One of my favourite things that I love about Easter are Hot Cross Buns. It has been ever so, since I was a child. What a treat they have always been . . . sweetly spiced and studded with fruit and citrus, with those little icing crosses piped along the tops!
They are a bit fussy to make and involved a lot of time, and so sometimes I just like to make hot cros scones instead. Nobody really complains. Actually I have both to hand. I like to make a hot cross bun and butter pudding after Easter, and only a hot cross bun will do for that . . . but we also like to enjoy these over the holidays, with a nice hot drink.
They are quick and easy to make and incredibly tasty . . .
With just the right amount of fruit and spice . . .
With the lovely short buttery texture that we love in scones . . .
Just look at how nice and high they rise! Seriously flaky!
With just the right amount of icing piped across the tops for that sweet touch we love. These truly are beautiful. To enjoy on Easter morning, or in the afternoon with a hot drink. You can't lose!
*Hot Cross Scones*
Makes 8
few TBS cream for brushing
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F. gas mark 6. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper. Set aside.
Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder, allspice and cinnamon Stir in the orange peel, salt and sugar. Drop in the butter. Rub it in with your finger tips using a snapping motion until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the fruit. Whisk together the egg and cream. Stir this mixture into the with a fork until it starts to form a soft dough. Tip onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently a few times until you have a smooth mixture. Pat the dough out to 1 inch thickness. Stamp into rounds using a 3 inch round cutter. Try not to twist the cutter or your scones will be lopsided. Sharp up and down tap will do the job nicely. Place evenly spaced apart on the baking sheet. Brush the tops with some cream and then bake the scones in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
To make the icing for the crosses, whisk the icing ingredients together until smooth and thick. Spoon a cross onto each scone. Let stand to set the icing before serving. Delicious!
Todd enjoys his spread with a bit of butter. He can afford the calories. I cannot, but that's not a problem because they are tasty enough for me even without any butter! Bon Appetit!
When I was a child, with the exception of bananas, oranges and apples, and berries during berry season, most of the fruit we ate came in tins. We did not mind and I still do not mind. I like tinned fruit. I was really excited recently to discover these new fridge packs from the people at Dole!
Available in resealable fridge packs these are easy to store and there is no hunting for the tin opener or a plastic container to pop the leftovers into. You just tear off the top, spoon out what you want and then a handy zip lock top allows for resealing and popping into the refrigerator. They also take up a lot less room in the cupboard. I think they are fabulous. I've been buying them for a few months now and I really like them!
Its the same delicious fruit we have always enjoyed, but it just got easier. Easier works for me! Hey, when you were a child did you all try to have one of the few cherries in the tin? We did! There never seemed to be enough to go around! That wouldn't have been a problem with this pack I opened today. There was plenty of cherries in it. Oh I do love me some mixed fruit with cherry in juice. Yum!
Simply fruit in juice, is available in Slices Peaches, Mixed Fruit with Cherry, Prunes, and Pineapple Chunks. Deliciously ripe and convenient!
They have also recently come out with resealable frozen fruit packs are available as raspberries, Tropical Gold Pineapple Chunks, Blueberries, Sliced Strawberries, Triple Berry and Tropical Mix.
These new products take the peeling, chopping and general mess out of the smoothie-making, home-baking, breakfast-prepping or just general snacking occasions. They're great!
Note - I was sent a few packs to use, but in all truth I was already using them and like them. I was not required to write a positive review. Any and all opinions are entirely my own.
Garden Tomb Cookies. These easy delicious cookies are the perfect make for the children for Easter treats, plus they help to teach them for the reason for the season in a most delicious way.
I saw something similar to this on Pinterest one day last week, but could not find any instructions and so I decided to try to make them myself and write things out clearly so that other people could make them too.
Whoever it was that did the original ones I thank you for the Inspiration!
There was no internet to inspire me when my children were growing up. No craft Television.
No cooking television, etc. We had Madame Benoit on Take 30 and Wok with Yan and Julia Child, all great cooks, but nobody did things like this.
