Scones - Cheese Scones, Fruit Scones & a big update !

This post is specifically for Marie - who requested my cheese scone recipe after I took them to Sara & Max's Easter Egg hunt party on Friday. The children all had a super time and it was so funny to watch Oliver  and friends tearing round the garden at warp speed collecting eggs. For those of you that want to see the photos - you should be able to view them if you have a Facebook account . Sara's Easter Egg Hunt 15/4/11

Stupidly, I didn't take photos of Friday's scones, but since Victoria and Emma were coming over on Saturday.... I made some more.

Scones are best eaten on the day they are made - preferably still a little warm. Still - if there are any left a day or two later, try toasting them and spreading with butter. Cheese scones are awesome toasted and the cheese  melts again so they taste as good as they did straight out the oven.

Cheese Scone Recipe - makes 6 > 8

350g self raising flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp mustard powder (omit if you prefer)

300g coarse grated strong cheese

175g milk

squeeze of lemon juice

60g butter

beaten egg (to glaze)

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. I hadn't made scones in a year until last week, but I hadn't bought any either. Ok - that's a lie. I occassionally buy really cheap reduced / out of date ones for the chickens. They do love scones... but I refuse to make scones for chickens !

There are a few rules for making good fluffy scones that rise tall.

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 and baking powder. Rub in the grated butter until crumbs form. Keep a small amount of grated cheese back to decorate the tops, and toss the rest of the grated cheese through the crumbs. If you forget, it's no big deal. I often do and have to grate some more ..

I usually like to use EXTRA STRONG Mature Cheddar (Cathedral City) for scones - but the ones photographed were made using Applewood smoked.

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 1.1/2 > 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.

Brush the tops with beaten egg and then strategically place several strands of grated cheese on top of each one. You won't need much cheese on top (it's mainly decoration), and I promise you that these are packed with cheese on the inside.

Bake for 10 > 12 mins at 200deg C (fan)

For Fruit scones :

replace 60g butter with 85g.

omit the mustard and cheese (obviously !)

Add a good big handful of the plumpest raisins / sultanas you can find. Tesco does some really good ones.

Add 3 > 4 tablespoons sugar and 1 tsp vanilla

Well - it's been one heck of a week. THREE fires at the building behind us at work. I was working late on Monday night and went out to the car to get some paperwork. On going out the door, the smell of smoke hit me. On looking up, I could see our roof was smoking and the building behind was pouing smoke.

On running round the back of the building, there were employees from surrounding units pouring water along the ground where wooddust which had blown in the wind was lying and catching fire everywhere. The stack of pallets by the back of our building started to ignite. The moss on our roof and lying wood dust blown over from the sawdust factory was starting to burn.

I phoned the fire brigade who thankfully arrived quickly. They called in more help and there were 6 appliances on site and approx 36 fire crew. A couple of them spent a good two hours hosing our roof alone as they were worried about thermal hotspots. I'm just grateful that no damage was done.

I've got quite a lot of photos and some video clips that are far too long to load up on here. This was before the fire brigade arrived and the THIRD fire. Yes - you did read that right. There were an additional two further fires at this same property on Wednesday. The problematic machinery obviously wasn't fixed.... Thankfully on those occasions, the wind was blowing the opposite way and there was no risk to us.

I think by the time I took this photo, essentially the fire was out. Anyway, the fireman at the bottom of the ladder is Richard (one of my employees) who is also a retained fire fighter with Attleborough Fire Brigade. If it wasn't for local businesses letting staff remain on retention with the fire brigade, we wouldn't have a local fire service. I'll need to remember not to whinge too much when he gets a call out and has to make a rapid exit for a fire call..

Basically, I've been really held back this week due to various things that have to take priorirty - like fires for instance. I've got several parcels waiting to send to some of you guys / gals (who have offered some help) on my desk and will be sending several emails in the morning for addresses. A few have also already been sent - and one or two received already. Apologies for the late replies... it's been a very packed week !

Massive thanks to Ann Low of Ancoo Journal who send me an awesome parcel last week - full or agar agar and jelly molds to play with. I can't wait to have a go ! Do have a look at Ann's blog though - she really is the master of jellies and her photos are stunning :-)

I took a couple of hours out yesterday when my friend Victoria brought her little girl Emma to play with Oliver. For those of you who don't know, Emma and Oliver are the best friends in the whole wide world. I met Victoria outside nursery last autumn when for some unknown reason I offered her some newly laid eggs from our chickens that I had in the car... You meet people in the strangest of ways !

