Savoury Scones

Yes, another scone recipe... this time, it's a little different. I'd never had a savoury scone before, but I found it's basically a bit like a bread bun. These particular Mediterranean style scones will go well served with butter, cheese, pesto, avocado, salad or Parma ham (though not all at the same time, I hope).

Savory Scones
Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4
Cooking temp: Gas 7, 200C
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
175g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tbsp. baking powder
25g butter
1/2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
4 sun-dried tomatoes
50g feta
5 black pitted olives
150ml milk, plus extra for glazing

Method

1. Preheat the oven.
2. Butter a large baking sheet and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder.
4. Chop the butter up into small cubes and rub into the flour with the oil, until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
   
5. On a chopping board, slice the tomatoes roughly in quarters. Cube the feta and chop the olives into quarters. Stir into the flour mixture.
   
6. Form a well in the centre and pour in the milk. Mix the mixture with a cutting action  to form a sticky dough - this should happen quite quickly.
   
7. Flour your hands and a work surface well and turn out the dough. Shape it into a wheel, about 3 or 4 cm thick. Slice into four wedges.
   
    
8. Put on the baking sheet, leaving space between each one. Brush with some milk to glaze.
   
   
   
   
   
9. Bake for 15 minutes until risen and slightly golden. Then turn off the oven and leave the scones in for a further 5 minutes.
   
10. Transfer to a rack and cover with a tea towel until cool.
    
11. Serve warm with any of the above mentioned.

Banana Bread

I do like bananas... in case that wasn't already gathered. If, like me, you enjoy cooking with this fruit, have a look at my banana milkshake or banoffee pie recipes, though at only 168 kcal per serving, this is a slightly healthier alternative dessert or lunch, even with a chocolate orange topping. 

Banana bread
Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves: 17
Cooking temp: Gas 4, 180C
Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients 
140g margerine
140g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
140g self-rasing flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 very ripe bananas
100g rasins (optional)
1 orange (optional)
To decorate
Dried banana chips
Splash of milk
Few pieces of good quality dark chocolate
Orange essence or orange juice
Cocoa powder

Method (note - the photos are from a half-sized verision, using a 1 lb (1/2 kg) loaf tin. To create this bread instead, just half all ingridients and cook for five minutes less)

1. Preheat the oven.
2. Butter a 1kg loaf tin and line with baking parchment.
3. In a small bowl, gently heat the margerine (on a hob or in a microwave) until softened, but not melted.
   
4. In a larger bowl, cream this together with the sugar until fluffy.
   
5. Beat the eggs with a fork in a seperate cup and slowly pour into the butter mix, stirring at the same time.
   
6. At the same time, add the flour and baking powder.
7. Stir togther, but do not overmix.
8. Peel the bananas and mash, then add to the bowl along with the rasins.
9. Grate half the zest of the orange into the bowl and stir.  Keep the rest of the orange for now.
   
10. Pour the mix into the tin and bake for 30-40 minutes in the centre of the oven, until a cake skewer comes out clean.
    
11. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack.
    
12. To decorate: melt the chocolate over a pan of boiling water.
13. Add some orange extract and milk, or orange juice to a good spreading consistencey (if you use the juice, you probably won't need the milk)
    
14. Spread the orange chocolate over the cake and grate some more of the zest of the orange over.
    
15. Decorate with banana chips.
    

Alternative toppings:

Plain icing (as in, icing sugar with water)

Honey

Chocolate drizzle

Orange frosting (as in, tiny bit of orange juice and sugar)

None (obviously)

Raspberry Scones

It's almost summer, isn't it? Yeah, close enough. Which means an excuse for a scone recipe - a twist on the traditional, which I will cover at a later date.
For this, you can either use raspberries or blackberries, or even both! (gasp)

Raspberry scones
Prep time: 35 minutes
Serves: 6
Cooking temp: Gas 7, 220C
Cooking time: 18-20 minutes

Ingredients
50g butter
225g self rasing flour 
25g golden caster sugar
100g raspberries/blackberries
150g full-fat natural yogurt
4 tbsp milk
clotted cream and jam to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven.
2. Grease a baking tray and line with parchment.
3.  Chop the butter up into small cubes and put in a large bowl.
   
4. Add the flour and run togther to make crumbs.
   
5. Stir in the sugar and throw in the berries.
   
6. In a seperate jug, mix togther the yogurt and milk. 
   
7. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and pour in the milk mixture.
8. Stir with a palette knife. Here you can either streak the fruit through or mix gently to keep them whole.
   
