Tuesday 28 February 2012

Scottish Pancakes (Drop Scones)


These are REAL pancakes!
 Real SCOTTISH pancakes! 

Otherwise known as 'Drop Scones' - another old family favourite, so quick and easy to make.

                  These were traditionally made on a 'griddle' which is really just a cast iron hotplate with a semi-circular handle which was hung over the fire. 
I've never had a griddle, but I have often used my electric frying pan. Recently we bought a 'fancy' cast iron non-stick hotplate which just sits across two rings on the hob. I suppose just about anything will do!



You will need - 
A big mixing bowl
hotplate or heavy base pan - very LIGHTLY greased and pre-heated to HOT

2 cups of SR flour
2 teasp baking powder
1 tblsp sugar
1 tblsp syrup
2 eggs
milk

Mix all together in the bowl, adding enough milk to make a 'batter' of 'dropping consistency' - (no lumps!) it should be just like custard and showing signs of starting to 'bubble'.
Pour out on to the hot griddle enough to make a pancake about 3 or 4 inches (75- 100mm) dia. It will rise and spread, and as it cooks on the bottom you will know when to turn it over when the top is showing bubbles. The cooked sides should be a smooth golden brown. It only takes a minute or so on the griddle. 

Sometimes I make a GIANT pancake per person. Usually they are made of a uniform smaller size. Serve immediately while hot, with butter or syrup, or cool on a rack for later use.


Being up in the highlands of Scotland this week, I thought the workmen (out in the cold wind and showers) doing our decking would appreciate some pancakes. They were dutifully 'SCOFFED', daubed with syrup, just as soon as each was cooked, straight off the griddle!
       I THINK there must have been about 20+  pancakes ABOUT 4" (100mm) dia, but I didn't think to count them!
They do freeze well, but as they are SO delicious and quich to make fresh, it's hardly worthwhile.



Best wishes from the Highlands of Scotland,
Helen (Sarah-Jane's mum)

Monday 27 February 2012

Brownies Part 2 - Two ways... Cooking With Oliver- FOODBUZZ #5 1/3/12


What kid doesn't love brownies ? Oliver and I baked brownies this morning at his special request....

Well - the kitchen was already like a war zone and the floor practically flooded (see the last blog post) - so I reckoned adding a bit of chocolate to the equation really wouldn't make too much difference to the amount of clean up required.

Unsurprisingly, after this lot, Oliver ended up 15 minutes late arriving to nursery, and I was 15 minutes late for work. But then again, when you arrive with platefuls of brownies - all tends to be forgiven and forgotten.


This recipe will make 16 man-food sized brownies, but if you aren't looking to overdose on chocolate brownie, you may want to cut each into two rather daintier ones. After all - brownies are rather rich.

This is a new mould design, due for launch around end of April and currently being design registered and now going into mass production. I originally designed it to make 100g soap bars - but then decided it would be PERFECT for large individual brownies and flapjacks.


I made two different types of brownies. One normal batch and one decidedly sticky dulche de leche batch. 

I had a tin of condensed milk that was about to go out of date. Determined not to waste it, I heaped a good spoonful of the stuff over the second load of brownie mix and swirled it in. A lot of it sank down the sides of the mix - which was no bad thing. Other than that - there is no difference in the recipe between the batches....

Apart from the taste of SOAP that is. Uh huh - I used one of the prototype moulds (I've got two) for soap making first. I thought I was going to get one tray of brownies and wasn't expecting the mix to do two. So.... I used the tray I'd been using for experimenting with soap to make the Dulche De Lche brownies. Washed it first of course - but there was still a soapy after taste. Therefore, I MUST advise that you don't use the same mould for soaping and baking. It's not nice !


Saying that - these moulds made a really nice job of the brownies. I greased and floured first and they came out cleanly when cooled and firmed up a bit.


Yummy - brownie batter tastes good - licking the spoon is the treat reserved only for the chef !


