Showing posts sorted by date for query Scones. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query Scones. Sort by relevance Show all posts
I had never heard of Bakewell anything until I moved over here to the UK. I have always, however, had a great fondness for almond flavoured cakes and bakes.
Don't get me started on chocolate covered almonds either . . . I cannot resist!
I had not been here very long when I ran into Bakewell Tarts . . . .
Little pastry cases filled with a layer of jam and topped an almond frangipane cake, and glazed with an almond iced, garnished with a candied cherry.
Todd just loves these. LOVES LOVES LOVES I have always found them a tiny bit cloying and somewhat too sweet.
That was my first experience with Bakewell, little did I know how very good they could actually be . . . until I baked my own . . . you can see those here.
That was when I truly fell in love with the Bakewell combination.
Since then I have played with the flavours of Bakewell baked goods, making Bakewell Whoopie Pies, Bakewell Slices, Bakewell Scones . . .
Raspberry Bakewell Overnight Oats, and . . . a traditional Bakewell Tart . . . just to name a few of my Bakewell creations.
Each one incredibly scrummy and yummy in their own unique Bakewell ways. But what is a Bakewell supposed to be you might well ask. Wikipedia describes it as thus:
The Bakewell tart developed as a variant of the Bakewell pudding in the 20th century. Although the terms Bakewell tart and Bakewell pudding have been used interchangeably, each name refers to a specific dessert recipe. The tart is closely associated with the town of Bakewell in Derbyshire.
Simple, right? Wrong . . . not so simple . . . there are as many variants and claims to invention as there are months in the year.
It is indeed a very intriguing question, one without a succinct answer except to say . . . almond flavour figures big when it comes to Bakewell anything.
And we shall leave it at that. This Bakewell Blondie is a small batch recipe I adapted from a full sized one I found here. The pictures looked amazing . . .
But in all honesty I didn't really want that much temptation laying around. Todd can only eat so much and I didn't want to be snuffling up the leftovers myself.
So I cut the recipe in half as best as I could and baked it in a 9 by 5-inch loaf tin, which is the perfect pan for baking small batch bars.
I was really pleased with the outcome until I realised that I had forgotten to put the almonds on top before baking . . . not a problem.
I drizzled an almond glaze over the cooled bars and then sprinkled toasted flaked almonds on top of that. Perfect!
These are fabulous little bars. FAB-EWE-LOUS! (And yes I know that is not the way to spell fabulous, I am trying to make a point here. They are really tasty!)
So good in fact that I am glad I only made a small batch. Rich, fudgy, sweet . . . dense and filled with white chocolate chips and almond flavours . . . with a swirl of raspberry jam and then that almond glaze and those flaked almonds.
Can you say M O R E I S H? I hope so because that is what these are! Incredibly edibly moreish.
Small Batch Bakewell Blondies
Yield: Makes 8 blondies
These amazing brownie type of bars are fudgy, sweet and gooey with jam. I have glazed them with an almond glaze and sprinkled toasted flaked almonds on top for a cookie bar you won't be able to resist!
Ingredients:
For the bars:
- 120g butter, melted (1/2 cup)
- 50g caster sugar (1/4 cup)
- 50g soft light brown sugar (1/4 cup packed)
- 1 large free range egg, beaten
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 50g ground almonds (1/3 cup)
- 100g plain flour (1 cup, minus 3 TBS)
- 1/2 TBS cornflour (cornstarch)
- 100g white chocolate chips (1/2 cup)
- 8 tsp raspberry jam
For the glaze and topping:
- 65g icing sugar (1/2 cup)
- few drops of almond extract
- hot water
- a handful of toasted flaked almonds
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line a 9 by 5 inch loaf tin with baking parchment, leaving an overhang. Set aside.
- Beat together the melted butter and both sugars until smooth. Beat in the egg and almond extract. Stir in the flour, corn flour and ground almonds until smooth and well mixed. Stir in the white chocolate chips. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tin. Smooth the top.
- Dollop the raspberry jam evenly spaced over top in little puddles. Using a skewer, lightly swirl it through the blondie mixture.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until they are done with a slight wobble in the centre. This could take longer, or it could take less time. Start checking at 25 minutes. It all depends on how hot your oven runs.
- Leave to cool completely in the tin before lifting out onto a cutting board.
- Whisk together the icing sugar, almond extract and just enough water to give you a thickish drizzle that you can easily flick over the top of the bars. Drizzle it over and then sprinkle with the almonds.
- Allow to set and then cut into 8 bars. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
If you only bake one thing this weekend, let it be these!
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!
I think you are really going to enjoy these delicious biscuits I am sharing with you today, and by biscuit in this case I mean bread/biscuits, not cookie/biscuits! Over here in the UK, they call cookies biscuits. They don't really do baking powder biscuits, although they do scones.
Scones and biscuits are two entirely different things. The difference mainly boils down to one single ingredient and that is an egg. Scones usually contain eggs, biscuits normally do not. Biscuits tend to be flaky, whereas scones tend to be crumbly and more cake like.
When it comes to flaky, they don't get flakier than these Mile High Greek Yogurt Biscuits!
Just look at all of those flaky layers . . . because the butter in this recipe is quite cold when blended in and is only coarsly blended into the flour mixture, when it melts it leaves lots of air pockets, which is what creates all of that flakiness!
And yet . . . there are only 4 TBS butter in the whole recipe, which works out about 1/2 TBS per biscuit.
More of the flakiness comes from the baking powder reacting with the acid in the Greek yogurt, causing the dough to expand exponentially. (Love that word!)
The end result is a biscuit that is light as a cloud, and filled with lots of flaky pockets.
Because the biscuits themselves are relatively low in fat, you don't need to feel guilty at loading them up with cold butter when it comes to the eating. What's your favourite thing to enjoy with hot biscuits?
Personally I love them spread when they are hot with plenty of cold butter and creamed honey. OH boy . . . you don't get much better than that! Unless you add some shaved ham in between . . . mmm . . mmm . . . mmm . . .
Hot biscuits, cold butter, creamed honey and shaved ham . . . . a bit of baking powder biscuit heaven to my way of thinking, and no, I am not from the South.
Athough Nova Scotia (where I am originally from) is in the Bible belt of Canada, which kind of equates to the Southern States which are the Bible belt of American and where they really enjoy their biscuits and ham!
One thing is for certain and that is this . . . these are delicious and a real family pleaser whether you serve them with honey and ham or not. Butter is not optional. If you are a person who eats biscuits without butter you are on the wrong page!
Mile High Greek Yogurt Biscuits
Yield: 8
These easy biscuits rise really tall and flaky, but are considerably lower in fat than many others. Fabulously tasty!
Ingredients:
- 280g plain flour (2 cups unbleached all-purpose)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 4 TBS cold butter
- 245g low fat Greek yogurt (1 cup)
Instructions:
How to cook Mile High Greek Yogurt Biscuits
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Have ready a baking sheet.
- Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder. Stir in the salt. Drop the cold butter into the bowl and cut it in with a pastry blender, until the flour mixture resembles coarse sand with chunks of butter the size of small peas. Using a fork stir in the yogurt. Gently mix to a soft dough in the bowl.
- Tear off a sheet of baking parchment large enough for your baking sheet. Put the dough on the sheet of paper and pat out to a rectangle, roughly 1 inch in thickness. Cut into 8 smaller rectangles. Gently push them apart leaving plenty of space in between. Carefully transfer the paper to the baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or unti they are well risen and golden brown on the top and bottom. Best enjoyed whilst still warm.
All kidding aside you really do need to bake these biscuits for your family this weekend. Not only are they low in fat and high in flake and flavour, but they are very quick and easy to make as well. Just remember one thing and you'll be okay. A light touch is always the best option when dealing with biscuits. Oh, and another positive thing, no flour is wasted in this recipe. Every scrap gets used up.
