thick. Drop in half the peaches and several splashes of raspberry cordial then spoon the mixture onto the base, allowing the peaches and cordial to slightly mix in as it does in. Smooth the cheesecake level and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. To serve, cut into slices and drizzle a little raspberry cordial on to each slice and spoon on a few chunks of peaches.

Raspberry Cordial


2 lb (900g) raspberries
1 pint (660ml) red grape juice
Granulated sugar

Gently heat the raspberries in the red grape juice in a large pan for a few minutes until the raspberries have broken up. Strain the liquid through a nylon (not metal) sieve. For every pint of liquid, weigh out 8 oz granulated sugar. Clean the pan and return the liquid to it, along with the sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar then remove from the heat. Pour into warmed bottles and seal. Refrigerate once cooled.

Individual Strawberry Cheesecakes

Thumbing through the August edition of the Good Food magazine, I came across a recipe for Little Strawberry Cheesecakes with the subtitle "The cutest cheesecakes you'll ever make". Yes, they did look lovely in the photo and as they required strawberry jam they seemed irresistible to me!

So this morning I made a batch of Summer Fruit Jam with some of the lovely Grenadier apples Laurence from Virtual Orchard had given me earlier in the week and some strawberries and raspberries from the freezer. OK it's not strawberry jam but it's just as good so this afternoon I made individual strawberry cheesecakes with some slight modifications from the Good Food recipe. And they turned out to be just the ticket for dessert after an epic 4 hour bike ride this afternoon!

Individual Strawberry Cheesecakes - makes 7

55g (2oz) butter
6 digestive biscuits
250g tub ricotta
55g (2oz) icing sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
150ml (4 fl oz) double cream
7 teaspoons Summer Fruit or Strawberry Jam
4 strawberries

Preheat an oven to 150°C, gas mark 2 and put 7 paper cases into a muffin tin. Melt the butter then blitz the biscuits in a food process and mix with the butter. Press the biscuit mix into the bottom of each paper case. Chill these whilst you prepare the filling. In a bowl, combine the ricotta, sugar, egg and vanilla. Whisk the double cream until it just holds its shape then stir into the the ricotta mix. Spoon the filling into the paper cases and smooth. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes then turn off the oven and leave the cheesecakes inside to cool completely. Later, chill the cheesecakes. When ready to serve, remove the cheesecakes from the muffin tray and carefully pull off the paper cases. Place on a small dish and top with 1 teaspoon of jam and half a strawberry.

Fudge Ideas

Whenever I see fudge on sale at a show or fete, I will always buy some. I have successfully made fudge myself in the past but to be honest I would rather let someone else do it - the way some people feel about jam!

Anyway, when I came across The Fudge Lady on facebook a few months ago I was really pleased to find someone in Milton Keynes making fudge and I instantly thought that I would like to offer her fudge along side my Jammy Cow products. I have visions of gift bags and hamper boxes at Christmas filled with Jammy Cow preserves, homemade biscuits and fudge - a lovely mix of local, tasty foodie gifts.

With the Woburn Abbey Garden Show last weekend, I thought I would try out The Fudge Lady's fudge on my Jammy Cow table to see how it went. So, I happily accepted 10 bags each of Vanilla, Milk Chocolate and Rum and Raisin Fudge from her on the Friday and put them on sale over what turned out to be the hottest weekend of the year! Even so, I sold most of the bags and was left with about 8 bags in a mixture of the flavours.

I am a sucker for fudge and could very probably have eaten my way through all 8 bags within a fortnight but that would probably not have been a good idea. Instead, when my husband asked if I would make cakes for him to take into work for this birthday on Thursday I saw an opportunity to try out some fudge recipes. The Vanilla fudge went into Banana Fudge Muffins, the Milk Chocolate fudge went into Poptastic Popcorn, and the Rum and Raisin into Rum and Raisin fairy cakes. Needless to say, what with a batch of Rhubarb & Ginger jam tarts and my Cherry Bakewells, Steve did not have any cakes left at the end of the day to bring home.