9. Flour your hands and make a balll from the dough.
10. Turn out onto a floured surface and pat it into a circle, about 20cm diameter and 2cm thick. 
    
11. Transfer to the baking tray.
    
12. Bake until risen and golden (18-20 minutes).
    
13. Break up the giant scone into 6 portions and serve whilst still warm with cream and jam. 

Banana milkshake

I love banana! Mmm. Banana. So versatile - you can add different fruits, or change the ice cream type. Basically, as long as you keep the amounts of milk and scoops of ice cream the same, you can do anything. Well, almost.

Banana milkshake
Prep time: 5 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients
1-3 bananas (best: 3 small, or 2 large) -preferably frozen
1/2 cup milk
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
Squeezable liquid honey
Cream, chocolate etc to top

Anything you want to add: raspberries, strawberries, mango, vanilla extract, chopped almonds etc. Here I used two small bananas plus 100g frozen raspberries.

Method

1. Put two glasses in the fridge before you start.
2. Chop banana into slices and blend to a thick paste, using either a jug blender or a stick blender. Here, add any additional fruits too. (Frozen, to keep it cold, like these raspberries.)
   
3. Add the milk and blend again.
   
4. Scoop in the ice cream - you could try other flavours, such as chocolate or different fruits.
   
5. Blend. If it is too thick, add a 1/4 cup more milk.
6. Add honey (or sugar, if you prefer) to taste. I add quite a lot, as banana can leave a slightly bitter aftertaste, and the honey complements banana well.
7. Pour into the cold glasses (it helps keep the milkshake thick)
   
8. Serve with whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, or whatever you desire!

Focaccia

So, about what I said about never making bread before... (if that even makes sense), I realised that this was a gaping cooking hole that simply needed to be filled. Thus, I finished my Hot Cross Buffins (there you go) and decided, about twenty minutes later, to make some bread. And it turned out very, very nice.
This is an Italian bread (surprise, surprise) that dates back to the ancient times. It was cooked in the warm ashes of a fire. I suppose you could do that, or cheat a bit and use an oven.
We ate it with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, warm. Nice. You could add other toppings or fillings, like olives, sun dried tomatoes, red onions and cheese.

Focaccia 
Prep time: 30 minutes plus 1 and a half hour proving
Serves: Many. As a loaf, it can be cut into finger sized pieces and shared easily with 6 people
Cooking temp: Gas 7, 220C
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
For the dough:
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
7g sachet of fast-action dried yeast
1 tsp golden caster sugar
1 tsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
300ml warm water (70C)
olive oil (standard) for greasing
For the topping:
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp flaked (coarse) sea salt -Note: I have already dramatically reduced that from the original amount, and possibly will even do so a bit more. If you are a salty kind of person, add  more salt.
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (from the garden, if possible)
10 springs of rosemary

Method

1. In a large bowl, put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. 
   
2. In a separate jug, mix the olive oil and the warm water.   (Obviously it won't totally mix but anyway)
   
3. Pour it onto the flour mixture and mix with a wooden spoon.
4. Using your hands, finish the mixing process and bring the dough into a ball. You may find that you do not even need all the flour.
5. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Unlike with the hot cross buns, this dough will not be sticky and actually very easy to knead. Do so for 5 minutes, until it is soft and stretchy. 
   
6. Oil the bowl you took the dough out of lightly, and drop the dough back in. Cover with oiled clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise for an hour until it has doubled in size. For me, this is by a sunny window.

   

   From this...

   

   ..To this!

7. The dough should be wonderfully soft and springy. Oil a 36x25cm tray lightly. Put the dough onto a floured surface and knead again with your knuckles, into a rough rectangle about the size of the tray. It doesn't need straight edges as it is supposed to be rustic. Place it on the tray and ease the bread gently towards the edges.
8. Cover again with clingfilm and leave to rise for a further 30 minutes. Whilst you wait, preheat the oven. 
   
9. The focaccia should be springy and spongy. Using your finger, poke holes randomly into the dough, right through to the tray.
   
10. Topping: Drizzle over the olive oil, allowing it to go into the dimples. Sprinkle over the salt and pepper and chopped rosemary.
11. Stick the springs in randomly over the dough.
    
12. Bake for 15 minutes in the centre of the oven, until risen and golden on top, then switch it off but leave the bread in for a further 5-10 minutes.
    
13. Take out and serve warm.
    

    

    This is an alternative focaccia: I added sun dried tomatoes and olives. I didn't add any salt at all as these toppings provide plenty enough.