Double Cheese Scones

I had an urge to bake and a craving for savoury that wasn't satisfied by anything in the house.
Also, some goat's cheese to use up. Solution? Cheese scones.

I knew I'd made goat's cheese biscuits before, but I wanted scones, dammit, so combined two recipes (this one and this one, in particular) to make these - double cheese scones.

served with slightly garlicky butter

(born from an error when making garlic butter; the whole tub has a faint garlic taste...good job I love garlic)

225g/8oz self raising flour
pinch of salt
55g/2oz butter
25g/1oz mature cheddar cheese, crumbled
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) goat cheese, crumbled
150ml/5fl oz milk
butter for top

The measurements are as taken from the recipes, but because I am me, I just chucked some sieved flour in a bowl with salt, added butter and the chunks of goat's cheese and cheddar 'til it was breadcrumb-y and mixed in milk bit by bit 'til it was doughy.


Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

Mix together the flour and salt and rub in the butter and goat's cheese. Crumble in the cheddar mix that in too.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the milk (I used half semi-skimmed and half unsweetened soya milk, why not.). With a fork, mix together the milk and flour until all of the dry flour disappears.

Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a round 2cm/¾in thick. Use a 5cm/2in cutter to stamp out rounds and place on the baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.

Brush the tops of the scones with a little butter - I added a dash of pepper too. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

orig recipe from hellyeahrecipes - and for once i didn't change a thing.

notes? if you have already got cup measurers; they're a good investment. i got mine for a couple of quid at morrisons; and if you bake a lot, lots of recipes on U.S. sites will use cups.
a small bar of dark chocolate should be enough (i bought a huge bar of bourneville and only used 2 rows. more for me!); a 200ml tub of cream cheese is the right amount.

everything below is copied and pasted from the orig post; italics are my notes - find the orig post through the above link!

ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2-oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp red food coloring
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 8 inch metal baking pan. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, letting the parchment extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. (This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.) Butter the parchment. i never bother with any of this cos i'm lazy - tin foil across the bottom of the pan will do the trick, right?

In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir until combined and very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and red food coloring. Add chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Add flour and salt and stir until just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.

Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.

To prepare cheesecake mixture, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Distribute the cheesecake mixture in 8 dollops over batter in the pan.

Swirl in with a knife or spatula. i was concerned at this point that my batters were both pretty runny and the cheesecake mix was just going to sink but it seemed fine - swirling in is very much an aesthetic thing, and i was quite happy with my dollops.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.

Let cool completely in pan on a cooling rack before lifting out the parchment paper to remove the brownies.

- jenn.

Soup, Bread, Biscotti.

yes we're alive, and yes we're eating.

we're both halfway through final year so meals are quick and easy.

...this is a lie.

i got an espresso machine for my birthday (delonghi, bright red, highly recommended) and bought a pasta machine from ebay (also red, not quite mastered the art of perfect looking pasta yet, but the taste is pretty good) and have taken to making soup on a sunday for the rest of the week (which inevitably lasts 2 days because i like my soup thick and when it boils down to the right thickness there's not much left).

today, i went on a baking spree, which you'll be aware of if you follow me on twitter. behold:

fennel and caraway seed baguette

the fennel and caraway seeds came in my graze box last week - highly recommended, especially if you have a free code from a friend - and because i'm not a huge nut eater i thought i'd put them in some bread.

white bread flour

self raising (opt)

salt

pepper

olive oil

fennel and caraway seeds

yeast/yeast granules

water

i mixed white bread flour with self raising flour (because i didn't have enough white bread flour - about 350g of each, i reckon) and added salt, pepper and a dash of olive oil before stirring in the yeast/water mix. (no fresh yeast, just the granules - just as good!)

when the dough was together but a little sticky i turned it out onto the bench and kneaded it with plenty of flour on the bench and my hands, and tipped the box of seeds onto the bench, working them into the dough.

i then rolled the dough out into a baguette shape and popped it on a baking tray with some foil underneath, putting slashes in the top for decoration, and placing it under a medium oven for about half an hour (maybe a little longer - until brown and/or crispy on the outside.)

you could use almost any seeds for this - i have another tub of sunflower seeds i'm going to make some bread with next week - but the fennel and caraway give this loaf a spicy kick, and it tastes a little curry-y. delish.

potato, bacon and onion soup

serves approx 2, maybe more potatoes to soak up the water next time!

one large potato (baking potato sized...)

one large onion

3 rashers bacon

butter

creme fraiche

salt

pepper

vegetable stock

thyme

sage

water

finely chop your onions and bacon, and drop them into a large hot pan with butter. as they brown, peel and finely chop your potatoes and chuck this in the pan too, then add the salt, pepper, thyme and sage. fill about 2/3 with water and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes.

turn the heat down and use a potato masher to mash the potatoes a little, then turn the heat up again, adding the stock cube and creme fraiche, then let the water boil away until the soup is thick enough for you. i added a splash of cayenne pepper at the end to give it a kick.

jam and coconut biscotti

i got this recipe from google and it was from an american site - who knows how much a cup is? - so the measurements are completely made up (i worked off the amount of coconut i had, so let's assume 125g is 2 cups). but these are delicious.

125g dessicated coconut

approx. 40g butter

approx. 60g sugar

approx 60g flour

vanilla essence

1 egg

splash of milk (or 2 eggs, if you prefer. i'm like, an egg nazi. no more than one in anything.)

jam & almonds for decoration

these are so easy to make. essentially, you just have to mix well...

mix the sugar into the butter, then add the coconut and mix. add the egg, mix, then the flour, and mix. add vanilla essence and milk if the dough is too dry, until you have a slightly sticky but stiff mix.

put two big dollops on a tray with baking paper (or tin foil which is all we ever have in the house) on it and spread these thinly with a knife.

you can either use bigger dollops and make two thick strips straight away (you can see my two strips in the above pic), or you can spread a thin layer of jam* across the first two strips and then add another two dollops on top of this and spread these out over the jam. pretty sure you could put anything between the strips of mix...

i added almonds to the top and baked for about 20-25 minutes, until crunchy on top. biscotti should be crunchy the whole way through, but this has ended up with a crunchy top and a softer, biscuit-y based. which is perfect, because i couldn't decide between biscotti or coconut biscuits.

