Easy British Scones

Good morning readers! I have to say, I had the best day off yesterday. Not only did I get to do my food shopping in my new favorite coat, but I made proper British scones and enjoyed them with clotted cream and tea. How appropriate of me, right?

Let me first show off my little red riding hood coat, as I like to call it. I snagged this one on Boxing Day. I love the color red, warm coats with big hoods and good deals, so this was a win x3.

Now for the scones. These are so easy it's hard to believe they taste so good. I started making these late in the morning and they were the perfect brunch. The recipe lends approximately 10 scones and takes hardly any time to whip up.

You'll need:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter at room temp.

1 cup milk

1 egg

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Cut butter into dry ingredients and mix it in with your fingers until only small pea sized bits are left.

2. In a small bowl beat egg and milk together. Sir wet mixture into flour mixture until fully moistened. 

3. On a lightly floured surface kneed dough briefly. Choose whether to add other ingredients, like dried fruit, lemon or orange zest. I cut my dough in half and added dried cranberries and orange zest to one part. 

4. Roll dough out into 1/2 inch round. Cut pie piece wedges out of the dough and place on baking sheet.

5. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown. 

While the scones are baking, I highly recommend making some Devonshire cream. Here's a great recipe for it. I was able to get Robba's Cornish Clotted Cream at my local grocery so I stuck with that. It's really tasty. I even enjoyed mine with the homemade blueberry jam my sister sent me for Christmas. Thank you Alicia, I love it!

So so good. 

What adventure did you have this week? Link up at Alicia's Homemaking. 

Michaela Rae

Cranberry Coffee Cake

It's been awhile since I shared a recipe, to be frank, I haven't spent much time in the kitchen recently. But today (hooray for days off), I made baking a priority. I wanted to try something warm and Christmasy - something I could enjoy by my Christmas tree with a cup of hot chocolate. This Cranberry Coffee Cake was the perfect thing. I love anything cranberry and Greek yogurt is my new thing and this recipe perfectly incorporates both! Thanks Two Peas and Their Pod and thanks Pinterest for guiding me there.

Here's what you'll need

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

Zest of 1 large orange

1/2 c butter at room temp.

2 large eggs

1 cup plain Greek Yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup fresh cranberries

Streusel Filling & Topping

3/4 cup all-purpose flower

3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 stick unsalted butter at room temp.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

2. In a small bowl blend dry ingredients together: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

3. In a medium bowl combine sugar and orange zest. Cream together the butter and sugar mixture until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until smooth. Add Greek yogurt and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.

4. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet and mix until combined. Gently fold in the fresh cranberries.

5. For the streusel topping and filling, stir together the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. With your fingers work the butter into the mixture until evenly distributed.

6. Pour half of the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. Sprinkle half of the streusel topping over top. Spoon the rest of the batter over the filling and spread gently. Sprinkle the remaining of the streusel on top. 

7. Bake until golden and toothpick comes out clean, approximately 35-40 minutes. 

ENJOY! Before baking, I sprinkled a few finely chopped pecans on the top of my cake and it was a tasty touch. 

What recipes have you tried recently and loved? Has anyone made homemade eggnog? I can't find any here and I'm really craving it. Just might be my next venture.

Michaela Rae

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes w/ Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Good morning & happy haLlOwEeN!
You probably have pumpkin coming out of your ears by now, but if you're like me, and never get tired of it, here's another recipe (actually two) to try!

These Pumpkin Spice Pancakes are so good and would be perfect for breakfast on Halloween, Thanksgiving or even Christmas morning. They obviously call for pumpkin puree. So yes, I made my own! I'll first share my pumpkin puree recipe with you and then the pancake recipe.

I couldn't believe how easy it was to make puree. After cutting and emptying the pumpkin of it's seeds I simply baked it at 400F for 30 minutes on a baking sheet. Before baking I put a little water in the bottom of the baking sheet and rubbed a little canola oil on the outside of the pumpkin pieces. Once baked, it was so easy to scoop the pumpkin out into a bowl. I used my magic bullet (gotta love it!) to process the pumpkin a bit for a smoother texture. I then sieved out some of the extra liquid so the puree wasn't runny. And that's it! I have a whole bowl in the fridge that I'm slowly using for different recipes.

I found the Pumpkin Spice Pancakes recipe through Pinterest (my pins). I honestly wouldn't change anything about this recipe by Annie's Eats. The pancakes were so fluffy and the flavor was a perfect blend of pumpkin and spices. Not over the top but just right. Kurt's a picky eater and he really loved these. :-P

You'll need:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 TBSP brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Dash of ground ginger
Dash of ground cloves
1 cup milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 TBSP vegetable oil or melted butter

Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl and the wet in another. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk them together. The batter may still have a few lumps - that's fine.

Heat greased skillet or griddle over medium heat. Once hot, add 1/3 cup scoop of batter to the pan. Cook until bubbles begin to form on the top surface. Carefully flip with a spatula and cook the second side until golden brown.

Enjoy with a little cinnamon sugar, maple syrup, whipped cream or all on their own!

I'm just loving this fall season! I hope you guys are too. On Saturday Kurt and I road bikes through central London with two of our new friends. It was such a blast and a really cool way to see the city (not to mention get exercise, ouch). Experiencing the change of seasons is so awesome.

Green Park in central London

Michaela Rae

Oatmeal lovers, hear ye hear ye!

This morning I made the most killer oatmeal ever! Thanks to Elsie & her team from A Beautiful Mess, I was able to get my fingers on this recipe. You should definitely try it.

I added chopped pecans (left over from this), blackberry jam and extra banana to mine. It was fantastic.

I love that this is the type of recipe you can tweak until it meets your perfect oatmeal standards. Next time I think I'll add more milk, I prefer a more creamy oatmeal (if you prefer fluffy, you'll love the original version). I'll also add less sugar and maybe some honey instead. 

That's all for now, happy Friday!!

Michaela Rae

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