Grandma Daisy knew to put fizz into ginger beer

Why? We invented the stuff centuries ago.

Ginger goes back to 500BC when it was used for medicine, and the Victorians used it to mask rotten food, with carbonated fizzy drinks following shortly after.

The ginger beer used in this recipe was passed to me from grandma Daisy Morrell’s handwritten recipe book, where she says at the bottom of the page, ‘’it’s lovely’’.

This refreshing ginger beer drink will be included in the Friends of Silsden Town Hall’s book of favourite recipes past and present, put together by locals from around the village to coincide with a Yorkshire baking demonstration I will be staging at the Town Hall on October 28.

Tickets can be bought from Twiggs newsagents and from the Friends webpage.

I remember the constant mentions of ginger beer when I was growing up, by the characters in the popular children’s books of the day, like Just William and Enid Blyton’s Famous Five who seemed to exist on ginger beer.

Homemade-style ginger beer was always brewed throughout the school holidays, and we tended to have twice as much of the essential ginger nectar as we started off, resulting in the inevitable non-stop drone of kids on our avenue queuing up with jam jars full of brown sludge.

People of a certain age will remember fondly the profitable pastime of taking empty pop bottles back to the shop to collect cash refunds.

It was also a rich source of income for us kids, keen to boost our pocket money, and we cashed in on rich folks’ bins - this system encouraged green habits long before recycling became a buzzword.

Fizzy beverages came in large screw-top glass bottles containing such delights like Dandelion and Burdock, American Cream Soda, Iron Brew and Tizer, and not forgetting the new new kid on the block, the ever-popular Jubbly orange drink in its strange Tetrahedron waxed cardboard carton costing double if bought frozen.

Lovely Jubbly, think I’ve heard that catchphrase before somewhere? 

Ginger beer is a magical thing: the name itself is a bit deceiving, as it’s really isn’t beer, but ours always had a kick to it.

Ginger beer is great to bake scones with, being light and fluffy due to the fizz, and it gives the scones a terrific gravitational lift which we all look for in life!  

Grandma Daisy’s lovely ginger beer recipe 

Ingredients

12 pints boiling water 

1.5 lbs sugar 

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons cream of tartar 

1/4 oz yeast 

3 sliced lemons

Method 

Pour the boiling water into a large bowl and add the other ingredients. Let it work for 12 hours, then bottle. 

Ginger beer scones - makes 12   

Ingredients

350g/12oz strong bread or plain flour, sifted 

Pinch salt 

3 teaspoons baking powder 

1 teaspoon ground ginger 

60g/3oz caster sugar 

1 egg, beaten

125ml/4fl oz small pot of double cream 

125ml /4fl oz of Mrs Morrell’s sparkling ginger beer - or shop bought, but not diet 

100g/4oz stem ginger or crystallised pieces 

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 220c/Gas Mark 7 then lightly grease two baking trays. 

2. In a large mixing bowl, sift over the flour, salt, baking powder, ground ginger and caster sugar,and stir in the steam ginger. 

3. In a jug, pour in the double cream, ginger beer and egg, giving it a little stir. 

4. Pour the creamy ginger mixture into the bowl and combine all with a wooden spoon until it all comes together and is picked up from the bottom of the bowl. 

5. Flour a work surface and scrap out the contents of the bowl on to it, then lightly knead until the mixture comes together. 

6. Lightly flour the top of the dough, and with your rolling pin click save roll out to a thickness one inch.

7. Stamp out your scones using a scone cutter, reworking the scrap dough, then place your scones onto the baking trays allowing a little room between them.

8. Light brush the tops of your scones with egg or milk and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown on top and well-risen. 

9. Transfer onto a cooling wire and serve split with butter, double cream or ginger jam, dusting the tops with icing sugar.