If you are looking for a deliciously different type of bread to serve with your winter casseroles, soups or stews . . . look no further! These are fabulous.
These are rich and buttery . . . with a delicious crunchy texture from the cornmeal.
Add to that a delicious tang from the buttermilk, and you have a true winner.
They go together quick and easy and can simply be patted out and cut into squares. I cut the recipe in half because there is only Todd and I, with no problem at all. They turned out perfectly.
Three days later and we had the last of them warmed up with our supper tonight and they were still lovely. I have chosen to brush them with buttermilk and sprinkle them with some flaked sea salt and coarse black pepper, but you could also just brush them with the buttermilk and sprinkle them with some coarse demerara sugar.
They would be fabulous for breakfast done this way and served along with some butter and your favourite preserves.
I do hope you will give them a try. I'm sure they'll become a favourite in your house too!
*Cornmeal Scones*
Makes 16
Printable Recipe
Crisp and lovely. Great with soups, stews and other savoury dishes.
200g of plain flour (2 cups)
170g of cornmeal (fine polenta, 1 cup)
2 TBS granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp fine seasalt
4 ounces cold butter, cubed (1/2 cup)
250ml of buttermilk (1 cup)
More buttermilk to brush on the top, plus some flaked sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 220*C/420*F/ gas mark 7. Have ready a large baking sheet, lined with baking paper.
Whisk the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt together in a large bowl. Drop in the butter. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients using your finger tips or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the centre. Add the buttermilk all at once. Stir with a spoon to moisten. (you may need a bit more buttermilk if the mixture seems too dry.) Tip out onto a floured surface. Gently knead 4 or 5 times. Pat out into an 8 inch square, 3/4 of an inch thick. Cut into 2 inch squares. Place the squares 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Brush the tops lightly with more buttermilk and sprinkle with sea salt flakes and coarse black pepper.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until well risen and lightly browned. Serve warm.
I still make mud pies, but these days they are quite edible, delicious. In fact, they are stogged full of lovely chunks of milk chocolate, sweet sticky sultanas and crunchy toasted walnuts!
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There is also a simple icing sugar glaze which gets spooned over top of the finished muffins. This is the photograph from the book I got the recipe from.
I am still struggling to find good light for my food photography. In the UK I had a specific place that worked very well for this purpose. Here its a lot more difficult, as the windows in my sister’s house are not really facing in the right direction.
Whisk flour, dry milk powder, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Cut shortening into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, about 1/2 cup at a time, until mixture resembles cornmeal. Store in an air-tight container for up to 3 months.
They refer to these in the cookbook as being muffins. I really think they are more like a cross between a muffin and a biscuit/scone type of pastry.
I would think they are more like the biscuit than the muffin, but you can make your own mind up.
I love recipes with a history and containing a bit of nostalgia. In modern times we have a tendancy to look past these types of things and judge them as being archaic and old fashioned.
Young people today are keen to embrace the new, and I don't blame them. New is good. But I think old is often better. (That is my age speaking I guess!)
It was not always so. I remember gorging myself on some from a neighbours raspberry canes when I was 10 years old. (Very naughty on my part.)
I got a tummy bug combined with being motion sick not too long after the binge. My father was hoovering the seeds from out of the carpeting in the car for years afterwards, and it was a very long time before I could face a raspberry again.
In any case I hope that you will be inspired to want to bake these lush muffins/pastries for your family. I think they are something which everyone will enjoy.
If you are not fond of raspberries I am thinking you could use blackberries or even blueberries! I think toasted flaked almonds would also be very nice baked on top! And if you used almond flavouring in the batter, they would be almost like a Bakewell type of bake! Yum!!
Raspberry Peek-A-Boos
Ingredients
- 1 cup (125g) fresh raspberries, washed and drained
- 4 TBS granulated sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 cups (240g) original bisquick baking mx
- 1/4 cup (60g) butter softened
- 2/3 cup (160ml) milk
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- pinch salt
- 1 to 2 TBS milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a 12-cup medium muffin cup really well, or line with paper liners.
