I love creating recipes from pure, old fashioned ingredients. I take inspiration from my vast collection of very old cookery books and manuscripts. Gingerbread was our first product, but we now also have a range of different biscuits (all naturally gluten free). Our newest product, Horsham Gingerbread Gin Liqueur, is handmade in a small distillery in East Sussex, using our gluten free gingerbread. This is an exciting departure from our range of baked products, and we are confident that it will prove popular this Christmas.
I wanted to make Horsham famous for its gingerbread again. The town used to be renowned for its gingerbread, and had quite a number of gingerbread makers, but sadly, the last gingerbread maker died during WW1, and the production of this delicious treat ceased.
Always use butter! The quality of black treacle and muscovado sugar varies hugely. You can really taste the difference in the depth of flavour between cheap ones and the high quality, branded ones, which are always more expensive, but worth paying the extra money for. Brown sugar does not have the same flavour as muscovado sugar, so always choose muscovado.
My daughters and I always visit the Watts café and shop during the Christmas period, as it is always so festive, and the shop has many lovely gifts to choose from. We love being part of this with our own products..
When you buy from small local producers you will be supporting more than one local business because we, in turn, use other local businesses. For example, as well as using local ingredients and local packaging suppliers, we use a local insurance broker, a local van repair business, local pest control etc etc. One small business will be using the services of numerous other small businesses.