Lemonade scones

On this peaceful Sunday, I am bringing you a simple, quick but tasty recipe - Lemonade Scones.  I don't make scones very often because they do not keep - if you don't eat them all on day 1, they are like rocks the next day.  However, I was inspired to make scones by this very lovely advertisement for Queen vanilla, featuring the beautiful music of Thelma Plum and Indigo from Series 2 of Junior Masterchef as the baker - all Queenslanders like me:




Isn't this the loveliest ad you have seen in a long time?  They play it during The Great Australian Bakeoff, which is how I came to see it.

I had some cream and lemonade in the fridge, so rather than making lavender scones like Indigo on the ad, I made lemonade scones.  They are lighter and fluffier inside than ordinary scones:

I used this recipe by Valli Little from Taste.com.

These scones were really good - I served them solely with strawberry jam, as I didn't have any whipping cream.  Two wags asked where the cream was - I told them it's BYO cream.  It didn't seem to matter - the scones disappeared regardless.

I hope that you are all having a fabulous weekend, and that you enjoy making some scones!

FFwD - Saint-Germain-Des-Pres Onion Biscuits

This week's French Friday with Dorie had me a little confused by the word "biscuits".  You see, in Australia, a biscuit is a cookie, and a scone is an American biscuit.  Accordingly, I was anticipating savoury cookies, not savoury scones.

That said, these were quick and easy to make.  Dorie suggested a 1 1/2 inch cutter for the scones, so I used the top off my cinnamon bottle to make tiny 1 1/2 inch biscuits. They rose quite well, although that is not evident from the photo.

These are pleasant little treats which would probably go down well at a cocktail party on their own, or if made bigger in diameter, spread while hot with a smear of butter or margarine. 

You can find the recipe in Around My French Table, or online here.  I made the recipe as stated, except that I used my trusty pastry cutter to rub the flour into the butter - so much easier and less messy.

Check out what the other Dorie cooks though of these biscuits at the LYL section of the FFwD website when it is Friday in the US.

Daring Bakers - Back to Basics: Scones

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. `Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; `only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.'

From Chapter VII, A Mad Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I have now been a Daring Baker for 4 years - since January 2008.  My first Daring Bakers recipe was lemon meringue pie.  Every now and again, especially when I am time poor, I think about giving it up, but then a recipe surprises me and I keep on going. I look forward to the possibilities that this year will bring with the Daring Bakers, a group of thousands of bakers from all over the world who bake the same recipe once a month.

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

Scones are a tea time favourite in Australia, inherited from the British migrants to this country.  Traditionally, scones are served with jam and cream to make a Devonshire tea or a Cornish tea, depending on whether you put the jam or the cream on first (or so I have been told).  On my first trip to England in 2001,  I made sure that I had tea (in a pot, of course) with scones with jam and clotted cream in a small tea room in Kensington, London, somewhere close to Harrods.  It was fabulous, of course, and is a treasured memory of my trip.

Audax's recipe for scones was neither hard nor expensive, but I certainly learned a lot about scone making, despite having made scones since as far back as home economics in year eight at high school. I was pleasantly surprised by how high and fluffy the scones I made this month were:

I am scraping this in the day before it is due on the Australia Day holiday, so I haven't made any variations.  I just made Audax's basic recipe.  I froze the grated butter, I cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, I  rested the dough for twenty minutes before cutting it, I used a cold cutter, I didn't twist the cutter when cutting out the scones, and I brushed the tops with milk before baking, and baked them in the hot oven recommended.  I am not sure which element it was, or whether it was all of them, but these were the highest, fluffiest scones that I have ever made.  I was very pleased!  The only downer was that I only got three scones out of the recipe - perhaps my cutter was too big?

In the Australian/English tradition, I served my scones with jam (blueberry on this case) and whipped cream, all gussied up in little soy sauce pots from a sushi set:

Nom!

Thanks to Audax for proving that even when you think you know something, there is always more that can be learned about it.  Audax will publish the recipe on his site, if you would like to try it.  And check out the other Daring Bakers efforts at The Daring Kitchen.

TWD - Honey Nut Scones

There has been a major ramp-up of Tuesdays with Dorie recipes to two a week so that we can finish the book by the end of the year.  I am not sure that I am going to be able to continue at that pace, but for this week, I am doing it. 

One recipe for this week was chosen by Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake, who selected honey nut scones.  These are scones containing wholemeal flour (I used buckwheat flour instead) and walnuts (I used blanched almonds).

They are quite delicious:

I spread mine with Burch & Purchese Strawberry and Rose Petal Jam:

It must have been good jam, as I scoffed the entire jar in a week.

While I was at their shop in South Yarra, I also bought a White Chocolate, Honey, Raspberry and Lychee Cake:

which looks like this inside:

It was very tasty, but the $9 price tag is rather steep to make this anything but a special occasion indulgence.

Visit Jeanette's website for the scone recipe, or buy Dorie's book - I have been baking from it for over three years, even before I joined TWD, and it is good.

TWD - Basic Biscuits

Sometimes, it's good just to make something quick and easy.  So it was for this week's Tuesday with Dorie, for which Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort chose Dorie's Basic Biscuits.

For an Aussie like me, a biscuit will always be a slightly flatter version of a scone.  I spread mine with rhubarb and raspberry jam, and put cheddar cheese on another (not just any cheddar - the cheddar I made at cheesemaking classes last year):

These took mere minutes to whip up, with minimal effort.  Although Dorie loves using her hands to rub in the butter, I prefer my pastry cutter - one of the best gadgets I have ever bought.  It saves my fingers from becoming caked with goo.

I brushed the tops of my biscuits with milk before baking to brown the tops a little - I am glad that I did, as they never did become really golden.

Thanks to Jennifer for this week's mercifully easy pick.  To see what all the other TWD members thought of these biscuits, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.