Sourdough Cheese Scones

Instead of making a sourdough loaf this week I decided to make sourdough cheese scones. I have two sourdough starters on the go and I like to give them some attention, at least fortnightly, so that they don't die on me. This is based on a great recipe from the bakery bits blog. I've made the scones before and they always turn out light and moist, and they don't have the baking powder taste you get sometimes with bought scones, you know, where your teeth feel as if they are being coated with something nasty. I've adapted the recipe to make cheese scones because they are my favourite. Bakers preference applies in nearly all cases! I usually make double quantities in the hope that there will be some to freeze. Having a big family means that this rarely happens, but what is life without hope?  I used Shiptons Mill white bread flour (on this occasion, but it really depends on what is to hand or if I want to make wholesome wholemeal scones). Instead of buttermilk I used a mixture of homemade plain yoghurt made with raw (unpasteurised) full fat milk thinned down a bit with some more milk. I buy raw milk every week from a farm near to where I work. The milk is absolutely delicious, all creamy and tasty, although I know unpasteurised milk might seem a bit controversial. Normal pasteurised milk and yoghurt will also make delicious yoghurt (or scones). The sourdough starter works better if it is hungry (ie unrefresehd) as the remaining starter is a fed afterwards. I've stated 50g parmesan cheese, although I only used about 30g, because that is all that I had. It was a veeerrry ripe and strong parmesan anyway as it was a reduced price bargain due to short "use  by" date. I like to add a little mustard to my cheese scones as it adds an extra depth of flavour. I prefer to use Colemans English mustard powder as I think that "wet" mustards are a bit too vinegary. I think a good quality salt is also very important. I really like Cornish Sea Salt and found some garlic flavoured salt when we visited family in Cornwall and went to the Padstow farm shop. We bought a little pot for all the kids as a holiday present - makes a change from a stick of rock or box of sticky fudge!

Sourdough Cheese Scones Recipe

• 450g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 150g butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1/2 tsp Cornish Sea Salt (I used garlic sea salt)
• 250ml plain yoghurt and whole milk mixed (full fat milk or buttermilk would also be fine)
• 200ml unrefreshed sourdough starter
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp mustard powder
• 50g grated parmesan or other strong hard cheese
•  grated cheddar for the top of the scones

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4
    
2. Mix all the dry ingredients with the butter to a bread crumb consistency. I used my Kenwood Chef. 
    
3. Make a well in the centre of your bowl. In a large jug whisk the unrefreshed sourdough starter and the yoghurt and milk  and lemon juice then pour into the centre of your dry mix. Bring the mixture together to form a sticky dough. I used my hands for this so that the dough is not overworked which will make it tough. If the dough seems a bit too dry, add a drop more milk slowly just a few drops at a time. Likewise if the dough is too sticky then add a dusting of flour to handle it more easily.
    
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and use your hands to press the dough form a round about 2.5cm in depth, but try to avoid overworking. Cut out shapes from this using your cutter and put them on a baking tray. I used a medium sized cutter which made 15 scones.
    
5. Sprinkle grated cheese on the top of the scones. You can glaze them first with some milk, but I was too lazy and didn't bother. Bake for 18–20 minutes until lightly brown on top and firm to the touch. I needed an extra 5 minutes for mine because the temperature gauge on the oven is a bit temperaturemental.
    
6. The scones can be frozen as soon as they are cool, which might be the only way I'll ever get some in the freezer, but will also taste nice the following day if they are wrapped in a cotton or linen cloth.

The final step is to feed the sourdough starter. This week I used my 'Derbyshire' starter which is mostly wholemeal, although it does tend to be fed with whatever is handy. This time it was white flour so I added equal quantities of flour and water (100g) to the remaining starter, stir it well and put it back in the fridge.

The freshly baked scones were perfectly timed for an impromptu family lunch at daughter J's house where some Dad DIY is underway.

My culinary efforts didn't end at the cheese scones, let me tell you. DIY Dad was going to need something tasty and preferably done by someone else after a hard day grafting so I put my thinking cap on and rustled up some store cupboard dinner (I couldn't be bothered to shop). So, based on only what was to hand I came up with a butternut squash and sweet potato risotto. I've got loads of brown risotto rice which takes an absolute age to cook so I set that cooking with some chicken stock. Not home made chicken stock because I checked and we didn't have any in the freezer, and not vegetarian because I had only had meaty stock pots thingies. I added some wild rice as well for a bit of variety and this also takes an age to cook. While this was bubbling away I fried some spices. I decided that cumin seeds and cardamom seeds were the way to go so I bashed them about a bit with the end of my rolling pin in a bowl (mortar and pestle is boxed up somewhere) and then added them to some heated oil in a frying pan. I added some paprika for a bit of heat and colour and let them toast for a little while. In the meantime I peeled and cubed some butternut squash and sweet pepper and stirred them about in the spice mix. When the rice had been bubbling for a while, I added the vegetables and spice. It did look like there was too much stock, but by the time it had simmered gently for about 50 minutes it had soaked in and reduced down. A little seasoning added and a tasty (and very easy) risotto was ready.

runny risotto

Mmmmmmm risotto 

Sourdough success....

Hoorah, success with the sourdough. We couldn't wait until teatime to try the bread so it made an appearance at lunch. The crumb was perfect; a little chewy, but light and tasty. Phee-ew!

 I'm just making a teatime cakey treat and just to prove that not all my culinary attempts are successful, I had a bit of a disaster.  I opted for 'Coconut, berry and walnut breakfast bars' a recipe found on 'don't feed after midnight' blog. I think the recipe is based on a Nigella recipe. Anyway, it has lots of oats, coconut, nuts, berry's and seeds and sounds so very healthy. It also has a less wholesome inclusion of a tin of condensed milk which has to be warmed gently in a saucepan until it is runny. The recipe says to be careful that the condensed milk doesn't burn. Well, guess what, I burned it. Bah. A multi-tasking failure for womankind. Fortunately, we have a Co-op shop in the parade of shops where we live and they came up trumps with emergency condensed milk. It's a bit like having a giant store cupboard next door. I'll report on the success (or otherwise) of the breakfast bars soon.

Meanwhile, I'll share a few of our holiday photo's. As reported on the  barn conversion blog we had a research holiday in a holiday cottage that was a converted Victorian stable near Beverley in Yorkshire. We had one damp day in Beverley with no photogenic opportunities in the rain and a day with beautiful sunshine which we spent at the seaside. More specifically, we visited Spurn Point, which is an unusually long spit of sand just above the Humber estuary. It is formed naturally by the sea pushing sand and debris down the coast and is a national nature reserve run by the Yorkshire wildlife trust. There are cottages and a lighthouse at the end which are serviced by a road, or at the moment only part of a road as bad storms and a high tidal surge in December 2013 washed part of the road away and is now only accessible by foot or land rover.

Our last morning was spent in Beverley, thankfully in sunshine this time. Unlike our first visit where we couldn't view the minster due to a wedding, this time it was open for business and very interesting too. 

And finally,  the coconut, berry and walnut breakfast bars were a complete success, despite their inauspicious start. Hoorah.

Sourdough Loaf

I decided to try a different method for the weekly sourdough. For some reason, recent loaves have been a bit dense, even when using all white flour. This time I've tried some different flour and a different method. I used Shipton Mill flour (bought from local artisan bread shop 'The Loaf' when we enjoyed scrumptious pizza's at their weekly pizza night), and Laura Hart's sourdough recipe and method (click here for this). It makes quite a wet dough and is really easy to make. It feels a bit like cheating because you don't actually do any kneading, it's all in the stretch and fold method, which I did in the mixing bowl so there was less washing up. I did have a bit of a hiccough when I came to tip the dough into the 'La Cloche' because it stuck to the basket, so I had to scrape it out and then reshape it and then prove it again for about an hour (in a very well floured basket). This time it plopped easily out of the basket and after a quick slashing across the top, it was bunged in the oven. It did look as if was going to spread out and become a bit flat so I was quite pleased to see that it had risen quite a lot. I'm looking forward to trying it later today when the family come around for tea. Now I just have to make a cake of some sort.....

Cheese and Corn bread

Cheesy corn bread makes an ideal addition to a salad; it adds a  bit of stodge and makes a nice change from bread or baked potatoes. It is also really easy to make, which is an added advantage. The recipe I used was from the River Cottage Everyday book. I've tried a lot of the recipes in this book and have enjoyed many of them. They don't include loads of hard to find ingredients and a lot of it is 'store cupboard' type recipes which are my favourite sort because I'm more of an impromptu type of cook, usually starting with a rummage through the fridge and thinking 'we need to use this up so what can I make from it?'. Having a flour mill helps because it means that I can keep a variety of grains eg spelt, barley, maize, wheat, rye, oat groats, millet, buckwheat, and quinoa in the cupboard and they have a much longer shelf life as grains instead of flour or polenta. The corn bread was made from maize and spelt with the addition of eggs, milk and cheese and bicarb of soda. It's really like a giant scone and made a very tasty bit of stodge, if I say so myself!

On an entirely unrelated subject I am absolutely amazed that my two remaining house plants (after moving house) are actually thriving and both in bloom. I've never had such success with either the Christmas or the Easter cactus, but they must like it here in our bijou temporary home as the Christmas cactus is flowering for the second time this winter.