We took Emma and Oliver out for a walk. The joy of a sunny day and the outdoors.

Below : Catching Butterflies.

Best Friends.....

Beautiful cherry blossom,. Oh - how I'd love to visit and see cherry blossom in Japan. My thoughts go out to those in Japan after all their tradgedy of late.

Glorious sunshine - and then the rain came.

Really wierd. Glorious sunshine on one side and thick black cloud on the other. We made a quick dash for home....

Well - that's it for tonight. Got some photos using a new mould to upload tomorrow if time allows

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups - TWO Ways

Ok - hands up. I'm guilty !

I had serious fun fun fun making several things with this recipe and happily frittered last Friday night away simply "creating"....

The basis of this recipe came from BROWN EYED BAKER. Shucks - I've hardly changed it at all, but I have kinda reinvented it in a totally different way... and all of these came from just one batch of cookie dough.

I started with just the cookie dough and used 1/2 of it to make some really yummy cookies. If you want pretty cookie photos - do go and look at Brown Eyed Baker's  - mine are rather rustic ! They also spread quite a bit (which I wanted them to) and I cooked a little bit longer to get really crisp edges.

Here is the recipe I used

Peanut Butter & Snickers Cookie Dough

1.1/4 cups plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

115g softened salted butter

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

3/4 cup light brown soft sugar

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 egg

splash of milk

1 tsp vanilla extract (homemade if you have it !)

4 Snickers bars - chopped (standard size)

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Cream the butter, sugars and peanut butter until smooth and creamy (apart from the nutty lumps that is !) Add the egg, milk and vanilla and beat again. Combine in the flour, baking powder and bicarb. Add a teeny bit more milk if needed.

Stir in the chocolate chips and chopped up Snickers bars.

Now - divide into 24 balls - all approx 50 > 55g. If you want cookies, space well apart on silicone baking mats / tray liners. If you want cookie cups, put them into a 12 hole standard sized cupcake / muffin mould and press into the edges so there is a hollow in the middle.

I really dont remember how long I baked them for. About 10 > 12 mins I think. The oven was 170deg and I baked them until the edges started turning golden brown.

In case you notice a rather BLUE thing going on here, you are right. I've had these in stock for a good few months. Customers keep asking me for muffin moulds and baking tray liners in blue - but I just had not got round to actually putting them on the website or taking photos.... 

When the cookie cups came out the oven, the middles were risen and almost level with the top of the mould. I slightly tapped the middle of each one, which caused them to fall and go back to a cup shape. I left these in the moulds to cool before turning out.

As this was a brand new mould, I lightly greased with butter before use. I don't generally find I have to flour dust moulds when using with cookie dough.. The cookie cups literally popped out.

These are super to serve slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla icecream, or cold with frosting in the centre.

I made chocolate buttercream and banana creme buttercream.

115g salted butter, 4 cups of icing sugar and 1/4 cup of milk. This needs to go in a stand mixer for at least 5 mins. I then split the batch into two. To one half, I added 3 or 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder. To the other half, I added 4 DROPS (yes - drops) of Lorann Candy Oil. The candy oils are seriously powerful stuff and come in teeny weeny 2.5ml bottles. You'll be surprised - this stuff goes a very long way !

You choose - frosting or icecream - which do you prefer ???

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - silicone bakeware / cake mould specialist cook shop

Redcurrant Muffins with Lemon Glaze

I made these a month or so ago and totally forgot I hadn't blogged them.

These redcurrant and lemon muffins are extraordinary. The lemon glaze is sweet but tangy and the redcurrants give a sour tang. You could eat these any time of the day. They taste light and refreshing and are a real burst of summer.

I was astonished Oliver had a go at these. He ate about 1/2 of one - which was good going for him. Right enough, he would have been begging for a second one if chocolate had been involved !

