Sour Cream Scones
These are American-style scones (or known as ‘biscuits’ in America) which have a softer and cake-like texture as opposed to the traditional English-style scones which are more bread-like in texture.
Although I have made the traditional English scones a number of times, this is the first time I have tried making this American-style type of scones, apart from the time I made the delicious American Mile-High Biscuits (think that’s the name but unfortunately lost the recipe during my computer crash at the beginning of this year and could not access her excellent foodblog now) shared by Renee of ‘shiokadelicious!’ fame which needed to be baked in a cake tin or muffin pan as the dough is more like a thick batter than a dough. Thinking of making something similar recently but not using cake tin or muffin pan, I thought of using sour cream to make the scones which I thought might make them moister and softer, similar to cakes using sour cream. I searched the net and found a number of recipes using sour cream as one of the ingredients and I roughly adapted from a few of them and came up with this version. Voila! They turned out yummy, moist, soft and cake-like. Definitely a keeper if you like cake-y scones!
Just a note about making successful scones, it is very important to NOT handle the dough too much. If the dough is kneaded a little too much, gluten will develop and toughen the scones! Therefore try to use the palm of your hands to pat or press the dough together rather than using kneading action. As long as the dough holds together it is OK, it will be rough on the surface and not smooth.
Makes approx. 10-12 scones.
[Ingredients]
300g (2 cups) plain flour
1 tablespoon (20ml) baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
50g caster sugar
100g cold salt-reduced butter, cubed
1 egg, lightly beaten
150g sour cream
milk for brushing
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[Preparation]
1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Sift plain flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together.
2. Rub butter into flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add lightly beaten egg and sour cream. Cut with a bread knife to combine into a dough. Gently gather the dough together and pat or press into a ball (try not to knead if you can), it will be a bit crumbly but don’t worry too much about it.
3. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into about 2cm thick layer. Use a 5 or 7cm cookie cutter to cut out rounds. Gently gather together remaining dough and repeat until the dough is all cut out.
4. Place close together on a cookie tray and brush the top with a little milk. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until risen and golden brown. Serve hot with whipped cream (or butter) and jam.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.Labels: Quick Breads
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Hotcakes
I made these thick pancakes from the basic pikelet recipe.
And yes, vinegar is part of the ingredients, it is used in this recipe to produce very fluffy pancakes.
Makes approx. 5 thick pancakes of about 15cm diameter.
[Ingredients]
150g (1 cup) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
190ml (¾ cup) milk
1 teaspoon white vinegar
2 tablespoons canola oil
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[Preparation]
1. Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, then add egg, milk, vinegar and oil. Stir the mixture until ingredients are well combined, then beat until smooth.
2. Heat a small frying pan until hot. Add a little oil to the pan, then use a paper towel to coat the oil evenly on the surface and wipe off excess oil.
3. Turn heat to low, pour in enough batter, depending on how big you want your pancake, and cook until the tops are bubbly and just beginning to set. Carefully turn the pancake over and cook the other side until lightly brown. Repeat with the rest of the batter.
4. Serve hot, warm or cold with butter, jam, maple syrup, chocolate topping, honey or cream with fresh fruits on the side if desired.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.Labels: Quick Breads
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Sweetpotato Scones
Every once in a while, I love to eat scones. There’s nothing better than scones that’s just come straight out of the oven.
So, after using part of a large sweetpotato for making Onde-Onde, I now got the leftover bit sitting in my refrigerator. Thinking about how to use it up, I decided to make sweetpotato scones. I thought, since pumpkin has been used to make pumpkin scones, why not sweetpotato for sweetpotato scones? Well, here it is…
Makes approx. 5 - 6 scones using 7cm round cutter.
[Ingredients]
125g peeled sweetpotato
2 cups (300g) plain flour
1 tablespoon (15g) baking powder
1 tablespoon (20g) caster sugar
50g cold butter, cubed
pinch salt (only if using unsalted butter)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons milk, adjust as necessary
jam for serving
Mock Clotted Cream:
1 cup thickened cream, whipped
1 heaped tablespoon sour cream
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[Preparation]
1. Steam the sweetpotato until soft, mash and let cool. You should get about 1/2 cup of mashed sweetpotato. Preheat oven to 220°C.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt if using into a mixing bowl. Rub in cubed butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add in lightly beaten egg and mashed sweetpotato. If necessary, add just enough milk to form a soft dough. Try to knead the dough as little as you can, it is better to just use your palms to pat the dough together.
3. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 2.5cm thick. Use a 7cm cutter (or any other size cutter you preferred) to cut out rounds of dough. Re-roll any scrapes of dough to use up all the mixture.
4. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, depending on size of scones. Serve hot or warm with jam and Mock Clotted Cream.
Mock Clotted Cream:
Blend sour cream into whipped cream to serve with scones.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.Labels: Quick Breads
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Blueberry Muffins
Blueberry muffins are my reliable breakfast or brunch stand-by. I would usually whip up a batch the night before so they are all ready to
go the next morning.
Blueberry muffins are of course American-style muffins, which taste and look completely different from the English muffins. Muffins are quick-breads and NOT cakes, because muffins could be savoury as well as sweet! Muffins are not frosted typically but cupcakes usually are. The most common method of muffin making is simply by first preparing dry and wet ingredients separately, then combine and fold together (always by hand only, no machine needed) just enough to moisten the dry ingredients, then straight into the oven – quick and easy!
However there is another method for making muffins which uses creaming method – ie. cream solid fat with sugar, beat in egg(s) then add in flour and liquid alternatively. This creaming method of making muffins makes it hard sometimes to differentiate a muffin recipe from a cupcake recipe. So how do you tell whether the recipe you are looking at is a cupcake or a muffin? Well, muffin recipes typically contain less sugar and egg when compared to cupcake recipes. So as a very rough guide, I stress again, a very, very rough guide only – for myself, this is what I use to differentiate – for a recipe to make 12 muffins, it will typically use just one egg (sometimes two), and sugar content hovers around 100g, sometimes even less. Whereas for a basic recipe of 12 cupcakes, the number of eggs used could be anywhere from two to four (never just one egg – well, I have never encountered one anyway), and the sugar would be more than 150g, usually around 200g or more.
So anyway here is the recipe I use often to make my favourite Blueberry Muffins. I usually do not serve them with dusting of icing sugar, but rather with a dollop of butter instead… hmmm, yummy!
Adapted from the recipe ‘Blueberry Muffins’ from ‘Australian House & Garden’ magazine.
Makes 6 muffins
[Ingredients]
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
pinch salt
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 egg, lightly beaten
80ml (4 tablespoons) milk
60ml (3 tablespoons) canola or corn oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
icing sugar for dusting (optional)
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[Preparation]
1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Mix the flour, sugar and salt well, then sift together into a mixing bowl. Add blueberries and toss through, set aside. Line six muffin holes (each of about 100ml capacity) with paper cups.
2. Mix together lightly beaten egg, milk, oil and vanilla essence, beat lightly to combine.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients in one go. Using a spoon, quickly and lightly fold the ingredients together until all the dry ingredients are just moistened – do not over-mix.
4. Spoon batter evenly into the muffin cups. Immediately put into preheated oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown in colour (I usually baked for around 22 - 23 minutes). Serve warm or cold with a snowy drift of icing sugar on top if desired.
[Tip]
Over-mixed muffin batter makes tough muffins!
[Variations]
Using the Blueberry Muffins recipe, a variety of other muffin flavours can be created by doing some simple substitution of ingredients!
Raspberry Chocolate Muffins
Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.Labels: Quick Breads
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Steamed Banana Muffins
Huh? You asked, what’s that, steamed muffins? Yes, nothing wrong with your eyes or my typing skill for that matter – that’s correct, I steamed my muffins!
Well, actually the wacky part of my mind sprung that idea and took me by surprise too – I was craving for a Chinese-styled steamed sponge cake, but could not be bothered to do all the egg-whisking. So was thinking of a simple and fast way to steam something that would at least resemble the sponge cake. So what’s the simplest and faster way to whisk, pardon the pun, up something delicious – muffins of course! I thought, why-ever not – I took a Banana Muffins recipe and adapted it. Voila, it actually worked and they were so soft and spongy that I was quite taken aback! Well, well, well, how come nobody has thought of this before! I kept asking myself…… Next up, might even try to steam my favourite blueberry muffins, what do you think?
Makes 6 Chinese teacups.
[Ingredients]
150g self-raising flour
80g caster sugar
1/2 cup (approx. 125g) mashed banana, from 1 large over-ripe banana
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg, lightly beaten
50ml corn oil
50ml milk
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[Preparation]
1. Prepare the steamer and boil the water. Put 6 empty Chinese teacups in the steamer and heat them up, at least 10 minutes.
2. Sift flour and sugar into a mixing bowl.
3. Mash the banana, add lemon juice to it.
4. Mix together lightly beaten egg, corn oil, milk and vanilla essence.
5. Add the mashed banana and liquid mixture into the flour mixture. Quickly and lightly fold in as you would muffin batter. Do not over-mix.
6. Divide the batter evenly into the six hot teacups.
7. Steam over rapidly boiling water for about 25 minutes. Serve hot or cold.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.Labels: Asian Cakes, Quick Breads
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Pandan Coconut Muffins
The other day, I had a sudden craving for my favourite blueberry muffins, so decided to make a quick batch to curb that craving.
However as I opened my freezer to get the box of frozen blueberries I always kept for such an occasion, I realised that I had used them up last time and forgot to stock up a new box! So what to do? I still wanted my muffins! Feeling too lazy to run to the shop, I took stock of what I had in the pantry and fridge…well hmmm, I’d got a newly-opened tube of pandan paste, some coconut milk powder which was quickly running out of used-by date…so I thought what about some South-East Asian flavoured pandan coconut muffins? I took my blueberry muffins recipe and made a few changes to accommodate these new flavours. Crossed my fingers…I baked them. After about 20 minutes of baking, I took them out, took one and quickly have a taste, it actually tasted very nice indeed! Ahhh, satisfaction. Talking about muffins, always serve them warm as that’s the best way to eat them, in my opinion anyway. That said, however, I don’t like muffins warm just baked straight from the oven, as they have a crispy crust, which detract from the texture of the soft muffins. Call me peculiar, but I like to let them cool, then put them in the microwave and heat on HIGH for about 30 seconds, take out and serve with a dollop of butter…yummy!
Makes 6 large muffins (However, if you like muffins that look nice and pretty, this amount will make more than six.)
Preparation time: about 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
[Ingredients]
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
pinch salt
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup (40g) coconut milk powder
150ml water
70ml corn oil
1/2 teaspoon approx. pandan paste
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[Preparation]
1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line 6 muffin cups (each 80ml capacity) with paper cups.
2. Sift self-raising flour, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl.
3. Dissolve coconut milk powder with water, add corn oil, egg and pandan paste. Beat lightly to combine. Pour mixture in one go into the flour mixture. With a spatula quickly and lightly mix together, do not over-mix, batter should still be lumpy.
4. Spoon evenly into the prepared muffin cups. It should fill nearly to the top of each cup, as I like my muffins overflowing when baked.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool. Just before serving, heat in microwave for about 30 seconds then serve with a dollop of butter.
[Tips]
1. Over-mix muffin batter makes tough muffins!
2. To make your own self-raising flour, for every 150g plain flour, add 2 teaspoons baking powder and pinch (1/8 tsp) salt.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
Addendum December 8, 2005
Pandan Coconut Muffins (improved version)
[Ingredients]
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
1/4 cup (60g) caster sugar
1 egg
30g coconut milk powder
90ml water
50ml canola or corn oil
1/4 teaspoon approx. pandan paste
[Preparation]
1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Line 6 muffin cups (each 80ml capacity) with paper cups.
2. Sift self-raising flour, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl.
3. Dissolve coconut milk powder with water, add oil, egg and pandan paste. Beat lightly to combine. Pour mixture in one go into the flour mixture. With a spoon quickly and lightly mix together using folding action, do not over-mix.
4. Divide evenly into the prepared muffin cups.
5. Bake for about 22 minutes. Let cool. Just before serving, heat in microwave for about 30 seconds then serve with a dollop of butter.
Labels: Quick Breads
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