TWD - Blueberry Biscuits

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Blueberry Biscuits. These delicious scones contain yoghurt and juicy blueberries.

I brushed the tops of my scones with milk as well as sprinkling them with sugar to make the tops golden brown.

These scones are truly scrumptious served fresh out of the oven and slathered with butter.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

 

TWD - Tender Biscuits

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Tender Biscuits.

In Australia, we’d call these scones - and they are seriously good ones. I had mine with apricot jam and cheese.

The secret to these biscuits is that they contain yoghurt, which makes them tangy and light.

To see what everyone else made and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Potato Flake Biscuits

 

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Potato Flake biscuits. These biscuits are a savoury scone containing instant potato mash flakes, herbs, parmesan and paprika.

I am not usually a savoury scone fan, but these were very tasty. I made a half batch of dough, which produced three large biscuits.

I liked them just as they are with nothing on them. I also liked them as a vehicle for a breakfast sandwich with cheese, egg and spinach.

I would make these again.

To see what everyone else made and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Cheddar-Scallion Scones

 This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Cheddar-Scallion Scones. These scones are flavoured with cheddar, scallions, mustard powder and paprika.

They are the perfect savoury scone, with plenty of zip from the spices, cheese and scallions.

I made one of my scones into a sandwich with tomato kasundi, spinach, beetroot, silverside and a fried egg. It made a delicious lunch.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section if the TWD website.

TWD - Iced Honey-Apple Scones

 Today’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Iced Honey-Apple Scones with Spelt. In my case, the scones are sans spelt, as I replaced it with wholemeal flour.

These are not like any scones I know - they are more like little apple cakes, and they remind me of the apple cakes you buy from old fashioned bakeries in Australia.

I think I would have preferred these scones without the icing, as they are already quite sweet from the honey in them.

I made a half recipe to yield six scones.

To see what everyone else made this week, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Buttermilk Scones

 This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Buttermilk Scones. As the name suggests, these scones are made with buttermilk rather than straight milk (though I cheated and just used soured milk instead).

This scone recipe is different to what I am used to as it contains egg. This made the scone dough rather sticky, and I had to use more flour than the recipe suggested to get anything resembling a workable dough. I also found that the finished product did not rise like a typical scone, presumably because of the texture of the dough.

The end result was perfectly edible (see photo), but it won’t be my go to scone recipe.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Cottage Cheese Biscuits

This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Cottage Cheese Biscuits - aka scones.  As the name suggests, these scones contain cottage cheese.  It is meant to give them tang, but I couldn't really detect it. 

 Regardless, this is a nice scone recipe.  They tasted fine the next day without reheating.  I topped mine with jam and cheese, as shown.  

I'd happily  make this recipe again.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Rose’s Creamy Ginger Scones

 

I recently made Rose's Ginger Scones from The Bread Bible. These scones are made with whipped cream (I subbed natural yoghurt), crystallised ginger and ground ginger.  

These scones are not at all like the scones that I am used to - triangular instead of round, flattish instead of tall, a sticky dough and  quite sweet.  They taste good though, and are more like a cake or a biscuit than a scone from my perspective.

You can find the recipe for Rose's ginger scones online here, if you'd like to give them a burl.  

The Hairy Bikers‘ Pogacsa (Hungarian Cheese and Bacon Scones)

Recently on SBS Food, they showed The Hairy Bikers Bakeation, where  the Hairy Bikers rode and ate their way through Europe. (Yep, this show is 13 years old, but I have never seen it before.)  They made a number of fabulous looking dishes along the way, inspired by the countries they were visiting.  

I was taken with a number of the dishes the Hairy Bikers made, but one which particularly caught my eye was Pogacsa (Bacon or Crackling Scones), from Hungary.  Crispy bacon is mixed with sour cream, caraway seeds, parmesan cheese and the usual scone ingredients to create these tasty, filling scones:

A pogacsa spread with butter while it is still warm is just the ticket for breakfast:

If you would like to make your own pogacsa, you will need:

60ml milk
1 sachet dried yeast (~7g)
250g chopped bacon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
500g plain flour
2 tablespoons grated parmesan
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
120g butter
120ml sour cream
2 beaten eggs
1 egg beaten with a splash of water for egg wash

Heat the milk gently until it is just lukewarm, then stir in the yeast.  Set aside for 15 minutes or so to allow the yeast to froth the milk.

