Scones - Sweet or Savoury

I thought it was about time I contributed to this blog, so I've chosen something simple and versatile. Something my children enjoy making and eating!

Basic Plain Scone Recipe:
8oz Self Raising Flour
Pinch of Salt (optional)
2oz Butter
1oz Caster Sugar
150ml Milk

For a sweet variation, add 1oz Raisins/Dried Fruit (Glace Cherries work well)
For a savoury variation, omit the sugar and add 1oz Cheese or 1oz Walnuts.

Preheat oven to 220'C.

Mix together the sifted flour and salt and rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar if you're making the sweet variety.

Add your sweet/savoury ingredients (Dried Fruit/Cheese/Walnuts).

Add the milk and mix to form a dough - it's really important not to knead the dough like you would bread. Try to handle it as little as possible.

Turn out onto a floured surface and roll out to about 3cms thick. Cut out circular discs of about 6-7cms diameter.

Place on greased/floured baking tray and brush with egg or milk
Oven cook for 12 - 15 minutes.

To serve: Slice in half, add butter to the cheesy or walnut ones. Serve the sweet ones with whipped cream and strawberry jam.

Delicious!

Brownie-and-Tiffin Tipper Truck Birthday Cake

The cake:

The Brownies: 

This recipe is from Jamie Oliver's "Little Book of Big Treats"

250g unsalted butter

200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids, Green & Blacks type stuff)

80g cocoa powder

65g plain flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder

360g caster sugar

4 eggs

Optional: Jamie suggests 75g dried sour cherries and 50g chopped nuts. I used 50g of white chocolate (chopped into chunks) and 50g of walnut pieces, but I think it could have taken twice that amount of additions!

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degC. Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper. Jamie suggests a 25cm square tin. I didn't have one of those, and neither did Tesco, so I used what Tesco called a 31cm tin. It's rectangular and about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, and did the job perfectly.

In a large bowl over simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder, then stir in the sugar. Add this to the chocolate/butter mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency. I added the optional chocolate chunks and walnuts at this point (although Jamie says to add them to the melted chocolate), because I wanted half-and-half. I split the mixture in two and added chocolate chunks to one half and walnuts to the other, then...

Pour the brownie mix into the baking tray (half at one end and half at the other - they'll meet in the middle and some folk will get both), and place in the oven for around 25 minutes (I cooked mine for 30). Unlike cakes, a skewer shouldn't come out clean, because they need to be gooey in the middle. Once cooked, allow them to cool in the tray then transfer to a chopping board and cut into squares.

I baked these on Friday afternoon, cut them up and assembled the cake on Saturday, and they were still gooey and delicious on Monday evening, when we finished them up.

The Tiffin (Sookies):
Made following this recipe for sookies (last recipe in the post). I made double quantities with a few extra biscuits thrown in and this filled an A4 size baking tray. I then melted a bar and a half of dairy milk (large bar, and only because the posh chocolate went grainy rather than melting) and spread it over the top. The texture is more biscuity and crunchy than tiffin. These also lasted until Monday evening.

Oat and raisin cookies

This is adapted slightly from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "River Cottage Everyday". I've found that this is a good one for baking with the littlies, because, while it does involve melting butter in a pan, it doesn't involve any rubbing the butter in to flour and making breadcrumbs, which little S doesn't approve of at all.

125g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons of honey
100g caster sugar
75g light soft brown sugar (no, we don't always have several types of sugar, so go with what you have)
1 medium egg
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
50g jumbo oats
150g raisins
(or 100g of raisins and 75g chopped roasted hazelnuts)

Melt the butter with the honey in a small pan. Put the sugars in a mixing bowl, add the melted butter and beat well with a wooden spoon. Beat in the egg. Throw in the flour, cinnamon and baking powder (Hugh says 'sift') and stir in. Then stir in the oats and raisins. You should have a 'pretty sloppy sort of mixture'.

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment and drop dessertspoonfuls of the mixture on to it, leaving about 4cm between each blob. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 degC for 8-10 minitesm until they are turning pale golden brown. Remove and leave on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes to allow them to firm up, then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Lemon & Raisin Cookies

Ingredients:

150g / 5oz Dark brown sugar
150g / 5oz Margarine (dairy free if required)
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
150g / 5oz Self raising flour
1tsp Baking powder
75g / 3oz Porridge oats
75g / 3oz raisins (or other dried fruit)

Method:

- Pre heat oven to 180c /Gas 4
- Cream sugar and margarine. Mix in lemon rind.
- Mix in baking powder, oats and flour. Add raisins and mix.
- Grease baking tray, place heaped dessertspoons of mixture onto tray and flatten slightly (space well apart as mixture spreads).
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden.
- Leave to cool slightly before moving to wire rack.
- Cookies will feel soft to touch when warm, but will crisp up as they cool.


Add lemon juice for extra tang!
Substitute half of raisins for choc chips.
Try orange rind instead of lemon.