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 am of the strongest opinion that one can never have such a thing as too many biscuit recipes, and by biscuit I am talking North American Biscuits, not English Biscuits, which are cookies and something completely different.
Cheddar, Bacon & Chive Biscuits are fabulously tasty, light, flakey, peppery, stogged with rich strong cheddar and are beautiful served along side of savoury things like soups, stews, salads, etc.
I will go out on a limb here and tell you they are also kinda nice spread with butter and honey, only because I have done that and they were delicious, but then again, taste is a very individual thing is it not?
I had this huge discussion on my English Kitchen Facebook stage the other day with someone who was quite irate that in an English Kitchen I would be calling Scones Biscuits. I was calling what I had made Biscuits (The Yogurt ones) because they were Biscuits, NOT Scones!
I, personally, know the difference between a Biscuit and a Scone. I am well versed in the differences between the two. I am a trained Chef good golly cheese whiz. I have had experience living and cooking on both sides of the pond.
Today I will endeavour to enlighten you with what those differences are. What you do with this knowledge is up to you. 😊 I know, I am preaching to the choir here, but there may be some who don't know and this is for them.
When it comes to mixing biscuits and scones, the methods used are pretty much indistinguishable. Both require flour and some leavening usually in the way of baking powder.
Biscuits sometimes also have baking soda in them, especially if they are using buttermilk (such as these tasty ones I am sharing with you today.)
If you are using something acidic like buttermilk or sour cream, yogurt, etc. you need a bit of soda. The soda reacts with the acid in the liquid to give you plenty of lift.
Both use some sort of fat which helps to create air pockets in them when they are baking which leads to flakiness.
With biscuits this will be vegetable shortening, lard, and sometimes butter or a combination of those things.
With scones, it is always butter, and there is always a lot more of it than you would find being used in a biscuit batter.
Biscuits for the most part contain no sugar, although you will find the rare recipe which will include at least some. My mother-in-laws recipe has a TBS of sugar in it.
Generally speaking a scone recipe will have some sugar in it, maybe even copious amounts.
Biscuits are usually brushed with butter or milk. Scones usually have an egg wash. Scones, generally speaking, will also have he addition of eggs in the liquid used. (Not always however.) Are you confused yet?
Biscuits are soft and light and flakey in texture and most often will be savoury rather than sweet. Meant to be eaten along with soups, or stews, or salads, or filled with things like ham and eggs. Breakfast biscuits are quite popular.
You will find them filled with bacon, ham or sausage and eggs and cheese at mny fast food places in North America.
Quite often you will see them split and served with sausage gravy ladled over top or creamed fish or chicken.
There is one exception to this rule and that is in the case of fruit shortcakes, whereupon they will be split and filled with mashed fruit of some kind and icecream or whipped cream.
Scones are a bit more crumbly wih a much shorter texture than Biscuits and a lot sweeter. More often than not, they are served cold and meant
to be spread with butter, jam, conserves, fruit and cream and enjoyed
with copious amounts of hot tea.
Quite often you will find that they contain fruit, either dried or fresh. And even so they will still be served cold with jam and cream. As a rule scones are never served hot or even warm.
Biscuits can have mix-ins, such as these ones today, but generally speaking the mix ins will be of the savoury variety. I have never seen a Biscuit with anything sweet added such as dried fruit or even fresh fruit.
Mix-ins are usually things like bacon, or minced ham, cheese, onions, chives, etc. pretty much always savoury, although there may be some exceptions to the rule I haven't come across!
There are some really strong basic differences between the two as well as a lot of similarities, specifically the main one being in how they are put together/mixed. But even that is not 100% standard some of the time.
Any how, I just wanted to clear the air a bit as to some of the differences between the two things. This recipe I am sharing with you today is for BISCUITS! Yay!!
And what wonderful biscuits they are. They are nice and light and flaky and filled with all sorts of lovely savoury moreish bits.
Crisp smoky bacon, sharp cheddar cheese, herby fresh chives and plenty of garlic and black pepper. They are moist and light from the use of buttermilk.
Instead of the usual shortening or lard, butter is grated into them as the fat. You will want to freeze it as it is really important that you keep the butter as cold as possible.
Usually fat will be cut into biscuits using a pastry blender or two round bladed knives (as opposed to being rubbed in with a scone.) Today it is grated in and then just stirred in with a knife.
