Belvoir fruit Farms have enlisted the skills of Chef Valentine Warner, to bring you some wonderful Elderflower recipes, celebrating the six week Elderflower harvest,

Known for his love of seasonal ingredients and in particular his ability to forage for them, Valentine Warner has created three fantastic Elderflower recipes to capture the taste of summer and to raise the profile of this quintessentially British plant that has so much to offer.

The elder is a hedgerow shrub which occurs naturally all over Britain. However, as the hedgerows themselves are in decline so naturally occurring elders are in decline too.

To help raise awareness of the plight of the British hedgerow and wild flower meadows, Belvoir fruit Farms have forged a partnership with Plantlife, the charity that works to protect Britain’s wild plants and to improve understanding of the vital role they play in everyone’s lives.

Belvoir has committed to donating 10p to Plantlife for every person who signs up to the Belvoir newsletter.

Valentine has devised two truly delicious recipes featuring Elderflower cordial ; Elderflower & Gooseberry Jelly and Elderflower Cream Shortbread Tartlets – perfect for that other great British institution of afternoon tea.

True to his passion, Valentine has also provided a recipe for Elderflower cordial itself, using freshly picked Elderflowers.

A delicate summery desert

Whilst relatively easy to make, it does need to stand for 24 hours and requires a large quantity of fresh Elderflowers. These can be great fun to pick but with only a short six week harvesting window – you have to be quick!

Elderflower Cream Shortbread Tartlets recipe

Here are some perfumed little tartlets perfect for the great English summer tradition of a little outside afternoon tea.
Serves 6

Pastry
100g plain flour
50g semolina flour
100g salted butter
50g caster sugar
zested rind of the lemon
1 egg beaten
Pinch of salt

For the cream filling
125ml Belvoir elderflower cordial
300ml full fat double cream (not long life)
30g white castor sugar
Freshly squeezed juice of one medium lemon
You will need 1 x 6 hole muffin silicone mould

1.       In a large bowl combine the flours, sugars and salt with the lemon zest. Grate in the fridge cold butter
2.       Work everything together thoroughly with a wooden spoon until it forms loose dough then turn it out onto the work surface & briefly knead it into one block with your hands.
3.       Remember that the longer you work the dough, the warmth of your hands will make it overly sticky
4.       Divide the pastry into 6 parts & press it into each mould right up to edge, the pastry about the thickness of a one pound coin. Neaten up the open edges with a knife or if you like a more rustic looking tart then leave as is.
5.       Allow the chill in the fridge for one hour and preheat the oven to 150c
6.       Line each tartlet case with a scrumpled piece of baking parchment filled with ceramic beans or whatever you see fit for weighting down the pastry
7.       Bake the tarts for approx 30 minutes or until their top edges, are richly golden brown
8.       Remove them from the oven taking out the papers & beans. Lightly but carefully paint the inside of each tart case with beaten egg before returning them to the oven without the paper & beans. Cook them for a further 5 minutes or so until the bases are deep golden as well.  Allow the tart cases to cool
9.       In a non stick saucepan mix the double cream with the cordial & caster sugar, bring it up to a very brief but gentle boil and then simmer for 2 minutes (please do take care that it doesn’t split). Whisk in the lemon juice (it is the lemon juice that will set the boiled cream) and immediately turn off the heat
10.   Allow the mixture to cool for approximately10 minutes before pouring in to the 6 tart cases
11.   Place the tartlets in the fridge for 4 hours or  until the cream mixture has set
12.   When serving your elderflower tartlets dust the tops of each with icing sugar & accompany with fine tea, preferably outside

Cook’s Tips
If semolina flour for the pastry proves difficult to find, simply replace the 50g with plain flour so that you use 150g of plain flour instead.  In addition, if making your own pastry leaves you cold an alternative serving suggestion is simply to spoon the cream filling into ramekin dishes and sprinkle shortbread biscuits on top.  Delicious!

