Lemonade scones

Yesterday my cousin Sarah contacted me via my blog and told me about a recipe she'd tried for scones made with just flour, cream and lemonade. She said that although she'd tried her friend's version which were lovely and light, her attempt hadn't turned out so well. I was so curious about this intriguing recipe I explored the internet and found lots of blogs and websites raving about them. I don't really understand the science behind this recipe (something to do with the cream replacing the fat of butter in normal scones, and the aeration of the bubbles in the lemonade replacing baking powder?) - but science has never been my strong suit and I've always loved the magic of baking - something gooey going into the oven and coming out as a well-risen cake! Anyway, I had to try these lemonade scones for myself. 

Wary of Sarah's difficulties, I also found some really good tips on the Internet Chef's website about how to make sure these scones turned out perfectly. Here are ten top tips - I followed them and mine turned out really well. Thank you Sarah!

1. Pre-heat the oven before you start mixing – the dough doesn’t like to sit around once it’s made, so this way you can pop the scones straight into the hot oven.
2. Pre-heat the baking tray in the pre-heated oven – this will kick-start the raising process.
3. Place the oven shelf in the top quarter of the oven – scones like to be in the hottest part of the oven.
4. Use fresh self-raising flour that has not passed its use by date – old self-raising flour will have lost some the potency of its raising agents.
5. Use the lemonade at room temperature – this will make the dough easier to work with and produce a better dough as it will require less handling.
6. Use a palette knife to mix the wet ingredients into the dry – this means you can quickly and gently cut through the ingredients to combine them into a light dough in just 30 seconds, and the less handling the better.  Scones like a light gentle touch - overworking the scones when mixing the dough will result in dense, flat scones.
7. Use the rolling-pin lightly so as not to knock the delicate dough about too much - using a very gentle touch to roll the dough out lightly will result in a smooth looking attractive scone.
8. Roll the dough more thickly than you think - ideally about a thickness of just over an inch - rolling out too thinly will just create thin, flat scones.
9. Dust the cutter in flour each time you cut a scone and push don’t twist the cutter – otherwise you just push down on the dough edges causing the scones to rise unevenly.  
10. Place the scones snuggly touching each other on a small baking tray – this gives them support as they rise.

Fanouropita – a Greek olive oil and orange cake for the patron saint of lost things

This week, we’re off on holiday to the Greek island of Symi, near Rhodes.  I’ve been reading Tessa Kiros’s lovely book, ‘Food from Many Greek Kitchens’ and I fell in love with the idea of ‘Fanouropita’, a cake traditionally made today, on August 27th, the name day of Saint Fanourios, the patron saint of lost things.

Women in Greek villages, particularly in Rhodes and the neighbouring islands, bring the cake to church, where the priest blesses it with a special ceremony. The congregation asks for the saint’s mother’s sins to be forgiven, and then make a wish to Saint Fanourios for help to find something – good health and happiness, lost items, lost relatives, peace, etc. It is also said to help unmarried women 'find' the name of their future husband. After the Mass, the sweet cakes are cut and everybody shares pieces with each other.

Fanouropita can also be made at other times of the year if someone wishes to ask Saint Fanourios to find something or someone for them, or once you have found something lost you can bake this cake to show Saint Fanourios appreciation for his help. To honour the tradition, you then also need to distribute some pieces of the cake to friends or neighbours.

The cake must be made with seven or nine ingredients, as the power of  7 or 9 is said to have prophetic or magical properties. The ingredients are pure and nutritional Greek ingredients like olive oil and orange juice, all of them suitable for the Orthodox fasting, so there are no dairy products like eggs or butter in the recipe. Although Tessa Kiros’ recipe doesn’t say so, other traditional recipes I’ve looked at say that, in keeping with the tradition of 'finding things', the cake batter should contain nuts and dried fruits, so that as you eat it, your teeth will 'find things' in it.

Here is my version of Fanouropita based on several different traditional recipes. Mine includes sultanas soaked in orange liqueur and a mixture of nuts – I used almonds and walnuts, as they are in keeping with Greek produce.

