Best-selling food writer Sophie Hansen and her artist and art teacher mum Annie Herron have teamed up in a new book called Around the Kitchen Table: Good things to cook, create and do – the whole year through. In this book, you’ll find recipes to cook, preserves to make, things to sketch, crafts for the not-crafty – and more.
Today, we’re featuring Sophie and Annie’s recipe for that classic biscuit, the honey jumble, as well as a short Q&A with Sophie. Happy cooking!
Honey jumbles
Prep time: 20 mins, plus 1 hour chilling
Cook time: 15 mins
Makes: about 12
The stuff of childhood nostalgia, these honey jumbles are such a favourite in my house. And they’re a simple melt-and-mix recipe, so are a good opportunity to get the kids involved in baking. I’ve topped these with orange-flavoured icing, but you could stay with the classic option and do half pink and half white (in which case, just omit the orange juice and zest and use a little lemon juice for the white icing and a tiny drop of pink food colouring for the pink).
Ingredients
¼ cup (65 g) unsalted butter
½ cup (175 g) honey
¼ cup (45 g) brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1½ cups (225 g) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
A pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
A pinch of ground cloves
1 tbsp milk
Orange icing
1 egg white
1½ cups (185 g) icing (confectioners’) sugar
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange (see Note)
Method
Combine the butter, honey, brown sugar and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for a few minutes or until the mixture has melted into a thick caramel. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Pour in the butter mixture and milk and stir until well combined. Cover the dough and pop it into the fridge to chill for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line two baking trays with baking paper.
Divide the dough into four pieces. Roll out one piece into a 15 cm (6 inch) long sausage on a lightly floured surface. Cut the sausage into three pieces and flatten each into an oval shape. Place on the tray, leaving room for spreading. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Bake the biscuits for 8–10 minutes or until they have puffed up a little and are dry to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
For the icing, whisk the egg white in a small bowl until foamy. Sift in the icing sugar, then add the orange zest and juice, a little at a time, and whisk until the mixture is smooth and thick.
Spoon about 1 teaspoon of icing onto each biscuit and gently spread to cover. Store the biscuits in an airtight container for up to a week.
Note: If available, use a blood orange to make the icing – it will add colour and some extra tang.
Sophie Hansen
A Q&A with Sophie Hansen!
Please tell us about your latest book!
Around the Kitchen Table is a celebration of doing things, of cooking, drawing, painting, chopping, and sharing good food and creativity. Co-written by my mother, artist Annie Herron and myself, it’s what we love most – art, food, colour, creativity all in one book.
What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
That you can do something creative and nourishing for yourself and your family every day without much fuss! These recipes, drawing prompts and creative ideas are all easy to embark upon with minimal equipment and don’t take all day so we just hope it gets people excited about making, doing and creating good things on the daily!
What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a food writer?
M. F. K. Fisher’s The Art of Eating.
Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat.
Ron Sexsmoth’s song, ‘Gold in Them Hills’.
Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?
Well in the food writing world I particularly admire Ella Risbridger, a UK-based food writer who manages to infuse every recipe headnote with words of such beauty and hope they often leave me in floods. I will also love Nigel Slater for ever and ever, the way he eats and lives and writes about it really resonate with me.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Start a blog, newsletter or just a journal and create daily. I saw this quote by Sahil Lavingia on Twitter recently; ‘lower the stakes to increase the odds’. I love that. I started my blog in 2011 and over the years have given it so much time and love but it has paid that back many times over.
Thanks Sophie!
—Around the Kitchen Table: Good things to cook, create and do – the whole year through by Sophie Hansen and Annie Herron (Murdoch Books) is out now.
Around the Kitchen Table
Good things to cook, create and do - the whole year through
Around The Kitchen Table is an invitation to pause our busy lives - even for half an hour - and cook, create or make something good every day.
Written by food writer Sophie Hansen and her mum, art teacher Annie Herron, it celebrates the joy and sense of satisfaction that comes with preparing a simple meal to share, pencilling a sketch or making a jar of jam to give as a gift. Organised into seasons, each chapter is packed with...
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