RECIPE - makes 16 large brownie bars (or 32 small ones)

Preheat fan oven to 160deg C, 180deg C electric

185g salted butter
185g dark chocolate (I used Belcolade Belgian)
85g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
100g milk chocolate (chopped)
3 eggs
275g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2tsp espresso coffee powder (optional)

condensed milk - (for Dulche De Leche Brownies)

Melt the dark chocolate and butter together in the microwave in short bursts - then set aside.

Cream the eggs and caster sugar until light coloured, thick and foamy.


Add the sieved flour and cocoa, plus vanilla and espresso powder to the sugar / egg mix and fold to combine. Add the chocolate chips in the last few strokes.

Note that the brownies don't taste like coffee. The purpose of the coffee is to enhance the depth of chocolate flavour.


Grease and flour 2 x 8 cell rectangular bar silicone bakeware moulds. If you want to make some Dulche De Leche ones, put a great bit heaped teaspoon of condensed milk on top of the brownie batter and swirl it in a little on top with a teaspoon handle.


 Bake for approx 20 mins until JUST set and cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool thoroughly before turning out and allowing work colleagues and a little cake tester to devour.

Give the soapy ones to those with no sense of smell. They might taste ok (ish) but certainly smelt floral !!!!!

In case you haven't noticed.... my batter photos and baked photos are round the opposite way !

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2012

Ham, Potato and Red Lentil Soup - Cooking with Oliver !


There is nothing quite like a comforting bowl of soup to warm you through to the core. It also makes a cheap,  easy and filling meal. This large pot of soup is enough for around 10 portions.

It's also something Oliver likes "helping" with in the kitchen. Lets just say I'm messy when working in the kitchen - but when Oliver is helping..... there is stuff EVERYWHERE. Still - I wouldn't swap those precious moments for anything.

1 large ham hock
500g red lentils
500g peeled floury potatoes
3 stalks celery
1 large onion
3 bay leaves
5 dried chillies
1.8 litres of water
1 tablespoon of Margiold Bullion Powder (or 2 > 3  vegetable stock cubes)


Oliver put the ham hock, quartered onion, chopped celery, chillies and bay leaves into the pot. Add the water.

Oliver added the water in 3 batches.


We cooked this in the pressure cooker for 1 hour. I then removed the ham hock.


Oliver had spent the last hour playing chopping the potatoes (that I had sliced) up with a cookie cutter into teeny weeny bits. I must admit - there were loads on the floor..... so we scooped them all up and he spent another 15 minutes at least washing them in the sink and playing with the tap.... 


The potatoes and lentils then went back into the electric pressure cooker with the rest of the ingredients for about 20 mins. After cooking, I then blended these with a stick blender until smooth.

Serve the soup with some flaked meat from the ham hock on the top. Yum !

We kept half the ham back for making wraps. 1.2kg ham hock from the butchers cost just £2.50 and yielded 570g of meat. 

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2012

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Zurin's Kung Pao (Made with Pork instead of Chicken)


I take NO credit for this recipe - it's from a good friend's Blog.... Zurin of Cherry on a Cake . Zurin was one of my first ever blogger friends. Our friendship became more than just blogging and something to treasure dearly. Zurin hasn't blogged in a little while (we email occasionally) and was my early source of inspiration with some outstanding recipes and photos that dreadfully put all of mine to shame !

My photos really do no justice at all - do have a look at Zurin's original ones here.  Zurin - please forgive me - we were starving hungry and wanted to eat whilst dinner was hot.... However bad my photos are, I assure you it was really yummy !

Given Zurin's own comments, I doubled the sauce part of the recipe from her original and am glad I did. The volume of chillies seemed obsurd, but when deseeded, didn't put as much heat as I thought they would into the recipe. Saying that, I wasn't keen on the texture of the cooked dried chillies. Next time, I think I'd add fresh chillies (to taste) instead.