For this type of inspiration I would have relied on family magazines such as Chatelaine, or Women's Day, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping.
And I would have had to have the money to buy them. Young mums today are so very blessed to have the wealth of inspirational resources that they have at their fingertips!
If you are a religious family, and we happen to be, the making of these would make a great family activity.
It would provide a great opportunity for you to create them together with your children and talk about the Easter Story. And then you could eat the when you were done.
They are very easy to assemble and I can't think of any child that would not enjoy this activity and get something out of learning about the Resurrection Story.
You can find a picture story of it here if you are interested.
We have a family that lives not too far of us. They have three lovely children.
These children were kind enough to bring my husband some get-well cards a few month back and a small stuffed toy for comfort.
These cookies are destined for them. I know they will appreciate them!
It is at times like this that I miss having my grandchildren close by. These are things we could be doing together, but alas, at least I have these children around the corner!
You have to count your blessings where you find them!
These are really easy to make and cute when they are done.
I had fun planning and making them. I hope you will too!
*Garden Tomb Cookies*
Makes 16
(I used Jammie Dodgers, which have 8 in each pack)
(you want a double cookie that has a hole in the top
cookie that resembles the door to the tomb.)
16 flat round cookies (I used Digestives,
but Social Tea would also work. You just want a
plain flat round cookie)
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When I was younger I used to collect those small magazines that they always kept in the grocery store around the tils. They were usually put out by companies like Pillsbury and Betty Crocker. I still have a lot of them, and every once in a while I will revisit them and see a recipe I wouldn't mind trying.
Of course because I live in the UK and don't have access to a lot of the products used, I end up having to adapt them to what I do have and make these things from scratch, but that's okay. I don't mind.
They've only just started getting cake mixes over here. There is Vanilla, Coffee, Carrot, Lemon and Devil's Food. In all truth I would rather bake a cake from scratch though. There always seems to be a bit of an artificial flavour to cake mix cakes.
I don't like buying store bought cakes either. They are always dry. Homemade cakes is the way to go. But this is neither cake, nor store bought. It is bread. Cheesy Pesto Bread.
Adapted from a recipe I found in one of those little recipe magazines, entitled Picnics, by Betty Crocker, published in 1999. They are recipes for picnics and camping. I am doing neither of those, but I do have an oven which I thought would bake this tasty bread in perfectly.
The original recipe called for a French Loaf. I used an olive ciabatta loaf, or slipper bread. I thought it might end up tasting a bit like pizza . . . what with the sun dried tomato pesto and the mozzarella cheese. If I make it again, and I think I will, I am going to add some cheddar and maybe some chopped ham, bacon or pepperoni. Now, that would be excellent!
*Cheesy Pesto Bread*
Serves 6
Cut the bread diagonally into 1/2 inch slices, cutting almost all the way through, but leaving intact on the bottom. Lift the loaf onto the centre of the aluminium foil. Spread both sides of the slices of bread with the pesto. Sprinkle with the cheese. Wrap in the foil to cover. I try to leave as much space around the bread as possible.
Just look at that ooze. This would go great with pasta or for snacking on while you watch the football match, or hockey play-offs! Or even for a teenagers party. Quick and simple to make and quite delicious. Bon Appetit!
Have you tried the New Oreo Thins? Oreos have always been one of my favourite cookies. I like the traditional black and whites . . . that crisp chocolate cookie, that almost mint flavoured cream filling. With a glass of milk, you almost can't get any better than that. Very moreish!
And I don't think I am alone in feeling that way either. We love Oreos. They come in a variety of flavours now, and recently they have come out with Oreo Thins, which is like Oreo Cookie's thinner sister. They come in two varieties so far . . . the traditional ones and the chocolate filled ones.
I was sent a couple boxes to try, but in all truth I had already tried them. (A bit of honesty here!) I loved them. If there is any problem with them at all it would be that you might want to eat twice as many of them . . . you know, like potato chips . . . you can't eat just one, right?
