Showing posts with label Teatime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teatime. Show all posts
I've been pretty laid out with my back this past couple of weeks and have not really been cooking anything new for the most part.
The pain has been pretty bad, but finally today I feel like I have begun to turn the corner somewhat and so I decided to do a new recipe to share on here. Lemon Splits!
It's okay if you don't know what they are. I had never heard of them either before I moved here to the UK. I have always loved Lemon flavoured anything.
Those lemon puff cookies were my favourite when I was growing up. Buttery lemon flavoured crackers put together with lemon icing. If you are a lemon aficionado you will know exactly the ones I mean!
I discovered these Lemon Splits in the grocery shop about a year or so ago. What they are is plain Welsh Cakes, without the spice and raisins, put together with a layer of lemon curd in the middle. My goodness but they are some tasty.
They don't always have them in the shops however so it is hit and miss as to if you can find them or not. I looked for a recipe online but couldn't find one anywhere.
I decided to take the bull by the horns and create my own. I have made Welsh Cakes in the past. You can find that recipe here.
Welsh cakes are really good. They are like a cross between a pastry and a scone in my opinion. Buttery with a short texture and oh so tasty, especially when served with a hot bevvie!
They are a very traditional Welsh teatime treat and you will find them all over Wales. They are extremely good I have to say.
All of the teatime treats in the British Isles are extremely good. They know how to bake good things!
So what I did was make Welsh Cakes, without the spice or the raisins . . .
Just plain . . . flour, butter, sugar and an egg. You might need to add a bit of milk to the dough, but my dough was perfect without it.
In fact I had to generously dust my board and pin with flour or it would have stuck too much.
I baked them on my Pampered Chef Griddle pan. You need to heat it so that its not scalding hot and not too cool.
You can use a heavy based non-stick skillet as well. The important thing to remember is to not have it too hot, or the outside will brown too quickly and they won't be done inside.
I heated mine over medium low and once it was heated I turned it down to low. This worked well for me, about 2 to 3 minute per side did the trick.
I knew it was time to flip them over when they started looking a bit puffy on top and were golden brown on the bottom.
When they were done they were golden brown on both sides and the edges looked dry. That's the best that I can explain it.
You can of course make your own lemon curd to fill these from scratch and I have a darn good recipe that you can find here.
But a really good quality store bought one works just fine also and sometimes that's all we have time for!
These are perfect! We both enjoyed them very much, even the "so-called lemon hater". Methinks he doth protest too much personally!
He scarfed two down right away no problemo! If you really don't like lemon, these would be awfully nice sandwiched together with your favourite jam as well.
Ohh, black currant jam or jelly would be lovely!
Yield: Makes 12 to 14
Lemon Splits
prep time: cook time: total time:
Traditional Welsh Cakes without the raisins, sandwiched together with lemon curd. Don't worry if you don't have a griddle or hot stone to cook them on, they will cook perfectly find in a skillet with a heavy base.
ingredients:
- 225g self rising flour (1 1/2 cups + 2TBS)
- 110g salted butter (1/2 cup minus 1 tsp)
- 85g caster sugar (7 TBS)
- 1 medium free range egg
- Milk (if needed)
- flour to dust the cutting board
- butter to grease the griddle (optional)
- good quality lemon curd to fill
instructions:
How to cook Lemon Splits
- Sift the flour into a bowl. Drop in the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine dry bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar with a fork. Beat the egg and stir it into the mixture to form a ball of dough, adding a splash of milk if you need it. (I did not need it.)
- Generously flour a board and then tip the dough out onto it, also generously flouring the dough. Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into rounds using a 2 1/2 inch round fluted cutter. Re-roll any scraps and cut again, until all the dough has been used up.
- Heat a heavy grill stone or non-stick griddle pan over medium low heat until fairly hot. Brush lightly with butter if desired. (I didn't use any.) Add the welsh cakes and bake them for 2 to 3 minutes on one side. They should be golden brown on the bottom. Flip them over and bake for a further 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown on the other side. Try not to have the temperature of the griddle too high or they will brown too quickly on the outside and not be cooked in the centre. ( It was my observation that they were ready to flip over when the tops looked kind of puffy.)
