Honey Oat Scones

Who doesn't like scones?!!!
Whether they're the plain, round English ones slathered with Cornish whipped cream and strawberry jam while on a summer picnic with "lashings of ginger beer" (sorry - I don't know what came over me - a flashback reference to Enid Blyton and the Famous Five there!! :o).  Or maybe they're the large, melt-in-the-mouth triangles of awesomeness that you might get from your local coffee shop, like a little gem in one of our local towns called Sundance Java Bar, where I had THE most scrumptious raspberry and white chocolate scone a while back with a friend - as you can probably tell, I still have dreams about it :o)

I haven't quite reached the 'nirvana' state yet with my own attempts in the kitchen, but this ones comes pretty close if I do say so myself - they have enough flavour to be able to eat on their own, but also they're not too sweet if you want to do some serious 'slathering' with your favourite preserve.

Honey Oat Scones
makes 8 scones

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup quick oats
1 very heaped Tbs baking powder
1 heaped Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, cold and cut into pieces
1/4 cup runny honey
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten (to glaze)

• preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• in a large bowl whisk together both flours, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt.
• using your fingers or a pastry blender, work the cold butter into the dry ingredients until you have the consistency of large breadcrumbs.
• in a separate small bowl, mix the honey and milk until combined, then add to the flour/butter mixture.
• blend everything together with your hands to form a 'softish' ball of dough - add a little more milk if the dough seems dry, but not enough to make it sticky.
• pat or roll the dough to approximately a 3cm thickness disc.
• either cut into wedges with a knife or if you prefer, you can cut out circles with a cookie cutter.
• place a couple of inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet, glaze the tops with the beaten egg and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

 Honey Oat Scones ingredients.

whisk all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

work the butter into the dry ingredients until you a large breadcrumb consistency.

blend together the honey and milk....

....and add it to the dry ingredients.

blend by hand to form a soft dough.

pat or roll into a 3cm thick disc.

using a large, floured knife, but into wedges.

place on the prepared cookie sheet and brush with the beaten egg.

bake until golden brown.

we were lucky enough to be given a jar of homemade peach jam that went tremendously with these scones.

Easter Biscuits

Even though we now live in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, and have embraced the differences in food and culture and all the other things that make this wonderful country different from England, every now and again I like to bring a little bit of 'the old country' back into my kitchen.  These buttery, subtly flavoured biscuits (yes, biscuits, not cookies :o), bring back sooo many memories of Easter growing up as a child.  Variations of these would be in EVERY bakery and grocery store in the southwest of England, as I'm sure they still are, and they would come out as dessert most nights around the Easter holidays.

Easter Biscuits
makes 30-35 biscuits

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
4-6 Tbs milk
3/4 cup raisins

• preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• in an electric stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter for a couple of minutes until smooth.
• add the sugar and continue beating until fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Stop and scrape the sides down halfway through.
• mix in the egg yolks and vanilla until incorporated.
• in a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon.
• add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and beat on medium speed until incorporated.
• while the mixer is running on low, pour in the raisins and enough milk to form a fairly soft dough.
• on a floured surface roll out the dough to 1/4" thickness and cut out biscuits using a 3" scalloped cookie cutter;  arrange about 2" apart onto cookie sheets.
• lightly beat the egg whites until frothy and brush over the tops of the biscuits;  sprinkle a little white sugar over the tops if wanted.
• bake for 12-15 minutes - they will stay fairly pale in colour.

 Easter Biscuit ingredients.

separate your eggs.

beat the butter until smooth.

after you've beaten the sugar into the butter add the egg yolks and vanilla.

in a separate bowl whisk the flour, salt and cinnamon.

mix the dry ingredients into the butter mix and once incorporated add the raisins and milk until....

....a soft dough is formed.

on a floured surface roll out to 1/4" thickness.

cut out the biscuits using a 3" scalloped cutter, re-rolling the scraps to make about 30-35 biscuits.

place on cookie sheets, brush with slightly beaten egg whites and sprinkle with sugar.

bake for 12-15 minutes, let cool on the sheets for a couple of minutes, transfer to wire racks and...

enjoy with a nice mug of coffee.

Hot Cross Buns

In just two short weeks it will be that time of year again when, regardless of your religious beliefs behind the celebration, the more secular customs of fluffy bunny's and colourful eggs will undoubtedly find their way into your life, somewhere, somehow - even if it's only being bombarded with images of it all as you make your way around Walmart!!

I'm sure I'll be making some Easter cookies with you all very soon (after all I do have a new 'egg' cookie cutter which I haven't used yet), but as requested from my hubby, the first Easter treat had to be hot cross buns.  Since moving to Canada we have yet to find a hot cross bun in any bakery or grocery store that doesn't contain, in varying quantities, the colourful green and red candied fruit that seems to be the norm over here.  Coming from the UK where usually only raisins or currants are added, we just haven't quite been able to succumb to the chewy little additions.  This is a recipe that I've adapted from the wonderful Dinner With Julie website, and they're pretty close to what we've been used to growing up;  flavourful, sweet, a little denser but very yummy!!
So, these are especially for you honey.....enjoy :o)

Hot Cross Buns
makes 12 buns

Dough
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
pinch of allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 large egg
1 cup raisins, currants or whichever dried fruit you like

Paste for crosses:
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp water

Glaze:
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp water

• place the yeast, a little of the sugar and the milk into the bowl of a stand mixer and let stand for about 5 minutes to activate the yeast.
• add all the remaining dough ingredients to the yeast mixture and using the dough hook on your mixer, blend everything on low to medium power for about 5-7 minutes until you have a smooth and elastic ball of dough.
• remove the hook from the dough and leaving it in the bowl, cover with a tea towel, place in a warm place and let it rise for approximately 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.
• once risen, divide the dough into 12 balls and place them into a 9"x13" baking dish or onto a cookie sheet.  Depending on whether you prefer the 'pull-apart' buns or individual ones, space them from each other accordingly.
• cover again with a tea towel and set aside in a warm spot until doubled in size again - about 30-45 minutes.
• preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• meanwhile prepare the paste for the crosses;  in a small bowl combine the flour, sugar and water.
• place the paste into a small ziploc bag, cut off a small piece of the corner, and 'pipe' crosses onto each of the 12 buns.
• bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and well risen.
• combine the sugar and water in a small bowl for the glaze.
• while they're still warm in the pan, brush the tops with the prepared glaze and after a couple of minutes transfer them to a cooling rack.  The Easter celebrations have begun....

