Peachy

I've become rather addicted to scones recently. I've started using them as my go-to breakfast option when we don't have any bread. I think it's because the cricket season makes me want high tea with scones and strawberry jam. There'll be plenty of time for that later in the summer, so at the moment I'm doing a bit of experimenting.

We don't have an indulgent breakfast every week, but probably once a month I decide it's time to celebrate a lazy Sunday with a spot of baking.

Another reason that I decided we should have scones was because I was desperate to try one of my newest jam recipes. Yes, it's that time again, I've started on the preserving kick! I had a flurry in January with the marmalade season, and then a few chutneys got tried, but then I tailed off a little. Partly because there is less fruit around at the tail end of winter, but mostly because I ran out of jars! However, good friends of ours recently - and very kindly indeed - donated their kilner and preserving jars to us. With two little ones now they rarely have time to watch children and boiling sugar, so things were handed over to me. How lovely is that!Remember I alluded to a big project coming up? Well this jam may well be part of it, and I wanted to test it, and more importantly I wanted the resident North London Kitchen taster to try it. What better way to do that than to have it on fresh hot scones.So I whipped up a batch of sour cherry and vanilla scones and we ate them in the sunshine topped with my new peach and mango jam. I'm not sure which went down better, the scones or the preserve!I won't share the jam recipe just yet, but I do recommend the scones. They are light and fluffy and a little too indulgent for breakfast, so call it brunch and no-one will notice!
Sour Cherry Vanilla Scones: Makes 4

4 oz of Self-raising flour
1 oz cold butter
3/4 oz sugar
1tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
handful dried sour cherries.
Cold milk.

Preheat the oven to 200C, line a baking tray.

Put the flour, sugar, soda and tartar in a bowl and combine. Then rub in the cold butter. Add the sour cherries, and then the vanilla, and enough milk to just make a dough (probably about a tablespoon, or a little more). Roll out the dough - but not too thin, as it won't rise much, so bare this in mind. I make mine pretty thick. Cut our four rounds. Place on the baking tray and bake for 1o mins. Rest for as long as you can hold out, then cut and top with your favourite jam.

On a lemony roll, or should I say scone?

The wonderful goodness of the recent Meyer lemon experiments got me thinking about how I don't actually bake enough purely with lemon. I adore lemons and yet searching through the recipes I've made and posted I think there are only a couple that actually use lemon as the main flavour, and that's just not right.

So when I found us without bread for breakfast on Sunday morning I couldn't resist making something with lemon again. I hunted out the amazing scone recipe that has been handed down from my grandmother, to my mother and now to me, and decided that the light texture and wonderfully quick and easy recipe would match perfectly with my desire for lemon and growling impatient stomach.

This time I used a normal lemon, but I think the sharpness was just what I needed as I find things that are too sweet a bit much in the morning. I made a half match which wielded four triangular scones (rolling and using round cutters was just too much), perfect with coffee for Sunday breakfast. We were having brunch as it happened so these scones were added to other things, and so got a dash of maple syrup across them. Oh yes, do that, it's lovely.

These are some seriously delicious scones, so be warned you might scoff them all in one sitting without noticing. I'm so glad I only made four. Oh, and they really don't keep well so you just have to eat whatever you've made in one day. I wish I could lie and say that's a shame, but it really isn't!

Lemon Scones - makes four (but can easily be doubled or tripled for more)

4 oz self-raising flour
3/4 oz caster sugar
1 oz butter
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
zest of two small lemons, or to taste (I like mine pretty lemony)

Preheat the oven to 230C and line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone

Mix all the ingredients together, rubbing the butter into the flour so it becomes like crumbs. Add enough milk to make a dough. Roll out into a rectangle (don't roll too thin as they won't rise much) then cut across the diagonals to make four triangular scones.

Place the scones on the baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes (until they are just golden). Serve slightly warm with a tiny drizzle of maple syrup, or opened with lashing of butter and lemon jelly.

See, I told you it was easy!

p.s. I'm a little slow on the uptake, and have only just discovered this wonderful little bit of software that makes your pictures like old school polaroids. I'm totally in love with it and thought this recipe perfectly suited such a quaint picture.

Scones that really cut the mustard.