300g sliced / diced pork steaks
3/4 cup of dried chilles - deseeded and cut into approx 1" lengths
3/4 tsp Sichuan peppercorns (I crushed them.... dunno - not used these before !)
3/4 cup chopped spring onions
1 chopped yellow pepper
large handful of salted roast peanuts
3 cloves of crushed garlic
3tsp grated fresh ginger

Marinade :

3 tsp cornflour
1 egg white
salt and pepper to season
2 tablespoons of rice wine


For the Sauce

1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
3 tablespoons soft brown sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 tsp of cornflour
squeeze of lime juice

Mix up the marinade ingredients and massage into the pork. It really doesn't look pleasant at this stage ! Refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Put 1 cup of oil in a pan and fry the marinaded pork in one layer on a high heat. As soon as the colour changes, flip it over and do the other side. This is rapid - get it in and out the pan in ONE MINUTE.

Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Keep the oil aside for later use. Leave 3 tablespoons in your pan. Fry the dried chillies until crispy on a very low heat, then drain and set aside. I'm not sure what happened to mine. I think I may have overcooked them ? They went more of a dark brown than red and final texture was a bit leathery. I'm hoping Zurin can advise me on that one....

Pour away the oil the chillies were cooked in and use a little of the reserved oil. Add the garlic, ginger and sichuan pepper and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the sauce ingredients and as soon as it starts to bubble and thicken, tip the pork back in along with spring onions, peppers and peanuts. It only needs another minute or two. Stir to coat well and serve with fluffy white rice.

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2012

Coffee and Double Chocolate Macarons - FOODBUZZ #6 24/2/12


Are you fed up yet of my current obsession with baking macarons ? I found I ADORE making the colourful shiny shells with the pretty ruffled feet. Not etting them all exactly the same size used to annoy me somewhat - so that's why I designed my own DOUBLE SIDED MACARON MAT.


The recipe for the macarons shells is more or less the same as my other macaron recipes and the cooking times I have given are what I've found suit my oven when baking on the mats. Because you are baking on a mat and on top of a tray, cooking time is a little longer than normal. Also, make sure they are totally cooled before peeling them off your mat. These ones could have done with an extra minute. They come off easily when done (and cooled). If you undercook and they are really gooey / sticky, shove them back in the oven for a few minutes to dry out some more. You will need to practice and find out the best cooking time / temperature in your own oven.


Yes - these photos were nothing elaborate - just a pile of coffee beans and a few macarons sat on top of some black fabric...

Ingredients - STANDARD Italian Meringue Method and amounts
(for pictorial guide blog post, see here )

200g icing (powdered) sugar
200g ground almonds
180g of egg whites (split into two batches of 90g)
80ml water
200g of caster sugar

To flavour and colour the shells, I used 3 TABLESPOONS of Camp Chicory and Coffee Essence. I used the same stuff in this recipe. The macronage looked quite pale in colour, but where food colouring normally lightens during cooking, these to my delight got brighter !

Set your oven to 150deg C fan / 170deg C electric.

Put the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until superfine. I use my hand held bamix and grinding mill attachment for this.

Break up any big lumps that have formed and sift into a large mixing bowl. Throw away any bits too large to fit through the sieve. Add one batch of egg whites, gel paste food colouring (about 3 times the amount you think you need !) and mix until a thick paste forms.

Put the caster sugar and water into a saucepan and boil until the sugar thermometer hits 110deg. As soon as temperature reaches 110deg C, whip your egg whites until stiff peaks form. Get the sugar syrup off the heat as soon as temperature hits 118deg C

You know your egg whites are stiff enough when you can hold the bowl upside down above your head and the whites stay put !
Using a hand held or stand mixer, whip the egg whites and add in the sugar syrup in a slow stream. Take care to try and keep the sugar syrup from coming into direct contact with the beaters (or the syrup may crystallise and change the texture). Keep whipping until the italian meringue is cool, stiff and glossy. 

Mix about 1/3 of this into your paste of icing sugar, ground almonds, egg whites etc we already made to loosen in.

Fold in the remaining 2 /3rds. Make sure to incorporate it all fully. You want to mix it enough so that a ribbon of macaronage will start to disappear back into the bowl after about 30 seconds. If it doesn't fold another couple of times and try again. I reckon it takes about 25 full strokes (variable)

Once the macaronage is ready, put into a piping bag fitted with a plain tip. I like to use a 5mm nozzle for optimum control. I sometimes use a 10mm (1cm) tip - but the batter can flow a bit too fast, especially if you are using the small side of the mat.