All your flour and savoury bits are stirred together and then the butter is dropped in and then you stir in buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk, don't worry you can make the equivalent using lemon juice with full fat milk added to the same amount needed as buttermilk.
If you mix the two together, you just need to let it sit for about five minutes so that the milk will clabber. I usually end up having to do this as I have had a very difficult time getting buttermilk lately.
Just look at how nice and flaky those biscuits are and how filled with lovely tasty bits. That cheese, that bacon, the chives. So yummy!
They are delicious split and spread with cold butter. I enjoyed them with a cup of hot soup for a delicious lunch.
Oh and in all of my talking about the differences between scones and biscuits I forgot to tell you that this was another small batch recipe.
You could double it of course if you wished and they will absolutely freeze beautifully if tightly wrapped, for up to three months. Simply thaw in a microwave on high for about 30 seconds. Enjoy!
Cheddar, Bacon & Chive Biscuits
Yield: 8 Biscuits
prep time: 15 Mcook time: 15 Mtotal time: 30 M
This is a small batch recipe. These biscuits are incredibly flaky, tall and nice and buttery. Filled with lots of sharp cheddar, crisp bacon bits and fresh chives they make an excellent addition to the lunch or supper table!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups (280g) plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder (NOT garlic salt)
- 3 slices of crisp cooked bacon, crumbled into bits
- 60g sharp cheddar cheese grated
- 1 TBS finely chopped chives.
- 3 ounces (85g) frozen butter (6 TBS)
- 7 fluid ounces (190ml)of buttermilk
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 225*C/425*F/gas mark 7. Line a baking tray with some baking paper and set aside.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl. Stir in the cheese, chopped chives, bacon, pepper, garlic powder, and salt.
- Using the largest holes on a box grater, quickly grate the butter over top and mix in using a round bladed knife. Stir all together. Add the buttermilk and mix together. The dough will be somewhat sticky. Don't worry about that.
- Tip the dough out onto a floured board and knead lightly 3 or 4 times to bring it together. Pat out to a 1 1/2 inch thick round.
- Using a 2 1/2 to 3- inch sharp round cutter, stamp out rounds, using a straight up and down motion. Do not twist the cutter.
- Place spaced apart on the baking sheet.
- Bake for about 15 minutes until risen and golden brown. Serve warm with plenty of butter for spreading. Delicious!
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I adore Biscuits, and by that I don't mean cookies, I mean North American style biscuits. Any soup or stew is immeasurably improved by the addition to the table of a nice basket of hot fresh biscuits.
I often have huge debates over the differences between Biscuits and Scones. Some people think that the two are the same thing and interchangeable, but in all honesty, they are two completely different things altogether!
There are some really significant differences between scones and biscuits. Scones typically have eggs in them and biscuits do not. Scones tend to be a little denser, drier, and not as flaky.
Just adding oats, fruit, herbs or anything else to a biscuit dough and cutting them in triangles does NOT make them a scone. Seriously. They may look identical in very many ways, but that is where any similarity stops!
The recipe I am sharing today for Yogurt Biscuits was adapted from the
Book, "Southern Biscuits," by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart.
I was intrigued by the notion that you could make delicious biscuits with only flour, salt and yogurt. I just had to try them for myself.
They were incredibly easy to put together. They are basically just salt, self rising flour and yogurt. Do use full fat yogurt. I have it on the authority of Natalie that low fat yogurt does not work well. I believe her.
I did not try them with low fat yogurt, but when a professional tells you not to use it. I listen. They usually know what they are talking about. Trust me on this.
If you don't have self
raising flour, you can make your own. (For every cup of flour, sift
together 1 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder.) It
works a charm.
If I am making my own self raising flour, I will usually make five or six cups of it at a time. You will always use it up. I promise you it won't be a waste of your time or money. I have plenty of recipes on here that use self-raising flour.
Soft butter goes very well with hot biscuits and if you are serving biscuits on their own, why not make it a flavoured butter. Today I made Honey Cardamom Butter. Honey and Cardamom have a natural affinity for each other.
Both have incredible warmth. Its difficult to put into words, but both feel like hugs and kisses and home sweet home to me.
This natural affinity between honey and cardamom is almost as strong as the one for biscuits and any butter! What is a biscuit without butter? No quite the same.
