I grew up in the land of biscuits . . . no they were not cookie. Cookies are called biscuits over here in the UK)
Rather they were beautiful, flakey, and savoury (only very rarely sweet) quick breads quite similar in texture and flavour to what is called a scone over here.
Some might question the difference between a scone and biscuit. There has been a great deal of debate over this very topic. I would have to say as subtle as it is . . . it is there.
A scone will use butter and either cream or soured/plain milk, whereas in North America biscuits use either shortening or lard and buttermilk or plain milk, are less sweet and more savoury.
They can have things like cheese, bacon, onions/scallions and sometimes ham in them. Scones can have these things in them as well, although I would say that then they are more like biscuits than scones.
Does that make sense? I know, very confusing to say the least.
Another difference is in the way the fat is added. Here in the UK the fat is most always rubbed into the flour with the fingertips.
In North America it is "cut" in . . . using a pair of forks, two double bladed knives or a pastry blender.
Both benefit from using a light hand when preparing them. Both rise although I would have to say that Biscuits are usually flaky whilst scones have a more crumbly texture.
Biscuits are meant to be eaten hot or warm from the oven. Scones are almost always eaten cold.
I say Vive la difference! Both are beautiful and scrummy and moreishly delicious and both have their uses!
Today I baked some beautiful Black Pepper Biscuits.
I wanted to serve them with some good cheese and some of my latest batch of homemade Spicy Plum Chutney.
Oh my . . . they went down a real treat.
The biscuits were flakey, savoury and peppery, which went beautifully with the cheese and chutney. These would be great served with some smoked gammon or slices of crisp bacon as well . . . and cheese of course!
I think they would make great little chicken salad sandwiches and would also be a lovely host to egg mayonnaise!
Just look at that beautiful texture.
I just can't think of anything that wouldn't taste better sitting on top of one of these, split, buttered and warm from the oven, or a bowl of soup that wouldn't be enhanced by their presence! Enjoy!!
*Black Pepper Biscuits (Scones)
Makes 16 to 18 (2 inch) biscuits
Printable Recipe
Beautifully fluffy and peppery. Perfect to serve with chutney's, cheeses, salty meats (bacon, ham, proscuitto) or with hot soups and stews.
8 ounces plain flour (2 1/4 cups) divided
1 TBS Baking Powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 to 1 TBS freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces chilled vegetable shortening,
divided into 2 ounce lots (1/4 cup and 1/4 cup)
250ml of cold buttermilk (1 cup)
softened butter for brushing
Preheat the oven to 230*C/450*F. Lightly butter a large baking sheet. Set aside.
Remove 8/10 of an ounce of flour (1/4 cup) and set aside. Whisk the remaining flour together in a large wide bowl with the baking powder, soda, salt and black pepper. Add half of the shortening in bits and then work it into the flour using a pastry blender, two forks or two round bladed knives. The mixture should look like well crumbled feta cheese. Scatter the remainder of the shortening over top in bits and continue to work in with your fingertips, until you have no pieces which are larger than a pea. Shake the bowl occasionally to move any bigger bits up from the bottom. Do not over work.
Make a deep hollow in the centre of this mixture and add about 3/4 of the buttermilk, reserving some for later if needed. Stir in with a fork, using broad strokes to quickly pull the flour into the milk. Mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Sprinkle the remaining flour onto a clean surface. Turn the dough out onto it and turn to lightly coat. Pat lightly into a round which is 1/2 inch in depth. Brush any visible flour off the top. Cut into 2 inch rounds with a round biscuit cutter, using a sharp tap up and down, remembering not to twist the cutter. (Twisting results in a lop-sided biscuit.) You can pull the scraps back together to cut out additional biscuits. They will not be quite as tender as the first ones, but good all the same. Place onto the baking sheet, leaving some space in between each.
Bake for 6 minutes in the upper third of the oven. Rotate the pan and bake for an additional 4 to 6 minutes, until they are a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush the tops with some softened butter. Serve hot.
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I've been trying to run down the fresh goodies in my fridge and larder this week in preparation for us going on holidays soon. I never like to go away leaving much in the fridge to go off. We will only be gone for about a week, but still . . .
It's been rainy and nasty as well . . . soup weather. I sure hope that this rain doesn't go on for long! I hate to think of us spending a week up in Cumbria being totally rained in, but nevertheless . . . as Todd says, nobody comes to England for the weather!
I made us this tasty soup today for our lunch. It's adapted from a recipe I found in the October issue of Good Food Magazine. Theirs was accompanied by curried pinwheel breadrolls, but I thought that I would make curried pinwheel scones instead, coz . . . we like scones, and I didn't have any bread mix that their recipe called for in the house.