Banana Fudge Muffins (makes 12)

250g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

60g fudge

75g light brown sugar

75g butter

125ml milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 medium eggs

2 medium over-ripe bananas

Runny honey

Preheat the oven to 190°C, gas mark 5 and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Cut the fudge into small pieces and drop into the flour. Add the sugar and stir. Melt the butter in a pan over heat or in the microwave then add the milk, vanilla and eggs to it and beat to combine. In another bowl, mash the bananas. Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and add the bananas then mix quickly until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake for 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes then  coat the tops of each muffin with runny honey.

Poptastic Popcorn (makes 12)

45g popping corn

A little vegetable oil

120g marshmallows

60g milk chocolate fudge, cut into small pieces

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan then add the popping corn, put on the lid and wait for the corn to pop, swirling the pan occasionally. Remove the popcorn from the pan and place in a bowl. Reserve 20g of marshmallows (cut into small pieces if necessary). Place 100g of the marshmallows in the pan and heat gently, stirring constantly, until the marshmallows have melted. Tip the popcorn, fudge pieces and marshmallow pieces into the melted marshmallows and stir well until well coated. Pull out portions of the mixture, mould into rough balls and place into paper cases then allow to cool completely.

Rum and Raisin Fairy Cakes (makes 12)

60g raisins

2 tablespoons dark rum

90g soft margarine

90g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

90g self-raising flour

20g cocoa powder

60g butter

50g icing sugar

10g cocoa powder

60g rum and raisin fudge

Put the raisins in a jar with the rum and leave to soak over night or longer. Preheat the oven to 190°C, gas mark 5 and line a fairy cake tin with paper cases. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar then add the eggs one at a time. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and stir until well combined. Next, dab the raisins dry on kitchen paper then add to the batter. Spoon the batter into the paper cases then bake for 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. In the meantime, cream together the butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder to make butter icing. When the cakes are cool, dollop the butter icing onto the top of each cake. Cut the fudge into 12 pieces and place a piece of fudge on top of each cake.

Exceedingly Good Cherries

Whilst I was away on holiday, Laura went along to The Strawberry Farm in Aspley Guise. Despite it's name, they sell cherries there to the public during the summer, harvested from their 1000 trees. She came home with several pounds of beautiful dark cherries and amazingly managed to resist scoffing the lot, instead making them into batches of Cherry Jam and Cherry & Almond Jam for Jammy Cow.

I have been making Cherry & Almond Jam from the cherries that grow in my garden for years now and when people ask me about it I always say that it tastes like cherry bakewell. Weirdly, however, I've had very little experience with cherry bakewells - beyond eating them! I have to confess that Mr Kiplin's individual ones are the ones filed as my mental image. I have never, ever had a go at making a cherry bakewell and didn't actually know what went into them until I did a recipe search on the internet. You know, the only cherry that goes into a cherry bakewell is the half a one on top! Even the jam used usually is strawberry or raspberry!

Well, with a fresh batch of Cherry & Almond Jam at my disposal I decided it was time to make my own version of a cherry bakewell - only this time with ingredients that have actual cherries in!

Individual Cherry Bakewells

1 sheet of Jus-Rol sweet all butter shortcrust pastry
1 x 110g Jammy Cow Cherry & Almond Jam

3 oz (85g) self-raising flour
2 oz (55g) butter at room temperature
2 oz (55g) caster sugar
1 large egg
2 drops of almond extract
4 oz (110g) icing sugar
6 glace cherries

Preheat oven to 190°C. Cut out 12-16 pastry circles and place them into aluminium cases in a suitable baking tin. Blind bake the cases for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes then put about half a teaspoon of jam into the bottom of each pastry case. Cream together the butter and sugar then mix in the egg and almond extract. Sift in the flour and mix to form a batter. Place a teaspoon of the mixture on top of the jam and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack. Mix the icing sugar with a tiny amount of water until to forms a stiff, gloopy icing. Dollop icing on top of each cake and finish with half a glace cherry on each tart.