*i used raspberry and vodka jam, as bought from tynemouth market ages ago!

Onion Tart.

i really fancied making an onion tart but the internet provided little in the way of appetising recipes - plenty for onion quiche, but i wanted something significantly less eggy. finally i found and modified a recipe which suggested double cream. win!

ingredients

one large white onion

one large red onion

one 200ml tub double cream

one tsp honey

salt, pepper, thyme, worcester sauce & butter

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(also, plain flour, butter, milk, water, salt and pepper for the pastry; or you can buy ready made. homemade pastry is super easy and wonderful tasting and i love making pastry and dough SO MUCH; i probably make it at least once a week for something.

i tend to guess at measurements, but 5 heaped tablespoons of flour and 4 knive-fulls of butter will about do it, then sprinkles of salt and pepper, and rub the butter in til the mixture is like breadcrumbs. add a splash of milk and stir together with a spoon, then add water til the dough forms a ball. if it's too sticky, add more flour. knead on a floured counter for a few minutes, then roll out to desired size and thickness. EASY. it doesn't need to be cooked through before the filling is put in either! and if you grease up the tin with plenty of butter, the tart should come out really easily.)

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slice the onions into thin slices. add a large knob of butter to a frying pan, warm up then throw in the onions. after a minute, turn the heat right down and leave them to simmer away, stirring every minute or so.

make your pastry (or roll it out and line your tin if you're using pre-made); preheat the oven to a medium heat.

when the onions and browned and super soft, add salt, pepper, thyme and a little worcester sauce to taste, and stir in a teaspoon of honey.

tip around 2/3 of the double cream into the pan and let it thicken slightly.

add the mixture to the tart, and stick it in the oven until the pastry is brown and the top is bubbling.

i also grated some cheese on top about 5 minutes before the end, and served with green beans, parsnip and mushroom that had been fried in honey and mustard. gorgeous - the cream hadn't quite set, which was perfect because the dish wasn't too dry.

i have 2 pieces left, which i'm gonna serve with mash, green beans and rosemary and mint gravy tonight, and salad with honey mustard dressing tomorrow.

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i had a little pastry left over, so before i added the cream i plonked 3 little spoon fulls onto the rolled out scraps and made 3 little snack-sized onion pastry parcels - just an idea for leftovers!

Lemon Slices.

iphone pics are decent enough, right?

so, cake recipes aren't my forte, but that's mostly cos i gave up on weighing ingredients ages ago. and yknow? my cakes always turn out moist and delicious, so it's all good.

these are dairy free, cos i used soy milk and soy butter. just fyi.

sieve self raising flour and sugar into a bowl, then add an egg and some butter (i use about 1/5 of a tub of butter...) and stir in. add a few teaspoons of lemon juice (as lemony as you'd like!) and keep adding milk to the bowl as you whisk until you have batter - you want it thin, but not too thin. if the batter is too thick it won't be moist!

cook at a low-ish heat (our oven was on about 150 and it's a fan oven) for about 20-25 mins - i cooked these in a rectangular tin, which isn't as deep as a cake tin but deeper than an oven tray, and it wasn't brown on the top but was cooked all the way through. perfect.

if you don't know, cakes are done when you can stick a knife in the centre and there's no batter on it when you take it back out.

i let them cool for a little while (while i ran to the shop for icing sugar), then mixed up some icing sugar and water to a thick consistency and poured it over the top; let it set a little; then made some more (a little thinner) and added yellow food colouring, drizzling that over the top too.

The Cake Debate.

Me and my housemate Luke (that's him taking macro pics above; with his latest creations) have a bit of a rivalry with cakes. I don't make them much, he probs whips up a batch or a big cake once every couple of weeks, but we have different styles.

My cakes are (as I was always taught) sifted dry ingredients first with gradually added wet ingredients and whisked till light and fluffy. It's a testament to this method that my cakes are always awesome; but I always use a simple flavour - lemon sponge, chocolate sponge, butterfly cakes... Preference, because, I'm not a fan of fruit in my cakes (if I wanted fruit, I'd eat fruit, goddammit) and if I have a sponge craving, let's face it, any flavour will do. No need to get fancy.

Luke makes his the wrong way round - wet ingredients first - and doesn't sieve up his flour, but he's much more adventurous with his flavours - raspberry and white chocolate is his favourite; and right now there is also a very zesty lemon cake in our fridge, as well as the above cupcakes (which are banana with white chocolate topping, btw). As a result, his cakes are often hit and miss (SIEVING IS THE KEY; but does he listen?) whether on flavour or moistness, which is key.

I think I'm in a bit of a minority; the other people in the house (OK, mostly Dean, maybe Aaron. Gemma doesn't do cake) tend to either love or hate Luke's dessert endeavours while mine enjoy a middle ground - better than his disasters but not as good as his triumphs. Personally I think your own brand can't be beat, and the last lemon cake I made was the moistest I've ever tasted. The main difference between us is he is willing to spend stupid amounts of fresh fruit and flavours for it, while I just chuck in whatever is round the shop/I have in the house.

The testament is, Luke sometimes has to throw mouldy cake out.

Has this happened to me, ever?

NO.

Suck it, McNaney.

Course, it's best to throw the cakes out when this occurs...