Friday 24 June 2011

Afternoon Tea


I've been about and about fetching strawberries from Mr Troops to have for afternoon tea.. I love it - is just so easy and yet it has quaintness to it. Rose patterned china cups, cupcakes, dainty egg and cress sandwiches, Battenberg cake of course fresh scones with clotted cream, a large dollop of strawberry jam and a steaming pot of fresh tea. I love throwing my red checked tablecloth on the table and having the children come in from school to sit and tell me about their day whilst tucking in to this very British spread. The recipe doubles easily to make more ( I use it for my the topping to my plum cobbler recipe.) You can swap out the flavour at a moments notice, leave out the sugar and add 70g of parmesan for a savory cheese scone, thrown I a handful of sultana’s or add a teaspoon of fresh lavender for a delicious twist and serve with plum jam and a pot earl grey tea instead.



Makes 8
Prep time 5 minutes
Cooking time 20 minutes
Freeze Yes


Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
75g butter, chilled, cut in small pieces
50g Vanilla Sugar
¼ tsp salt
125ml buttermilk mixed with 2 tbs of freshly squeezed lemon juice ( ordinary milk will do)
3–4 tbsp milk
Extra flour, for dusting
Vanilla Sugar, for sprinkling
1 free range egg, beaten, for the glaze
Method
Preheat the oven to 180˚C/gas mark 4.
Put the flour, butter, salt and sugar into a bowl. Mix well. Make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk. Bring the mixture together to form a dough. If the dough seems a bit too dry, add a little more buttermilk, a teaspoon at a time.
Turn out onto a floured work surface and use your hands to form a 2.5cm round. Cut out shapes from this, depending on your preference, and put them on a baking tray.
Glaze the scones with the beaten egg and bake for 18–20 minutes and sprinkle with sugar.
Cool on a wire rack. If you want to freeze these scones do so as soon as they are cool.
Note: Scones are best enjoyed the same day.


Linked recipe
You can turn an every day scone into something really special by replacing the Vanilla sugar in the recipe for Lavender sugar. 


4 comments:

  1. Oooh. I love your heart shaped scones. I think I'll thieve that idea!! All looking do pretty too. I can't wait to go strawberry picking. It's my absolute favourite thing to do!

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  2. Beautiful!Missed meeting up whilst in London. Hope the book is doing well.

    My best.

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  3. Making some tomorrow. For the buttermilk I use a cup of milk & a tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar. Saves buying buttermilk from the supermarket. All the best Vanessa. xx

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  4. I cannot wait to try these using lavender. I heard about Princess Kate eating lavender biscuits and I have searches everywhere for the lavender sugar. I am from the US and need help locating this. If you please, could you tell me where to order from Internet? I love this site and I'm so anxious to try some of these recipes! I think I must be British at heart 😊 from Telford, Tennessee

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