Coping with the glut

With the best will in the world, at this time of year it is very tricky to keep up with all the fruit that is ready to be harvested. Finding the time to pick it all is one thing and turning it straight into jam is another.

I met a fellow allotment holder coming out of the gates yesterday, a bag stuffed to overflowing with broad beans. "Lovely broad beans, John," I said, "Are you going to freeze them?"

"Me hunter gather," he replied, "the wife does the freezing bit."

Ah yes, that rings true. Whereas a man can leave the allotment, sweaty and muddy, and head straight for a soak in a warm bath to ease his achy muscles, the woman has to deal with whatever harvest she has just brought home before considering a quick shower.

When fruit is harvested it is important to deal with it quickly to keep it at its best. If you leave it just for a few minutes it will attract fruit flies - not something you really want in your kitchen. And within a few hours it will be oozing and by the next day it may even be furry! So either it needs to be parked in a the fridge for a while or turned straight into some culinary delight or put in the freezer.

Obviously, when you freeze fruit it is never the same again upon thawing. However, it can still be used perfectly well for any cooking purposes so all is not lost. It is certainly absolutely fine for jam making and in fact makes jam making easier as it is already softened by the freezing and needs less cooking time.

Before freezing consider how you wish to use the fruit in the future and prepare the fruit ready for this purpose. For example, for soft fruit, top and tail it first, and for stone fruit, cut it in half, remove the stone and chop it into smaller pieces if necessary. Apples and pears are best peeled, cored, sliced and lightly cooked first. Next, think about the amount you will need. For jam making I freeze everything in bags of 1lb of fruit as that makes it easier. For other uses, such as for cheesecakes or cakes, I freeze in whatever quantity the recipe requires and label the bag appropriately - e.g. 6oz raspberries for cheesecake. Sometimes it is just as easy to go the whole way and make the end product first and then freeze it - such as when I'm making crumbles. A batch of cooked apples and some blackberries, say, will make 4 crumbles which I can freeze for later and cook from frozen in 20 minutes - lovely! If you're not sure how you might use the fruit in the future then place it in a single layer on a tray to freeze and then the next day decant it into bags. The fruit should be individually frozen and not stuck together in some difficult blob. However you freeze it, remember to label it clearly as things can look different once frozen and you could soon end up with a freezer full of UFOs - that's Unidentified Frozen Objects!

The Moos at Ten

Last night was the 2012 Midnight Moo - an all ladies 10 mile walk through Milton Keynes. The herd set off a midnight and whilst they were busy striding through the early miles, Jammy Cow and her heifer friends were busy preparing the final mile for their welcome home.

At the beginning of mile 10, ready to greet the herd for their final mile was the very professional Moos at Ten Cow, Mavis.  She is a very sensible and reliable cow and in stark contrast to the next cow round the first corner. Silly Cow, Connie giggled her way through the night.

Those of you who walked the 10 miles will know that most of mile 10 is uphill so the Moos at Ten team were ready to add that extra bit of encouragement as the herd came through. Having said that, Bossy Cow's version of encouragement is about as friendly as bootcamp with her strident, "Keep moooving!" shout. It is at this point in the early hours of the morning that you realise exactly how far 10 miles is to walk. "Holy cow, aren't we there yet?" you may mutter as you pass the pious Holy Cow, Mary. 

Continuing up Midsummer Boulevard, the end is near and breakfast at Pret A Manger awaits, a thought not lost on the perpetually hungry Fat Cow, Victoria as she patiently waved the crowds through. 


Normally, Hetty the Mad Cow stands out as a bit odd but last night she was in good company with lots of ladies suitably dressed up for the night.

Through Witan Gate underpass and by now there is less than half a mile to go. Bed is calling and lucky you, you'll soon be home and tucked up. Lucy, the Lucky Cow was there, cheering you on for the final push. And only another 50 calories left to burn, something Clover, the Skinny Cow was quick to point out.


Nearly at the end of mile 10 now and so very close to achieving your aim. A point to feel proud and to reflect upon why you are doing this. Willen Hospice is a fantastic cause and everyone is impressed by your fundraising efforts. Remember those Concrete Cows you passed in mile 7, well one makes a final appearance here to salute your efforts on behalf of Milton Keynes.

