Recipe Post: Peach, Vanilla and Poppy Seed Scones

Here I have for you another tried and tested recipe from the lovely National Trust Book of Scones. According to the book, these are a favourite of Grey’s Court in Oxfordshire.  I’ve not been here myself but their scone recipe is lovely!

I still haven’t quite managed the art of getting the right thickness of scone, so, more testing is required – shame!

Perfect for Summer afternoon tea, don’t worry if you don’t have fresh peaches, I used tinned and the scones were just fine!

 

 

 

What you need:

Makes 10

500g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
100g caster sugar
125g butter, cubed
3 fresh peaches, roughly chopped
1 tsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
100 ml milk

What you do:

• Preheat your oven to 190°c and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar into a mixing bowl, and then, using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
• Stir in the chopped peaches, poppy seeds and vanilla.
• Add the egg and enough milk to make a soft dough.
• Lightly flour your work surface and turn out the mixture.
• Roll to about 4cm thick and stamp out the scones using a 7cm round cutter.
• Use your scraps for re-rolling and cutting out some more! 😉
• Place on your baking sheet and brush the tops with milk.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

As suggested, I served with apricot jam and clotted cream – jam on first!

Until next time….Happy Baking!

Recipe Post: Triple Chocolate Scones

So here we have another tried and tested recipe from the National Trust’s Book of Scones.  Now readers, I followed the recipe to the letter and whilst they looked ok, they were pretty dry and needed more chocolate.  Despite smelling divine during the mixing process this didn’t translate through to the bake.  On reflection, I’m probably going to stick with the more traditional fruit based scone.  If you get better results, do let me know 🙂

 

 

 

What you need for approx 10 large scones:

500g self-raising flour
70g cocoa powder
1 heaped tsp baking powder
70g soft brown sugar
140g butter, cubed
115g white chocolate drops
115g milk chocolate drops
2 beaten eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
Approx 200ml milk

What you do:

• Preheat your oven to 190°c.  Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
• Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and sugar into a mixing bowl.
• Add the butter and rub in using your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add 75g of each of the chocolate drops and stir in.
• Make a well in the middle of the mixture, add the eggs and vanilla.
• Gradually add the milk to make a damp dough.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to about 4cm thick.
• Stamp out the scones using an 8cm cutter and place on the baking tray.  Brush the tops with milk.
• Bake for approx 16-18 minutes.
• Melt the remaining white and chocolate drops and drizzle over the scones.  This was a disaster, the chocolate would just not drizzle nicely!

I wasn’t sure what the best thing to serve chocolate scones with is – maybe clotted or whipped cream or smothered in custard so you can’t taste how dry they are 🙂 and next time I still need to roll the dough out thicker and more evenly – some of them were a little on the slim side!

Until next time…Happy Baking!

Recipe Post: Blueberry and Lemon Scones

Hey…I’m back with a novice baker baking blog on this fine Sunday! My lovely daughter bought me the National Trust Book of Scones for Christmas and this is my first tried and tested recipe from that book.

This blueberry and lemon scone recipe is a favourite of Hanbury Hall and Gardens in Worcestershire.  I visited here back in April 2015 but can’t recall if I sampled their scones.

So…is it scone to rhyme with cone, or scone to rhyme with gone?  I tend to sway to cone myself 🙂

 

What you need for approx 10 large scones:

500g self-raising flour
125g caster sugar
125 butter (diced)
Zest of 1 lemon
100g blueberries
150ml milk

To decorate, if required
100g icing sugar
Lemon juice

What you do:

• Preheat your oven to 190°c.  Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
• Sift the flour and sugar into a mixing bowl.
• Add the butter.
• With your fingertips rub together until it looks like breadcrumbs.  I tried using the dough hook on my freestanding mixer but it didn’t work so I had to use the old-fashioned method!
• Add the lemon zest and blueberries, stir in.
• Add the milk a little at a time to make a soft dough.
• Turn out onto lightly floured surface and roll out to approx 3cm thick.
• Stamp out your scones using a 7cm cutter and place on baking tray.  I brushed on a little milk here.
• Bake for approx 12 – 18 minutes until golden brown.  Mine took the full 18.
• Cool on a wire tray.
• If required, make some lemon icing by mixing the icing sugar with the lemon juice and drizzle over the cooled scones.
• Serve with a cuppa 🙂

These lightly-scented lemon scones are really delicious.  I wasn’t sure whether to serve them with butter and jam etc as you normally would a scone but I decided to go without.  Wise decision as they weren’t dry and didn’t need the butter/jam added.  Next time I need to roll the dough out thicker and more evenly – some of them were a little on the slim side!

Until next time…Happy Baking!