MORNING TEA ON A MONDAY : SCONES in the PARK

I remember the first cake I baked a few weeks after Clémentine was born, it was just a simple banana bread but scraping that velvety mixture with lumps of mashed banana into the cake pan felt like I was home. I had officially returned to 'normality' so to speak. Baking during that time was like stopping the ferris wheel of early motherhood, when your head is spinning from lack of sleep, the endless amounts of washing and the hunger you have from breastfeeding.....baking was my saviour. So it's no surprise that one of Clémentine's first words was cake aka "dake".

I have kept up this weekly ritual of baking not only because I love it and it keeps me sane but to share this pastime with my daughter is a very special thing. When Clémentine was a baby she would kick about on a blanket on the kitchen floor and listen to the sounds of the electric beaters whizzing, feel the warmth of the oven heating up and experience the smells of something baking. She now climbs up onto a chair and assists with all measuring and mixing (aka "mi mi mi"), and over the past few weeks she's become a bit of a Gordon Ramsay getting quite angry when I try to take over the "mi-ing".

This will be a regular post I call Morning Tea On A Monday as we usually hang at home and bake for the week and sample our goods for morning tea! 

FRUIT SCONES

These are a wonderful treat for morning tea, they're great for weekend brunches and even better with a cup of tea at nap time! One of the big pros for a scone (aside from having dollops of delicious cream on them) is that they contain no refined sugar. The con is that they do not have much of a shelf life, they are best eaten on the day they are baked so it's a good idea to freeze the ones you're not going to eat that day. I keep a stash of them in the freezer in ziplock bags. You can defrost them at room temperature or just pop them on a baking tray in a warm oven. We took a bag of them to the park on the weekend and they defrosted in the sunshine while we played, we then ate them on the way home leaving crumbs along the way for the birds to eat......

Recipe is adapted from Nigella Lawson's 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess'

300g plain flour

200g wholemeal flour
2 tsp bicarbonate soda
4 ½ tsp cream of tartar
75g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
75g raisins, sultanas or dried currants
300ml milk

Method
Preheat oven to 220°.
Add flour, bicarbonate soda and cream of tartar to a food processor and pulse a few times.
Add the butter and blitz until mixture looks like wet sand.
Add the milk and dried fruit and blitz until the mixture is just coming together.
Knead lightly on a floured surface. (it's important not to overwork scone dough, I usually just smoosh it till it just comes together no more, no less)
Press out the dough to approx 3cm thickness and then cut into scones using a round cookie cutter, or in my case a brandy glass!
Wash with egg wash or milk for a golden top, an egg white for a shiny pale top or nothing like I did.
Bake for 10-12 mins until soft and slightly golden.
Best eaten warm.

Makes approx 12-15 scones depending on the size of cutter you use.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin