Ask the AGA Cookery Doctor

Answer: Dear Joan
Caster sugar is called superfine in America, I don't know if you are familiar with that term.  It is the same substance as granulated sugar, but much finer, similar to fine table salt.  With each grain being smaller the surface area of the called for quantity of sugar is considerably greater.  The benefit in cooking is that it will therefore dissolve more quickly in a liquid than granulated sugar.  Also, where granulated sugar would show spot marks when used in a sponge cake, caster sugar avoids this problem.  Note that caster sugar is not as fine as icing or confectioners' sugar which is used to make icings, and is a dust-like fine sugar powder.  Note that in older British cookery books caster sugar is sometimes spelled castor sugar; it is the same ingredient.
Some high-performance blender and the Bamix wand blender are able (using the Bamix food mill) to process down granulated sugar into firstly caster sugar and then, if you continue processing, turn it into icing sugar.

Griottine cherries are a type of dried cherry, that are usually soaked in a spirit or liqueur to plump them up before they are used in a recipe.  They are available from specialist retailers, including some online, you can substitute dried cherries or cranberries if you find those easier to source.
I hope that helps.

Answer: Dear Iona
To re-heat your Christmas pudding on Christmas Day you don’t need to re-steam it in the conventional way. Simply wrap the china, plastic or foil pudding basin in several layers of foil and place in the Simmering Oven all morning, next to the turkey if necessary. Over several hours it will slowly heat through ready for serving piping hot at the end of your meal. Custard and brandy sauce may be made towards the end of the morning and kept hot until wanted, covered, in the Warming or Simmering Ovens.

Answer: Dear Anne, When drying chilli peppers you will get the best results drying them slowly hung on a securely fixed string stretched above the Aga so that they enjoy a constant gentle warmth. The coolest oven on your model can be used for some fruit and vegetables, but generally "longer at a lower temperature" is the general maxim to obtain the best results.
I hope that helps.

Answer: Dear Mr James
  Thank you for your enquiry.
Point your browser to www.agaseason.co.uk and click on the Christmas Recipes tab near the top right hand corner.
Select "A Guide to Christmas Cooking" and a window will open up with my complete guide to how to slow roast a turkey in your two-oven Aga - it is a printable .PDF document.
Incidentally, if you have a friend with a Rayburn, a similar document (only written in Rayburn-speak) is similarly available from the Rayburn-web website, www.rayburn-web.co.uk.
As well as the free Aga recipes contained in the above booklet, this year there is also a selection of recipes and video clips featuring one of our Aga demonstrators, James McIntosh, that you can watch online, the link is near the link to the above cooking guide.  You might also be interested to know that there are further Christmas Aga Cooking Tips, found in my Christmas Aga Tips book.  It is the sixth in the series and has 50 useful tips for the Aga owner at Christmas.  Available from Aga Specialists and online at www.agacookshop.co.uk.

Answer: Dear Karen
  There is an Aga utensil that will do this for you, and one of the reasons it is in the range is for exactly this kind of project.

The Aga 9.0 litre stainless steel stockpot is tall with a lid with the usual Aga recessed knob, so that it will fit in the height of the Simmering Oven.  And at 24cm in diameter, two will fit in, one behind the other, with 2 cm to spare.  Using two of these pans you can cook four 1½ or 2 pint puddings.  In each pan you have one pudding sitting on a trivet. Onto this place a circular wire cake cooling rack and then sit the second pudding on top of this.  In this way the lower pudding is strictly being boiled, and the upper pudding is classically steamed; the end result will be the same.

Pour boiling water in to come half-way up the base of the lower pudding.  Bring back to the boil on the Boiling Plate and then cover and move to the Simmering Plate and partially offset the pans here so that they slow boil for 30 minutes.  Then very carefully transfer the pans to sit on the floor of the Simmering Oven to cook for 12 hours or overnight.  No topping up will be required.

Don't forget, once you have mixed you pudding mixture, it will happily sit in its bowl covered in a cool place until you are able to make second and third night steamings until all your puddings are made.

Note:  If you were to use an old Aga aluminium preserving pan, add half a squeezed lemon of half a cup of vinegar to the water to prevent discoloration of the pan.

Answer: Dear Nuala, Here are some pointers that should help improve things:

1. Make sure you use STRONG flour especially ground for baking bread.

2. For speed and ease, I suggest if you are not already using it, use a sachet of all-in-one "instant" yeast (Allinsons and the main supermarket chains do their own versions). Inspection of the packet reveals a magic ingredient - ascorbic acid (Vitamin C powder) which causes the yeast to have a whoopee party in your bread far faster than normal, giving an excellent rise. Check it is in date...

3. Some salt is needed or your bread will taste dire. Having said that, too much salt kills yeast, so measure accurately.

4. If your recipe doesn`t include any fat or oil, add an ounce or 25g as this gives slightly better elasticity and also drastically improves the keeping qualities.

5. Use hand-hot water (50:50 cold from a run tap and from a boiled kettle if you're in doubt).

6. Warm the flour in the bowl on top of the Aga for half an hour before you start to mix the dough.

7. The best way to describe dough that is the correct texture is, "silky" - neither too dry or too sticky.

8. A decent knead is essential. After human elbow grease, if you have one, a KitchenAid or Kenwood mixer with dough hook are both brilliant. If making a smaller amount and you don`t have one, but are the owner of a Magimix, check for the maximum size it will cope with, and use the plastic blade for the time given. If you are a fan of the "Doris Grant" loaf, a school of thought that dispenses with proper kneading, try a conventional recipe.

