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.

Savoury Scones V2.0

I love a good savoury scone but sometimes scones can be a bit too heavy. One of my friends Stacey kindly shared her recipe for light, no fail, quick scones with me, she thinks it originates from Kiwi baking legend Alison Holst. Where ever it comes from it is good and I thought I should share it with you. Scones are one of those versatile recipes where you can chop and change what you add to them, I added cheese and ham to mine but you could leave them plain and have them with jam and cream, add dates or whatever you feel like. Below is the basic recipe.

Ingredients:
50g butter
¾ cup milk
2 cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon salt

Method:
Preheat your oven to 210°C and line a baking tray with wax baking paper.
Melt butter, add milk to it and set aside.
Measure flour in bowl, add salt and fluff it up a bit with a fork then once your oven has reached 210°C, add butter/milk mix as well as cheese and ham (½ cup of each) – or whatever other ingredients you desire to flour and fold to combine.
It makes a slightly wet mix but once you spread it out, quick knead to shape with extra flour it is fine.
At this point you can cut the scones to your desired size and shape, I used a circular cookie cutter to cut mine out and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Coffee Group Treats: Cheesecake Brownie Swirls and Savoury Scone Scrolls

It was my turn to host coffee group for the Mum’s and Bub’s Max and I hang out with every week so I had to whip up some treats.  I got this amazing ‘Cheesecake Brownie Swirl’ recipe from one of the Mum’s on a baby forum that I chat on – the bonus of living in this age I guess is that when you are at home with bubs you don’t have to be ‘alone’.  So thank you for sharing Caroline (or maybe not, as these are SO good that they have to be absolutely no good for me or my waistline!).  Baked cheesecake on a rich brownie base, truly irresistible!


Ingredients:
Cheesecake mix
1 egg
250g full fat cream cheese
50g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brownie mix
115g plain chocolate
115g unsalted butter
150g soft brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
50g plain flour

Preheat oven to 160°C, grease and line a 20cm square shallow cake pan.
To make the cheesecake mixture, put all the ingredients into a bowl and beat well together.
To make the brownie mixture melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water, or in the microwave.  When melted, remove from the heat, stir well then stir in the sugar.  Add the eggs a little at a time and beat well.  Gently fold in the flour.
Spread ⅔ of the brownie mixture into the base of the prepared tin.  Spread the cheesecake mixture on top.  Spoon the remaining brownie mixture on top in heaps.  Using a skewer, swirl the mixtures together.
Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until just set in the centre (there will still be a wobble to your cheesecake), Leave it in the oven with the door ajar for 30-60 minutes then remove to further cool on the bench.
Remove it from the baking tin when completely cool and cut in to squares to serve – I cut mine into 16 but you could go bigger for a dessert.
* Note, if you leave your cheesecake to cook for too long it will crack, don’t be afraid to turn the oven off as long as your center has set, this was my first go at making a baked cheesecake and I probably left it 5 minutes too long and as you can see below, some small cracks in formed on the surface of cheesecake.


I also whipped up some savoury scone scrolls using this recipe Melissa posted earlier in the year, except I filled mine with shaved ham and a sprinkling of the new ‘Egmont’ cheese that Mainland have released (they are right – it is great in baking!).


And just because I can’t resist – here is a pic of Max with his ‘birthday buddy’ Sophia at coffee group this week :-)

Cheese and Ham Scones

 
To make you will need:

3 cups of plain flour
6 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
75g butter cut into small cubes
1 - 1 ½ cups milk
1 cup grated cheese (of your choice - edam and tasty work well)
1 handful of cut up shaved ham

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl, cut in butter until the mixture in the bowl resembles bread crumbs.  Add the milk and vigorously mix with a knife until dough is soft.  Add the cheese and ham and mix with the knife.  Use your hands to knead dough a few times (can be done in the bowl but I find it easier to do on a flour dusted bench top).  At this stage you can chose to place the dough on a flour dusted oven tray, mould the dough into a round shape and cut into wedges like the picture above or alternatively cut into 8-12 square pieces.  If you are cutting the mix into pieces leave a 2cm space between them on the tray.  Bake at 220˚C for 10-15 minutes or until an inserted skewer can be removed cleanly.

 
Enjoy!

High Tea

Over the summer Melissa and I went to high tea, at the Langham Hotel in central Auckland. We really enjoyed it but thought we could probably do better ourselves.  Over the weekend we put this theory to the test and made high tea for a group of the girls we work with.

We had a fantastic time putting it together and an even better time sitting down to enjoy it with friends. Our menu consisted of cupcakes, caramel brûlée slice, mini bacon and egg pies, melting moments, scones with jam and cream, and petite sandwiches.

There will be numerous posts to follow with recipes, so you too can create the delicious goodies we enjoyed or maybe even put together your own high tea.