Three Chimneys: Ham & Haddock Souffle

I made a soufflé. And it rose. Is there anything else I need to say?
I'm very pleased with this. Of course I was worried about making it - after all, soufflés have the reputation for being difficult things, tricky to get right, and liable to end up as pancakes if you get them wrong. But I had to have a go, and I'm glad I did.
After it had turned out, I went and read what McGee (On Food & Cooking) has to say about them. To quote:
"If you manage to get any air into the mix, an inexorable law of nature will raise it in the oven..."
So, no need to be worried about it rising then. Basic physics means it will (when air gets hotter, it takes up more space, so the air bubbles in the soufflé mix will expand and make it rise). Apparently this means they're a lot easier and more resilient than their reputation. Soufflé fallen a bit? Put it back in the oven!
Anyway, I'm sure it's not all quite that easy - it must still be possible for it to go wrong, or they wouldn't have that reputation, would they? However, this one turned out well, and I'll probably try at least one variation in future.

Three Chimneys: Whisky and Lemon Syllabub

I've never made syllabub. My mum makes it at Christmas, and I usually have at least part of one (no matter what other desserts there are). She makes the more classic (I think) one, using sweet white wine. So I was looking forward to trying this.
It's actually a pretty simple thing to make: another whisk-it-all-together dish. What I wasn't expecting was how quickly things would happen. Double cream (not the thick.extra thick stuff, which you wouldn't use for this) starts out fairly runny. But as soon as I added the whisky and lemon juice, it started to thicken. I didn't even have to use my whisk for this - it came together quite nicely just whipping with a fork.
So, how was it? I wouldn't want to eat a large amount of this on its own. But very nice combined with the strawberries, and I can see it coming out again.

Three Chimneys: Shortbread

I've actually made this recipe before. When I first bought the book, I wanted to try out one of the recipes. In need of some biscuits for the week, this is the one I chose. At the time , I didn't have the rice flour the recipe uses, so I used all plain flour (actually, type OO plain flour). They came out fine.
This time, I did have rice flour - although it was brown rice flour, not the white specified in the recipe. The butter was Graham's Gold - and the butter isn't just Gold in name. As the two main ingredients in the shortbread are the flour and the butter, I figured it was worth using a really good butter.
So how did they turn out this time? Well, I don't know if it was because the kitchen was warmer, or the butter was fattier, but I had more trouble with the dough. This time I had to chill it before I could roll it out and cut it cleanly. I slightly overfired the first tray. But the rest came out very well - light, crumbly, slightly flaky inside. Having had two successes with this, I think I might need to start experimenting with additions.

Three Chimneys: Summer Fruit Jam

Well, actually not-quite-Three Chimneys Summer Fruit Jam. Why? The recipe actually uses a combination of five fruits: strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants. Unfortunately, I could only get four of them. The fruit farm we went to hadn't had a very good season for gooseberries, and there were none left. We did manage to pick redcurrants and blackcurrants, and got some ready picked raspberries and strawberries. So I made up the missing gooseberry portion using the other four fruits in about the same proportion.
The one thing I was most worried about here was whether the jam would set. I know the principle of testing it - put a plate in the fridge so that it gets cold, then after the jam has been boiled for the right amount of time (this recipe said 15 minutes), drop a teaspoonful onto the plate. Allow it to cool for a bit, then push it with your finger. If it wrinkles, it's ready. So I tried. After 15 minutes, no wrinkle. Boil another few minutes, test again. Is that a wrinkle? Not sure, boil a bit longer. After a total of 25 or 30 minutes, I thought it was sort of wrinkling, and was worried about over-boiling it, so decided that was it ready to go into the jars.
So how did it turn out? I'd say not bad for my first attempt. Out of the 1kg total of fruit I made 6 small jars of jam. One of those is nearly finished, one is earmarked to go to my dad, leaving four to last until I can do it again. Next time with gooseberries.

Three Chimneys: Gooseberry Meringue Tart

Think lemon meringue pie, but green. Crumbly pastry underneath, thinly golden crised meringue on top, soft gooseberry curd mixing into just cooked meringue in the middle.
This was the second attempt at making and using a sweet shortcrust pastry, and while it worked out, I'm still not that happy with it. More practice needed, I think. It's a shame gooseberries have such a short season.