Apple Jelly

I know what you're thinking. Apply Jelly? Are you sure? Well, to be perfectly honest, no, I'm not. I saw it in my old cookery book and thought it would be worth a try. As it turns out, it's quite nice! It's not like your modern day jellies, because its not transparent, and it doesn't have anything aritificial in. It's literally stewed apple, pushed through a sieve and jellified. It was also the first jelly I've ever made and I really enjoyed myself! Here is the recipe I was working from:

In the recipe, it mentions using powdered gelatine, with the 2tbsp of water for dissolving it in. However, I only managed to find sheet gelatine, which you soften in cold water and then add to the recipe, so I've adjusted my ingredients accordingly. It does also say in the original recipe what proportions to use with the Gelatine, however I found it to be too stiff because I didn't have a hair sieve, only a normal one, so I've reduced it slightly so that the jelly will have more wibble-wobble.

Apple Jelly (serves 2)

Bare Necessities:
1lb/450g Apples
2oz/60g Sugar
1piece Lemon Rind
1/2pint/1cup/250ml Water
6g Gelatine

1. Peel and slice the apples, taking care to remove all of the skin and core.
2. Pop them in the pan, along with the sugar, lemon rind and water.
3. Put the lid on the pan and stew until soft.
4. Rub the stewed apple through a sieve. It seems like it won't all go through, but trust me, it will. Just remember to scrape off the under side of the sieve every once in a while.
5. Follow the instructions on the packet of gelatine and then add to the apple puree.
6. Stir until the gelatine is fully combined and then pour into your mould. I didn't have a mould so I just used two glasses.
7. Pop in the fridge until the Jelly is stiff and enjoy!

Old School Rice Pudding

For Christmas, my mum gave me a really old cookery book called The Edinburgh Book of Plain Cookery Recipes which is an incredibly cool book published in 1932, and the official book for the Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic Economy, which is where her mum studied back in the day! This book contains recipes for literally everything you could ever need, from tea, to sponge cake to rabbit soup, and I've decided to give a few of these recipes a go.

As many of you may know, my search for the perfect rice pudding has been a long and arduous one, with varying degrees of success, so of course the first recipe I decided to try from this book was going to be rice pudding. It turns out that the recipe is not that different from the one my mum used to make my brother and me rice pudding when we were younger. It seems like a ludicrously long time to cook rice pudding for, and the skin on top can seem a tad off putting, but it's totally normal. I personally don't like the skin on top, but lots of people do, so eat it with your rice pudding if you want to, or push it to one side if you don't! Here is the recipe that I was working from:

Working from a very old recipe such as this one has it's difficulties, as I was beginning to realise. Firstly, I had no idea what Carolina rice was, and I didn't know what on earth a 'moderate oven' was. A bit of research told me that Carolina rice was simply a type of long grain rice, and that a moderate oven was approximately 180c. Also, as I don't like nutmeg, I decided to replace it with cinnamon.

Old School Rice Pudding (Serves 1-2)

Bare Necessities:
1 1/2ouces/45g/3tbsp Long Grain Rice
1pint/2cups/500ml Milk
1tbsp Sugar
1-2pinches Cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/350F/Gas Mark 4
2. Grease a dish.
3. Wash the rice, and put in the dish, along with the sugar and the cinnamon.
4. Pour in the milk and give it a little stir.
5. Pop in the oven for 2 hours.
6. Once cooked, serve up with a dollop of jam on top and enjoy!