Ah the simple scone! Whether you believe it is jam first and then cream (me!) or cream and then jam, you just can't beat tucking into a freshly baked, warm out of the oven scone topped with sweet strawberry jam and a dollop of clotted cream...heaven! My sister is amazing at making scones and she uses this simple recipe from Good Housekeeping and it never fails. I recently got the nudge to make a batch by my friend Kirsty who, upon seeing a post on Facebook about how the Queen takes her scones, reminded me about how we were totally out voted at a Christmas meal by the our friends and other halves during a discussion about scones because they all say that it is cream first and the jam. Well it turns out Her Majesty agrees with Kirsty and I! Whoop! Anyway, I couldn't stop thinking about scones and, seeing as they are my Hubby's favourite too, I decided to make a double batch so were half plain and half were raisin and sultana. This recipe makes 8 scones.
Ingredients
8oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
40g Butter (salted)
1/4 pint of Milk (plus extra to glaze)
50g Dried fruit - sultanas, raisins, currants etc (if doing fruit scones)
How To Make
1. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture so it resembles fine breadcrumbs. If doing fruit scones add your fruit now and stir through.
2. Stir through the milk, using a knife, to give a fairly soft dough. Gently roll out the dough, on a lightly floured surface, to about 2cm thick. Then cut out into rounds using a 6cm cutter.
3. Place on a greased baking sheet and brush the top with some milk. Bake at 200'c for about 10 minutes until well risen and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool.
4. Serve warm, split and filled with jam and clotted cream.
I am not a fan of breakfast, I used to not be able to function without a bowl of cereal before I had kids but now I can't face it. Plus I have been finding I don't have time to sit and eat, as bad as that sounds.My husband often has shop-brought granola with milk for breakfast and has recently started buying the yoghurts with granola on top, which I quite enjoy and so I decided to maybe try and make my own granola to get me into the habit of having breakfast again. I googled lots of recipes for ideas as to what to include and it's so versatile! You can pretty much add any combination of fruit, seeds and nuts that you like. So I popped to our local Eco Store to top up on what I needed and set to work.For my first batch I used pecans, walnuts and peanuts plus apricots, apple rings, pears and raisins for dried fruit. Since then I have made it with banana chips, papaya, pineapple, sultanas, cashews, pistachios...you name it! It is fabulously easy to make and very tasty and satisfying served with yoghurt and honey for breakfast (the recommended portion of granola is 45g). Once made, the granola keeps in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.
Ingredients
200g Porridge Oats
120g Mixed Nuts
120g Mixed Seeds
120g Desiccated Coconut
250g Dried Mixed Fruit
4 tbsp Olive Oil
6 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tsp Cinnamon
How To Make
1. In a large bowl mix together the porridge oats, nuts, seeds and coconut. Then stir through the oil,cinnamon and maple syrup.
2. Spread out onto a baking tray and pop in the oven at 200'c for 20 minutes. Give the granola a stir every 5 minutes to prevent bits getting too crisp.
3. Once toasted, remove from the oven and stir through the fruit giving it a good mix up. Leave it to cool and then store in a jar or container. Serve with milk or yoghurt and honey.
This is new territory for me, I've never done a traditional cake on the griddle before but I have always wanted to try them. My 3.5 year old absolutely loves Welsh Cakes and so I thought I would start with these because I knew if they were successful they would go down well at home.After flicking through my many recipe books I got the basis of a recipe but had to tweak a few ingredients - mainly due to us being in the middle of a pandemic and supplies and trips to the shops being limited - but also due to personal taste! Welsh Cakes are traditionally made with currants, of which I am not a fan of as I find them gritty, and, because of this, I don't have any in my cupboards but I do have a big jar of raisins and so this was my first adaptation. My second was that most recipes use mixed spice to flavour, another item I don't have in my cupboard, and so I used a mixture of ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. These little beauties are really quick to whip up and take virtually no time at all to cook and once you get the hang of it they are so easy, I'd confidently and happily whip these up again! When greasing my griddle pan (apparently you can use a heavy based non-stick frying pan if you do not have a griddle) I used butter for the first batch but I found this made them 'splodge' and lose their shape. So for the next batch I tried a little spritz of 1 Cal spray and they cooked perfectly at 4 minutes per side on a low heat. Welsh Cakes, like scones, are best eaten on the day they are made but we had some warmed up (under the grill for 1 minute) for breakfast the next day and they were still delicious. They also freeze really well too and I sometimes get one out for my eldest for breakfast or lunch, pop it straight in the toaster to defrost and warm through. This recipe made 18.
Ingredients
225g Self Raising Flour
100g Butter
75g Caster Sugar (plus extra for sprinkling if you wish)
75g Raisins
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
A pinch of Nutmeg
1 Egg
1 tbsp Milk
How To Make
1. Rub together the butter and flour in a bowl (or in a mixer) until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the sugar, raisins and spices. Then beat the egg and milk together and pour into the dry mixture. Mix together until it comes together as a firm dough.
3. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and then roll to about 5mm thick. Cut into rounds using a 7.5cm cutter (I used the fluted edge for a nice shape).
4. Lightly grease and heat a griddle pan. Cook the Welsh Cakes for about 3-4 minutes per side on a low heat, if you cook them too fast they will be raw in the middle.
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and then dust with caster sugar (optional) and serve.
Ah the simple scone! Whether you believe it is jam first and then cream (me!) or cream and then jam, you just can't beat tucking into a freshly baked, warm out of the oven scone topped with sweet strawberry jam and a dollop of clotted cream...heaven! My sister is amazing at making scones and she uses this simple recipe from Good Housekeeping and it never fails. I recently got the nudge to make a batch by my friend Kirsty who, upon seeing a post on Facebook about how the Queen takes her scones, reminded me about how we were totally out voted at a Christmas meal by the our friends and other halves during a discussion about scones because they all say that it is cream first and the jam. Well it turns out Her Majesty agrees with Kirsty and I! Whoop! Anyway, I couldn't stop thinking about scones and, seeing as they are my Hubby's favourite too, I decided to make a double batch so were half plain and half were raisin and sultana. This recipe makes 8 scones.
1. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture so it resembles fine breadcrumbs. If doing fruit scones add your fruit now and stir through.
