Heading North - and a family recipe for Ginger Shortbread

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So this evening after tea I am going to pack the dog and the kids in the car and head North to visit Allotment Junkie, Grumpy and, more importantly my brother and his family, who are over from Tanzania for a few weeks. They were all at ours last weekend for my birthday, but it was complete chaos, and we didn’t really get much ‘quality time’ together. The thought of braving the M1 on a Friday night fills me with fear and dread, but the opportunity to see my brother and his wife and kids is one that I can’t pass up. They live so far away – we haven’t made it out there yet, and I am well aware that as their kids grow up, I need to take every chance I can to see them– these are the kids who make funny grunting noises when they see sheep – they don’t see sheep that often, but hippos, on the other hand – 10 a penny. Hippos grunt. Hence the noise. It makes me realise quite how different their life is to ours...

sheep? or hippo?

Anyway, enough of that. I don’t actually get back to Yorkshire that often, and if we do, it’s usually a fleeting visit to dump Blue and Pink while we go and do something else. More frequently, though, Allotment Junkie and Grumpy come to us. So I am looking forward to spending 2 nights in my old bedroom. We will undoubtedly visit the National Railway Museum in York, and have a roast dinner on Sunday that I will eat far too much of. Just like always. The Husband has scout things to do so he is home alone. I have seen a double pack of bacon, which he thinks he's hidden, at the back of the fridge...

I have been feeling quite nostalgic recently, seeing all my old friends at my birthday party. Maybe it’s something to do with hitting that ‘40’ milestone. Who knows.

OK, so maybe mine didn't look quite like this...

I made Florentines for my birthday tea. When mum saw them, she commented that they had been a speciality of my great aunt ‘Narty’. It made me come over all peculiar to think that I had had an urge to make them for my 40^th. I’m not suggesting anything wierd was going on, just that it gave me a strong feeling of being linked back to my family in its wider sense. Mum, Allotment Junkie, has also made 2 trays of ginger shortbread for the big day. This is a family recipe, also from Narty, and I thought I would share the recipe. You can tell it’s a family recipe because it’s a bit vague. I haven’t made it myself so I can’t tell you what size tin it requires, but I’m sure you’ll be able to work it out once you’ve got the shortbread crumbs...

For the shortbread: 4 oz butter, 4oz sugar, Pinch of salt, 7oz self raising flour, 1 tsp ground ginger

For the icing: 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon of syrup, 4 tablespoons of icing sugar, 1 tsp ground ginger

Cream together the butter and sugar, sift the rest of the shortbread ingredients in with the creamed mixture. Mix first with a knife and then rub lightly with fingers until crumbly. Press into a tin and bake at 160⁰C for about 20 mins.

Melt the topping ingredients together in a pan, then pour over the shortbread while it is still hot and cut into slices before it cools.

I haven’t got a picture of it because it doesn’t look like much – and mostly beige – but it is delicious.