Blessed

MacGyver took the day off to celebrate our anniversary.

We started the morning with mass at 8AM.

We ended the day with the kids treating us out for dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant.

Is it a Biscuit or a Scone?

I don't want to get into an argument as to whether I made biscuits or scones.   Are American biscuits equivalent to the British scones?   I live in Australia, so let's call these scones.

This basic scone recipe came from the August Fresh magazine from Woolies which I had picked up after we dropped off our Return and Earn bottles last Saturday.    I did not use a rolling pin to make these though.  I just patted the dough down, made several folds, then cut out the shapes. 

I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter and a doughnut cutter.  Not one bit of the dough was wasted.   I used the middle of the doughnut cutter to make the small circles then formed the scraps into one sad looking biscuit (not in photo) that got baked in another tray.  

In hind-sight, I would have been able to make the ten scones as per the recipe yield but they still would not have all fit into this pan.

A typical British scone would have

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup milk

.A typical American biscuit would have

• 250g plain flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cold butter
• 2 tablespoons vegetable fat
• 230ml chilled buttermilk
• 50g butter, melted (optional)

This Woolies recipe I used had 2 c self-raising flour, 1 T sugar, 60 g butter, and 3/4 c milk.  I baked them for 12 minutes in  the toaster oven at 200C.  They came out quite nicely and they tasted pretty good.

The magazine had a couple of suggestions that I might try next time:

• Add 1/2 c blueberries and 1/4 c which chocolate chips before adding the milk 
• Add 2 T finely chopped chives and 1/4 c finely grated parmesan cheese to flour mixture 

It is a good base recipe.  Well done, Woolies!  

  

Testing Ensaymada Recipes

I had boiled some potatoes to make some ensyamada but at the last minute decided to try a simpler recipe last weekend.  Well, I thought it was going to be a simpler recipe, but in the end, I was kneading the dough for ages to get it to a half-decent point.

This one was meant to be Soft and Cheesy Ensaymada.   I must have done something wrong because although it was still soft, it was not fluffy.  The good news is that it was definitely yummy.  

After  manually kneading for over 45 minutes, I was just too tired to do the topping.  

MyGirl took over and did a wonderful job.