Oven Scones

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. 

Flour-free Orange, Almond & Pistachio Cake

So it's lockdown here in the UK and staying home for me, with no work, means baking time! At the start of lock down however, my trusty Grundig Mixer decided to go bang and I was lost without it until a very early birthday present arrived from my hubby.....a KitchenAid Artisan Mixer, in duck egg blue to match my kitchen no less, eeeeeeeek!!!!!! I know I am a very lucky girl! I was just itching to get baking but, as well as loo roll being this years most sought after supermarket item, it seems flour is too. None of my local shops have any, so whilst I waited for an online order to arrive (thank you Sugar & Crumbs!) I decided to try my hand at a flour-free cake. I've had 'Love, Bake, Nourish' by Amber Rose on my cookbook shelf for years but I've never actually baked from it before but I knew there would be a flour-free recipe in there and so I dived straight in and found this one. It also happens to be sugar free too, so I was setting myself a challenge but I just so happened to have all the ingredients in my kitchen and so I got started. Once you have prepped your oranges and ground your pistachios (I am going to look for ready ground ones in future as shelling and blitzing took me ages!) it's quite straightforward and the smell of the oranges bubbling away in the kitchen is divine! The only tweak I made to Amber's recipe was that my cake was ready after 40 minutes, whereas she recommends an hour. I was nervous cutting my first slice thinking it was bound to fall apart or taste horrendous but it was lovely. The nuts made for a beautiful textured sponge and the honey added natural sweetness. The orange was slightly bitter for me but this could be because I am used to sweet flavours, when my Mum's partner Ian, who is diabetic, had a slice (social distancing doorstep delivery) he quite happily ate it on its own. But when you serve it with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey it is wonderfully light and heavenly. 

Ingredients

2 Unwaxed Oranges

3 Eggs

215g Runny Honey

250g Ground Almonds

100g Pistachios (finely ground)

1 tsp Baking Powder

How To Make

1. Place the unpeeled oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 170'c and grease and line a 10 inch round baking tin.

2. Remove the pan from the heat, drain and then put the whole oranges into a blender and blitz until they are smooth. 

3. Place all the ingredients into your mixer and beat until thoroughly combined. Pour into the prepared baking tin and bake for 1 hour (mine was ready after 40 minutes so I'd recommend checking around the 40 minute mark) or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin before turning out. 

4. Enjoy this cake with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey.