This is the story behind a new feature on my blog called Granny’s Baking Tin.
When my granny passed away in 2018 she didn’t leave behind a wealth of riches in the usual sense. She had lived frugally all her life and never had a huge of money to spend on “things’. So there were no hidden treasures or designer hand bags. No heirlooms that would be worthy of a trip to the nearest antique shop. But to us as a family all of her possessions were priceless. They were a link to our matriarch who had passed away just after celebrating her 90th birthday. She was the head of four generations and we still mourn her loss now.
As we began to slowly clear away her possessions and prepare to sell the property she had called home for ten years I said that the only things I would really like to keep were her hand written recipes and some of her enamel baking tins. I had remembered years before my granny showing me that one of the recipe books in her collection was actually her mother’s and so when she passed away that was the one thing I really wanted to save.
My granny, Paula, though known to all of us as GG, had been an incredible cook. What would have been called a “good home cook”, she always made sure birthdays were celebrated with chocolate cakes, buffets were amply catered and nothing was ever wasted if it could be put in a sandwich bag and frozen. It was a family joke that the end of a French stick would never be discarded but instead put in the freezer for some event in the distant future where it might be useful. In reality all that happened was it would fall out of the freezer and hit somebody on the head or food. Do you have any idea how concrete like a frozen end of French Stick really is? Every member of my family will be able to describe it in painful detail for you.
She was from the generation that remembered the war vividly and had to feed the family during rationing so it is no wonder that the mentality of being able to make a meal out of simple ingredients and wasting nothing was still alive and well decades later.
Over the past few years I have used my granny’s baking tin on a weekly basis, everything from lasagne to enchiladas to brownies. I haven’t yet delved into all her recipes but that is certainly part of my grand plan. A grand plan that also includes sharing the recipes I make and bake in Granny’s Baking Tin, all of which I plan to share on here. I can’t look in the fridge, see four ingredients and come up with an idea for a meal like she could but I can follow a recipe.
It seems strange that GG’s recipes or recipes made in her baking tin might be shared around the world but I am sure she would be tickled pink to think there is a small part of her that lives on. And the fact it revolves around food would make her happier still.
I do hope you like them, you can find links to them below: