Price Points: Loose leaf afternoon tea

We love to punctuate the day with a few cups of strong tea. The 4 o’clock sit down with tea & biscuits or slice of cake is a particular pleasure. It’s the time to take a moment – rest the feet if we’ve been on them, reflect on the day, think about what’s next – an enjoy the hot cuppa of course.

Our daily brew is usually supplied by Taylor’s loose leaf Yorkshire tea which we like and is readily available in any supermarket. We haven’t sampled the Whittard Robert Fortune as yet, but it sounds good. We were actually given a present of some Fortnum & Mason Queen Anne blend a while ago – it was delicious and immediately became a favourite.

Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire leaf tea – £2.10 (250g)
“A proper brew. Pure and simple. To give our blend its refreshing flavour, strength and colour we use top quality Assam and African teas.”
Queen Anne tea – £9.95 (250g)
“Created in 1907, our bicentenary year, this popular blend commemorates the reigning sovereign in the year that Fortnum & Mason first began. The smooth blend of carefully selected TGFOP Assam and Ceylon FBOP teas produces a strong, smooth tea that is refreshing at any time of day.”
Robert Fortune Blend – £8.00 (100g)
“Something of a hero in the world of tea, Robert Fortune was the James Bond of the British tea trade… We’ve tracked Fortune’s travels with a blend of teas from India and China, adding a delicate touch of high-grown Himalayan tea and an elegant homage of white Camellia tea flowers. You’ll find the rich, fruity notes of Chinese Yunnan tea is a superb match for the varieties first cultivated by the British in northern India – all in all, it’s a tea which tells a story, and a rather delicious one at that.”

Cakes & Bakes: Buttermilk scones

These buttermilk scones are probably the quickest, easiest and perhaps cheapest recipe we’ve featured in our Cakes & Bakes series. There are only 2 ingredients; self-raising flour and buttermilk… Three, if you count the pinch of salt. And they take less than half an hour to make; from getting the ingredients out of the cupboard, to taking the scones out of the oven.

It’s a great beginner’s recipe or something to make with the kids. All you need is equal weights of flour and milk – simple to remember! If the dough feels a little sticky (some buttermilk can be thicker or thinner in consistency than others) add a little more flour. Similarly, if the dough feels too hard, add a little more buttermilk (or milk if you’ve already used all the buttermilk).

Buttermilk scones make a great afternoon snack that can be put together in almost the same time as it might take to make a sandwich. Have them savoury with thin slices of sharp cheddar cheese, or go sweet with a fruit jam and clotted cream.

Click here to pin the recipe for later

Buttermilk scones

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 12

Course Tea

Cuisine British

Ingredients

250 g self-raising flour
250 g buttermilk
pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 225ºC/440ºF/gas mark 7
Line a large oven tray with parchment paper and set aside
Mix the flour and salt in a mixing bowl
Reserve about 2tbs of the buttermilk before adding the rest to the flour
Bring together to form quite a wet dough, trying not to mix or knead too much
Flour a work surface well before gently rolling the dough to about 2cm thick
Form rounds using a medium-sized cookie/pastry cutter
Place the rounds on the baking tray leaving a little space between
Brush the top of each with the reserved buttermilk
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the tops have turned a light golden brown
Allow to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack
Serve while still warm

Keyword buttermilk, pastry, scones

Afternoon Scones

I’ve been meaning to make some scones for a while – in fact, ever since coming back from our holiday in Wells-Next-the-Sea. While we were there, I spent a sunny afternoon at Wiveton Hall Fruit Farm picking strawberries. I filled this massive punnet with sweet, fat, fragrant strawberries – specimens such as I’d never tasted before!

Those that didn’t get eaten there & then returned home with us and made into a massive pan of strawberry conserve. We gave lots away to friends & family and kept a couple of jars for ourselves. We’ve had it on toast & croissants, some was used as sponge cake filling, but you can’t beat it on warm, freshly baked scones!

To make the scones, I once again used a recipe from The Great Big Cookie Book by Hilaire Walden. Here it is:

Home-made scones, home-made strawberry jam and clotted cream | H is for Home #recipe #scones #pastry #afternoontea

Afternoon scones

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Ingredients

225 g/8oz/2 cups plain flour
pinch of salt
2.5 ml/½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
5 ml/1 tsp cream of tartar
25 g/1oz/2 tbs butter
150 ml/¼ pint/? cup milk or buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas mark 7. Flour a baking sheet. Sift the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Gradually stir in just enough milk to make a light, spongy dough.
Turn the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Roll to 2½cm/1in thick. Cut into rounds with a floured 5cm/2in cutter.
Place the scones on the prepared baking sheet and brush the tops with milk.
Bake for 7-10 minutes until the scones are well risen and golden brown.

Serve with jam and a big dollop of clotted cream!

PS – We usually buy Rodda’s clotted cream which is delicious – but don’t you just love the folk artsy packaging too?!

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: afternoon tea

Price Points: Loose leaf afternoon tea

Cakes & Bakes: Buttermilk scones

Buttermilk scones

Ingredients

Instructions

Afternoon Scones

Afternoon scones

Ingredients

Instructions