The BRANDY SNAP Maker (a memoir)
This memory was brought back to me by a poem by @ericvancewalton, posted by @fairytalelife
If you read my post about my grandmother, you might remember that our house, my grandparents’ house and my aunt’s house were all within a few minutes walk of each other. Not only that, but I walked past my aunt’s house on the way to school. So I was well acquainted with the house next door to her.
It was a rather run down house, with a totally overgrown yard. So, of course, there were the usual things said about it in the schoolyard.
I don’t remember what I thought the first time Mum asked me to go there and collect some brandy snaps. But I do remember that the old lady who lived there was no witch, or ghost, or even grumpy. She was an artisan.
For any family gathering or special occasion, Mum would order a dozen or two brandy snaps, and I would be sent to collect them. Sometimes they wouldn’t be ready but I didn’t mind because I got to watch her work.
When the tray of brandy snaps was pulled out of the oven, they looked beautiful. Thin, golden and perfectly square. How she did that I never knew. When they were cool enough, they would be wrapped around the handle of her wooden spoon, and there would be the pile of perfect, crunchy, delicate cylinders.
Once I got home, the next job was to fill them with whipped cream. It was always a challenge to get the cream right to the middle of the snap, but that was important, because dry bits in the middle were just not the same. Knowing what I know now, a piping bag would have been ideal, but we didn’t have such things. It was the 1960s, and we had a fork handle.
The day that the snaps were filled, they were crisp, breaking into little chunks in your mouth. They tasted a bit like gingernuts, but without the difficulty in biting into them, and the gingery sweetness was perfectly offset by the cream.
I don’t know about where you live, but in New Zealand, gingernuts are very hard. Not a biscuit (cookie) you can just bite into. They have to be dunked into a cup of tea.
But I loved the leftovers the best. By the next day, the cream had softened them and each mouthful just dissolved in your mouth.
Modern brandy snaps are a big disappointment. You’d think that modern technology could come up with a way to produce better snaps, but no. They’re not square to start with, so when rolled up they’re not cylinders. And they’re not delicate filigree, they’re thick. But despite that, by the time you get the box home, half of them are broken.
An old woman with a wooden spoon beats your modern technology hands down.
If you’re now hankering for brandy snaps yourself, here’s a recipe from one of our best known New Zealand chefs, Annabel Langbein. You have the option of leaving them as biscuits, or using your wooden spoon and making cyclinders.
Thanks for reading
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Some of my previous posts:
THOUGHTS ABOUT LIFE: My Intro ~ Are there kiwis in the house? ~ Benefits of joining a community choir ~ My grandmother’s legacy ~ Steemit in downtown Wellington ~ Overcoming my fears ~ Observations from a bus
RECIPES AND KITCHEN TIPS: Choc Blackcurrant Smoothie ~ Paleo Cottage Pie ~ Feijoa Pear Smoothie ~ Grain free, dairy free Pumpkin & Cashew Bread ~ Tip for storing ginger & tumeric ~ Grain Free Banana Cashew muffins ~ Warming winter soup ~ Healthy Chocolate & Fudge ~ Jerky with vegetables ~ BREAKFAST ideas ~ For MORE RECIPES and my 15 step Whole Food cooking course, see my recipe website.
HEALTH AND NUTRITION: The wide variety of healthy diets out and what they have in common ~ The travels of Weston A Price and his discoveries about healthy diets ~ Good fats vs bad fats ~ DNA testing for better health & Fitness ~ DNA testing part 2: How Well Do I Digest Carbs? ~ DNA testing Part 3: I can’t eat Carbs & How to Manage that ~ About the Gut & Psychology syndrome (GAPS) diet Part 1 ~ GAPS diet Part 2: Foods we can’t have ~ GAPS diet Part 3: Foods we CAN have ~ GAPS diet Part 4: What if I can’t eat some animal foods ~ Salicylate intolerances ~ Thoughts about Breast Health ~ I’ve got a cold & how to handle it ~ Sleep like a kitten Part 1: 3 tips ~ Sleep Well Part 2: What’s your sleeping style? ~ Sleep Well Part 3: Resetting your body clock