Last summer, I saw punnets upon punnets of redcurrants for sale on a fruit and veg stand by the side of the road. We are in a very rural area, and loads of people sell fruit, veg and eggs outside their door. You literally take what you want and put your money in a jar. Lovely. Fresh produce and usually very cheap. In autumn, EVERYONE seems to have apples and there are stacks of folk giving slightly imperfect ones away by the carrier bag full free. All you need to do is stop and pick some up

Sucked in by the lure of masses of redcurrants - freshly picked and on the vines, I doubled back to get some. I remember at the time getting about 4 or 5 punnets full and at the same time stupidly already realising I'd have no chance to use them over the following couple of days.

Just as well then that they froze so well ! I've had redcurrants there for sauces etc all through winter. Given masses still remained however, I can up with these on a rather damp and dreary winter day and it rather brightened things up.

Line a 12 hole silicone muffin mould (preferably hot pink to cheer up a gloomy day !) with paper cupcake / muffin cases. I like to use liners with delicate batters like this one and also when I am useing icings or glazes as it makes it a much less stick affair to both handle and eat the finished product !

Preheat fan oven to 200deg C

Recipe - makes exactly 12

275g plain flour (sifted)

3 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

160g sugar

1 egg

250ml milk

100ml sunflower or vegetable oil

180g redcurrants

Add all dry ingredients together and combine with a fork

Add all wet ingredients together and combine with a fork

Add wet to dry, and mix with a spoon until it looks lumpy and almost combined. Throw in the frozen redcurrants during the last couple of strokes.

Spoon into the cases. Pop the silicone muffin mould (on top of a baking tray) into the oven and reduce temperature to 180deg C.

Cook for approx 20 > 25 mins until done. Remove from oven.

For the glaze, all I did was mix icing sugar with some lemon juice until a thick paste (tooth paste consistency) formed.  Spoon this on to the hot muffins and it will melt to form a simple glaze



Enjoy !

Sarah-Jane Nash, http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - silicone bakeware specialists

Cinnamon and Vanilla Jellies

I've been meaning to have a go at making jellies for some time. I found Jelly Shot Test Kitchen from browsing other blogs and they have so many super jelly ideas and colours using alcohol. The queen of jellies however has to be Ann Low of Anncoo Journal and mine are rather boring compared to her awesome creations like the Fancy Hearts Jelly below

I'll need to have another go with jellies sometime soon and follow Ann's super instruction guide !

Anyway, I made these funky little jellies using Jelly Shot Test Kitchen and Anncoo Journal for inspiration. I used the FLORAL & FANCY CHOCOLATE SET 2 for these. The name for the silicone mould is a bit off putting I suppose as it can be used for making little cakes, jellies or ice cubes as well as chocolates.

 

As you can see, it has 12 cells, all with very different designs. Some floral and most of them fancy ! I so want to make some little cakes with this mould soon.

 

Recipe - Cinnamon & Vanilla Jellies (no alcohol)

2.1/2 cups of water

1 tin condensed milk (397g)

2 > 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 vanilla pod

7 leaves of platimum grade gelatin

If your mould is brand new, oil it well and then wipe off all residue with some kitchen roll. Place the mould on top of a baking tray to make it easy to get in and out of the fridge !

Put 1 cup of water and the gelatin leaves aside in a bowl.

Put the rest of the water in a pan, along with the cinnamon and vanilla pod / seeds. Bring the water to a simmer and then remove from the heat.

Remove vanilla pod. Add gelatin and water from bowl and stir to disolve. But back on a very low heat and add the condensed milk, stirring all the time. As soon as combined, remove from the heat. Pour into prepared mould. I used two moulds for mine. I made these almost two weeks ago - and to be honest, can't remember if I had any mix left over.

Allow to set for a few hours in the fridge.

I found that the jellies released late that evening were far easier to work with than the ones that had only been left a couple of hours. To get them out easily, I dipped the moulds in hot water for a few seconds. That sounds easier said than done - don't forget that silicone bakeware moulds are very flexible. I found that the best way to do this was to put approx 1" of very hot water in the bottom of the sink. I could then dunk the mould in without the water coming over the top. It needed about 5 seconds.

Turn upside down over a baking tray and gently release one jelly at a time. I popped these back in the fridge to make sure they had a chance to totally stiffen up before moving them again. They were easy to pick up and move without damage as you can see.

These cinnamon and vanilla jellies did not last long at all. Each were about two good sized mouthfulls and it's easy to eat about 3 in a go ! They are very different from ordinary jellies and tasted rather grown-up. 