Look at the height of these biscuits. These rise really, really high. Quite surprisingly high when you consider that there is only a few basic ingredients in them.
That's what you get when you use a very light touch and you don't twist the cutter when you are cutting. So many people end up with lopsided biscuits.
That can be prevented by cutting them out by tapping straight up and down with a sharp edged cutter. Straight up. Straight down. No twisting at all.
I used a 3 inch cutter, patting my dough out to 1-inch thickness. I got 8 lovely big biscuits. Eight big, lovely, fluffy, beautifully textured biscuits.
These are as light as a cloud. They almost float off the plate. Like an angel's wings or an angel's kiss. They are amazing.
If you use a 2 inch cutter you will get more biscuits obviously. I like my biscuits to be a bit of a handful most of the time. They are perfect for filling with things.
Smaller ones also have their uses however. Smaller ones are perfect for grouping on a plate and can trick people into thinking they are not quite eating as much as they would be were the biscuits larger in size.
You can cut biscuits rally small, like one inch in diameter and that size is perfect to be used filled with ham or smoked salmon as appetizers or pre-meal nibbles, meant to be served with drinks
These, however, were perfect just as they are . . . tall and light textured . . . with a beautifully flaky crumb. Mean to be enjoyed.
In short . . . biscuit perfection. Whether you are enjoying them with butter and something sweet, or sitting next to a hot bowl of soup or stew.
Obviously with a soup or stew you may want to leave off the Cardamom Butter, unless it is a creamy soup such as a roasted butternut squash or pumpkin. It might go rather well with those.
In any case, I really hope you will want to bake these. I am absolutely positive that you will enjoy them as much as we did.
Yogurt Biscuits & Honey Cardamom Butter
Yield: 6 - 8 (3-inch) biscuits)
prep time: 15 Mcook time: 15 Mtotal time: 30 M
Make sure you use full fat yogurt for these deliciously light and fluffy biscuits. If your yogurt is especially thick you can thin it with a bit of milk. These are fabulously tall, crisp on the outsides, tender inside, and go perfectly with the honey butter!
Ingredients:
For the Honey Cardamom Butter:
- 1/2 cup butter at room temperature (120g)
- 2 TBS honey
- 1 1/2 TBS icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
For the Biscuits:
- 2 1/4 cups of self raising flour (315g)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup full fat yogurt (245g)
- softened butter for brushing (optional)
Instructions:
- To make the honey cardamom butter, beat all of the ingredients together in a bowl until evenly mixed. Scrape into a serving bowl. Cover and chill until needed.
- Preheat the oven to 225*C/450*F/ gas mark 7. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Measure (280g) 2 cups of the the flour into a bowl along with the salt and make a well in the centre. Add two thirds of the yogurt into the well, reserving the rest along with the remaining (35g)1/4 cup of flour. Use a spatula to mix the flour and yogurt together just until he mixture comes together and the dry ingredients are moisened and a sticky dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If you think the dough is too dry, add the remaining yogurt. If your dough is too wet, use more flour when shaping.
- Lightly sprinkle a board with some of the reserved flour. Turn the dough out and using floured hands, fold the dough in half and pat out to a 1/2-inch thick round using only as much flour as is needed. Flour again and repeat, patting the dough out to 1/2 inch thick for a normal biscuit, and 1 inch thick for a tall biscuit. (I like them tall.)
- Using a floured 3-inch cutter stamp out 8 biscuits. Take care not to twist the cutter or your biscuits will be lopsided. Try to get as many cuts as you can from the first cutting. Gather, pat out and recut the scraps. (These will be tougher which is why you want to get as many as you can from the first patting out.)
- Transfer all the biscuits to the lined baking tray.
- Bake the biscuits on the top rack of the oven for 6 minutes. Rotate the baking pan, back to front and then bake for a further 4 to 8 minutes until well risen and golden brown.
- Brush the tops with softened butter if desired. Serve warm with the Honey Cardamom Butter.
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: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
Thank you for visiting! Do come again!
If I was a much better, more dedicated to my craft, you would never see photos like these.
I would take the time to pipe the cream into the buns so that everything looked all nice and pretty, setting the shot up perfectly with teapots and cups and tea clothes, etc.
That's not me. I tend to just show you things as they are.