It also gave me a chance to use this handy new tool I picked up the other day when I was out. The Tala Cook's measure. I found it in Hobby Craft strangely enough! I just love it!! Internally graduated, for precise weighing of dry ingredients such as sugar, rice & flour, it makes a great alternative to a set of scales. It worked like a charm. In fact I liked it so much that I have decided to give one of you, my readers, one as a gift! It doesn't matter where you live. I'll send it anywhere. To be in on the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post and sign up as a follower. If you are already a follower, just let me know in your comment. I'll draw one of your names when I get back from my holiday and I may even throw in a special little surprise extra! Good luck everyone!
In the meantime, have some soup!
*Curried Lentil Soup*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe
Quick, easy, filling and delicious!
2 TBS curry paste (Choose your own poison according
to how strong you want it. I chose a milder one)
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
5 ounces red lentils (about 3/4 cup)
1 litre of hot vegetable stock (about 4 1/2 cups)
salt and white pepper to taste
Heat the curry paste in a saucepan for about a minute over medium heat. Add the onion. Cook and stir for a further 2 minutes until fragrant. Stir in the carrots and lentils to coat with the onions and curry paste. Pour in the hot stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 25 to 30 minutes until the lentils are tender. Blitz with a stick blender until smooth. Alternately blitz carefully in a stand blender or a food processor until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper and then serve, ladled out into heated bowls.
*Curried Pinwheel Scones*
Makes 12
Printable Recipe
Golden brown and crusty outside, meltingly tender inside, and swirled with delicious curry spice.
8 ounces flour (2 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 TBS sugar
4 ounces cold butter, cut into bits (1/2 cup)
150ml of cold milk (2/3 cup)
1 TBS Curry Paste
Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Butter a large baking sheet. Set aside.
Sift the flour into a bowl along with the salt and baking powder. Drop in the butter and rub it into the flour mixture until it resembles bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar. Stir in the milk until you have a soft dough. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead several times. Pat out into an 8 by 12 inch rectangle. Spread the curry paste all over the top. Roll up from the long side tightly, like a jelly roll. Pinch the seam closed. Using a sharp knife cut into 12 1-inch slices. Place onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving some space in between each for spreading.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. Serve hot with soup.
There are some delicious Leek, Mustard and Parsley Stuffed Jacket Potatoes over in the Cottage today.
One of my favourite things about late summer is the abundance of summer berries . . .
There's still the odd strawberry hanging about, but in truth they're mostly gone by now, but the shop shelves are now filled with beautiful Scottish and British Raspberries . . .
Lovely Blackberries from Kent . . . the hedgerows are beginning to fill up with them as well . . .
Beautiful plump Blueberries from Devon . . .
Oh such a lovely lot of berries . . . sweet and delicious and perfect for light desserts and sauces.
Beautiful desserts such as this spiced berry compote. Delicious in it's own right . . .
but equally as scrummy spooned warm over vanilla ice cream . . . the warm juices trickling down the cool vanilla mountain and mingling with it's sweet milkyness . . .
Or served cold in a bowl and topped with a dollop of softly whipped cream . . . perfect foil for it's heady richness and beautiful colours . . .
or . . . and this is the creme de la creme . . . spooned onto the bottom of a buttery fruit scone and topped with tasty dollop of Clotted Cream a la creme tea!
And . . . why not! mmm . . . mmm . . . mmm . . .
*Spiced Summer Berry Compote*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe
Rich and heady. Beautifully coloured. Simple. Perfect with some cold ice cream, vanilla of course!
400g of fruit (a generous pound) blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, tayberries etc.
(I use about half blueberries)
4 TBS caster sugar
3 TBS spiced berry squash drink mix, undiluted (can use a fruit flavoured liqueur such as framboise)
Put half of the berries (blueberries) into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Sprinkle with the sugar and the berry squash drink mix. Slowly bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer just to the point where the berries seem about to burst. Remove from the heat. Stir in the raspberries, blackberries and any other fruit you are using.
Serve warm in glasses or small bowls, or spooned over ice cream.
Delicious also spooned between fruited scones along with a nice dollop of clotted cream. The ultimate in a cream tea!
What can be better than some lovely scones on a late afternoon . . . all short and buttery . . .
flakey and tender . . .
There are sweet scones, just perfect with jam or marmalade, and a nic ehot cuppa . . . and then there are savoury ones, just right for serving on their own, or with breakfast or lunch or supper on the side.
I like them both equally. Both are lovely . . . but how can you improve on perfection??? How indeed!!
By stogging some savoury scones full of cheese and then baking them, that's how!