Next time I play with jelly I want to make some multi coloured layer ones !

Sarah-Jane Nash, April 11 - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - the online silicone bakeware cookshop.

Help ! Please..... Calling all Blogger friends....

Ok - here's the deal.

I'm stressed out my brain and am working the most stupid amount of hours possible. It's already 1.40am and there is no way I can dream of going to bed yet as I have so much to do.

Typically, I've taken on a large project and simply don't think I've got enough time to accomplish what I want to achieve within the timescale.

That's where you guys come in, as I think this could be quite fun.......

At the end of next month, I'm taking the silicone on the road to the Ideal Home Show exhibition in Scotland. It was a very late decision and I'm simply not prepared. I'm only just starting to try and design the stand layout and what to take with us.

I LOVE using our products and taking photos of the things I make. However, there are oodles of stuff that I haven't yet got round to using myself or taking photos of things made in them. I really want to be able to do a continuous presentation on a tv screen on the stand in the background (without sound) showing some of the things that can be made in our moulds. Luckily, I've got a hundred or more good, clear images to use. There are many of items I don't yet have photos to show things made in for either our website or the presentation and this includes some of our new range which is not yet released and coming in May.

I'm willing to swap some moulds in return for use of some photos (all credits will remain yours and I'm happy to backlink). Photos do need to be of a good > high standard, so some skill in this area would be required. I'm going to need photos in asap - by mid May absolute latest.

If you think you would be interested in helping out so I don't flunk my challenge, please drop me a line and I'll get back to you asap. I'm happy to put this offer worldwide

Peach and Passionfruit Marshmallows

I ssaw a recipe on the front cover of the April edition of the Delicious Magazine and just knew I had to make it. The recipe was for fruity marshmallows and was very different to any marshmallow recipe I've ever seen before.

First of all - it was made WITHOUT eggs, and secondly, it was made with fruit smoothie ! The magazine cover photo was beautiful. Really stunning - you can see it HERE

I've googled and found a couple of other bloggers have made them too Feeding Boys and Baked Until Scrumptious

However, I wanted to make mine look rather different to normal marshmallows and decided to try and pimp them a bit :-)

120ml of smoothie or fruit juice (I used Innocent Peach and Passion Fruit Smoothie)

juice of 1/2 a lemon (my addition - not in original recipe)

23g powdered gelatine

440g caster sugar

160ml golden syrup

Cornflour to coat.

Pour the fruit juice over the gelatine and set aside to absorb.

Put lemon juice, caster sugar and syrup in a pan and bring up to 135 > 140deg C.

Put the gelatin / fruit juice gunge in a stand mixer and slowly add the syrup at medium speed until volume increase like meringue. When it gets to the point it's thick and stretchy and then pour into a prepared pan. The magazine suggests lining a tin with well oiled cling film. Leave to set/

I used two silicone bakeware moulds. A 15 cell sunflower mould and a 15 cell chrysanthemum mould.

Prepare these by oiling well and dusting with cornflour. I may as well admit it. These were a bit of a nightmare. After I poured my marshmallow into the moulds, I remembered I hadn't oiled or dusted them with cornflour. Marshmallow sticks to every living thing. Note to ones self - DO NOT MAKE MARSHMALLOWS AT 3AM !!!

I've made marshmallow many times before and it's always been a dawdle. Except this time. I found I had to wet my hands and literally scoop them slowly out of the moulds. They did come out intact with a bit of patience .... but it would have been a heck of a lot easier had I oiled and dusted with cornflour like normal.

Do buy the magazine - if just for the full version of this recipe with many many other ideas for flavour combinations and stunning photos.

Recipe verdict ? It worked well - but I much prefer normal marshmallows. The fruity flavour was nice - but they didn't live up to the James Martin marshmallow recipe I normally use. Next time, I'd use the moulds again for pretty looking sweets but the James Martin recipe and perhaps a tad of food colouring !

It is however worth a go if you fancy something rather different.

