Tag: jam

Kicking it old school: Scones with Jam and Cream

Well sydneysiders, it’s definitely Winter. In case you missed the memo, the weather gods have brought a doozy of a storm this week  to remind you. Winds of 100km/h, flash flooding, very sudden drop in temperature all hit mid early on in the week but, strangely enough, I’m quite content sitting here, indoors in my onesie and slippers. Yep. it is definitely onesie weather.

Don’t pretend you’re not jealous.

What could make being warm and inside on a cold rainy day even better? Scones of course! Just like your nana used to make, just like your mum used to make. Don’t you think they look comforting?

They’re simple, fun to make and are great if you want to bake but have run out of eggs. Not to mention they’re a great excuse to get out all your jams and a good pot of tea. Bliss!

I started off with some delicious Blueberry Jam, Rhubarb Jam and double thickened cream.

I scored the jam on my last trip to the Maxwell Treats factory in Berry. Delicious!

I found the scone recipe in The Country Show Cookbook that I was given for my birthday last year. It is full of recipes that have been winners at country shows around the country. This particular recipe is from Ruby Mulley who has been exhibiting at the Camden show continually for fifty years! Holy moly! Although there are myriad scone recipes in the book, this was the first in the section, and it seemed straightforward enough to follow. Although, I do think sometimes that these women who seem to have magic at their fingertips leave out a vital step or trick. My efforts never yield quite the same results as those wonder women in country kitchens. Still, these were pretty damn good.

I followed the recipe to the T

even when it meant sifting the dry ingredients six times.

Yes, I am not the most patient of women but I did sift it

SIX TIMES!

I mixed it all up with a knife

Patted out the dough and cut the rounds

and BAM! Light as air, delicious scones.

One with rhubarb jam, the other with blueberry and BOTH with a great whack of cream

is there any other way to eat scones?

Look at that! Fluffy, warm and piled with the good stuff.

Overall it is a pretty easy recipe to follow and execute and great for a lazy morning on a rainy day. It’s also a nice accompaniment to watching re-runs of Monarch of the Glen and Heartbeat. Yes, I think my  inner homebody and oldie are definitely on display this winter. So, my lovelies, what do you like to do on a rainy winter day? And have you succumbed to the power of the onesie yet?

Scones Recipe (Ruby Mulley’s recipe from The Country Show Cookbook)

Ingredients

3 cups self raising flour

4 tsp icing sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp  salt

large 1/2 cup thickened cream

2/3 cup milk

1/2 cup hot water

Method

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together six times. Yes, SIX times. And don’t skimp if you want some seriously light scones

2. Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients

3. Mix with a knife until all the ingredients come together. Don’t over mix or the dough will be too dense and heavy

4. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead well. Pat the dough out until it is a couple of cm thick

5. Cut with a sharp cutter and place onto a baking tray

6. Cook for 10 mins at 230 degrees celsius (210 degrees celsius fan forced)

7. Enjoy with copious amounts of jam and cream and a large pot of tea

Going nuts for donuts! (version 2.0)

Who could forget the fabulous month where Daring Bakers‘ introduced us to the joys of home made donuts? I certainly couldn’t! Which is why I found myself craving the yeasty golden goodness of these treats in the chilly lead up to Easter this year. I had a few issues with the recipe from the October challenge and wanted to see if following the advice of other Daring Bakers would further improve the results of this already astounding recipe. Turns out, they do. Sorry for the anti climax.

But what could be anti climactic about risen dough? Look at this baby rise! I followed the instructions to the letter this time and resisted adding any more flour, despite the extreme wetness of the dough. Sometimes I think that there is nothing more joyous than coming back after an hour and seeing that beautiful crown of dough peeking over the rim of the bowl!

I didn’t have the luxury of using the S family kitchen with all its adult supervision and granite benchtops, not to mention tiled floors. So I was extra careful in my own kitchen (particularly after the poached pears debacle! My stove top is still recovering…). I kitted myself out with numerous bath towels to smother any small fires that may arise and was generally much more careful than I would otherwise be.

This is one well risen dough! Look at that honeycomb of air bubbles…

I patted the dough out onto my baking mat. It was still much too wet to roll out, although it had dried a little during the rising process.

I cut the dough into donut shapes using concentric circles

and banished them to their oily doom!

Muahaha!

Mmmmm… golden fried goodness

After dipping them into the sugar cinnamon mixture they came out looking perfect!

Light and tasty and just pretty damn good!

I think the long cold rise over night in the fridge gives it a greater depth of flavour

And so my second foray into donut making was a great success. But do you think I stopped at just sugar cinnamon donuts? Of course not!

