Rowan Tree and Red Thread

Last weekend, no doubt partly in reaction to spending a week hacking about with Exchange Server 2003, I baked two new cake/biscuit/naughty recipes from a little book of biscuits my wife has had in the kitchen for ages. Stirred during an idle moment as Rowan, my daughter, was playing in the garden by the kitchen door, I looked through this book and found a couple of nice, simple things for me to try.

On Saturday morning I made a batch of Shrewsbury biscuits, and thought of Amanda (purpletigron) and our visit to Shrewsbury a few years back. Like the trip the biscuits were a success. Straightforward little shortcake ones with some sultanas thrown in, they'll do a treat for our Wednesday night gamers if the tupperware they are in proves sufficiently airtight.

Sunday morning I tackled a brownie recipe from the same book. Those of you out there in Interweb land who have come to any of my birthday celebrations will remember my mother's brownies. Her brownies aren't really like the usual american-style fudge brownies, tending to be closer to a very rich, dense chocolate cake smothered in chocolate sauce. This new recipe I used produces brownies in the traditional style: slightly biscuit-y top, chewy fudge centres. I liked them, though next time I'm going to up the flour quantity slightly in an effort to make them a little less gooey.

Rowan helped me with the first batch of biscuits, which was delightful, and I enjoyed the making and sharing of them. Ah, domesticity!