quick and easy fluffy scones

I am not intending to include loads of recipes all of a sudden, but I have just made scones using the same recipe I’ve been using for a couple of years, and seems to yield gorgeous results every time!  I love the fact that I can go from no scones to scones in less than half an hour.

Yummy yummy scones!

Ingredients

• 350g self-raising flour , plus more for dusting
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 85g cold butter , cut into cubes
• 4 tbsp golden caster sugar
• 150g pot natural full-fat yogurt
• 4 tbsp full-fat milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze

Method

1. Put a baking sheet in the oven at 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Put the flour, salt and baking powder into a food processor, then whizz in the butter until it disappears. Pulse in the sugar, tip into a large bowl, then make a well in the middle.
2. Warm the yogurt, milk and vanilla together in the microwave for 1 min or in a pan; it should be hot and may well go a bit lumpy-looking. Tip into the bowl and quickly work into the flour mix using a cutlery knife. As soon as it’s all in, stop.
3. Tip the dough onto a floured surface, then, with floured hands, fold the dough over a few times – just enough to create a smoothish dough. Press out to about 4cm/1½in thick, dip a 7cm cutter into more flour, then stamp out 4 rounds, flouring the cutter each time. Squash the remainder lightly together, then repeat until the dough is used up. Brush tops with egg wash, scatter flour over the hot sheet, then lift the scones on. Bake for 12 mins until risen and golden. Best eaten just-warm, or on the day.

Notes

• I pronounce it scone as in gone!
• It has to be clotted cream first and then good strawberry jam on top!

HAS to be clotted cream and strawberry jam

Oh, and in case you wondered, my gorgeous antique cake stand folds up into a thin circle thing, and came from Battlesbridge Antique Centre where I go at least a couple of times a year! (The little sticky-out but at the top is actually a cafe!)

Battlesbridge Antiques Centre

pretty little sweet things

Sweet little bites

It may just be because I am bored, but I have the urge to do something very girlie that I have never done before.

I would like to got with a couple of female friends and learn how to make gorgeous little cupcakes with cutesie frosting, or perfect little macarons of various flavours.

I’m not a baker.  I’m a pretty bloody good cook, but can’t follow recipes generally, and the science of baking has always totally freaked me out – it’s so damn precise.  And I don’t do precise.  I guess I’m a natural rebel.

But gorgeous little cupcakes are just…well, gorgeous.  And macarons are just so delicate and perfect looking in their awesome yummy sandwichness.

The trouble is that I believe it’s pretty expensive to go to a macaron making class – the only ones I know of are at the wonderful L’atelier des chefs, that I went to last month (and loved!!) but I wasn’t paying, and the macaron making classes are every saturday, but cost £72!!  And they always seem to be sold out well in advance, so they must be popular!

Cupcakes would be my second choice, but I wouldn’t even know where to start looking for classes.

If I had a bigger kitchen, I would suggest my friends coming round to me and us just making them from recipes, but it’s not an option.  I have a galley kitchen that is a squeeze to get two people into – not really good for a ‘class’.

I think I need friends with big kitchens…which I’m probably not really going to get in London, LOL.

Anyway – if anyone knows of decent, reasonably-priced macaron classes, or even cupcake decorating classes – please do let me know!

ewww! they’re looking at me!

19 Wigmore Street, London

Last night we had our work’s Christmas ‘do’, and we actually did something that I’ve been wanting to do for ages!

I work for a very very small (but successful) company – we only have 15 people that work for us – and for our do, we went to the wonderful L’atelier des Chefs in Wigmore Street.

It’s a great concept.  You go along, and you are taught how to cook a dish – they do different price ranges, styles and number of courses – you’re taught by a professional chef (our one was pretty cute), in a professional kitchen, and then you sit down with your class and eat the results of your labours.

We did a three course meal, which was prawns with avocado, haloumi, chili etc followed by duck with green beans, flaked almonds and an orange sauce and then poached pears with sable biscuits and cinnamon cream.  It was fantastic.  As there were 15 of us, we were split into 3 teams of 5, and I slipped up really…I’m quite a good cook, and I’m an absolute foodie and watch food programmes constantly.  I ended up in the group with 4 blokes who never cook.  not only did I have to shout a lot, but I also ended up doing most of the work AND I kept getting really frustrated with them – especially as two of them managed to cut themselves (one I reckon did it on purpose to get out of doing anything!).  i even had to peel quite a few of the prawns, which I NEVER do as I can’t have my food looking at me!  Eyes should be gone before I think about eating something!

But surprisingly, even though I was in the crappest team, the food we produced was absolutely gorgeous!  And I loved having all the professional equipment – the knives were SO sharp – I’ve never been able to dice an onion so finely, LOL.

Also, it was great that while we were eating each course, all the kitchen was cleared and everything set out for us – we didn’t have to do any measuring, weighing, washing-up, searching for equipment etc etc – just get on with cookign what was a scrummy, perfect meal!

With a couple of glasses of champagne on arrival and copious bottles of wine during the meal, it was a brilliant evening, and lovely for us all to get together – there were people who have worked for the company for years who had never met (there are quite a few home-based).

And they have a fantastic cookware shop there too (as they would have) and after we’d finished eating, my chief exec had another surprise – we each had a tab of £25 to get whatever we wanted from the shop!!  Woohoo!!  All this on top of a Christmas bonus that had been unexpected.  AND then we had lots more booze bought for us at a bar round the corner.

I love my company.  I love food.  And I officially loved last night and recommend it to anyone.  I’d love to organise to do it with a group of friends.

The table where we ate, with the kitchen just behind.