So I made sugar cinnamon strawberry jam donuts!

These babies went down even better than the original recipe donuts. I’m sorry I don’t have a middle shot to show you, but the insides are filled with strawberry jam. Mmmmmmmmmmmm….

The only alteration you need to make to the recipe is to cut one round without a hole in the middle, let the donut cool and cut a slit into the side of it. Insert a piping nozzle and squeeze strawberry jam inside. Fill up as much as you want!

The recipe can be found here.

So my lovelies, what is your favourite flavour of donut? Do you like them plain, or do you go all out with jam and cream?

Move over Marion, here’s MY CWA Neapolitan Cake!

Hmm what could I be making with this lot? Oh wait… its in the title.

It’s no secret among my friends and family that I LOVE Masterchef. I love the hype, I love the colours, I love the food, I love the contestants, and I love the way it always gets me yelling at the television even though I have no idea how to make whatever the contestants are cooking! Until now…

The other week, the contestants were shipped off to the country to bake for a formidable group of women. The CWA. Despite having to cook for (what I consider to be) one of the scariest judging panels from the show, we were all thinking “how hard can it be? Bake a few cakes, a few scones, a few lamingtons and BAM! You’re done. What kind of challenge is this?” Until the mayhem began. Scones were rock hard, lamingtons weren’t rising, jam wasn’t setting and cakes were burning on the outside and raw in the middle. Ouch.

For once in the series, I really felt their pain. Baking in the middle of a field at the crack of dawn with ovens you haven’t cooked in is one surefire recipe for disaster. I couldn’t have done any better and to be honest, some of the dishes they brought out were amazing given the circumstances.

In the comfort of my own home, I decided to try the Neapolitan Cake that Pete and Marion seemed to fail so miserably at. Wobbly, uneven layers and crusty bottoms plagued their products. However, while I admit I was working under much much easier circumstances, I was pretty damn proud to cook a Neapolitan Cake (cooked by Pete and Marion, two of my favourite contestants!) that seemed to tick all the right boxes set out  by  the CWA guest judge Alison Mutton.

I have to admit that it was also a great chance to bust out these cute Matryoshka measuring cups. I got these as a KK present from the awesome Miss G last year and im quite embarrassed to say that I don’t think I ever thanked her! Let me take this opportunity to say a giant THANKYOU to Miss G, please forgive the lateness of my gratitude! And yes, that is my computer in the background, I read the recipe straight off the internet. It seemed easier than printing it out… and im lazy. Clearly.

I was mesmerised by the creamed butter and sugar

The bottom half of this cake required the addition of coconut. I only had a packet of shredded coconut and I didn’t think that the Mother Ship would appreciate long tendrils of coconut in her cake. So I whipped out my trusty mini food processor and got myself a-chopping! As you can see, tiny as they are, the blades made short work of that coconut!

Now I know this isn’t the prettiest picture but I thought it was important to see the cake in progress here. And who doesn’t love great spoonfulls of strawberry jam! When the mixture was halved, it seemed as though there was barely enough batter to cover the bottom of the tin. I was worried that I had made some fatal error in measuring or used the wrong sized pan. But, as it was clearly too late to go back, I thought the best decision was to press on and see how it all went.

Well.. so far so good…

Now, it is important to note that during the baking of this cake I encountered a challenge that beset Marion. My cake was browning too quickly on the top. However, I had faced this obstacle before and I was equipped with my trusty roll of aluminium foil. Pop a sheet of this over the top of your cake and it will continue to cook without browning excessively or burning on top.

And it makes the Big Reveal all the more exciting!

Hooray! Lightly browned but not burnt and perfectly risen!

The finished product. It sure tasted mighty fine!

Now I will admit that the sides were a little too crusty as the cake was a tad overcooked. I still only cooked it for about 40 mins (5 mins less than required) but I would take it out earlier next time. Maybe after 30 mins. The bottom didn’t turn out crusty though, just nice and tasty.

And it passed the all important even layers test! Don’t believe me?

Look at those even babies! And a dollop of jam in there for good measure!

So all in all, this cake was pretty easy to make. Could I make it in the middle of a field at the crack of dawn in the midst of howling winds with an oven I hadn’t used before? Not on your nelly! Can you and I make it in our sheltered kitchens with our beloved ovens? Absolutely!

You can find the recipe here. The only change I would make is to omit the Strawberry essence. The stuff I used was pretty nasty and you couldn’t taste it in the end anyway! Also, keep your eye on the baking time as your cake may be done much earlier than the recipe says.

So, my lovelies, have you tried any recipes from this year’s Masterchef? Which ones and did they work?