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Bookswithtea
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I'm baking for my mother this year. She was raised in England and moved to the US when she married my dad, a sailor. What I usually do is make several different quickbreads and freeze them and wrap them in festive foil. I want to add traditional English gingerbread (the dark, spicey kind) to the gift, but I have no idea if this can be frozen. Also, the recipe I have (Mrs. Beeton's) calls for dark treacle. I can't find it anywhere and I think its too late for mail order. If I use molasses, will it still taste like home to her?
If you have a wonderful recipe to share that can be frozen, I would be extremely grateful. After reading Aussieannie's inspiring Stir Up Sunday blog, next year I am substituting one of the breads for a real Christmas bread that is soaked.  But I think its too late for that too, right?
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Carole N.
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I am no expert (being an expat for a little over a year), but I have been told that dark treacle and molasses are the same. We have a jar of it and have opened and tasted it (we want to make MaryM's Ginger Bends ... )and it seems to be very simular. I do not know if you can freeze this or not. Cookies never last that long in my home!
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Kathryn UK
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This is from my standby recipe book 1000 Freezer Recipes - no frills, no pictures, just recipes that work and are all given in both UK and US versions. I have never made it, but here is the old-fashioned gingerbread recipe in US measures (and yes, it uses molasses instead of black treacle):
Ingredients
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1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup molasses
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
6 tablespoons milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Method
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Grease an 8 inch square cake tin and line with greased greaseproof paper or non-stick parchment.
Put the butter, molasses, syrup and sugar in a pan and heat gently until melted, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly, then stir in the milk and eggs.
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, make a well in the centre and gradually pour in the melted mixture, beating constantly until smooth.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake in a preheated moderate oven (325 deg F) for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and remove the paper lining. Leave to cool completely.
To freeze: Wrap in cling film (saran wrap?), then pack in a freezer bag. Seal, label and freeze.
To thaw and serve: Remove wrappings and place on a serving platter. Thaw at room temperature for 4 hours.
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Bookswithtea
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Kathryn, thank you so much! This is perfect. 
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Katie
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Books,
Black treacle is basically blackstrap molasses, so if you can find that it will be better than regular molasses for your recipe.
HTH!
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Katie
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And you could still do a Christmas pud. She doesn't have to eat it right away - she can save it and steam it up when she's ready.
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Bookswithtea
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Katie wrote:
| And you could still do a Christmas pud. She doesn't have to eat it right away - she can save it and steam it up when she's ready. |
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Really? I thought it had to be done a month before?
Thanks for the tip on blackstrap. I am pretty sure I can find that locally.
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Katie
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Books,
It's better if it sits longer, but my parents always make at least 2 - one for Christmas, and one for some other time in the New Year when they feel like it! She wouldn't have to eat it right away. The problem would be the suet, though. I don't think I would deal witht hat if I couldn't just buy a nice packet of Atora in the supermarket. Maybe you could find a pudding recipe without it? I'll have a quick look in my cookbooks.
Katie.
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Katie
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Here's a Mrs. Beeton one without suet. All my cookbooks had suet in the recipe.
Mrs. Beeton's Christmas Figgy Pudding
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Bookswithtea
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Suet is lard, right? There's some not very natural lard available here in the states at the grocery stores. I might be able to acquire some old fashioned lardo from a friend who has hogs butchered??? But I don't have a clue if it would be the same thing???
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Carole N.
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I am not certain if you can do this with all recipes, but I have substituted suet for Crisco. I make a coffee cake every Christmas morning and last year I used Atora in place of Crisco. It turned out pretty well, but it was vegetable suet, not the lard that I have seen in the stores. So you may be able to substitute Crisco for the suet.
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stefoodie
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Suet is fat rendered from beef kidneys. Very hard to find in our area -- or perhaps because I try to get them from farmers who raise grass-fed, free range cows. I substitute butter and/or lard (fat rendered from pork) from pasture-raised pigs. Atora can be found here in the British section of specialty stores. Yes, Crisco will work too (esp. okay now since they offer fully hydrogenated stuff as opposed to the partially hydrogenated)
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Katie
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Suet gives things a very particular texture; not sure if lard would do the trick, although it sounds like folks have substituted with edible results!
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Bookswithtea
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stefoodie wrote:
Suet is fat rendered from beef kidneys. Very hard to find in our area -- or perhaps because I try to get them from farmers who raise grass-fed, free range cows. I substitute butter and/or lard (fat rendered from pork) from pasture-raised pigs. Atora can be found here in the British section of specialty stores. Yes, Crisco will work too (esp. okay now since they offer fully hydrogenated stuff as opposed to the partially hydrogenated)
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Well, that goes to show how little I know about Suet. I had no idea it was beef fat. 
Someone tell me what Atora is, please?
And I didn't know you could buy fully hydrogenated crisco??? I'm not a big fan of Crisco, but I'm more than a bit stumped now as to what is available to me that would produce the best result.
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Carole N.
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Atora is suet. And I just bought some today that is ... shredded vegetable suet! I cannot find Crisco here except through mail order (I just received a 3-pound can). In most of my American recipes, I substitute butter or suet, but some of them, you just have to have Crisco (like pie crust).
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Katie
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Carole,
For piecrust, it's traditional to use a butter/lard mixture. Those Brits have managed the odd piecrust or two without Crisco, you know!!!! 
Books,
Atora is a brand of suet found neatly packaged in the dry goods section of a supermarket. It looks like largish grains of rice and makes using suet very easy - no nasty visits to the butcher. It really bears no resemblance to suet in its original form! Love that stuff. They do make vegetable suet so vegetarians can have their steak and kidney pudding and eat it, too! It works pretty well.
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Bookswithtea
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I will check the British specialty stores to see if I can find Atora, I guess. This has been really helpful to me, ladies. Thank you.
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Carole N.
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Katie, I have had some of those pie crusts. In fact, I had the most absolutely fabulous apple pie (made with Bramley apples) at a traditional English dinner given by a friend. We have discussed the ins and outs of pie crusts since then, but when you have been doing it one way for so many years ...
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Katie
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Just giving you a hard time, Carole! Couldn't resist, you know. Merry Christmas!
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Carole N.
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Merry Christmas to you as well (and I think that I got that part, but I just had to let you know)!
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Topic: UK moms please advise??