Every so often I forget to make bread, and for some reason since we got back from our holiday in September this happens more and more. I think because I got out of the routine, and it stopped being second nature to spend the first part of the morning kneading, resting, proving and baking.

Being out of the habit wouldn't be too bad if I had an emergency batch in the freezer, or a good local bakery. But as it happens we have neither, and many months ago I made some crazy resolution that all the bread in the house - with a few exceptions - would be made by me. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and in the months that followed. Now suddenly finding myself without fresh bread and with a growling stomach I begin to curse my self-righteousness and wish for that sneaky loaf of supermarket stuff stashed in the freezer. I know it won't be anything like as nice, but at least it would be there.

However, it's not and so I must come up with another solution. Often I turn to soda bread as my saviour. I have a great recipe, quick, easy and so versatile that so far everything from figs and oranges, to seeds and nuts have made their way in without mishap.

Thing is, I don't always want soda bread, and then we're in trouble.

Not any more. A few weeks ago I made cheese scones. I had just spoken to my Mum and heard about hers and couldn't resist, especially as we had cheese in the fridge and chutney in the cupboard to try. It went down very well indeed. So this week I decided to branch out again. This time I made a plain scone recipe and added two tablespoons of grain mustard. The result was a scone with a nice texture, and just a hint of mustard. They were a great accompaniment to the cranberry chutney I made at the weekend (I know you're supposed to let it mature, but sometimes we can't wait!) and the strong cheese from the farmer's market.

In fact, I am about to make them again, as once more I failed to make bread yesterday and I know that in a few hours my stomach will be growling. I think the only adjustment I will make this time round is to add more mustard. The subtle flavour from last time was good, and the slight crunch of the grains nice, but I want something with a bit more bite.

So, I'm off to make these....why don't you. I reckon a bit of cham could go with them very well!


Mustard Scones - Makes 8-12 (depending on how thick you roll the dough and how large a cutter you use).

225g self-raising flour
50g butter (I used half salted, half plain and ommittted the salt)
pinch of salt
2 tbsp grain mustard (or more for a stronger flavour)
enough milk to make up into a rollable dough.

Heat the oven to 220C and grease a baking tray. Rub the butter into the flour and add a pinch of salt. Then rub in the mustard. When this is combined start adding milk about a teaspoon at a time until you get a stiff dough. Roll out and cut into rounds. Place on the baking tray and bake for 10 mins, or until lightly golden and springy at the press of a finger.

NB: I adapted this recipe from the Be-Ro Flour recipe book. My Mum used to use this book (more of a pamphlet really, as it's just 86 slim pages) all the time when I was a kid, and I had such fond memories of it (okay, mostly of the chocolate chip cookies in it) that when I went off to university my Mum tracked down a copy for me. Talk about best Mum ever. It's a great go-to book for pretty much any basic recipe that uses flour, and according to my front cover it's in it's 40th edition - and this was a good few years ago now. Believe me, it's worth buying a copy if you see it, if only for the cookie recipe!

Baking Day! (March) Finale: Afternoon tea

Whilst pondering what we should have as this months Baking Day treat N wondered out loud as to whether I could make scones and suggested we make it afternoon tea. It was as if he took the thought right out of my head. The weather has been more and more Spring-like and I have been seeing scones cropping all over blogs in the past few weeks which has put them in my mind several times.

So I got on the phone to the Domestic Goddess Hotline (Mum) and picked her brains for the amazing scones recipe that frequented my childhood. I was chuffed to discover it came from her Mum, my Nanna, who I know would have been really pleased to hear about my new-found love of cooking, baking and all round Domestic Goddessry.

Cream and jam were added to our shopping list, and N returned home from work yesterday brandishing two punnets of simply sumptuous looking strawberries (okay, not quite in season, but sometimes it just has to be done).

Then this afternoon, with cupcakes cooling and the first pangs of hunger after breakfast showing themselves, I set off on my first ever try of "Mummy's Scones"



I left them in for a little too long, underestimating how quickly our oven can cook things, but despite being slightly darker than I would have liked they still tasted delicious, just like I remember. Another Baking Day success. Mmmm...



The recipe I'm afraid will remain a closely guarded secret!