Well it is national cream tea day

I never knew that national cream tea day was such a thing, (please tell me I am not the only one) until I saw a Facebook post just a couple of days before the said day.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect as I was just sat pondering what to bake for my weekly treat for the troops at work - I try and take something in on a Friday for work colleagues at the end of the week- and it just so happened that last Friday fell on national cream tea day so I knew straight away it would have to be some lemon and blueberry scones.

I have been wanting to make them for a while but never got round to them, so this really was the perfect chance.

I made mine with a slight twist. These scones are made with buttermilk, rather than just regular milk and they are filled with a mix of light mascarpone cream & low fat Greek yogurt and then finished with  drizzle of lemon curd. 

You can of course stick with the traditional clotted cream, but do give the mascarpone filling a go - it works a treat with the sharp lemon curd. I promise you won't be dissapointed. 

To make 12-15 scones you will need

250g bread flour

250g plain flour

Zest of a whole lemon

5 tsp baking powder

80g caster sugar

80g soft butter 

2 medium eggs

100g blueberries

240- 250 ml buttermilk*

150g low fat marscapone

4 tbsp low fat Greek yogurt

1 tbsp icing sugar

12-15 tsp lemon curd

• Preheat your oven to 200c, ( fan ) line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside

• Place both flours in a bowl, along with the sugar, baking powder, lemon zest and stir together. Add the butter and use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the bluberries

• Whisk the eggs, add them to the flour, slowly incorporate the buttermilk and mix together carefully until you get a soft dough.

• Lighty dust your work surface with a little flour and use your hands to flatter out the dough to about 1-2 cm thick. Cut out your scones with a 5cm cutter.

• Transfer the cut out scones to the tray and brush with beaten egg over the tops. Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and leave to completely cool.

• Whilst the scones are cooling, make the filing by mixing together the marscapone, yogurt and icing sugar. Split the scones and fill with this mixture, top eachwith a teaspoon  of lemon  curd, dust the scones  with icing sugar on top just before serving

* buttermilk is readily available from most of the branded supermarkets. You can easily make your own by adding a teaspoon of lemon juice to every 100ml of milk and leave it to sit for about 20 mins - then just use as above.

Killing 2 birds with one stone

For this recipe post I thought I would kill the proverbial 2 birds with my proverbial stone - in this case, 2 recipes in one post as the main ingredients and the basic steps are identical

The 2 recipes are pizza dough and naan. Both of these use the basic method of a simple bread dough, left to rise long and slow giving you an almost over fermented dough producing lots of lovely air pockets which results in a delicious deep pan style pizza base or fluffy beans perfect with whatever curry you desire


To make 3 pizza bases OR 4 naan you will need:

530g bread flour
7g dry quick active yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
10 - 12 fl oz lukewarm water

• Start by placing your flour in a bowl ,then to one side add your salt and sugar. To the opposite side add your yeast, and pour the oil into the middle

• Slowly begin to add in the water, mixing with your hand. When the dough comes together you should have a soft and slightly sticky dough. Ensure all the flour has been incorporated, use a spatula or bread scraper to bring the dough together as it may be difficult to handle, and place in a large clean lightly oiled bowl.

• Cover  the dough with cling film, and leave to rise for at least 4 hours. Ideally you can prep this the night before, leave covered in the fridge and then remove 4 hours before you need it. If you are short on time, leave the dough for a minimum of 2 hours.

• Once the dough has proved, it will have almost tripled in volume and it will have lots of lovely air pockets ready to turn into delicious naan  or perfect pizza






To make the naan:

• Start by lightly flouring your work surface, and as gently as possible put the dough from the bowl onto the work surface.

• Divide the dough into 4 equal peices, and gently roll each peice into a smooth ball and leave to sit for 10 minutes.

 • Place a large non stick pan on a medium heat and turn your grill on full.

• Take one of balls of dough and carefully with a rolling pin roll the dough out into a 1/2 inch thick circle, then carefully lift the rolled out dough  & onto the pan to cook the bottom of the naan.  You'll know the bottom is cooked when the top begins to form bubbles on top.*

• Transfer the naan to a baking tray and place under the grill and leave until the top begins to turn light - golden brown and very slightly crisps up. Remove from the grill, brush lightly with butter.

• Repeat the process with the remaining dough, and keep the cooked naan warm by covering with foil & serve as needed.


To make the pizza bases:

• Start by preheating your oven to 200c ( fan assisted )

• Divide the dough into 3 peices, take one of the balls of dough and roll out to your desired thickness - I rolled mine out to about 8 inches wide, placed it onto a lightly floured baking tray then used my finger tips to press out the edges of the dough till the base was about 10 inches wide.

• Once you have your base rolled out to your desired thickness it is just a case of adding whatever toppings you like - whether you want to keep it classic and stick to a margherita or mix it all up it's up to you

• Place your pizza in the oven for 12- 14 minutes or until the pizza has risen, almost doubled in size and th crust is lightly golden and tuck in immediately*










*  I use a fish slice to check the bases. They should be light in colour and not soggy