Simple without too many frills and not overly fancied up. Not that there is anything wrong with fancying things up a bit. That's just not me.
Besides today, by the time I got these done, it was getting late, I was losing the light and to be honest I was beat, beat, beat.
I actually started these about 6:30 this morning. I had three other recipes to do for another site and so I had to fit them all in while I still had the light with me.
But you don't want to know about all of that . . . you want to know about these tasty buns. Cornish Splits.
I am sure you have all heard of Cream Teas, or Cornish Teas/Devon Teas.
A delightful repast of fresh scones served with butter, jam and clotted cream, washed down with cups of hot tea.
Well, before they ever included scones, these lovely light yeasted buns were the original stars of a Cream Tea.
I am not surprised. Light as air, only slightly sweetened, like soft yeasted pillows of deliciousness.
Perfect for spreading with soft butter and jam, and topped with lashings of clotted cream. Just a slight dusting of icing sugar garnishing the tops.
I can well imagine how delightful they would be with hot cups of tea.
We don't drink tea for religious reasons, and somehow, I don't think herbal tea would be quite the same with these.
These are such a simple make/bake. Seriously.
One kneading and rising. Shape into balls, a quick rise and then bake.
The rolls are lovely and light textured and I imagine very nice just on their own, split, toasted and spread with butter . . . and maybe some jam . . .
Yes, I do love jam.
You can eat the while they are still slightly warm if you wish, in which case I think the butter would melt into the beautiful texture of those light airy buns . . .
Mmmm . . . warm bread and melted butter. Lush.
We enjoyed them cold, split and filled to the hilt with the strawberry jam and whipped cream.
We have not been able to get out shopping so there was no clotted cream.
The whipped cream was very nice however.
The jam, Bonne Maman . . . not having any homemade jam, I used the next best thing . . . . which is Bonne Maman . . .
Bonne Maman is a favourite of mine. Next best thing to homemade.
The French make beautiful jams . . . and breads for that matter . . .
Dusted with icing sugar, these were exquisite.
Traditional Cornish Splits
Yield: 8
Classically Cornish teatime treats. Light and airy yeasted buns, served split, spread with butter and topped with lashings of jam and cream. If you fill them with clotted cream and golden syrup, they become Thunder and Lightening, a real favourite with kiddies everywhere!
Ingredients:
For the buns:
- 305g strong bread flour (2 1/4 cups)
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 4 1/2 tsp easy yeast (bread machine yeast)
- 1 TBS white sugar
- 2 TBS butter
- 300ml whole milk (1 1/4 cup)
To serve:
- softened butter to spread
- Softly whipped sweetened cream, or clotted cream
- strawberry jam
- icing sugar to dust
Instructions:
- Fit a stand mixer with a kneading hook. Measure the flour, sugar, salt, yeast and sugar into the bowl of the stand mixer and mix to combine.
- Warm the milk in the microwave with the butter for about 30 seconds. Just long enough to melt the butter. You don't want any of it to be hot, just blood warm.
- Start drizzling the milk/butter mixture into the bowl of the stand mixer, with it turned on low, until it is all added and incorporated. Keep the motor running until you get a soft, slightly tacky dough. You may need to add a bit more flour. (Today I needed to add another 35g/1/4 cup).
- Tip into a greased bowl and cover with plastic cling film. Set aside to prove for an hour or so until it doubles in size. Turn onto a lightly floured board and divide into 8 equal pieces. (I shape it into a circle and cut it into 8 wedges.) Shape each piece into a ball and place onto a large baking sheet you have lined with baking paper. Dust lightly with flour, cover with a tea towel and set aside to rise for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.
- Bake the buns in the preheated oven for between 15 and 20 minutes until a pale golden brown. If you tip one over it should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. If not, return to the oven for a few more minutes.
- To serve. split almost all the way through on the diagonal. Spread the bottoms with softened butter, top with plenty of strawberry jam and a nice thick dollop of whipped double cream or clotted cream. Dust the tops with some icing sugar and serve immediately.
- These can be served slightly warm or cold. Best served on the day. Don't fill until you are ready to serve them.
I sent half of these next door to my neighbour. She and her son have been ever so good to us throughout this pandemic, always picking up bread and milk, even if we have not asked for it, and she won't take any compensation for it. I figure the least I can do is to bake them treats every now and then!
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@aol.com
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