Lavender scones

Lavender can be a tricky ingredient to work with but I love it. Too much and it will taste more like soap than a treat but if you stick to the quantities you should be fine. The recipe below makes 8-10 scones.

LAVENDER SCONES

250g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
80g butter
50g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp yogurt
2 tbsp water
2 tsp dried lavender

Pre-heat the oven to 220°C. Sift the flour and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter in small cubes (should be room temperature) and add with the sugar. Rub in so the mixture will be like breadcrumbs. Mix the egg, water and yogurt and fold under the mixture with the lavender. Knead all together until even but don't overwork it. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it's about 2.5cm thick. Use a 5cm round cutter to cut out the scones. Place on a baking tray, lightly greased with butter and dusted with flour. Brush them with a bit of milk and bake for about 10-12min until they are well risend and golden in colour. Eat the scone when they are still slightly warm with clotted cream and jam.

Foccachia

This Italian flat bread is a great snack or a side with a meal. You can make one big one or smaller individual breads. Olive oil gives foccachia bread it's flavour so use a good strong extra virgin oil.

FOCCACHIA

350g flour
1 tbsp salt
1 pack dried active yeast (or for 350g flour)
2 tbsp olive oil
200ml warm water
1 small red onion
handful olives
1 twig fresh rosemary
1 garlic clove
handful grated parmesan
sea salt and ground pepper
olive oil

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Add salt, yeast, olive oil and warm water. Mix everything to a dough that leaves the sides of the bowl clean. Knead for about 10 minutes. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise and double in size (roughly 1-2 hours). Turn out the dough and knead again for 2-3 minutes to punch the air out. Form and shape your bread and brush with some more olive oil. Cut the onion into wedges and the garlic cloves into slices. Top the foccachia with the onion, garlic, olives, rosemary and grate parmesan on top. Sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper. Cover with the damp tea towel and leave to rise again for another half an hour. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C and bake for about 15 minute until golden.

Colour lovers: precious metal

This palette is based on precious metals: silver, bronze and gold. Check out the palette at colourlovers

January

We had a beautiful white Christmas this year and these are some impressions.