I used some of my precious flour this weekend to bake us an Italian Lemon Cream Cake. I had a lemon that was close to spilling over to unusable and some cream which was also close to being unusable as well.
I hate it when that happens.
Several months ago, I am ashamed to say . . . losing such things wouldn't really have bothered me overly much, although I have always tried to use everything.
Over the last few years, I have probably not been as diligent as I could have been. Not proud of that.
These days I am much more aware of waste and shortages. Flour (for one thing) and sugar are in short supply and I don't have regular access to fresh ingredients either.
For as long as we are bothered by this Covid 19 pandemic my days of simply popping to the shops or sending Todd when I need something are over, and in fact I am not sure if I will ever live like that again.
Did you know you can keep flour in the freezer indefinitely. Actually, you can keep it in your refrigerator for up to two years before it will go rancid.
So long as they are stored in airtight containers, that is. A timely tip there!
I had recently been sent some lovely Italian flour by an online supplier of authentic Italian foods, Cibilia. I have been storing it in my freezer and decided to use some of it today. There was a semolina flour and 2 types of soft wheat flours, both perfect to make things like shortbreads, scones, biscuits, cookies and so on.
The flour has been produced by Zilletta Di Brancia - Apulian Stone Mill, which is the only artisan stone mill existing in all the Tavoliere delle Puglie. It is also a family owned mill. For this Cake I used TIPO 1 which is an Organic all purpose flour.
As you can see I had beautiful results. Look at the beautiful crumb which resulted after baking! I was so impressed.
That crumb is the sign of a good cake. And good flour helps to create a great crumb.
The cake itself is a very simple cake. It is light and beautifully flavoured and as you can see has a very light crumb and is very moist.
I love simple cakes. They are my favourites.
You beat three large free range eggs together with an additional large free range egg yolk, lemon zest and a quantity of confectioners sugar to make a light and fluffy mixture.
This mixture almost doubles in volume. This is a part of what adds to that beautiful texture of the cake.
Once you have done that you fold in a mix of the flour and some baking powder, alternating with heavy cream . . . rich and moist . . .
A quantity of melted and cooled butter gets folded in at the end along with some vanilla, melted butter, and lemon juice . . . creating a beautiful cake.
You need to be careful when you are folding it in so that you don't knock out much of the air that you have beaten into it.
I baked it in my 9 1/2 inch bundt tin. Do make sure you grease the tin really well and dust it with flour. I thought I had done a really good job of that, but my cake still stuck in a few places.
I needed to use a knife to run down the sides to loosen it and I really hate doing that with my bundt tins. I absolutely dread scratching them.
In any case if you are looking for a lovely simple cake that is moist and delicious, delicately flavoured with lemon with a beautiful crumb . . . this is YOUR cake!
Italian Lemon Cream Cake
Yield: 10
A moist and delicious cake with a delicate crumb. Flavoured with Lemon. Tthis cake is wonderful on its own but would be equally as delicious served with some fresh berries in berry season.
Ingredients:
- 100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled (7 TBS)
- 280g plain flour (I used a TIPO1 Italian flour) (2 cups)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 large free range eggs
- 1 large free range egg yolk
- 230g icing sugar (1 3/4 cups) sifted
- 160ml double cream (2/3 cup heavy cream)
- the zest of one unwaxed lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 TBS lemon juice
- Icing sugar to dust on finished cake
Instructions:
How to cook Italian Lemon Cream Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Grease a 9 1/2 inch bundt tin and flour it well, tapping out any excess flour.
- Melt the butter and allow it to cool completely.
- Measure the sugar, lemon zest and eggs, plus egg yolk into a bowl. Beat with an electric whisk unti it becomes very light in colour and doubles in volume.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gently fold into the creamed mixure, alternating with the cream, until thoroughly blended in. Gently fold in the lemon juice, vanilla and melted butter. Pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate and allowing to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
I simply dusted it with some icing sugar, and then decorated it with a couple of viola blooms and some fresh mint leaves. I thought it was quite pretty. You can't get much prettier than Mother Nature I don't think!
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!
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