Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Cookbook Challenge Weeks 8 & 9 - Sweet & Berry - Raspberry Scones 2 - $ - V

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. I think you are setting yourself up for a fall declaring you will or won't do something just because it is the start of a new year. Changing behaviour needs to come at the right time; and when you're ready in order to succeed. I'm from the school of that wise little green 'man':

'Do or do not. There is no try.'

Yoda (Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)

And if you mess it up; or fall off the health-kick wagon; or skip the gym; or forget to stop and smell the flowers, it's OK. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, don't give yourself a hard time and DO it all again tomorrow. You'll get the hang of it.

What I have recently decided to do is eat more fruit, which is why I had bags of frozen berries just begging to be put into these scones. I've also had a very busy last two weeks so I've combined weeks 8 and 9 of The Cookbook Challenge in what I call 'good time management' as opposed to 'cheating'.
I'm also not very good at scones so this being a challenge after all, I thought I should have a go at getting better at them.


This recipe is from the gorgeous Afternoon Tea cookbook, published by the lovely folk from Frankie magazine. I've mentioned this book before because it is full of old-school recipes, it is cheap to buy and it is a fab gift for cooks of all skill levels.

Raspberry Scones (Kate Ella)

Ingredients

4 cups self-raising flour
3tbs icing sugar plus extra to dust
60gm butter
3/4 cup water
1 1/3 cups milk, plus extra for brushing
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries - I used mixed berries

Preheat oven to 200C degrees. Grease a lamington tray or line a baking tray with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour and icing sugar. With the tips of your fingers rub through the butter until the flour becomes a bread-crumb like consistency. (Mine were not too crumby-like, so I just pushed on.)

Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the milk and water. Use a knife to cut the liquids through the flour until it makes a sticky dough. (My dough was SUPER sticky, too much I think, so perhaps put the milk in first and then add the water if you think you need it.)
Add the frozen raspberries and cut these through also. (You need to move fast with the berries, they start to defrost adding more moisture to the dough and if you have blueberries in there, they burst and make the colour of the dough purple.)


On a well-floured surface (WELL-floured is key I found), knead the dough until nice and smooth, but don't overdo it. Press the dough out until it is about 2-3cm thick . Use a floured scone cutter or glass to press out the scones and place side by side and touching on the tray. Push the pastry scraps together and flatten out as many times as you can to get lots of scones.

Brush the tops with milk and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Dust with icing sugar and serve hot or cold with jam and cream.

I think these were missing a little something and tasted a touch bland so I will keep up the scone making until I get them right.

Enjoy!

8 comments:

Iron Chef Shellie said...

Nice work on combining 2 weeks into one. I've always looked at the book yet never bought it yet.
Pitty they were a touch bland =(

Hannah said...

It's a shame they were bland - they look utterly lovely! Maybe some lemon zest? Lemon often goes well with berries. It's annoying when recipes from books aren't as good as you'd hope - aren't they meant to be the professionals? ;)

What's For Tea? said...

Oh the lemon zest is an excellent idea thanks Hannah!
Someone also suggested a pinch of salt or a touch more icing sugar.
As for combining the two challenge weeks; just when I thought the silly season was over it doubled! I didn't want to let the team down ;)

Thanks for stopping by ladies x

Agnes said...

I agree that it's a shame they were a bit bland - they looked good! Although if I had baked them, I would have used the blandness as an excuse to smother them with butter or alternatively jam and cream. ;)

What's For Tea? said...

Oh Agnes there was much cream! But still NQR boo! x

Rilsta @ My Food Trail said...

Oh, that's disappointing they were bland. I actually find scones to be quite bland in general, which is why sweet scones still need to be served with a dollop of sweet cream & jam! I love how the dough goes slightly purple!

Unknown said...

I'm a lover of your philosophy re setting NY resolutions! Have to say I also agree with Agnes – this would have been my excuse to smoother the little babies in cream and jam…mmmm

Ange said...

They sound delicious, I've never made or even heard of scones with berries in them before

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