Lovely savoury scones, with a bit of crunch from the polenta, but short and flakey and filled with Double Gloucester Cheese . . . oozing out when you bit into them . . . perfect with soups, or stews . . .
Chili Con Carne . . . salads, or even on their own. This is my best idea yet, I think! Very moreish!
*Cheese Filled Cornmeal Scones*
Makes 12
Printable Recipe
Short and scrummy and stogged full of lovely oozing Double Gloucester Cheese!
7 ounces plain flour (1 1/2 cups)
2.5 ounces coarse polenta (1/2 cup cornmeal)
1 TBS baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
3 ounces cold white vegetable shortening (Trex or Crisco)
125ml of whole milk
125ml of sour cream
4 ounces Double Gloucester Cheese, cut into 12 cubes (Can use Colby or Monterey Jack Cheese)
Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Dust a baking sheet lightly with flour. Set aside.
Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder. Whisk in the salt and cornmeal. Drop in the fat and rub it in lightly with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the Cayenne pepper and the onions. Beat together the sour cream and milk. Stir into the flour mixture with a fork, using only as much as you need to form a soft dough. (You may or may not need it all.) Do not overmix.
Dump onto the baking sheet and knead lightly about 10 times. Pat our into a 12 by 8 inch rectangle. Using a pizza cutter for ease, or a sharp knife, cut the rectangle into 12 (4 by 2 inch) smaller rectangles. Place a cube of cheese about 3/4 of an inch from one short edge. Moisten the edges all around with water and then fold the dough over the cheese to form a 2 inch square. Firmly pinch the edges all the way around to enclose. Spread out on the baking sheet.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until well risen and lightly browned. Serve warm. Store any leftovers, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.
Note - You can reheat any leftover scones by wrapping in foil and heating in a 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4 oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until heated through.
I love bread for breakfast . . . muffins, tea breads, pancakes, waffles and tasty little gems like this recipe here today.
Delicious Cherry Granola Breakfast Buns.
A drop type of scone, all short and buttery . . . each crumbly buttery mound filled with delicious cherry preserves and topped with some crunchy granola. Baked until golden brown and then glazed with a delicious vanilla icing drizzle.
Oh so good! Sweet and savoury at the same time, with some crunch and meltingly buttery goodness.
What's not to like??
Oh, and did I remember to tell you that they are quick as a wink to make, easy and you can have them on the table in about 20 minutes???
Well . . . You can! Go on . . . what you waiting for??? Your family will thank you for them!
*Cherry Granola Breakfast Buns*
Makes 12
Printable Recipe
Buttery drop scones, filled with cherry preserves and granola crumbles, and then glazed with a delicious vanilla drizzle. Yummo!
8.5 ounces plain flour (2 cups)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 TBS caster sugar
3/4 tsp salt
8 TBS butter, melted
250ml of cold buttermilk (1 cup)
cherry fruit preserves
1 crisp granola bar crumbled (I used Nature's Valley honey and oat)
to glaze:
2 heaped dessertspoons of icing sugar
milk
vanilla
Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 6. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and sugar. Stir together the melted butter and cold buttermilk. Stir this into the flour mixture. You should have a somewhat sticky dough of dropping consistency. Drop this mixture by heaped tablespoonful's onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving some space inbetween for spreading. You should get 12 mounds.
Using the back of a wet teaspoon, make a shallow hollow in the centre of each. Drop a scant teaspoon of cherry preserves into each hollow. Sprinkle some of the crumbled granola bar over each.
Bake for about 15 minutes, until browned on the bottoms and golden on the tops. Remove from the oven. Allow them to cool for a few minutes.
Whisk together the icing sugar along with a few drops of milk and vanilla, to make a drizzable consistency glaze. Drizzle over top of the breakfast buns. Serve while still warm. Store any leftovers in an airtight container. Reheat briefly in the microwave before serving. (Not too long as you don't want the jam to get too hot, about 15 to 20 seconds should do the trick.)
It was a little cool today and so Todd wanted me to make him some soup for lunch. I didn't do anything special, just opened a couple of tins of Bean and Bacon Soup. He loves that kind.
I did want to make something special to go along with it though, just to lift lunch up out of the ordinary. I love making savoury muffins and breads to go along with soup. They help to make even a simple meal of tinned soup extra-ordinary!
I love foccaccia and I found a recipe for some little mini foccaccia in one of my cookerybooks. It used refrigerated biscuits though . . . and I didn't want to use them. Those types of things are not readily available over here, and I think homemade always tastes better.
I decided to make a scone type of dough, because it would be quick and then apply the topping to that.
