Chocolate and pear scones

I absolutely love scones. I think they are one of the most underrated baked good around, people's opinions blighted by memories of rock hard scones brought back from cookery class, or those horrible chalky crumbly things, punctuated with bright red glace cherries (not that I don't love glace cherries!). Last weekend in Greenwich, Harry and I had wonderful afternoon tea at the Fan Museum, with excellent small, warm scones. The weekend before we had an absolute behemoth of a scone from Euphorium bakery, with a inch of clotted cream slavered on top.

So gor those of you not dieting, this recipe is for you! I realise that I've only really posted low calorie recipes recently, so here is one without a calorie count, one to just enjoy.

The original recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, whose blog is far more eloquent and photogenic than mine. Nevertheless, I've got a couple of photos to show you and I made a few changes to the recipe. I also didn't use a dough hook to do the mixing, doing everything by hand instead, and it worked out absolutely fine.

Chocolate and pear scones

Ingredients

3 small pears, peeled, cored and cut into chunks*
140g dark chocolate, cut into chunks
290g plain flour
75g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt, plus a little more for the egg wash
125g cold butter, cut into chunks
90ml double cream
2 medium eggs


*I actually only had 2 pears so I substituted a small apple instead

1. Put the pears on a baking tray lined with parchment and roast at about 180 degrees (fan) for 15 mins or so, until the pears are starting to brown.

2. Place the flour, baking powder, caster sugar, salt and baking powder into a bowl and give a quick mix with a spoon. Add in the butter, one egg, and cream. Mix a little with the wooden spoon. You'll find that it very quickly becomes difficult to stir the mixture. At this point, get your hands in, and start rubbing the butter into the flour, moving it around, kneading it, until it's starting to look uniform.

3. Add the pear chunks and chocolate and knead some more till you have a relatively homogeneous mixture.

4. Flour your work surface and tip the dough out. It will be a little sticky, but not inordinately so. Work the dough into a sheet about 4cm thick. You don't need to use a rolling pin, you should be able to shape it with your hands.

5. Using a cutter (or your hands), cut the scones out. I made  9, plus a small one of scraps. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment.

6. Using the other egg, add to a bowl along with 1tsp water and a pinch of salt. Whisk together with a fork until it's relatively uniform. Brush the scones (I used a pastry brush) all over the top and sides.

7. Bake in an oven at about 190 degrees (fan) for about 30 minutes. They should be golden brown.

8. Leave to cool and then eat. Or eat while still hot and the chocolate is all melty...

The Great British Bake Off

I have some good advice for the workplace. Do not bake a cake to bring into work. Your colleagues will then expect you to do this on a regular basis. You might find yourself being made the 'designated baker'. You might even find that you are entered into a baking competition without your knowledge.

I have the dubious pleasure of representing my project team in the client's version of "The Great British Bake Off". I have been told to bring the biggest, fanciest, best cake I possibly can. After much deliberation, I settled for the Konditor and Cook "Curly Whirly" cake, which I made earlier in the year for a friend's birthday.

Unfortunately, it has just dawned on me that due to the cream cheese frosting, this is a cake that needs refrigerating. I need to get the cake to Glasgow on Monday morning, via a BA flight. Hmmm, possibly not the best choice of cake although a bit late now as I've already made it! I do feel that this competition is not on level pegging, given my offering has to travel 500 miles and hopefully come out the other side intact. The airport security people at London City had better be gentle with this!

The actual recipe is here. It's a little bit more complicated than my usual attitude of "stick everything in a bowl and whisk it", but don't let the steps put you off as it's actually quite easy. I won't repeat the recipe here but show some pictures instead:

Ingredients all lined up

Mixture before the melted chocolate, sugar and milk is added

Mixture afterwards - the batter is very runny, but it's supposed to be like that

Cake just after baking. I found they needed closer to 30 - 35 minutes

The iced cake

Finished cake, complete with swirls and "Deloitte" on top

"Posh" Marble Cake

Also known as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" cake.

I made this cake earlier today for a colleague's birthday after seeing the recipe in the Times Saturday magazine. It's a recipe from Lorraine Pascale, one of my favourite 'celebrity' chefs. Lorraine used to be a model and was the first black British model to grace the cover of American Elle. After modelling, she tried a number of new careers including as a car mechanic, before professionally training as a chef. She now runs a cake shop, the Cupcake Bakehouse, as well as presenting a series on BBC.

Anyway, on with the recipe.. (slightly adapted from the Times)

Pomegranate molasses cake

This cake was a bit of an experiment, and as yet I can't decide if it was a success or not! I've had a bottle of pomegranate molasses at the back of my cupboard ever since buying it for an Ottolenghi recipe. Since then, they've been languishing somewhat and so today I decided to use it in a cake.
A quick google search didn't reveal many results; nearly every website was linking back to this link, which was the one I chose in the end due to lack of choice.

I won't give the full recipe here, although I'll share some pictures with you.

The ingredients sound tasty enough, with cream, pomegranate molasses and mixed nuts.



Cream, pomegranate molasses and mixed nuts