Ah! You find me just finishing off writing my Christmas cards.
They are a little expensive to send, but I think they are a wonderful way to let people
know I'm thinking of them.
This one is for my sister Sarah. She's also a cook. But I must get on. We're all very
busy making plum puddings and mincemeat. Even Fanny's busy making butter in the dairy.
I'm going to make Swiss Baskets. A lovely dish to have between the meat and the plum
pudding but before the ices.
For this recipe you will need...
Butter.
Sugar.
Eggs.
Lemon zest.
Flour.
Redcurrant jelly.
Pistachio nuts.
Cream.
Cherries.
...and angelica.
First I'm preparing my moulds. I've already buttered them so now I'm going to sprinkle
them with a mixture of flour and sugar.
I'm using dariole moulds, fluted dariole moulds, but you can use any small pudding moulds or
even coffee cups.
Now I'm going to make my Castle Pudding mix.
And to begin I'm going to cream the butter and sugar together.
Adding the zest as I go.
Now the Castle Puddings are only going to use about half of my mix, so I'm going to
think ahead and use the rest for making small cakes for afternoon tea.
Now I'm going to add my eggs one at a time.
Leading up to Christmas the servants can be busy across the estate and so we often bring
in help from the local village.
Retired servants or married women, or one of Mr Barker the gamekeepers' sons - of which
he has many.
Now I'm going to fold in the flour.
Now I'm going to fill my moulds two-thirds of the way up.
Christmas day itself should be quite peaceful. Perhaps their daughter Augusta or Mr Strutt
might come up from London. Lady Monson, Lady Braybrookes sister might be expected.
And the rest of this mix I'm going to give to Mary Anne so she can make the small cakes.
There we are. They're ready for the oven.
Now that these have properly cooled, I can turn these Castle Puddings into Swiss Baskets.
If they've risen, you'll need to cut them off so they are nice and flat. Mine are already
flat.
I'm going to cut out the middle of each one.
These aren't Christmas dishes as such. But I think the colours will complement the flowers
and greenery on the Christmas table.
And Lady Braybrooke was very complimentary when I last made them.
Now I'm going to brush them with redcurrant jelly.
Mary Anne!
Is it hot?
Yes, Mrs Crocombe.
Now you can go and whip the cream.
Yes, Mrs Crocombe.
Come to think of it, there aren't very many specific Christmas dishes.
All of the houses I worked at before had asparagus and Palestine Soup. That's Jerusalem artichoke.
Nesselrode Pudding was very popular at Langley Hall - the last house I worked at.
They also liked roast swan.
There is turkey of course.
And goose.
Poultry is popular throughout December.
Now I'm going to roll them in the pistachios.
Now that Mary Anne has whipped the cream, I'm going to fill each basket in the middle.
And add a cherry on top.
And to make them look a little bit more like baskets I'm going to add a tiny strip of angelica
for the handle.
Angelica is from a plant that's easily as tall as myself. And it has a hollow stem.
Angelica is green. We bought this from the grocer in Walden. I suspect a little colouring
has been added to make it this vibrant.
And there we are - Swiss Baskets.
Oh! And Merry Christmas.