Pimms and orange syllabub

Syllabub is a very traditional dessert of a syrup stewed overnight made from sugar, lemon juice and zest and sweet dessert wine, which is then added to double cream and whipped until light and duvet-like. I've made this version using Pimms instead of dessert wine and orange instead of lemon. I served it with my Pimms and elderflower summer pudding, but you could have it just on its own, or as an accompaniment to lots of other puddings. It's especially good for those puds you have to make the day before and leave to chill overnight, as it forces you to really let the flavours infuse rather than making it all in one go. I'm sure you could but it just wouldn't be quite the same!

Pimms and elderflower summer pudding

Summer pudding is one of my all-time favourite desserts. Soggy bread shouldn't be a good thing, but this fruit filled pud transforms the bread into a silky cake-like texture! It's really easy to make just using a frozen packet of mixed summer fruits. Once I've put it in the fridge to chill over night, I am desperate for it to be ready. And once it's had its first outing as a dessert, it makes an amazing breakfast! I've added a splash or two of elderflower and Pimms, but it is perfectly good without. I made a Pimms and orange syllabub to go with it, which complements the silky, cloud-like texture beautifully. 

Beetroot redcurrant and white chocolate muffins with elderflower mascarpone icing

Tomorrow our friends Cath and Gregg are getting married. I'm helping decorate and it's a red a white colour theme (Gregg is a big Liverpool football fan). Tonight, Cath is having a few of her close girl friends round to her mum's house to celebrate her last night of freedom! I've made these red and white muffins - coloured with beetroot powder (and a little red food dye to make them more red than pink) and full of white chocolate chunks and redcurrants. The icing is flavoured with elderflower cordial.

Honey and heather flower roasted plums

I recently posted a shortbread recipe I'd created with heather flowers that I'd found in the local farmers market. This morning I decided to use them again, this time with plums roasted in the oven for a few minutes with a honey caramel. I adapted the recipe from Joy the Baker's recipe for honey roasted plums with thyme. This takes just a few minutes to make and is a fantastic recipe for breakfast or for a quick dessert.

Heather flower, honey, whisky and orange shortbread

As the friands I made today only used the whites of three eggs, I had an excuse to make something up to use the yolks. On Sunday at the farmers market I bought a small packet of dried heather flowers, and this was a chance to experiment with them. Not really sure of their uses, I decided to go with a Scottish theme and make shortbread - and sticking with this idea, added some whisky and honey (and a bit of orange zest).  When they came out of the oven, they smelled gorgeous but looked a bit pasty, so I quickly made a glaze in the microwave with the juice of half the orange I'd zested and a little honey, and brushed it over the top while they were still warm.  These are lovely on their own, but will also go well with some fresh fruit and maybe a little syllabub of whipped cream, whisky, orange and honey.  If you can't find heather flowers, I think this would work just as well with lavender.

Redcurrant, white chocolate and hazelnut beetroot friands

I've made friands before but always as mini-muffins, but this time I used my heart-shaped muffin tin.  Instead of ground almonds, I toasted and ground hazelnuts and added a little beetroot powder for colouring (I could've used another spoonful or so to get the cakes a really rich pinky red).  The tops of the cakes are sprinkled with redcurrants and white chocolate, but these hazelnut friands could be made with lots of different fruit combinations.

Summer fruit tart with Pimms, elderflower, rose and mint

This is a really quick easy tart that I made after work for dessert.  I added Pimms, elderflower cordial, rosewater and fresh mint to a handful of summer fruits and left them to macerate for a while, then strained the juices and added it to extra thick double cream to serve with the warm tart.  The fruit is simply sprinkled over some ready-made puff pastry with a few flaked almonds and a little sugar.  Stunningly simple and summery!

Banana doughnut mini-muffins

I don't know what it is, but I often seem to have over-ripe bananas hanging round in my kitchen.  I obviously don't eat them enough when they're fresh - but I think that secretly it's because I'm hoping that if I don't, they'll get so ripe that the only thing good for them is to turn them into a cake.  In fact, it's a similar story with most of the fresh fruit I buy!  Anyway, these are mini banana muffins, but once baked they're rolled in melted butter and cinnamon sugar turning them into mini doughnuts. Don't over sugar them at this stage, but just enough to get that delicious hot fresh doughnut effect.