Fry the bacon until crisp, then remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, parmesan and caraway seeds in a medium bowl.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the sour cream, beaten eggs, bacon and milk mixture.  Pour the liquid ingredients into a large bowl, then add the dry ingredients, in several batches, and mix with a spoon and then your hands until everything is well combined.

Turn the dough out onto a floured bench and knead with your hands until the dough is smooth and elastic (~ 5 minutes).  Put the dough into a well oiled bowl and leave to rise for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

Turn the dough back out onto the floured bench and punch it down, then press or roll it out to ~ 1 1/2 inches in thickness.  Cut out rounds from the dough using a scone cutter, and place onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.  Make a cross-cross pattern on the top of each scone using a sharp knife, then allow the scones to rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.  Brush the top of each scone with eggwash, then bake the scones  for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Serve warm spread with lashings of butter.  

The Best Cream Scones - Red Tractor, September

The tradition of afternoon teas comprised of scones with jam and cream and a pot of tea makes for fond memories.  I was brought up with this tradition, and even now, it feels like a special and genteel affair.

Scones are a staple at every country show (and the very urban shows!), both as part of the baking competition and served by the reliable ladies at the CWA Pavilion.  They are also the bane of every home economics student - in a less enlightened era, all the girls at my school had to do "home ec" in Grade 8, and I hated it.  Every high tea tray in Australia also features scones, regardless of the other components of the tea tray.

I have swapped the tea for coffee a year or so ago, but I still love good scones (preferably served warm) with jam and cream.  

This month's Red Tractor calendar recipe pays homage to this tradition by serving up a recipe for The Best Cream Scones, by implication to be served with a pot of piping hot tea:

I cannot confirm whether these are "the best" cream scones, but I can confirm that they are very good indeed.  I am not much of a scone maker, and my scones have a nasty tendency to be flat, but these rose a treat - high and fluffy, nicely browned on top, with plenty of surface area for lashings of jam and cream.  They were just perfect in my eyes.

To make The Best Cream Scones, you will need:

4 cups self-raising flour (or plain flour dosed with baking powder, like me)
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon icing sugar
1 1/4 cups thickened cream
1 1/4 cups water

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

Place all of the ingredients together in a large bowl and knead together to combine.  Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and roll or push out to a 3cm thickness.  (Note - I needed to add some more flour, as my dough was too sticky to cut.  There is no exact science - you need to do it by feel.)

Using a round biscuit cutter or a sharp edged glass, cut as many scones out of the dough as possible, pushing back together and repeating with any leftover dough (but be careful not to work too much as it will make the scones tough).

Place the scones on a lined baking tray, and brush the tops with milk.  Bake the scones in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

Remove the scones from the oven and wrap them in a tea towel so that they stay soft.

Serve the scones with jam of your choosing and whipped cream.

Date and Ginger Scones

When I saw Lorraine's Incredibly Soft Date and Ginger Scones, I knew I had to make them.  I love dates and I love ginger, so what could be better than both of them together.

I didn't use the maple glaze, as I thought the scones were lovely without it.  Mine aren't as golden as Lorraine's because I have a very strange oven that has the heat emanating from the bottom only, so you are likely to burn the bottom of things before they'd get golden on top.

These scones were delicious, nonetheless. I especially enjoyed the one I ate warm with melting butter on top.

If you like scones and are a fan of dates and ginger, I highly recommend these lovely scones. 

Green Grass Scones

July's Red Tractor calendar recipe is Green Grass Scones.  Here is the quote of the month, this time from C S Lewis: 

I was a bit dubious when I read the recipe for these scones.  They are savoury scones with cheddar and feta cheeses, rocket (arugula) and cayenne pepper.  However, when I tasted one of these scones fresh out of the oven, slathered with butter, I was sold.  They are delish, and I love the kick from the cayenne.

