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 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
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!
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