Mechanical Knitting Mill

As promised a picture of my lovely knitted cord.  The wool used was from my stash and is Riot from King Cole. I bought it initially for a slow burning project I have underway  (ie unfinished) and it was rejected because it was a little thinner than other brands of double knitting wool and I was getting inconsistent results. It has beautifully blended colour changes and and was just too nice to throw out (as if I throw anything out).   It was perfect for the knitting mill as it is not too thick or hairy. I had wanted to use the rug wool to make a cord to use as embellishment for my basket, but it was too hairy and was not releasing cleanly from the needle hooks and so it just became a horrible knotty mess. I've found another ball of Riot but in a slightly different colour blend so will make some more cord later. Oh such fun to be had with a ball of wool!

Winter Wonderland, sourdough and welsh baking stone

January is whooshing past and I have so many things to write about. I think I will start with today and work backwards. Today was another winter wonderland day in Derbyshire. I opened the blind  to a beautiful sunrise and everything white over. I'ts not a photo failure, it really was that pink and purple!  

Yesterday there was a sprinkling of  snow at home with much more forecast so I elected to work from home. Information Technology has it's benefits and being at home meant that I had no travel worries. The main advantage was that I could start at 07:30 (after a lie-in), and then when the working day was done it was only 4:00pm and the rest of the day was my own. I quickly russled up a big pan of chicken risotto and a butternut squash and lentil dahl (all from the fridge, freezer and cupboard - I love impromptu cooking) and then did an hour's yoga before tea. And there was still loads of time left to crochet in front of the telly!

The picture above is my leather footstool aka wool store which also doubles as my work table. Gone are they days where I had a whole bedroom as a playroom, at least for a short while. I'm currently working on using up the rug wool, which has proved to be so successful that I have actually run out before finishing the article in hand.  As you can see my basket is not very deep and is currently being used as a remote control store. Why are there so many remote controls and where are you supposed to keep them? Anyway, I've ordered more wool to make the basket more basket-y. It will probably end up being too big in the end, but hey ho, it keeps me occupied. As a stop gap, I've been planning my entry for this year's Bakewell Show 'Show us yer sheep' competition.  Obviously, it is going to involve some crochet :) and you can see my sample is underway. A lot more work is needed on this one though, so I will have to get on with it so that it doesn't turn into a mad panic at the end. 

One of the unexpected pleasures of our little rented abode is that we have the most marvelous view. I've just been watching the sunset as I type away and noticed a bright light in the sky which I initially thought was an aircraft. But, it didn't move at all. Aha, I thought, as my mind drifted on,  I bet it's a UFO. However, back to reality, it's not a spaceship, idiot.  I must watch (and read) too much sci-fi.  A quick google and it was revealed to be planet Venus. I watched it a bit more and then thought that it would be nice to take a photo, but by the time that I'd assembled the tripod and set up the camera a great black cloud was looming and it was just too dark to get it. I've left the tripod up in the hope that I can capture it tomorrow. That's guaranteed to make it rain!

Santa was good to me this year. In my secret santa letter, I suggested that it would be really nice to have a Welsh Baking Stone from the Bakery Bits website. The stone is actually a cast iron griddle and not a stone at all, and can be used on the cooker top as well as in the oven. Santa did me proud, and I duly received the baking stone with a few other goodies which included a packet of San Francisco sourdough starter. I already have a sourdough starter which has been up and running for over a year now. I now call it the 'Derbyshire' sourdough starter, although it was called Suzie in it's early days. The extract below is the description from the Bakery Bits website. I didn't really believe that it could be that much different to my Derbyshire starter, but after getting it going and comparing with mine it really is different. It has a sharper, more tangy smell and seems to be much more vigorous than mine, although I have only used it on white bread flour whereas I usually feed it with wholemeal.

BakeryBits is the exclusive stockist outside the US of this world-famous starter. This sachet allows you to quickly create your own sourdough starter, based on the same wild yeast that the early California goldrush settlers of 1849 discovered. We send our own instructions for getting the starter going with each sachet which can also be downloaded here.

Sourdough "starter", "leaven", "levain" or "mother" is a flour-based mix containing wild yeasts that give sourdough bread its distinctive, sophisticated flavour. Sourdough was as much part of the Californian goldrush of 1849 as gold itself. Travelling throughout the West in the back-packs of miners and settlers, it eventually found its home in San Francisco. The air in the Golden Gate region enhanced the bread made there with a wonderfully distinctive taste, thanks to Lactobacillus Sanfrancisco, a unique wild yeast which imparts the much sought-after flavour desired by bread bakers the world over. Once you have your starter, it will, if correctly fed and watered, last indefinitely.