- Remove from the pan with a spatula to a wire rack to cool.
- To make the lemon splits, sandwich two together with lemon curd in the centre. You can dust with some icing sugar to serve. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @marierayner5530 on instagram and hashtag it #EnglishKitchen
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Despite my ailing back, I was determined to bake my husband a cake for the weekend. He does love a special treat at the weekend and I do like to spoil him. Normally it is a Victoria Sponge or some such. This week I decided to really bake him a treat.
A Coffee Cake. Not as in a cake you eat with coffee, but a cake which is coffee flavoured. A delicious cake. A, just a tiny sliver more cake.
I adapted this recipe from The Women's Institute cookery book entitled, Vintage Tea Time by Jessica Simmons.
It is a lovely little book composed of WI approved Afternoon Tea appropriate recipes.
You just know that if a recipe has the Women's Institute seal of approval, it has to be good!
The Women's Institute was formed in 1915 with the aim of revitalizing rural communities and encouraging women to become more pro-active in producing food during the First World War.
Since then their aim has broadened and it is now the largest voluntary women's organization in the UK.
It is also known to be a leading authority on home cooking. It is an organization which plays a unique role in providing women all over the country with educational opportunities.
Along with the change to build new skills, take part in a wide variety of activities and to campaign on issues that are important to them and their communities.
They also run a the WI Cookery School in Denman College, Oxfordshire, providing a whole range of courses designed to suit students of all abilities and interests.
I had a quick gander through the book this morning and settled on the Coffee Cake, as I thought it one that my husband would enjoy.
It also didn't require a whole lot of faffing about! We all know I can be lazy at times.
In North America Coffee Cakes are usually quite dense and meant to be enjoyed for breakfast or brunch with hot mugs of coffee.
This is not that kind of coffee cake.
Instead this is a light and airy cake, which derives its name from the use of strong coffee to flavour both the batter and the butter cream.
You can also use coffee essence/extract if you have it.
We don't drink regular black or green tea or coffee for religious reasons, but I do have coffee extract to use in baking.
The cake is filled with a lush butter cream frosting, also flavoured with coffee and abundantly filled with chopped walnuts.
I always toast my nuts before I use them.
They just taste nuttier! Toasting really enhances their natural flavours. Its not hard to do. Just pop them onto a baking sheet and then into a moderate oven (350*F/180*C) They will be perfectly toasted in about 10 minutes.
You will be able to tell when they are done because your kitchen will smell all nutty toasty.
It only takes a few minutes and makes a world of difference flavorwise.
The top of the cake is garnished with a dusting icing sugar.
If you wish to mark out the servings you can very cleverly lay a grid on the top using wooden or metal skewers.
This was how it looked in the book. I thought it was very clever and very pretty.
At the head of each wedge pipe a rosette of the plain butter cream (or dollop it on like me) and top with a single toasted walnut.
A very pretty finish to a very delicious cake!
Yield: 8
Coffee Cake
prep time: cook time: total time:
Not a Coffee Cake in the American sense, but a delicious Coffee flavoured cake with a coffee walnut filling and garnish. Moist and delicious!
ingredients:
For the Cake:
- 175g butter, softened (3/4 cup)
- 175g soft light brown sugar (3/4 cup packed, plus 1/2 TBS)
- 1 TBS strong coffee, or a few drops coffee essence
- 3 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
- 175g self raising flour (1 1/4 cups)
- 1 tsp baking powder
For the Butter Cream:
- 110 butter, softened (1/2 cup)
- 225g icing sugar, sifted (1 3/4 cup)
- 2 TBS strong coffee, or 1 tsp coffee essence
- 80g toasted walnuts, finely chopped (2/3 cup)
To Decorate:
- icing sugar to dust
- 8 toasted walnut halves
instructions:
How to cook Coffee Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter two 8-inch round cake tins and line the bottoms with baking paper. Set aside.
- Sift together the flour and the baking powder. Set aside.
- Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Beat in the coffee and then the beaten eggs a bit at a time until well incorporated. If the mixture starts to curdle, beat in a TBS of the flour, and continue. Fold in the flour. Divide the batter equally amongst the prepared baking tins, levelling it off.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack, peeling off the paper and leaving to finish cooling.
- Beat the butter for the icing until soft and creamy. Beat in the sugar and the coffee, only adding as much coffee as needed to give you a thick spreadable/pipeable icing. Remove about 4 TBS of icing and set aside. Stir the chopped walnuts into the remainder of the icing.
- Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread the walnut icing over to cover. (It will be a nice thick layer) Top with the other cake layer. Lay 4 skewers on top in a criss cross manner. Sift icing sugar over top and then carefully remove the skewers. You should have the cake marked now into 8 servings.
- Into each serving section, pipe a rosette of the plain coffee icing and top with a toasted walnut half. Store any remainders in a covered container.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @marierayner5530 on instagram and hashtag it #EnglishKitchen
I think you are really going to love this cake. Its incredibly delicious! Happy Saturday!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
I am a real scone lover. Who doesn't love scones! People have a tendency to think that they are the same thing as baking powder biscuits, but they couldn't be further from the truth!
They are not at all the same thing.
Baking Powder Biscuits are light as air, fluffy and flaky, or at least they should be. If your biscuits are like rocks, I hate to tell you but you're doing something wrong!
They are also on the more savoury side, rather than the sweet.
Scones are sweeter and denser, and much crumblier than biscuits . . . Biscuits tend to use shortening, although some modern versions use butter. Scones always use butter.
The fat in biscuits is cut in until you have a variety of bits, some the size of small peas. In scones, the flour is "rubbed" in until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.
So you can see, they really aren't the same at all. Both are beautifully delicious and wonderful in their own unique ways!
Its filled with tasty recipes using some of our favourite autumn ingredients like apples and pumpkin, sweet potatoes and plenty of warm baking spices!
Muffins, cakes, pies, breads, you name it!
I can't believe that it has taken me nineteen years to bake these! Wow! So long and now that I have baked them, I wish that I had baked them earlier!
They are actually called Golden Carrot Spice Scones in the booklet, but I thought Carrot Cake Drop Scones sounded so much tastier and believe me . . . these are plenty tasty!
They are everything a great drop scone should be. Dense, buttery, flavourful . . .
Flecked with sweet bits of carrot and studded with sweet sticky raisins . . .
Lightly flavoured with warm baking spices . . .
Glazed with a sweet and spicy glaze . . .
Altogether, all of these things create a scone that is so purely autumnal and delicious . . .
Put the kettle on and grab your tea pot, coz you are going to want to sit right down with one of these hot out of the oven and enjoy with a nice hot cuppa!
Yield: 8 large scones
Carrot Cake Drop Scones
If you want you can shape this into one large round and cut into 8 wedges. I like to just drop them onto the baking sheet, in large dollops. They have lots of character that way and are, as always, delicious no matter what!
ingredients:
For the Scones:
- 280g plain flour (2 cups all purpose)
- 45g sugar (1/4 cup)
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 80g cold butter (1/3 cup)
- 80ml double cream (heavy cream) (1/3 cup)
- 90g finely grated carrot (1 cup, about 1 1/2 medium carrots)
- 45g sultana raisins (1/2 cup golden raisins)
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
For the glaze:
- 65g icing sugar (1/2 cup powdered sugar)
- 2 TBS milk
- 1/8 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
instructions:
How to cook Carrot Cake Drop Scones
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line a large baking tray with baking paper and set aside.
- Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder and spice. Stir in the salt and sugar. Cut the butter into bits and drop it into the bowl. Rub or cut in until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the carrots and the raisins. Mix together the cream and egg. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet into that. Mix together with a fork to make a soft dough that leaves the side of the bowl, adding a bit of milk if it seems too dry. Drop by heaped spoons, 2 inches apart, on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until light golden brown.
- While they are baking make the glaze by whisking together all of the ingredients until you have a drizzle icing. Remove the hot scones from the baking sheet to a wire rack and drizzle the glaze over top. Enjoy warm!