9. An initial proving and then knocking down and giving a second short knead before shaping into loaves or rolls before a final prove is worth the effort.

10. Prove on a surface next to the Aga, covered with oiled clingfilm each time. Avoid unnecessary draughts in the kitchen but don`t become paranoid!

11. If trying to make wholemeal bread a 50:50 mix of wholemeal and white makes a much easier to eat bread. Home-made 100% wholemeal is very close-textured and rather heavy going. I like 1/3 wholemeal to 1/3 mixed grain flour to 1/3 white for a change, by the way.

12. Bread likes a hot oven and an Aga top oven is the finest domestic oven in the world for baking bread. Best to use it for bread when it is at its hottest when you haven`t been baking other things, so I suggest you roll up your sleeves after breakfast and bake in the morning until you`ve got it cracked.

13. For a two oven Aga bake loaves on the grid shelf on the floor of the top oven.

14. Throw in an ice cube before you shut the door. It will melt on the hot oven floor and create a steamy environment which is ideal for that perfect crust.

15. I`m sure you know that to test for whether the bread is cooked you remove from the tins and tap the bases to see if they sound hollow. If you feel they need it, pop back in the oven, upside down, balanced in their tins for a couple of minutes. I hardly ever need to do this with an Aga, but it is worth mentioning.

16. Now an important bit which I hope will improve matters: after the loaves have cooled for a couple of minutes on a wire tray, wrap tightly in a clean tea towel to finish off cooling. It is at this point I think your bread may be drying out and developing the over-hard crust. I even wrap up loaves not for immediate use in cling film and freeze as soon as they are down to blood heat. This keeps the crust nice and soft. The fat or oil should also go a long way to improve matters.

Answer: Dear Anne

The recipe in Mary Berry`s Aga book works very well and can be prepared ahead of time, it will happily keep in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Cook as instructed, on the grid shelf on the floor of the roasting oven for 25-30 minutes until a pale golden brown. Then leave in the tin to rest for 10-15 mins on a cloth on top of the simmering plate lid before transferring to a warm serving platter and carving. I usually cook this as my guests arrive whilst serving drinks and canapes and when cooked to perfection leave to rest in this way while we eat the first course. I would not recommend hot-holding in the simmering or warming ovens as the meat will be likely to over cook and become an unattractive grey colour - a waste of good fillet. I would however make gravy ahead of time and keep that in the simmering oven, transferring to a gravy boat which has been warming on the top plate at the last minute. This means the handle of the gravy boat is cool enough to hold but the contents are piping hot.

Answer: Dear Helen,
The Aga is brilliant for making all kinds of jams and preserves. A big old-fashioned pan can be used, providing it has a base which is (i) good and thick, i.e. 1/4 inch (6mm), and (ii) perfectly flat. Place a pan on the Simmering Plate and check to see if it makes perfect contact. If it rocks at all then it is not suitable. The Aga stainless steel stockpot/preserving pan and maslin pan are both classic designs which work brilliantly.

The Aga Boiling Plate is kept at a really high temperature and has a huge reserve of heat which is just what you want to bring jam to a good rolling boil ready for testing for a set. Another alternative would be to use the Aga Cake Baker as that again is a brilliant utensil for fast boiling preserves. When I was growing up I remember my family made what seemed like industrial quantities of jam each year. I think the record was 56 lbs of damson jam in the heat- wave of 1976. These days most of us make much more modest quantities, and I would recommend you make small batches no larger than 8 lb (4kg) yields. For some recipes fruit can be poached until it is tender in the Simmering Oven - this also works brilliantly for marmalade. Warm the sugar before adding as it helps it to dissolve quickly (use the Simmering or Warming ovens or flash in the Roasting Oven in a shallow layer in a roasting tin on the lowest set of runners for 3-4 minutes, but watch it isn`t over-heated). Always add the sugar with the pan on the Simmering Plate; when it has been stirred and every last grain of sugar has dissolved, transfer to the Boiling Plate which then has it's full reserve of heat waiting to bring everything rapidly to the boil.

Jam jars can be easily sterilised in the Aga Simmering Oven ready for potting.

Here is Mary Berry's delicious Strawberry and Raspberry Jam recipe from The Aga Book to get you started:

Strawberry or Raspberry Jam

Strawberries are particularly low in pectin and acid so a sugar such as jam or preserving sugar containing these is a boon for quick reliable results.

Makes 7 lb (3.5kg)

3 1/2 lb (1.75kg) prepared strawberries/raspberries, equivalent to 4 lb (2kg) unprepared strawberries/raspberries
2 x 1kg bag of jam sugar
knob of butter

Check fruit, removing any over-ripe or bad strawberries. Place in a large pan. Crush with a potato masher or purée first in a processor. Add sugar, heat gently on the Simmering Plate, stirring continuously until sugar is dissolved. Transfer to the Boiling Plate to bring to a fast rolling boil, that will not stir down, for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the butter. Ladle into warm jars and screw down lids tightly as each jar is filled.