- Toss the berries together in a bowl with 2 TBS of the sugar, the lemon juice, nutmeg and cinnamon.
- Combine the bisquick and remaining sugar. Drop in the butter and rub it in with your fingertips to combine. Add the milk all at once, stirring it in just until moistened.
- Spread 1 TBS of the dough into the bottom of each muffin cup. Top each with 1 TBS of the raspberry mixture. Divide the remainder of the dough equally and drop it on top of the raspberry mixture.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes.
- Whisk all of the ingredients for the glaze together, adding milk 1 TBS at a time until you have a mixture with a drizzle consistency.
- Drizzle over muffins and allow to set before serving.
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 like to think that I can be pretty thrifty. I hate waste and I try to use up every scrap of what I produce or buy foodwise. Did you know that in a recent study it was found that half of the food produced worldwide is wasted????
I know! Amazing to think of, in light of the fact that upwards of 30,000 people in the world die of starvation each day. It's mind boggling, and so very very sad.
I can remember as a child being forced to eat everything on my plate and told that there were children starving in Africa that would love to have what I had to eat. I often felt like telling my mother that if they wanted it, she was quite welcome to package whatever it was up and send it to them.
In any case, I always ate it, whether I liked it or not. I'd still be sitting at my mother's dining table had I not!
Food is wasted in incredible amounts each day, and whilst there is nothing we can do about a lot of it, we can control how much we waste ourselves in our own homes and families. I just love re-purposing food.
Things like creating tasty casseroles and dishes from leftover meats, cheeses, cakes, cookies, etc.! There is no end to what you can do with them if you just stretch beyond your comfort zone just a teensie bit.
Delicious things like this fabulous breakfast casserole which I cooked today that used up the leftover Black Pepper Biscuits that we had yesterday. You needn't use black pepper biscuits though . . . or scones . . . you can use any you wish, plain, savoury or even sweet.
(Although in the sweeter ones I might leave out the mustard and add some chopped fruit and or nuts. In the case of apple or stone fruits, some cheeses actually go very well, especially cheddar.)
It's also a good way of using up those dry ends of cheese in the fridge that would not get used otherwise. Just sayin' is all.
Yes . . . that is Maple Syrup on mine. Don't judge me. A bit of bacon would have also gone down really well . . . floppy crispy please! (NO, that is not a contradiction in terms, it's how I like my bacon . . . floppy in some parts and crisp in others.
serves 6 - 8, depending on appetites
This
is one of those delightful breakfast casseroles you put together the
night before and bake in the morning. It also works if you make it in
the morning and bake it at night for supper. Heck, I've even baked it
right away and it's always delicious! Makes great use of those leftover
biscuit (scones) you want to get used up!
6 TBS unsalted butter, melted
300g of torn biscuit (scone) pieces (about 3 heaped cups)
9 large free range eggs, beaten
16 ounces grated cheese (strong cheddar, Emmenthal, Gruyere, Blue, or
whatever cheese or combination you like)
1 1/2 to 2 TBS Dijon mustard
(The milder in flavour the cheese you have used, the more mustard you will want)
Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
750ml of milk (3 cups)
fine seasalt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Place
the biscuit bits in a large bowl. Pour the melted butter over and toss
together. Let sit for a few minutes, so that the biscuits absorb the
butter. Toss in the cheese. Beat the eggs, milk, mustard and any
seasoning you are using together in a large measure. Pour this over top
of the biscuit bits and cheese. Give it a good stir and then cover and
let sit in the refrigerator overnight (all day or not as required)
When
ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a
13 by 9 by 2 inch baking dish. Pour the mixture into the baking dish.
Cover
and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes longer, until
the eggs are set and a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Serve warm.
Note: you may scale this up or down. For each
additional biscuit, add another egg 2 tsp of butter, 1 ounce of cheese,
1/2 tsp of mustard and approximately 80ml (1/3 cup) of milk. You may
also add some chopped fresh herbs, up to 2 TBS if you so desire.
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