Sarah-Jane Nash, http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - the online silicone bakeware specialist cook shop

Honey, Vanilla & Pistachio Nougat

I've seen a lot of stunning photos of nougat recently and really fancied making my own. My main sources of inspiration were Cherry Tea Cakes recipe that made Foodbuzz's top 9 Toasted Hazelnut Nougat Recipe and also Rachel Allen's Nougat

However, I had a play around and came up with a unique version of my own. I made it in my 8" square silicone bakeware mould. I'll want you now, this is the stickiest stuff you can ever imagine to work with. It's far stickier than marshmallow.... and THAT'S sticky !

I thought I had bought rice paper sheets. Obviously I hadn't - I'd just thought about it at some stage and not actually bothered. Right when I needed them - they were not there. Rice paper sheets would help a lot, believe me. Do oil or butter your silicone mould well to prepare for pouring in the nougat. We don't want pools of oil in the bottom.... you don't need that much.

You will need liquid glucose. Liquid glucose is very very thick and sticky - not unlike golden syrup I suppose - but totally clear and even stickier still. Most supermarkets stock it in 140g tubes, or you can buy it from Boots The Chemist. Do ask for it at Boots though as it is generally not on display. Alternatively, corn syrup is what is used in most American recipes for nougat. I've just found it on Ebay and Amazon in the UK, so if you are struggling for liquid glucose then you will need some corn syrup

You will also need a sugar thermometer. Don't even think of trying this without one - temperature is absolutely critical. Too high and you'll burn the caramel part and too low it'll just never set....

Recipe

2 egg whites

1.1/2 cups granulated sugar

160ml / 2/3 cup liquid glucose (or corn syrup)

160ml / 2/3 cup runny honey (pale colour if possible)

1 vanilla pod

60ml water

140g > 240g pistachios (I used 140g and added 100g dried cherries)

Scrape the seeds out the vanilla pod and put aside. Put the pod itself and the sugar, liquid glucose, runny honey and water into a large, heavy based saucepan (preferably non stick - you'll appreciate that later !)

Bring these slowly to a rolling boil and keep on the heat until temperature reaches 248  > 250deg F. This will take about 15 > 20 mins.

Just before the syrup mix is ready, whisk the two egg whites to stiff peaks in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Remove syrup from the heat and pour slowly into the egg whites with the mixer going at a medium / high rate. Try and keep the syrup from directly makeing contact with the whisk otherwise this can affect the texture I believe.

The mix will grow like meringue and look shiny. As soon as the syrup is all in, add the nuts and dried fruit should you have chosen to use it and let the mixer combine. You want it to stick to the beaters like a good meringue, but it will be much stickier. Don't let it cool in there too much. You need to work quite wuick with this one !

Use a silicone spatula to scrape into your mould (or prepared tin) and aggitiate (shoogle) it a bit to level.

Allow to cool. You may wish to refrigerate it for a while. Once it has firmed up, you can remove it from your silicone tray mould. If you've used a tin without wafer sheets.... good luck !!!

You can see this was really no big deal to get out the mould.

I dusted top and bottom with some cornflour on demoulding as the stuff sticks to every darn thing and it made it easy to work with when my hands were not welded to it's surface. Still - it made me laugh. I swear if I stuck a piece to the bottom of each shoe, I could have walked upside down on the ceiling !

Saying that, it's dreamy to eat and doesn't stick to your teeth. It's fluffy and light. It's not chompy and teeth gluing like toffee or fly paper when it's in your mouth. It's highly unlikely to pull fillings.

Don't let the stickiness put you off making it. This is the stuff that will help you make friends and influence people. Now I've made it once, I think I'll end up making it again and again. Definately one for the Christmas hampers !

 The harder it is at point of cutting, the easier it is. Had I used wafer sheets top and bottom, I think this job would have been far easier... but the cornflour on top of greasproof paper did a good job.

DO use a sharp knife. This is important.

I started off with an oiled knife...just as you would for toffee.

DO cut right the way through in one go. That knife isn't coming back out once you start cutting !

Don't bother oiling the knife. Run it under the cold water tap and shake off excess. Make a cut. It's far easier with a wet knife I fould than an oiled one. Each row you cut, wash the sticky bits of the knife. Promise....If you forget, you won't for the row after..

Once cut into nice big chunks, wrap each in baking parchment.

I made 3 great big bags (one for posting to Mum and Dad in Scotland, one for Victoria and one to send to my grandmother.) The remains were scoffed by work colleagues who are still alive and well :-)

Enjoy and have fun !

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/, March 2011