Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Coming soon

I am desperate to make Christmas cookies, fudge and chocolate truffles, unfortunately I have essays to write and college work to finish before Christmas can truly start. However I will be making these very soon and the recipes will be up here. So apologies for the Sundays that I have missed but I'm doing my best to get an education, which is harder than it should be, and I am looking forward to baking asap.

In the mean time here is another wintery/Christmasy picture I took during the snowy week.


Saturday, December 4, 2010

The weather outisde is frightful, tea and scones to warm up with

It's December which means two things right now. Winter weather outside, and essays due in for the end of term. Did you think I was going to say Christmas? I wish  I could, but Christmas can't officially start for me until I have submitted all of these horrible essays. So as much as I wish that I could start my Christmas cookies, Christmas cake and pudding making etc, it will have to wait until after the 17th to start, which is way too late for my liking.



 Essays are the most boring and painful things to write so I do think I deserve a little treat even if it's not a Christmas treat. This morning I was watching Nigella make buttermilk scones and I was inspired to make scones to eat while I work.



White Scones with Butter

1 Cup self-raising flour
1 Cup plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 Cup of brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 stick butter melted
200ml milk

preheat the oven to 400'F/200' C. Sieve together the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl mix together the milk and melted butter. If you like raisins then this would be the point to add them and coat them in the flour mixture. In the center of the bowl make a hollow and break the egg into the bowl, add 1/2 of the milk and butter mixture and stir to combine. Continue to add the milk and butter mixture until the dough is springy and moist but not overly wet or dry. There may be some residual flour in the bottom of the bowl but this will be incorporated in the kneading. Knead the dough in the bowl for 5-10 minutes. Until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is very springy and there are no visible cracks in the ball of dough.
Split the dough into balls about 2-3" in diameter. Place the scones at least 3" apart from each other on a cookie tray and bake for 10 minutes or until firm, brown and hollow sounding to tap.
Serve with butter or jam and enjoy.

Protein Cheesecake for every weeknight dessert

 I've been making this recipe for a while, think 3-4 years in various iterations and adapted it a number of times. This is my favourite,...