Traditional English Tea Scones

From the kitchen of Fionn D.
- Scottsdale, Arizona

Your tea party will be a great hit with these wonderful
scones!

8 ounces self-rising flour
1 1/2 ounces butter (at room temperature)
1/4 pint milk
1 1/2 tablespoons refined sugar
A pinch of salt
A little extra flour
2 ounces raisins (or more if you like lots of raisins)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter rapidly using
your fingertips.
Next stir in the sugar, raisins and salt, then
take a knife and use it to mix in the milk little by little.
Now
flour your hands a little and knead the mixture to a soft dough -
adding a little drop more milk if it feels too dry.

Then turn the dough onto a floured board and roll it out to a
thickness of not less than 3/4 inch using a lightly floured rolling
pin.
Take a 1 1/2 or 2 inch pastry cutter and place it on the
dough, then tap it sharply so that it goes straight through the
dough.
Don’t twist it or the scones will turn out a peculiar shape.
After you have cut out as many scones as you can like that, knead
the dough trimmings together and repeat until you have used it
all.

Then place the scones on a greased cookie sheet (I use a baking
stone), dust each one with a little extra flour and bake near the
top of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes.
When baked, the scones will
have turned a crisp golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack and eat them
slightly warm, still crisp on the outside and soft and light
inside.
In fact, always eat scones as fresh as possible as they go
stale very quickly.

This amount of ingredients should make about 8 scones.
Just
double up for more scones.

Parkin

This gingerbread from England stores well in an airtight
container at room temperature.

Makes one 8-inch square cake

3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon cloves
3/4 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 pound butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger
and cloves.
Blend in the oatmeal.
Place the syrup, butter and sugar
in a saucepan.
Heat until just blended.
Stir into the dry
mixture.

Beat the egg with the milk.
Add to the mixture.
Pour into a
lightly greased 8-inch square cake pan.
Bake at 275 degrees F for 1
1/4 hours (or until firm in the middle).
Cool before serving.

Cheese and Onions

7 or 8 large onions, peeled and sliced
1 cup water
14 ounces extra sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded

Put half of onions in a microwave proof dish and add water.
Microwave about 15 minutes, drain and put into a glass casserole
dish.
Put half of cheese on top of onions.
Repeat with remaining
onions, adding them to dish when cooked in microwave and adding
remaining cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or
until cheese is browned to your taste.
Serve with mashed
potatoes.

Treacle Tart

Shared with Recipe Goldmine by Sheelagh Ernst - Germany

6 ounces pastry crust for 9-inch plate or tin
2 level tablespoons fresh white bread crumbs
2 level tablespoons black treacle plus 1 level
tablespoon golden syrup or 3 level
tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 level teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Line plate or tin with pastry.
Mix bread crumbs with other
ingredients.
Spread over pastry, leaving a 1-inch edge, if using a
plate.
Moisten edges with cold water and arrange remaining pastry
in thin strips to make a criss-cross design.
Press firmly to edges
and bake in the centre of a moderate oven (200 degrees C, 400
degrees F or Gas No.
6 for 30 minutes or until pastry is
golden.

Serve with fresh cream, sour cream, natural yogurt or
custard.

Serves 4.

Crumpets

Posted by bettyboop50 April 27, 2001

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons fine granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons melted butter
15 ounces milk

Beat the egg yolks and blend in the sifted flour, sugar and
salt.
Then add in melted butter and milk to make a thin batter
about the consistency of thin cream.

Beat the egg whites to the soft peak stages and quickly add to
the batter, folding with a knife or metal spoon.
Heat a lightly
greased griddle or a frying pan and pour in large spoonfuls of the
batter.

Each crumpet should spread thinly to about 4/5-inch in diameter,
and you may have to roll the pan to achieve this.

When the batter is brown underneath and slightly bubbly on top,
turn and cook on the other side.
Keep them warm by stacking on a
clean tea towel, and eat soon after.

Yields 16.

Houses of Parliament Steak Sauce

Posted by liz May 25, 2001

Source: Rene Stewart (as altered by Marion Wyse)

HP stands for Houses of Parliament.
It’s an English steak sauce
but infinitely better than any other.
I don’t use it on steak, but
it’s great on ham, bologna, etc.
Anyway, someone once sent me a
“recipe” for it but aside from being extraordinarily complicated,
the ingredients just don’t sound right.
HP contains dates,
tamarinds and other exotic things.
This calls for apples and plums
which I don’t think are part of the original formulation.
Anyway,
here’s what I have:

This one you have to plan on taking 2 days - maybe 3 if you use
frozen fruit.
It is, however, a cherished gift to bring to any
dinner invitation you receive! It goes best, of course, with beef
(my boss would be sooo happy to hear me say that!).
If you’re gonna
do it, make lots (that’s my philosophy) as you’ll be glad you did.
Last year I got 13 pints using fresh fruit and 16 pints when I used
the frozen stuff.
I ran all the fruit and vegetables through the
slicer on the food processor and that cuts down your preparation
time.

Ingredients required for Day 1
2 large and 4 medium purple onions (I prefer to use
Spanish or Walla Walla but couldn’t find
‘em)
24 cups sliced apples
24 cups sliced plums (Italian prune plums are best -
big firm juicy ones)

Ingredients required for Day 2
Sieved fruit
8 teaspoons ginger
9 teaspoons allspice
3/4 cup pickling salt
6 teaspoons nutmeg
3 teaspoons cayenne
(Note: all teaspoons of spice
are well rounded)
9 cups granulated sugar
15 cups cider vinegar

Method - Day 1
I skin and slice the onions first, then I sweat them in large
kettle as I would if making onion soup (that is cook on medium heat
for about 15 minutes, then reduce heat to as low as it will go and
let “sweat” until all other ingredients are ready, i.e.
1 to 1 1/2
hours).
The apples I core and remove pits, wormholes (but don’t
peel), and the plums just pit and remove “scabs”.
Then through the
food processor, measure and dump in VERY LARGE KETTLE.
Add sweated
onions to apple/plum mixture, bring to boil and simmer for 6 to 8
hours, or until vegetables and fruit are complete mush and can be
sieved.

Allow to cool awhile, then I run it through the food processor
again, then through the sieve which I set in VERY LARGE stainless
steel bowl.
I dump the sieved fruit into a container that will be
large enough to hold it and can store overnight (preferably in
refrigerator) - I’ve used 2 separate containers when necessary.

Method - Day 2
Put sieved fruit in VERY LARGE KETTLE, add spices, sugar and
vinegar, bring to boil and simmer until thick.
This can take a very
long while and you must be careful that it doesn’t scorch (tricky).
When I used the frozen fruit I omitted the sugar while I boiled it
down and added it later once the fruit mixture was reduced by about
one-half.
You must bring it back to the boil carefully when you do
this as the sugar will sink to the bottom - you must continue to
stir for about 15 minutes or so when you do it this way.
Then you
prepare jars, soften lids, fill jars and process as in salsa and
chutney recipes.
Easy!