And there, with the end in sight, Jammy Cow welcomes you to the end of mile 10 and congratulates you on completing the Midnight Moo. A big cheer, breakfast, bath and bed. 

So can you work out how many cows there were on mile 10 of the Midnight Moo? If you can and you are local to Milton Keynes then why not enter our competition to win a fabulous hamper of goodies. Visit www.themoosatten.co.uk or email your answer to enquiries@jammycowmk.co.uk 

Article in Shenley Church End Parish Newsletter July 2012

The Milton Keynes Tourist

2012 is a very special year for the UK and “staycations” are being promoted as the new way to holiday, yet can you imagine Milton Keynes being a tourist destination?  It is always hard to step back and view your hometown with the fresh eyes of a visitor but Milton Keynes particularly does not seem like the obvious place for a holiday.

I was born and bred not a million miles away in Bedford and moved to Milton Keynes in 1996. Since then I have fallen in love with the place. There are numerous green spaces, a road system that makes getting about easy, every shopping outlet you could wish for and increasingly more and more places of entertainment. What’s not to love?

Sadly, some people would argue that there is not a lot to love about Milton Keynes. “The Concrete City” where even the cows are concrete, apparently. These do tend to be people who have never visited the place or who have spent very little time here. Still, for someone like me, trying to make a living out of selling home made preserves, it is obvious that Milton Keynes is not the tourist magnet that say, Cornwall is.

Back in January 2011 I was sat around drinking coffee with friends and bemoaning the fact that I lived in Milton Keynes and not Cornwall. Nothing wrong with MK you understand, just if I lived in Cornwall I could make my jam as usual but market it as “Cornish Jam” and sell it in the nearest gift shop to the tourists. To my surprise my friends suggested that the same thing was possible within Milton Keynes and perhaps with even more of a novelty value just because Milton Keynes is not considered such a tourist hot spot.

This hit me like a lightning bolt of inspiration. What better way to make the point that Milton Keynes is not all concrete cows and roundabouts than by selling jams and chutneys made in Milton Keynes from only fruit and vegetables grown in Milton Keynes. And so Jammy Cow was born, with an honorary nod towards our famous concrete cows.

Having established the brand, I then went in search of the market. I was somewhat surprised to learn that about 3 million tourists visit Milton Keynes every year for business and leisure purposes and from all over the world. I soon found out that there are over 20 hotels within Milton Keynes too, as well as B&Bs.  I’m pleased to say that already Jammy Cow products are available in several of these hotels.

But what of the other little gems that we so enjoy when on holiday? You know, gift shops and quaint little cafes serving coffee and sandwiches or cream teas. Well, I’m pleased to say that such places do exist within Milton Keynes and are well worth searching out. From the garden centres of Woburn Sands to the listed buildings of Stony Stratford there are independent shops and cafes that have all the charm of anything you would find in Cornwall. And it’s not only the older parts of MK that hide these gems. You will find lovely places such as Squeaks in Broughton, Yenna Bean on Grange Farm and The Coffee Boutique in Oxley Park. All excellent little places to pop into for a drink and a bite to eat with friends and family.

So no need to count the days until your next holiday. Instead, make the most of what Milton Keynes has to offer and treat yourself to a holiday-style day out without the hassle of packing a bag and getting stuck in traffic. And if you fancy a souvenir to remind you of what a special place Milton Keynes is, don’t forget to pick up a jar of Jammy Cow – Milton Keynes grown and made.

*****

For more information about Jammy Cow please get in touch. We would love to hear from you. At this time of year we are on the hunt for surplus fruit and veg to go into our preserves. If you have any spare perhaps you would like to swap it for a jar or two of our lovely jams and chutneys.

www.jammycowmk.co.uk www.facebook.com/jammycow
Or contact Hazel: Email: enquiries@jammycowmk.co.uk Twitter: @jammycow
Tel:01908 673013