Put the macaron mats on to baking trays.

Pipe the macaronage into the centre of each cell - leaving approx 3 > 4mm space around the outside of the batter to the cell walls to allow for expansion as they relax. You will only need to leave about 2mm on the smaller side. Once you've got the hang of it and made your first batch, you'll know what's right for you. Pipe in too much and it will overflow the cell walls.

If the macaronage is not dead centre, dampen your finger and this will allow you to centre it. Handy trick whilst you get the hang of piping them centrally !

Rap the tray once or twice on your worktop to dispel any air bubbles and level the macaronage. Don't worry if not so level - they'll smooth out in the oven.

If you wish to add any edible glitter or sprinkles to the top of your macarons, do so now.

All macaron instructions I've ever seen involved leaving your macarons out for about 30mins to 1hour until a skin forms on the top before baking. Dr Tim Kinnaird was good enough to share a tip with me that I've used ever since.....

Simply pop the baking tray straight into the oven at 150deg C Fan, BUT leave the door open about 6" / 150mm for the first 5 minutes to dry off the tops. After that, shut the door to complete baking.

Baking time can be variable. I find in my oven that 2" / 50mm macarons always take 18mins to cook (excluding the first 5 mins with the door open) and the 30mm macarons take 13mins (excluding the first 5 mins with the door open)

Remove from oven and allow to cool fully before attempting to remove from the macaron sheets. Our revolutionary double sided macaron sheets are now also available in a commercial size for bakery ovens.


I used two fillings for my macarons. First of all, I piped some Nutella in a ring on top of the shells and then I put a teaspoon of white chocolate ganache with added vanilla seeds to the centre. Assembled as above on my photo table when I got to work !

For the Ganache :

Heat 75ml of double cream and bring almost to the boil.

Remove from the heat and pour on to 125g of chopped Belgian white chocolate. Add the seeds of 1/2 a vanilla pod. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and then refrigerate until piping or spooning consistency.


I think these shells would work really well with salted caramel filling too.

As Oliver said this morning "Scrummy, yummy in my tummy !"

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com , February 2012

Sunday 12 February 2012

Devilishly Decadent Chocolate Cupcakes - Pirate Coins Toppers (New Mould)


How many of you have Little Pirates ? Oliver adores anything pirate related - especially chocolate pirate coins !

I was constant nagging to make our own chocolate pirate coins that inspired the creation of this REGISTERED DESIGN silicone pirate coins chocolate mould.   Ours has had loads of use already. After all, you can never have enough gold dubloons / pirate treasure. It's fun to wrap them in your favourite coloured foil wrappers and a super way to entertain kids on a wet and rainy day. Do be prepared for lots of chocolate mess, sticky hands and faces though if making these with toddlers ....


This photo of my little pirate was taken by a friend's husband at a recent children's party. Oliver has to pirate outfits, but loves this one most. I must say - I do too - he looks rather fetching in it :-) Too cute. I guess he'll break a few hearts when he's older.


Here's the new mould - it's quite a large mould the big coins are approx 50mm diameter. You can see what the coins in both sizes look like on my hand below. BTW - my hands are more akin to builders hands and I do take a large glove size....


Couple some decadent, dense and fudgy cupcakes with rich chocolate buttercream and pirate chocolate coin toppers and you'll be an instant hit at the next kid's party or play day.

Makes 24 cupcakes :

2 cups white caster sugar
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water

I use a cup with 250ml volume


Combine all wet ingredients. Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix until combined.


 Bake in an oven at 180deg / Gas mark 4. I used 170deg Fan oven.

When cooked (approx 18 > 20 mins), remove from the oven and allow to cool before frosting

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe

4 cups icing sugar
115g salted butter (soft)
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
1 cup dark chocolate chips (melted)

Beat the butter and add icing sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder and milk. Beat until smooth and creamy. It is best to use a mixer, and beat for at least 5 mins. All melted chocolate and beat in. If the buttercream is too thick at this point, add some extra milk.

