Gingerbread Men

Run, run as FAST as you can .....!

My toddler loves baking and “helping out” in the kitchen. I’m encouraging her to do this, because this is how I grew up and I really want the same for her – for her to grow up knowing, and loving, food.

The other afternoon she asked me if we could pleeeeeze bake something. So I asked her what she’d like to bake and she replied “Gingerbread Men !” So, here is that recipe -:

Gingerbread Men

150 gm Margarine
½ cup Sugar
1 Egg
250 gm Syrup
4 cups Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Pinch of Salt
2 heaped tsp ground Ginger
½ cup Milk

Cream margarine & sugar. Add egg & then the syrup. Add sifted dry ingredients, alternating with the milk. Mix well to form a stiff dough. Roll out and use a gingerbread man biscuit cutter to press out the shapes. Decorate with whatever you have on hand (sweets, chocolate chips, raisins) to make the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons. Bake at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for 10 – 15 minutes.

(When we put them in the oven to bake, my daughter shouted “Don’t run away now, Gingerbread men !!” )

Goodbye, Faithful Old Donkey ...

She's served us well ....

(If you've arrived at this page through a Google or similar search - welcome ! This is the most visited - and searched for - page on my blog, with countless daily 'hits' from around the world - especially from South Africa ! Links at the bottom of this post will take you to other posts I've written about donkey boilers & if you have any questions, you're welcome to contact me via the contact link in my right sidebar. Yeah - long live the DONKEY BOILER !!!)

Boiler. Yup, you read that correctly – not another rescued animal of mine, but rather a donkey boiler. (I think the name comes from the shape of the boiler – or the original idea of a water drum on 4 posts or “legs” ?)

I had to write on my blog about our dear old donkey boiler, seeing as she has amused so many of my friends and family living in the first world - where hot water means simply switching on the tap with the red dot ! “A donkey WHAT ?!” they ask, through fits of laughter. (It’s a great conversation starter and has livened up many a party !)

Basically, if we want hot water for bathing or in the kitchen, we have to light a fire inside the donkey boiler. The fire then heats the water in a tank inside it, and the water is fed through pipes in to the house. This system works better than any geyser, especially here where the electricity supply is erratic. (We actually generate our own, but more about that later).

Our donkey boiler consumes a lot of wood, so we buy tractor loads which have been legally chopped from a nearby forest – we pay around U$100 per load, which lasts us about 6 months – not bad at all.

Simon, our trusty “night askari” (night watchman) is responsible for lighting the fire each night, in time for the toddler’s bath. We just go without hot water during the day as it’s such a waste to light the whole boiler just for the sake of a sink full of hot dish water (much easier to just boil some on the gas stove).

When it rains, we have a slight problem as the wood is usually wet and we battle (or should I say, Simon does) to get the fire started.

My husband tried to install a geyser to run off our electricity last year – all to no avail. (I told him it would never work – honestly !) So now we are upgrading the old faithful donkey boiler. In fact, she is being completely destroyed and re-built in a more “streamlined” and “efficient” design – as even donkey boilers need a makeover once in a while, it would seem ….

(Note - you can read about the construction of our new donkey boiler here.)

Granny's Drop Scones

My favourite way to eat these is with butter & golden Tanzanian honey

I’m not sure if you can tell yet, but I LOVE to bake. I am trying to balance the recipes on my blog, so that they do not consist mainly of baking recipes ! I enjoy cooking but would bake all day, every day if I could (and if weight gain was not an issue - as I can’t resist tasting what I bake !)

My Granny Edith used to make these for tea when we were children growing up in what was then Salisbury, Rhodesia. They are also known as “crumpets”. They are so simple and quick to make. I remember making them once as a teenager, for my Mum who had some ladies around for an afternoon WI or Book Club meeting at our home in Northern Natal, South Africa. I vividly remember frying batches of them in an electric frying pan, and serving them hot with jam and whipped cream on the top !

When I had my first job, I lived in a quaint white washed cottage on a strawberry farm in the Magaliesburg, South Africa and I did not have an oven – only one of those counter top stove plates that you plugged in. So I used to make these on a regular basis for tea or breakfast - especially when trying to impress a new boyfriend ;)

You can serve these with butter and jam/honey/syrup with or without a topping of cream. They also work well with a sliver of cheese on top in place of the jam.

I have not changed this recipe at all – there’s been no need to, as it has worked perfectly since the ‘70’s (and probably before) !

Granny’s Drop Scones

4 heaped dessertspoons* Flour
1 level dessertspoon* Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
1 heaped dessertspoon Sugar
1 Egg, beaten
Sufficient milk to make batter
Margarine or butter for frying (seems to work better than oil for this recipe)

* A dessertspoon measures 10 ml's & is slightly smaller than a tablespoon, which measures 15 ml's

Sift the flour, baking powder & salt. Stir in the sugar, & add egg and enough milk to make a stiff batter. Drop tablespoonfuls of mixture into a hot saucepan. Lightly fry until golden and cooked through. Serve hot.