The are just wonderful! Not just for tea times either, they go fabulously at an autumnal lunch with the ladies served warm with a tasty salad. Yum Yum!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
We were invited to some good friends of ours yesterday for lunch. Whenever I am invited to someone's home for a meal I like to bring a hostess gift.
Sometimes its flowers, sometimes after dinner mints, sometimes a bottle of nice drink, or a box of chocolates . . . just something I know or think or hope that the hostess and her family will enjoy.
Yesterday, I decided to do something a tiny bit different and instead I baked a lovely tea loaf/bread to bring as a gift.
This is a recipe that I have shared on here in the past. Almond Glazed Poppy Seed Bread. It is a recipe that I baked often when I worked at the Manor.
It was a favourite of the Mrs and her friends. It bakes into two lovely loaves, so it is perfect for gifting. You get one to keep for yourself and one to share!
You can also choose to bake it in a decorative Bundt pan, which is what I did at the Manor. It looks very impressive when done, and glazed. Of course the bake time is a bit longer than it would be in two loaf pans.
I would add fifteen minutes to the time and then check it. I doubt it would take much longer than that, but do check it at an hour anyways, just in case. I always do.
This cake uses a mixture of flavourings, which might seem a bit odd when you look at them, but they work incredibly well together.
Vanilla, almond, lemon and orange extracts. It seems a lot, but trust me, they work beautifully in sync with each other.
Then you have the subtle crunch of poppy seeds. I don't know about you, but I love poppy seed anything.
Another thing I love about this loaf is that you just bung everything into a bowl and beat it together.
Simple, there is no creaming, beating, creaming, sifting, faffing about . . . just bung it all into a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until blended.
I like to line the loaf tins with baking paper. Actually I have loaf tin baking paper liners, kind of like cupcake liners.
They save a bit of time, and nothing ever sticks. Nothing. It also makes it very easy to lift the loafs out of the tin onto a rack to cool when done.
Another beautiful aspect of this lovely loaf is the crunchy sugar glaze that gets spooned over the loaves when you remove them from the oven.
Granulated sugar gets whisked together with orange juice, almond and vanilla extracts and then spooned over the warm loaves to make a delicious crust.
These delicious loaves will keep for up to a week in an air tight container and will keep frozen for several months. If freezing, I would not glaze until you take it out of the freezer and are ready to serve. (In that case I would warm the glaze a bit.)
Yield: 2 large loaves
Almond Glazed Poppy Seed Bread
prep time: 15 mins cook time: 1 hourtotal time: 1 hours and 15 mins
This is a dense, moist and delicious tea bread,with fabulous flavours and a sweet almond glaze topping.
ingredients:
420g of plain flour (3 cups)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 large free range eggs
335ml of milk (1 1/2 cups)
125g of butter at room temperature (1/2 cup)
115ml of sunflower oil (1/2 cup)
430g of sugar (2 1/4 cup)
1 1/2 TBS poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp orange extract
Almond Glaze:
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
60ml of orange juice (1/4 cup)
145g of sugar (3/4 cup)
instructions:
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter and flour two large loaf tins. Set aside.
Sift
the flour, salt and baking powder together in a large bowl. Mix
together the remaining ingredients and add, then beat together with an
electric mixer for about 2 minutes until well combined. Divide between
the two prepared loaf tins.
Bake for one hour, or until a
toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and the top springs
back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes
before removing to a wire rack. Stir together the glaze ingredients
until the sugar is somewhat dissolved. Spoon over the loaves while they
are still warm. Allow to cool completely, then wrap in foil or store
in an airtight container. These also freeze well.
Sift
the flour, salt and baking powder together in a large bowl. Mix
together the remaining ingredients and add, then beat together with an
electric mixer for about 2 minutes until well combined. Divide between
the two prepared loaf tins.
Bake for one hour, or until a
toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and the top springs
back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes
before removing to a wire rack. Stir together the glaze ingredients
until the sugar is somewhat dissolved. Spoon over the loaves while they
are still warm. Allow to cool completely, then wrap in foil or store
in an airtight container. These also freeze well.
Created using The Recipes Generator
I have never had anyone act disappointed when I gift them with one of these. Bake it and you will see why! Bon Appetit!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
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