I wasted no time getting the new starter....started, and took it on holiday at New Year.  Not as crazy as it sounds, as at the previous New Year holiday I was just at the beginning of my sourdough journey/obsession and took full advantage of the opportunity to bake a loaf of bread every day and have it taste tested by a load of foodies. So, again, the New Year crowd were subjected to a daily sourdough loaf to supplement the every day supermarket bread. Happily, it worked really well despite the unfamiliar kitchen and equipment which made it a real test of improvisation, and the daily bread was greatly appreciated. Several members of the group were inspired to bake at home and took home a sample of the starter to have a go themselves.  

Now a little about the Welsh Baking Stone. I didn't manage to try this out before the holidays, but had a go as soon as we got home. First of all it needed the protective paint to be scrubbed off and then it was seasoned by rubbing with oil and then baking in the oven for a bit. I was impatient to use it so as soon it was seasoned I made some dough, separated it into several balls, rolled them out into flat discs,  and heated up the griddle. This time I used the griddle on the hot plate so that I could handle the flat breads. It was so exciting seeing the flat discs of dough puff up and move around on the hot plate. Shrieks of excitement ensued -  I'm so easily pleased.  Unfortunately, I was so caught up with the excitement of it all I didn't take any photo's........For my second go with the baking stone, I followed Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's flat bread recipe from the River Cottage Everyday book. This dough didn't have any yeast - it was just flour and water. I really thought that nothing was going to happen and that my flat discs of flour and water dough would just bake into strange biscuits. Again, whoops of delight emanated from the kitchen. It's like a magic trick, it's sooo exciting. And flat breads to accompany our lentil and butternut squash dahl and rice for tea. Mmmm....

New Year

Happy New Year to you all. A little belated, perhaps, but better late than never. It's taken a while to get back into the groove. In fact I didn't pick up a hooky hook until this weekend, although I managed to finish the hearts and flowers garland. More of that later, first a few pretty pictures of our relaxing and restorative holiday in north Devon with a big group of friends over the New Year. It was crisp and clear when we arrived, no snow but lots of frost and brrrrrrr it was cold. We had a lovely local walk on the first day, all sun and frost and a gentle 7.5 mile meander through the countryside, ending in the picturesque village of Chulmleigh - in the pub of course! A roaring fire, some liquid refreshment and a game of darts. Fortunately, the fact that I only ever play darts at New Year doesn't make me stand out as a complete idiot, as most of the rest of the crew usually only plays at New Year as well. On New Years day we went the seaside. Westward Ho! was the choice of seaside venue, mostly because it was big enough to have the chance of having a tea room open. We didn't get onto the beach as the tide was in, but we did see some porpoises in the bay, which was quite exciting. Incidentally, Westward Ho! is the only place name in the UK with an exclamation mark as part of the name. An interesting but useless fact. The final picture shows the wobbly eye competition entries. To explain, we were given a pair of wobbly eyes each and were tasked with coming up with something amusing and original, (or just amusing). My entry was the crochet spider which was a pebble from Westward Ho! dressed up in a woolly crochet coat. I brought it home and now I'm not sure what to do with it. I did pick up a few more pebbles from the beach with an idea of using them in a possible xmas present project although I don't think that they will be spiders......

After the holidays, I finally galvanised myself and finished the hearts and flowers garland. I don't have room to store bits of wool so wanted to use up the left overs from the giant doily rug and our little flat really needed  a bit of brightening up as well. I had finished all the hearts and just needed to join them together.  The finishing touch was some pretty buttons bought in a lovely little shop in Exeter, so I had no more excuses for not getting it finished and up on the wall. I don't know why it is, but I struggle to finish things. I think it might be because I'm already planning the next thing and am raring to get started! Incidentally, the 'next thing' is a basket/bag sort of thing. I'm still using up the rug wool, so am going to keep going round and round until it's all gone. Does that make sense? It will all become clear when I have a picture of it.

Last minute presents

The last few days before Christmas were a bit of a mad frenzy finishing off some presents. The crochet hearts worked so well that I just kept making them. The little bag was made as a funny extra for my secret santa present. The last couple of years we've done a secret santa for the family as they are all older and everyone strives to make it amusing. This year I picked out a request for money towards a sat nav. Money is always welcome but a bit boring as a present so I decided to make a padded bag for the future sat nav and found some fab fabric with road signs.  A perfect choice. Since my sewing machine is being stored at my parents house I went over there with all my sewing stuff and quickly ran up a little padded drawstring bag. One of my sisters arrived and declared that the little bag was absolutely perfect for her sat nav, hint, hint, so I made another as an impromptu little gift. Great timing on her part!