 Hot Cross Buns ingredients.

let the yeast, a little of the sugar and the milk stand for 5 minutes for the yeast to become active.

add all the other dough ingredients...

and mix for 5-7 minutes until you have...

a ball of smooth, elastic dough.

leave the dough in the bowl, covered for 1 hour (you'll see that the sides are nice and clean where everything has been kneaded well).

divide the dough into 12 equal portions and forming balls, place into a 9" x 13" baking pan.

after letting them rise for another 45 minutes or so, prepare the 'cross' paste ingredients.

put the paste into a small ziploc bag, clipping the end to form a small hole.

pipe crosses over the risen buns.

bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and then brush with the glaze mix.

(oh, and by the way, your kitchen will be smelling divine!!!)

Lemon Cheesecake (alternative base)

Okay, I know yesterday I said that I was going to make my lemon cheesecake with a raspberry 'swirl' through the middle of it - well, change of plans.  We ended up with lemon cheesecake covered with warm raspberry sauce.  Not because it wouldn't of tasted AWESOME with the swirl, or looked fabulous, but mainly because I completely forgot to add it!!!  I just carried on making the cheesecake as I usually do and it wasn't until it was already half way through cooking that I remembered - oh well, maybe next time :o)

I did make a few differences this time though, which is why I decided to include this little updated post.  Instead of making two cheesecakes as I usually do, I went with one 'tall' dessert instead, so it ended up baking for about an extra 10-15 minutes (50-55 minutes).  I also changed the base from my usual digestive biscuit base and this time used Oreo cookies - this just might now be my 'usual' base - it was delicious!!!

So anyway, I won't bother with the whole recipe again here, just some photos for the base, but you can get my original recipe for lemon cheesecake here.

I used my Magic Bullet to make the Oreo crumbs but use whatever works for you.

I found that a whole pack of Oreos along with the regular amount of butter from my original recipe is a good mix.

as I mentioned, I only made one cheesecake this time, so the base was a little thicker - so I baked it for 15 minutes this time.

It was so tall it started to come over the top of the pan!!!

with the added raspberry sauce (sorry, by the time I thought of taking a photo including the sauce, most of it was already eaten :o), and the chocolate base, this was delicious!!!

Sugar Cookies

Probably one of the most baked cookies during the holiday season is undoubtedly the sugar cookie.  Now I don't claim that this recipe is in any way my own - I haven't added some obscure ingredient that will set mine apart from the hundreds of other variations out there.  In fact, this is probably the most used variation if my quick search on the internet is anything to go by, but it just wouldn't be Christmas without these - it's one of the few times that I venture forth into the 'piping' world, which I apologies to you in advance.  That is without doubt, one skill that I have NOT perfected. 

Sugar Cookies
makes 40-60 depending on cutter size

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

• in a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
• in the bowl of a stand mixer cream together the sugar and butter until fluffy.
• add the eggs, incorporating one at a time; then the vanilla.
• gradually stir in the flour mixture to form a moist dough.
• divide the dough and flatten into discs approximately 1 inch in thickness; wrap in plastic cling and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• when ready, roll out the dough, either on a lightly floured surface or as I find easier (and not as messy), between two pieces of wax paper to 1/4 inch thickness.
• cut out into all sorts of fun shapes and sizes and place onto ungreased cookie sheets about an inch apart.
• place the cookie sheets back into the fridge for 10-15 minutes to harden the dough back up slightly (this will stop the cookies from spreading too much and losing their shapes).
• meanwhile preheat the oven to 400 F.
• when the cookies have firmed back up bake for 6-8 minutes; leave to cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
• once the cookies are completely cool you can pipe them if you feel so inclined; combine 2 cups of confectioners sugar, 1 egg white and 1 tsp of lemon juice to form the royal icing.  Place into a piping bag with a small thin nozzle (or because I don't have one of those, I just used a small ziploc bag with a tiny piece of a corner cut away!), and let your imagination go :)   I also decorated some of the smaller cookies by melting chocolate in the microwave and placing the tines of a fork that had been dipped in the chocolate across the top of each cookie (see last photo).

 Sugar Cookie ingredients.

just before I add the flour mixture.

make into 3 discs, wrap in plastic film and refrigerate.

meanwhile decide what shape cookies you're going to make - I've managed to accumulate quite the collection.

I went with these - small star, tree, gingerbread man and snowman, and large gingerbread man, snowman and 'quirky' house :)

work with one disc at a time - I find it easier to roll the dough between two pieces of wax paper (it's a lot cleaner too :)

roll to about 1/4 inch thickness.

the gingerbread men and snowmen are out to play!

cool them completely before decorating.

if you have fresh lemons use them, but I don't always have them on hand, so the bottle kind works fine in the royal icing.

as I mentioned, piping ISN'T my forte.

(the 'SHAW' in the middle is because these were made for my hubby to take to work, and that's who he works for :)

 some of the smaller cookies got a decoration of a fork dipped into melted chocolate across the top - this little guy tried to get away from his friends, but the punishment is severe in our house for desertion!! :)