Lemonade Scones

So, the other weekend I was hanging out at home and it just felt like one of those days where there should be scones for lunch.  It just sort of felt like a day that if I went back in time to when I was six or seven, that my grandma would be serving up some scones, with jam and cream.  Is that weird, or do you know what I mean?

Now, truth be told, I have never made scones myself.  People say they can be tricky, which I think is what had put me off making them in the past.  My mum makes Lemonade Scones so I decided to give them a go, and man are easy! I should have not been so sill and made them much sooner! I thought I would try out using Lemonade made using my Soda Stream for the recipe and it worked perfectly.  The scones were so light and fluffy, and were an absolute hit in my house.  I’ll definitely be making this recipe again and again!

Ingredients:
4 cups self raising flour
Pinch of salt
300 ml cream
300 ml lemonade (or, try soda water or L&P)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 220°C and line a tray with baking paper.
Starting with the flour, place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together to form a soft dough.
Tip the dough out onto a well-floured bench, dust the dough lightly with flour, then roll out into a rectangle approximately 4 cm thick.
Cut the dough into 12 pieces and gently place each piece apart on the prepared baking tray.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the oven an leave to cool on a wire rack.  Serve with butter, jam and whipped cream!

Want to change up the recipe?  Try out these additions:
- a cup of tasty cheese
- a cup of chocolate chips (I used to love when my mum did this!)
- a cup of dried fruit, like raisins or cranberries

Or, give Courtenay’s recipes for Savoury Ham and Cheese Scones a go – try version one or two.

Peanut Butter and Honey Choc Chip Cookies (they’re flourless too!)

These are an interesting cookie – they are really soft, almost cakey in texture as there is no flour in them.  I have to admit, I was a little worried I wouldn’t get these cookies to work.  The first time I made them, I had the oven at a normal ‘moderate’ baking temperature and used a fancy peanut butter, and they didn’t turn out.  They started to burn really quickly and they peanut butter was too runny, so the cookies were similar to a very moist but crumbly brownie texture when I had to take them out of the oven after all of five minutes.  Anyways, I picked myself up and tried again, making a few tweaks that have paid off.  And yes, it still is a very wet mix, but the cookies do firm up slightly when cooling.

They are a reasonably healthy treat (no flour or cups of sugar) if you eat them in moderation and I have to say I love the addition of almond extract instead of vanilla – it gives these cookies a unique flavour which is incredibly moreish and goes so well with the peanut butter and honey.  And, if you need another reason to try these, it turns out the 16th – 23rd March is ‘National Honey Week’ for 2015!

Makes about 12 cookies.

Ingredients:
¾ cup peanut butter (I used Sanitarium’s No added Sugar or Salt Crunchy variety)
⅓ cup honey
1 egg
½ teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of sea salt flakes
½ cup dark chocolate bits

Method:
Preheat the oven to 160C.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.
In a large bowl mix together all the ingredients except the chocolate, until everything is combined and smooth.  Fold through the chocolate bits.
Scoop out small amounts of the mixture and drop onto the prepared baking tray (an ice cream scoop works well for this).
Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking tray for at least 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.