Same delicious flavours. Same crisp cookie. They come two packs to a box and lets face it . . . you open one of the packs and before you know it, its gone. If I was a super-hero, one of my super-hero powers would not be self-control.
Note - although I was sent these cookies free of charge for the purpose of reviewing them, I was not required to write a positive review. They quite simply have always been my favourite cookie. They still are. Any and all opinions are completely my own.
I wanted to bake a treat for Todd this weekend. He's suffering some side effects now from the radio-therapy and I wanted to make him something very tasty that he would enjoy.
He has always been a huge fan of cherries and cakes with cherries. He also loves shortbreads. So I baked him some Cherry Almond Cookies!
These are one of his favourite cookies that I make and no small wonder. They melt in your mouth!
I like them too because they are simple to make and the recipe doesn't make a ton. Only 25 perfect, buttery, crisp, moreishly delicious cookies.
You melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the rest of the ingredients to make a soft dough, which you then roll into balls and space out on a baking sheet.
Pressed down lightly with the palm of your hand and topped with a cherry, you then bake them until they are golden brown.
The almond drizzle is my own addition. to this recipe which I adapted from a small book I have, entitled Cookie Jar by Love Food.
*Cherry Almond Cookies*
Makes 25
Deliciously moreish and not hard on the eyes! These please on many levels. Bon Appetit!
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!
As a Type 2 Diabetic I really struggle with baking. I love to bake and I love to eat, which is probably what got me in this situation in the first place, combined with an hereditary disposition towards developing Diabetes. Sweet baked treats are not something I am able to enjoy a full slice of anymore. Its tough to live in a world where everyone else can eat the cake and you can't!
This is particularly difficult during the holidays. They are the worst times of all. Everyone around you is enjoying chocolate and cakes and cookies and pies and you sit and munch on carrot sticks. There is just NO comparison. No comparison at all. Carrot sticks just DON'T cut the mustard!
In the most recent issue of Healthy Food they have concentrated on reducing the sugar in the diet and included in that was a recipe for an Orange Yogurt Drizzle Cake. It looked really nice, and came in at less than 100 calories a slice (93) and with virtually no sugar (0.9g per serving).
I've done low/no sugar before and it has been a largely disappointing exercise in futility.
Now, I know I should have done this the first time exactly as written, with oranges, etc. But I did not have any orange. I do always have plenty of lemons however and so I threw caution to the wind and flew by the seat of my pants, adding lemon zest to the batter and a small amount of lemon extract.
Lemon cake is one of my favourite flavours of cake, even more so than chocolate. It usually takes a lot of sugar to contrast the tartness of lemon however and so I had almost resigned myself to not being able to enjoy anything naturally lemony again.
I am happy to say that this cake turned out quite nicely! It is light and a bit spongy, but you would expect that from this type of cake, which is essentially a chiffon type of cake. These types of cakes rely mostly on the air that you beat into the eggs for their lift.
The original recipe had a yoghurt topping. I didn't want that. I wanted something a bit more traditional and so I opted to make a lemon drizzle using some of the same sweetener and some fresh lemon juice which I soaked into the cake while it was still quite warm.
Nothing sugary to decorate it either . . . just some wafer flowers from Dr Oetker, which add a touch of nice without adding anything too bad for you. In short, they looked really pretty.
And the cake? Well, you can judge for yourself. I thought it was quite nice and had a beautiful crumb and texture, without any discernable taste from the sweetener. It also tasted nice and lemony.
*Low Sugar Lemon Drizzle Cake*
Makes 8 servings
Will it ever really take the place of real cake? No, I don't think anything but a "real" cake can do that with proper sugar, etc. Much the same as no matter how much they try to convince you that gluten free goodies are as good as baked goods that contain wheat, they never quite manage to do it. But it is nice to know that I can have at something that is, at the very least, a little bit closer to the real thing . . .
It was actually quite, quite tasty. I think adding the lemon drizzle was a bit of genius on my part. Bon Appetit!
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