Note - last time I made this frosting, it was to frost one larger cake. I made it without weighing ingredients this time - but suspect you will need double the amount if you want big ice cream style moulds of frosting on 24 cupcakes.


Wild Blueberry & Lemon Macarons (with VIDEO TUTORIAL) - FoodBuzz #7 15/2/12


I have to say, these were not the prettiest macarons I've made over all. I actually made two batches. The first batch were colour perfect. I added some lemon oil extract to the shells in the second batch, and it seemed to react with the gel paste food colour a little and give them a yellowy tinge round the edge. 

Most of the first batch had been eaten at the end of the video tutorial and these were all that were left.

Macarons seem to have a reputation for being horrendously hard to make.

It's honestly not that bad. If you are already a confident baker, you'll find it quite simple.


I've made a video guide that you can watch below which may help give a little confidence - using the Revolutionary Double Sided Macaron Mat.

Do note, that undercooked macarons are are likely to sink and crack on removing from the oven. If not cooked enough, they will be impossible to removing from your baking paper or macaron mat. If properly cooked, they'll be crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle once cooled. They'll peel off your mat but leave a little sugary residue. If half the macaron sticks to the mat - it's undercooked ! 

I like to soak my mat in warm soapy water for a few minutes in the sink and then give it a quick clean by using a dish brush. Rinse in clean water and then pop in the oven for a couple of minutes only with the door open to rapid dry without water marks.

If your mat starts to lose it's shine after a few uses (common as there is no fat content in the meringue shells), I give a light spray before use with some cake release spray. Rub this in until the mat is shiny again but NOT greasy. All you are doing is sealing the pores in the mat.



Happy Baking !

Seville Orange Curd and Mallow Macarons (MACARON MATS NOW AVAILABLE)


My name is Sarah-Jane and I'm addicted to baking macarons.

It's a fairly recent affliction since I received the prototype of my new design macaron mat. It's taken a little practice in cooking times to suit my oven and piping technique, but I can confidently knock out batch after batch of identical looking macarons from my oven.

I recently used a friend's oven to make some macarons and did find the cooking time varied a little in her oven (needed another minute or two) - so you may need to adjust your cooking time and temperature as you find appropriate.

Don't believe me ? Here you are !


50 identical macaron shells ready to come out of the oven. I'm really pleased with how level the tops came out. I managed to stack nine pairs (that's 18 shells) on top of each other (pre filling) before they fell over. It had to be done. Just because.

If you've ever tried stacking macarons before, you'll realise that 4 or 5 pairs is about the limit.





Ingredients - STANDARD Italian Meringue Method and amounts
(for pictorial guide blog post, see here )

200g icing (powdered) sugar
200g ground almonds
180g of egg whites (split into two batches of 90g)
80ml water
200g of caster sugar

To flavour shells, I used 1 tsp orange oil extract (Sainsbury's Taste the Difference) added this at the same stage as the food colouring

Set your oven to 150deg C fan / 170deg C electric.


Put the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until superfine. I use my hand held bamix and grinding mill attachment for this.

Break up any big lumps that have formed and sift into a large mixing bowl. Throw away any bits too large to fit through the sieve. Add one batch of egg whites, gel paste food colouring (about 3 times the amount you think you need !) and mix until a thick paste forms.

Put the caster sugar and water into a saucepan and boil until the sugar thermometer hits 110deg. As soon as temperature reaches 110deg C, whip your egg whites until stiff peaks form. Get the sugar syrup off the heat as soon as temperature hits 118deg C

You know your egg whites are stiff enough when you can hold the bowl upside down above your head and the whites stay put !
Using a hand held or stand mixer, whip the egg whites and add in the sugar syrup in a slow stream. Take care to try and keep the sugar syrup from coming into direct contact with the beaters (or the syrup may crystallise and change the texture). Keep whipping until the italian meringue is cool, stiff and glossy. 

Mix about 1/3 of this into your paste of icing sugar, ground almonds, egg whites etc we already made to loosen in.