I used the plain scone dough recipe from the Bero baking book, and then cut the dough into 2 inch rounds. I then flattened the rounds out to about 3 1/2 inch rounds about 1/4 inch thick. Then I dimpled the top with my fingers and applied a beautiful herby olive oil mixture and some pine nuts.
Wow! These were fantastic! They were nice and crisp around the edges and so flavourful! We just loved them!
I can see great possibilities for this. Perhaps next time I will try a sun-dried tomato pesto on top! That sounds really good, don't you think???
Quick, easy and very, VERY tasty! I do hope you will give them a try!!
*Mini Scone Foccaccia Breads*
Makes 10 (3-inch) foccaccia breads
Printable Recipe
Lovely little flattish scones that are wonderfully herby, buttery and fantastic with soups and stews!
225g self raising flour (a scant 2 cups)
pinch salt
3 1/2 TBS of butter
enough milk to make a soft dough
For the topping:
a large handful of basil leaves (about a loose cup)
a small handful of fresh thyme (about 1/4 loose cup)
2 fat cloves, of garlic, peeled and mashed
60 ml of extra virgin olive oil (1/4 cup)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 TBS of pinenuts
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Lightly butter a large baking sheet. Set aside.
To make the herby oil, place the basil, thyme, garlic and olive oil into a blender. Blitz until fairly smooth. You do not want big chunks of anything. Season to taste with some salt and pepper. Set aside.
Measure the flour into a bowl. Add the salt. Drop in the butter and rub it in with your fingertips until you have fine crumbs. Stir in enough milk to make a soft dough with a fork. Pat out on a lightly floured surface to about half in thick. Cut into 2 inch rounds with a sharp cutter. Press the rounds out to about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Place onto the baking sheet leaving some space inbetween each. Dimple over the tops with your fingertips. Brush each with some of the herbed oil. Sprinkle with pinenuts and then bake for 12 to 15 minutes until lightly browned on the bottoms and crisp around the edges. Serve warm.
There is nothing more beautiful, both to look at and to smell than gorgeous English Lavender. Down in Norfolk they have fields and fields of the stuff.
When we lived in the cottage down in Kent, the whole back of the house was flanked with beautiful lavender and during the lavender season, you could scarce move without being assaulted by it's beautiful smell. I have spent many an afternoon sitting out on the patio watching the bumblebees bumble from bloom to bloom. Such a pretty sight.
We have lavender here at our house in Chester as well, albeit not as much and it is just ready to burst into bloom, several weeks ahead of it's usual season . . . but that is result of the unusually warm April we had I think . . . Each year when it grows I am careful to harvest some of it to be used in our dresser drawers to help to keep our clothing fresh, and to lay amongst our sheets, pillow slips and towels in the linen closet as well. It smells just beautiful. More gets saved and put into bowls here and there in the house to keep the air fresh and yet more gets stuffed into jars of sugar to be used in delicious baked goods such as these lovely scones.
You might think that with a smell such as strong as lavender can be, that it would overwhelm the flavours of things that are baked with it . . . but you would be completely wrong.
The lavender sugar in these scones gives them a subtle fruit flavour and scent, and goes so very wonderfully with fresh lemon curd or preserves.
Make it a wonderfully different teatime treat by baking these lovely scones. Keep them guessing as to what your secret ingredient is. Buttery, subtly scented, with a lovely little crunch.
You can use storebought lemon curd of course . . . but making your own is really quite easy. I have a recipe here. It's wonderful! I think you'll find it will come in handy for all sorts.
*English Lavender Buttermilk Scones*
Makes about a dozen
Printable Recipe
These delightfully buttermilk scones are infused with lavender sugar and go very well with my homemade lemon curd, or preserves for a special Spring tea.
225g of self raising flour (scant 2 cups)
1 tsp baking powder
50g of unsalted butter, cut into bits (1/4 cup)
75g of lavender sugar (see below) (scant 1/2 cup)
150ml of buttermilk (5 fluid ounces)
salt
To serve:
your choice of lemon curd or preserves
Preheat the oven to 220*C/ 425*F/ gas mark 7. Butter a baking sheet. Set aside.
Stir the flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Drop in the butter bits and rub them in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar. Add the buttermilk, and stir in with a fork, only adding enough to create a soft dough. Tip out onto a floured board and knead a few times before patting out to a 1/2 inch thickness. Cut out into rounds with a 2 1/2 inch round cutter. Place onto the baking sheet leaving plenty of space in between for spreading. Brush with some more buttermilk.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack before serving with your favourite spread.
To make your own lavender sugar:
Press two of three clean sprigs of fresh lavender, or a couple of TBS of lavender buds which you can buy in the spice section, into a jar of caster sugar and leave for at least 24 hours before using. Use pesticide free blooms, and wash and dry them before using.
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