Simply sweet, and spicy

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 14

Simply sweet, and spicy

Alison Holst's

Food Facts

There are some very basic food mixtures which are so simple that they can hardly be called recipes. Some of these mixtures, however, are often excellent.. Here are three "ideas for flavoured sugars; Cinnamon sugar: Cinnamon sugar is very good sprinkled on hot ■ buttered toast. After being buttered and sprinkled, the toast can be put under a grill until it is bubbly, or it can be eaten straight away, without this' step’. . Cinnamon sugar is also good sprinkled on sauteed or baked apples or. bananas, oh . strewed fruit, on the tops of coffee cakes or fruit topped doughs which will not be iced. Try it too, on whipped cream, yoghurt or junket. To make it, mix 1 tablespoon of cinnamon with Vz cup of plain or castor sugar. If you have a blender or food processor, mix the two ingrederits using this machine. Store cinnamon sugar in a spice jar with a shaker top. Orange ; or lemon sugar: Sugar flavoured with citrus fruit skin is good for use in plain cakes or biscuits, or in custards and sweet sauces.

Some people like to use it to sweeten black tea. Only the coloured part of the rind should be used. You can flavour the sugar by several methods. (a) Add thinly peeled citrus fruit rind to a jar partly full of plain or castor sugar. Shake sugar around peel, every time more peel is added. Remove peel after a few weeks. Use a new potato peeler to peel rind efficiently and thinly. (Old potato peelers tend to cut thickly). This method gives a mild flavour. (b) Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of grated rind to every cup of sugar. Mix well. : (c) Put the thinly peeled rind from an orange or lemon in a food processor with 1 cup sugar. Process with the metal blade until finely chopped. Let mixture dry in a warm oven before storing it. Vanilla sugar: pu t a vanilla pod in a jar with castor' sugar. Replace the sugar as necessary. When the bean gets older, cut it in sections, cut it lengthwise, or crush it slightly. A vanilla bean will not keep flavouring sugar forever. As it nears the fend iof ;its useful life, add a piece with sugar f to the sauce, custard, etc. Wash and dry it after use and replace in sugar if you think it has been rejuvenated.