Fold in the remaining 2 /3rds. Make sure to incorporate it all fully. You want to mix it enough so that a ribbon of macaronage will start to disappear back into the bowl after about 30 seconds. If it doesn't fold another couple of times and try again. I reckon it takes about 25 full strokes (variable)

Once the macaronage is ready, put into a piping bag fitted with a plain tip. I like to use a 5mm nozzle for optimum control. I sometimes use a 10mm (1cm) tip - but the batter can flow a bit too fast, especially if you are using the small side of the mat.

Put the macaron mats on to baking trays.

Pipe the macaronage into the centre of each cell - leaving approx 3 > 4mm space around the outside of the batter to the cell walls to allow for expansion as they relax. You will only need to leave about 2mm on the smaller side. Once you've got the hang of it and made your first batch, you'll know what's right for you. Pipe in too much and it will overflow the cell walls.

If the macaronage is not dead centre, wet your finger and this will allow you to centre it. Handy trick whilst you get the hang of piping them centrally !

Rap the tray once or twice on your worktop to dispel any air bubbles and level the macaronage. Don't worry if not so level - they'll smooth out in the oven.

If you wish to add any edible glitter or sprinkles to the top of your macarons, do so now.

All macaron instructions I've ever seen involved leaving your macarons out for about 30mins to 1hour until a skin forms on the top before baking. Dr Tim Kinnaird was good enough to share a tip with me that I've used ever since.....

Simply pop the baking tray straight into the oven at 150deg C Fan, BUT leave the door open about 6" / 150mm for the first 5 minutes to dry off the tops. After that, shut the door to complete baking.

Baking time can be variable. I find in my oven that 2" / 50mm macarons always take 18mins to cook (excluding the first 5 mins with the door open) and the 30mm macarons take 13mins (excluding the first 5 mins with the door open)

Remove from oven and allow to cool fully before attempting to remove from the macaron sheets. Our revolutionary double sided macaron sheets are now also available in a commercial size for bakery ovens.



For the filling, I adapted  Astral's mallow recipe and the seville orange curd I made in my last blog post here : http://www.siliconemoulds.blogspot.com/2012/02/seville-orange-curd-and-sugar-top-buns.html

Mallow filling :

1 egg white
100g fine white sugar / caster sugar
40ml water
1 Tablespoon golden syrup (Astral used much less)
Pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put all ingredients into a bowl over a pot of boiling water - making sure your bowl doesn't touch the water. Using a hand mixer, whisk at high speed until soft peaks form (about 9 mins). Remove from heat and continue to whisk until almost at firm peak stage.

Put into a piping bag and pipe a ring on top of half of the macaron shells. Put a good dollop of the seville orange curd in the middle of each ring and sandwich with another shell. The mallow wall is great at holding the curd in, so it can take a good amount of filling without squirting out the sides.

Do eat these the same day - they go rather soft by day 2 (even refrigerated), due to the curd filling.

Friday 3 February 2012

Seville Orange Curd and Sugar Top Buns


Seville oranges have such a short season. I'd bought a couple of kilos with the intention of making marmalade. 10 days later, they were still sitting there SCREAMING at me to be used. I've been so busy that I literally didn't have time to spare faffing about with marmalade, so I decided to turn it into an orange curd instead. I hoped that the tartness would be really apparent as it is with lemon curd. I adore that real mouth puckering citrus tang.

At first taste, it was nice - but initially I was disappointed. It was sweet and silky smooth. No tang. Pants. 

Then, just when you think it's all over, BAM - that strong orange taste and citrus tang kicks in several seconds afterwards... Awesome stuff. I had to make a second batch - too many things I wanted to do with it. Victoria got a jar and I sent two jars to my parents. I used a jar making some macarons (which I'll show you very shortly). My colleagues and I devoured another jar .... believe me - it doesn't last long / go far ..... with a batch of sugar top buns.


