Doing It My Way

Well it has been a glorious but cold day here in North Devon. Being home I have been able to fully appreciate the clearer skies and chill crisp air.

Thanks to my inhaler I feel much more able to breathe. Though the downside at the moment is getting the shakes. I hope this dissipates with time. Conscious at being told firmly yesterday to rest I have paced my activities today. A couple of loads of washing. Some hoovering. Lighting the fire, and making a Stollen have all been achieved without too much drama.

It has been many a year since I last made Stollen. I wanted to mark Old Twelfth Night with something a little special as I seem to have missed rather a lot of the fun of January up till now.

Anyway into the bread maker went the ingredients for a rich dough plus some grated orange rind. I forgot to add dried fruit so kneaded mine in before rolling out. I had every intention of waiting until this evening to have a slice but I'm afraid temptation got the better of me. This is my version of Stollen, and I have strayed from the recipe. However (licking lips) I can confirm it tastes really lovely and went down a treat with a good mug of tea just now!

The dough was really soft

In went some sultanas

Then the marzipan

And flop it over

I put the icing on before it had cooled down...not necessarily a good idea

So...looking somewhat akin to a dogs dinner...but my it tastes good!

I also decided to honour the fruit trees in our garden. All of them. And I decided to do it before darkness. I didn't do the traditional Wassail and all that entails, however I took out a can of cider and poured some over each tree thanking them for the previous harvest and for that to come. Hot cider may feature in our lives this evening. Something has to be better than nothing I'm sure, but it didn't seem wise to be out in the cold after dark given my airway issues.

Back soon,

Blessings, J. x