Other Elderflower Recipes

Elderflower Cordial

Elderflower and Gooseberry Jelly

More information

Belvoir supports the British Hedgerow

Pancakes are the ideal comfort food for the cold winter nights and are not really hard to make.

Pancake cooking in the frying pan

Creating a pancake batter involves eggs, milk and plain flour.

It is the same basic batter you would use for making Yorkshire puddings.

You do not need to buy shop made pancakes, or Yorkshire puddings as they really are easy.

Just have the confidence to try and have fun making them. We did…

How to…

To make a stack (around 10-15) of pancakes you will need…

Making the batter

Put the flour into a bowl. Create a well, a deep indentation,  in the middle of the flour in which you are going to put the wet ingredients.

Always crack an egg into a glass before adding to mixture

Pour the milk into the well.

Add the pinch of salt and any other flavours to suit. A pinch of cinnamon or other spice is great for that different taste.

Crack the eggs into the glass, one at a time. Then checking they are ok,  put them also into the flour well.

TOP TIP – cracking eggs into a glass before putting them into a mixture, ensures that you don’t ruin your mixture if you happen to get a bad egg. You will know if they are off – they will stink.  It also gives you the chance to remove any shell.

Starting from where the liquid meets the flour slowly work the two together using the whisk or blender.

This is to ensure that lumps don’t form.

Mix with a whisk to fill mixture with air

Once the batter has formed and all the flour is mixed in,  continue to whisk until you get a yellow bubbly solution similar in consistency to single cream.

Not too thin or thick but so it falls from the whisk easily. Custard from a can is too thick, milk is too thin.

Depending on the eggs you may find that you need to add a little bit more liquid or flour to get this consistency. If adding flour add very gently and through a sieve to avoid lumps forming as you mix it in.

Cooking

Place your frying pan on a hot stove and wipe the pan with some olive oil or butter.  This is to stop the pancake from sticking. A wipe around is all you need.

The pancake should not float in the oil.

TOP TIP  - We find that if you use a piece of paper kitchen towel to spread the oil or butter this gives good coverage around the pan.

Pancake cooking in the frying pan

Using the ladle pour in some of the batter into the middle of the pan. Lift the pan slightly to swirl the mixture around.

If the pan is hot enough you should see the batter start to cook instantly.

Using the wooden spatula it should start to lift from the side and bottom of the pan.

After around one minute to 90 seconds  you should be able to look under the pancake to see if it is starting to turn golden .

Stack of fresh pancakes

TOP TIP  - for some reason the first one or two pancakes just do not seem to work.  By the third usually all is well.

It is now time to turn the pancake over to cook the other side.

This bit can either be a disaster or a success.  You could use the spatula to lift the pancake over or you could try and flip it… Your choice…

Once cooked eat straight away or stack the pancakes as you cook them, on a heat proof plate and place in a warm oven for no more than 15 minutes or they will start to dry out.

Eating suggestions

Lemon quarters

The most common way to eat a pancake is with syrup and lemon juice or sugar and lemon.  However, we asked the Twitter community and our friends and family what they would have on theirs…

    Cooked Bacon and Maple Syrup (American)

Pancake history

Different countries have different pancakes. The recipe above is for the British pancake frequently made to celebrate Shrove Tuesday, or pancake Tuesday.

This is the day before Ash Wednesday which marks the start of Lent, a period of religious fasting for 40 days ahead of Easter in the Christian calendar.  The pancake was a way of using up flour, eggs and milk ahead of the fasting.

In America and Canada the pancake is used almost daily often as a supplement for bread. In the UK these pancakes are known as Scotch pancakes and contain a raising agent such as baking powder.

Further information

Here are a few websites we came across whilst researching and producing this article which are worth a mention.

Woodlands Junior School in Kent – All about Shrove Tuesday and the many names it has around the globe

Wikipedia – Pancakes

Pancakeology

Pancake recipes - a free source for recipes for pancakes.

BBC Food – pancake recipes

Pancake physics – the mathematical equation for the perfect pan.