SEVILLE ORANGE CURD RECIPE (makes 3 smallish jars or two big ones)

200g sugar
3 eggs + 2 yolks
100g melted butter
250ml juice from seville oranges
zest 1.1/2 seville oranges


First of all, melt the butter and them add the seville juice and lemon zest.

Whisk together the eggs, yolks and sugar in a pan, then whisk in the butter and lemon mix.

Stir continuously over a low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Put into sterilised jars and seal. 

This lemon curd recipe does not need a double boiler. Keep a sink full of cold water nearby. If it looks like it might split, plunge the pan bottom into the water and then whisk like fury. I've never had it split yet...(though I've water dunked it once or twice before).


Sugar top buns are one of my childhood memories. I believe these are really only common in Central Scotland, mainly in the Glasgow area. They were also known as Paris Buns - but sugar tops is the name I remember them as. 

I remember my dad bringing them back from Lightbody The Bakers in Hamilton. Back in those days, they had three retail bakeries in Hamilton that I remember and I think two tearooms. They made the most fantastic potato scones, Scottish Plain Bread and when mum went, she always came back with a jar of their lemon curd.

Sadly, they sold out and became a large commercial bakery / factory - now producing and selling celebration cakes to supermarkets. All the little shops and tearooms have gone.

From my memories, sugar tops are much like a domed scone, pale in colour and encrusted in crunchy sugar nibs (also known as sugar pearls in the baking trade)

I've used my favourite scone recipe.

Sugar Tops / Paris Buns - makes 6


350g self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
4 tablespoons white sugar
175g milk
squeeze of lemon juice
100g butter
egg white (to glaze)

sugar nibs / pearls (or crushed sugar cubes) to coat


Preheat fan oven to 200deg C

Scones are so quick and easy to make that once you make them once yourself, you'll never go back to shop bought. I'm serious.

1. Grate your butter. Yes - sounds crazy. I think that was a tip I picked up off a Jamie Oliover program many years ago. It may seem mad - but it works like a dream. You want to work the dough as little as you possibly can. Grating the butter means it incorporates into the dough FAR faster.

2. Warm your milk. Just as you are ready to use it, give it a zap in the microwave. You want it nice and hot - but not too hot to touch.

3. Sour the milk with a squeeze of lemon juice (or use buttermilk). I normally use a little lemon juice. If you don't have any, vinegar would do. It doesn't need much !

4. Handle the scone dough as little as possible and get it in the oven as fast as you can. The addition of the warm / hot milk helps them rise from the inside.

In a large bowl, mix sieved flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Rub in the grated butter until crumbs form. 

Warm the milk and add it to the dry ingredients. Combine with a fork. Bring together with your hands. It will be very soft and a little sticky.

Tip out on to a work surface and pat it into a rough rectangle about 9" x 6" I guess. Try not to add any extra flour and handle the dough as little as you possibly can. Mine is normally about 2" thick (yes - before they go in the oven !)

I never ever roll my scone dough....and I never use cutters on it either. If you want to cut it into rounds, push the cutter the whole way down in one go. Don't twist / rotate the cutter as you do this - otherwise the scones don't rise nearly so well.

I simply cut into rectangles with a sharp knife. One single cut down and lift the knife out exactly the way it went in. I basically cut my rectangle into 3 and then each big piece into two.
Place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment - or use a silicone baking tray liner as shown above. Great things these are - save me a small fortune in baking parchment.

Squeeze each piece into a rough ball. Coat in egg white and then roll in the sugar nibs or crushed sugar cubes would do until coated all over. Place on baking tray and flatten slightly.

Bake for 10 > 12 mins at 200deg C (fan) until just starting to colour

Eat slightly warm, or cold. Delicious slathered with butter and raspberry jam or lemon curd.


A few snaps from a cold winter visit to Southwold 2 weeks ago.


of course, whatever the weather - digging in the sand was a must !


We went for some lunch and a warm up afterwards. I could have cried at how grown up Oliver was. He very politely ordered himself some apple juice and cottage pie. Thank goodness both were on the menu ! Whilst waiting on his tea, we did some basic maths counting fingers to work out the answers to some puzzles.

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - Feb 2012