To make these scones, you will need:

4 cups self-raising flour
(or just add baking powder to plain flour as per the tin)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 large handfuls rocket (arugula), roughly chopped
2 cups grated tasty cheese
2-3 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese
300ml cream
300ml soda water

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and line a large baking tray with baking paper.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne in a large mixing bowl.  Stir in the rocket and cheeses.

Combine the cream and soda water in a jug.  Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour the liquid ingredients into the well. Mix with a knife until just combined.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly, then shape into a rough rectangle about 4cm thick.   

Cut the dough into 20 square pieces, place on the baking tray, brush the tops with a little milk, and bake until puffed and golden (around 15-20 minutes).

To serve, split open the scones and slather with butter. 
 

Scones for Australia's Biggest Morning Tea!

On Thursday this week, it was the official day for Australia's Biggest Morning Tea, the fundraiser for the Australian Cancer Council.  Our work hosted a morning tea on the day, and we had a smashing turnout, raising $660 all up.

I knew lots of other people were bringing baked sweets, so I mainly steered clear of those for my contribution.  Instead, to even up the offerings, I bought party pies and sausage rolls, and made scones with jam and cream.    Most people like these salt of the earth Aussie favourites, so I figured they wouldn't go to waste.

To make the scones, I used Margaret Fulton's scone recipe, which you can find here.  You can watch Margaret herself make them here.

Here is a shot of our morning tea nearly all set up, but before it started:

And here are the tables of goodies - you can see some of my scones at the back of the first table (all made up for ease of eating):

Two of my favourite dishes were Elena's salted caramel and popcorn cheesecake:

and Wayne's sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce:

Here is an action shot of our morning tea - it was a very pleasing turnout:

If you are in Australia, there is still time to host your own Biggest Morning Tea (before the end of June) - visit the Australia's Biggest Morning Tea website to register. 

Orange-Cranberry Scones

The New York Times recently featured a recipe for orange-currant scones which sounded exceptionally good, and  I duly printed out the recipe for future reference.

Cue a shopping day with my friend E, who likes scones, and I thought that I would make them for her.  As you know, scones should be eaten on the day they are made, so I made them on the morning that I was going to meet E.  I only had a short time in which to make them, leading inevitably to a time pressure disaster.

First, I couldn't find any plain flour in the cupboard and thought I'd run out.  I was mistaken - I had simply put all of the flour into glass jars to try and eradicate a case of pantry moths, but forgotten about it.  Unfortunately, I did not remember in time to make the scones, so I frantically turned to alternatives in my cupboard.

I had a bag of coconut flour and thought that I would use this to make the scones instead.  Umm, except that I forgot that coconut flour does not contain gluten, which is necessary to make scones. After substituting the plain flour with an equal quantity of coconut flour, I ended up with a crumbly mess.

To try and rescue the situation, I added a cup of self raising flour (yep, I had some of that) and an extra quarter cup of milk to the mixture.  (Note that I used milk, not cream, in my scones.) Miraculously, it formed  dough that stuck together.  Instead of currants, I used dried cranberries in my scones.

The scones were duly baked and cut and topped with lemon curd:

The verdict - my concoction made scones, albeit a little drier than I am used to.  They were also more crumbly and did not travel well, so E only got a few scones.  However, if you are not travelling with the scones, my substitutions are perfectly serviceable, if you want a scone with a coconut flavour and a different texture to the norm.

What I loved about these scones was the orange-cranberry flavour combination.  Whether you make them in the way you are supposed to, or make some experimental substitutions like me, these scones have a delicious flavour from the fruit, and are definitely worth a burl.

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.  

TWD - Chestnut scones

This week, it's more scones on Tuesday with Dorie.  Andrea of Andrea in the Kitchen selected Dorie's Chestnut Scones.

These scones were my favourite to date, as the chestnut flour gave these scones a subtly unique flavour that you would never identify if you didn't know what was in the scones.

I served these scones with raspberry jam - a delicious taste combination.

To check out some more chestnut scones, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.  Andrea will have the recipe, or buy the book.

Now excuse me, I am off to nibble on another scone ...