Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Sandwich

I am totally sold on the concept of the  Ice Cream Sandwich.  You can pick it up and lick the ice cream from the centre with the melting ice cream running down your fingers or eat it from a bowl breaking through the crisp cookie to reach the sweet, icy centre.  Add  some delicious Scottish strawberries and you have the perfect dessert.

If you don't have time to make your own shortbread, you could buy some shortbread cookies and make this a really speedy treat, but there is not doubt that home made butter shortbread is much better and it's simple to make.


Shortbread Biscuits/Cookies
300g (10oz) plain flour
100g ( 4oz) caster sugar
200g (8oz) butter
caster (superfine) sugar for dredging

1. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar. Work in the butter with your fingertips - keep it in one piece and gradually work in the dry ingredients. Knead well until the dough has come together. 
2. Pat down on a work surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough to about 1/2 cm (1/8 in) and cut out with a cookie cutter. You will probably have to keep pushing the dough back together again as it is very crumbly.
3. Slide the cut biscuits off the work surface with a knife and onto a baking sheet. 
4. Bake in the oven at 170C (325F) Mark 3 for about 8 minutes until firm and pale golden brown.
5. Lift onto a cooling tray with a spatula and dredge with caster (superfine) sugar.


To make the ice cream sandwich: Using the ice cream of your choice, I used  ready made Strawberry Shortcake Frozen Yogurt, let it soften slightly and press it into the cookie cutter that you used to cut the biscuits, remove the cookie cutter and refreeze the ice cream patties.  Once I'd made these I realised that they were too deep for the sandwich so, once frozen,  I cut them through the middle to make six.  Then all you need to do is assemble the sandwich: take a biscuit,  layer on some sliced strawberries, add the ice cream pattie, more sliced berries, top with another biscuit and decorate with a halved strawberry.

Labels: butter, dessert, flour, ice cream, sandwich, shortbread, strawberry, sugar

posted by Janice @ 19:01 11 Comments

Wee Sweetie - Homemade Sweets and Candies

Clockwise from left: Hot Cross Bun Fudge, Caramel Swirls, American Buttermints, Roobarb and Custard.

My Granny used to ask me "would you like a wee sweetie?"  She always had a bag of, what she called, 'boilings' in her handbag, a bit like the Scottish equivalent of that old guy on the telly with his 'originals' feeding sweets to his granddaughter!
This particular 'Wee Sweetie' is Donna Bradley,  @Wee_Sweetie on Twitter, who makes delicious traditional sweets.  Donna's Papa always called her Wee Sweetie, at 5'2" and 7 stone she is still quite 'wee' and has a real sweet tooth.

Donna is a self proclaimed 'Doonhamer' born and bred in Dumfries in the South West of Scotland.  When she had to give up her career as a psychiatric nurse, specialising in forensics, after illness and injury she returned home to stay with her Mum.  Donna has Crohn's Disease, a chronic digestive disorder and sugar is about the only thing she can eat without pain.  She got fed up with the lack of variety and quality of the sweets available to her and was thrilled when her sister bought her Hope and Greenwood's 'Life is Sweet' and she was able to make her own sweets.

The reaction to Donna's sweets, amongst her family and friends,  was so positive that she soon started taking custom orders for gifts, weddings and parties.  Wherever possible  Donna uses local products including Uncle Roy's colours and extracts and Lockerbie butter. She is looking for someone local to buy cream and would love to find an artisan butter maker. Wee Sweetie sweets are made in small batches to ensure the sweets are as fresh as can be and Donna aims to make them look and feel handmade, not uniform and mass-produced. She doesn't believe in adding anything unnecessarily so make sure everything is completely natural, preservative and additive free. Most are gluten free and veggie friendly too.

Donna kindly sent me some of her Wee Sweeties to try.  Let's start with the Hot Cross Bun Fudge, what a brilliant concept!  The fudge really tastes like a Hot Cross Bun and would be a perfect Easter Gift.   I was a bit concerned to try the Caramel Swirls as I thought they might be hard and chewy, but far from it, they transported me back to my childhood as they tasted exactly like the Russian Toffee my Mum made.  Soft and with a rich, sweet burnt sugar flavour that was completely moreish.  American Buttermints were next on the tasting list, they have a real hit of mint, firm on the outside and meltingly soft on the inside, quite delightful.  And finally 'the boilings' Roobarb and Custard boiled sweets were just brilliant, the balance of the acidic rhubarb taste and the sweet custard make these sweets just burst with flavour on your tongue.

Wee Sweetie is a very new business and does not yet have it's own website.  I'll keep you updated when that goes live.  In the meantime if you like the sound of these delicious homemade sweets you can contact Donna using the contact details at the bottom of the price list pictured above.

Many thanks to Donna for the opportunity to review her delicious sweeties, I'll be ordering up some of that Hot Cross Bun Fudge for Easter!
I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own. 

Labels: boiled sweets, buttermints, candy, caramels, fudge, homemade, hot cross bun, sugar, Sweets, Wee Sweetie

posted by Janice @ 19:06 35 Comments

Happy Halloween from Farmersgirl Kitchen

I picked up this little pumpkin at the local farmers market a couple of weeks ago.  it was just the right size to sit on a plate on my dresser.  I probably should have made more effort with the decoration but I ran out of time!

I made some little treats, not too many as we live out in the middle of nowhere and won't have a lot of visitors.  I used the chocolate spoon mould which I got from Sew White and filled it with melted white chocolate (sort of bone like!).  The black and orange sugar gave it a bit more of a Halloween look.  The buns are a simple chocolate cake mix, I baked them in Halloween papers but they seem to have parted company from them, so just took them out.

Labels: cake, chocolate, Halloween, pumpkin, Sew White, silicon mould, sugar

posted by Janice @ 21:13 5 Comments

Heavenly Meringues

I do think there is something heavenly about meringues, and these ones came out particularly well, they just melted in the mouth like little sugary clouds filled with cream.

I've been using the same simple recipe for meringues for many years, it comes from Mary Berry's 'Fast Cakes' book first published in 1981 to accompany her appearances on Thames Television's After Noon Plus programme.  I never saw the programme but Mary was featured in many magazines at the time.  This is the book I turn to for good basic recipes for scones, traybakes, sponges and biscuits.

Whisk the cream until it is thick and use it to sandwich the meringues together.

Labels: cream, eggs, Fast Cakes, Mary Berry, meringues, sugar

posted by Janice @ 21:41 7 Comments