A Different Cream Tea

Is there anything more luxurious than a cream tea? Freshly baked scone with cream and jam. You can almost feel the calories glide onto your hips. With Greek style yoghurt you can still experience the sensation of cool, creamy smoothness combined with a fruity kick and not feel as guilty. How?

Here's how. Organic Greek style full fat yoghurt has 10g of fat per 100g serving. Cream has 40.3g per 100ml. So you have a lot less fat without sacrificing flavour. That means you can enjoy more.

You can still feel decadent.

I discovered how delicious making this soda scone recipe with yoghurt is, by accident. I had a pot in the fridge opened for a while and as it smelt fine and I had no buttermilk, I decided to use it instead.


The sour yoghurt cultures react in the same way as buttermilk with the bicarbonate of soda to create a rise.

Recipe:
(1 used a mug for ease of measuring (mine held 300ml liquid). Remember it is proportional so if your mug holds less that's fine).

1 mug fine wholemeal flour
1 mug plain white flour
Half a mug of a coarse stoneground flour
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds
1 egg beaten
a good half teaspoon of bread soda
a pinch of salt
Approximately 140ml of buttermilk or 100g of yoghurt thinned out with 40ml whole milk

(All flours absorb different amounts of liquid, so measure it out in a jug and add slowly until the mix comes together and resembles a stiff porridge texture. Add more if required).

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 200 deg C.
In a mixing bowl combine flour, bread soda (sieved), salt and poppy seeds. Make a well in centre of bowl and pour in the beaten egg. Add a small amount of the yoghurt/milk combination and with a fork begin to work in the flour. Add the liquid slowly. When the mixture has all come together, turn out onto a floured surface and shape gently into a round. Don't handle any more than necessary. Using a scone cutters cut out your scones (This mix made eight).

Transfer to a floured baking tray. Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes or until well-risen and browned. Turn one over and if browned on base then they are baked.

Cool on a wire rack.

Cut in half and serve with a good dollop of Greek style yoghurt and some homemade jam.

Make a big pot of tea. Enjoy!













Tip {using live natural yoghurt is a good tip for those who live in countries where buttermilk is not readily available especially students.} 

Currant Flap

This is absolutely my last blackcurrant recipe but at this stage my bumper crop has become fully ripe and the berries are plump and sweet. Before the crows finish off what's left, I decided to try to use up the remainder. I was given half a bag of Bunalun organic porridge which resembles pinhead oatmeal and makes a not very pleasant gritty-textured porridge. Rather than bin it, I decided to use it in this flapjack recipe.











Blackcurrant Flapjacks                                       

250g porridge oats
100g butter
75g honey
75g sugar
40g roughly chopped whole almonds (skin on)
100g blackcurrants
1 tablespoon blackcurrant jam
splash of Crème de Cassis

Put the oats, butter and honey in a bowl and melt in the microwave until butter is soft.  Stir well and add in all the other ingredients. Transfer to a rectangle roasting tin lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes at 160 deg C. If they haven't browned turn the heat up to 180 deg and give them a further 10 minutes but be careful not to over bake.

 Cool tin on a wire tray. Lift out when cool and cut into portions.

Tags: Blackcurrant flapjacks  blackcurrant recipes  Bunalun organic porridge  Irish food  Irish Baking

Bake a Cake Patacake.

My mother used to sing this for my son. It came into my head today when I used one recipe to bake both these blackcurrant buns and a blackcurrant bundt cake.

Blackcurrants - Nutrition
"It may not be as fashionable as its more exotic cousins but the humble blackcurrant is the healthiest fruit of all.
Research shows that the common or garden blackcurrant is more nutritious than other fruits, from home-grown apples and strawberries to tropical mangoes and bananas.
Blackcurrants also contain the highest levels of health-boosting antioxidants - natural compounds credited with the ability to stave off a range of illnesses from heart disease to cancer."
Read more....

They make a lovely tangy icing and give a really vibrant natural colour.

The colour and flavour comes from making a purée with 100g of blackcurrants cooked down and then adding 75g of sugar.  Taste while adding the sugar and add according to palate. There is sugar in both the cake and in the icing so it needs to be reasonably tart.

Push the mixture through a sieve and allow to cool.

For the cake mixture:
125g softened butter
125g sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g plain flour
2 tablespoons of blackcurrant purée.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time. Sieve in the flour and baking powder. Stir in the purée.

Bake in 12 bun cases at 200 degree C for about 12 minutes or pour the mix into a bundt cake tin and bake at 190 degree C for approximately 35 minutes or until springs back to a gentle touch. 

For the icing
100g icing sugar
25g soft butter
2 tablespoons of purée
a drop of milk if necessary to adjust consistency.

Mix well and pour over cake or pipe onto buns. Decorate with fresh blackcurrants.

Enjoy!

Meanwhile -

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Roll it, Pat it and mark it with B,
Put it in the oven for baby and me.