The perfect scone recipe

I have always wanted the perfect scone recipe! One of those that you whip up on lazy weekend mornings, one that can have some extra’s added to them, or just be plain and have butter and jam on and taste perfect!

I also wanted it to be a baking mix, but then, I wasn’t so sure! I mean, do we need a scone baking mix? It’s one of those things, like do we need another cake mix baking mix? I actualy don’t know. I still don’t know, so I figured I’d share my recipe with you and realy hope you use it!

It’s a little bit long, but honestly, it’s not hard, I get my kids involved in most of the baking, so there you have it, if they can help, then realy you can make it!

It’s made with a handful of pantry staples, loaded with some of your favorite mix ins, or leave it as is! But it’s buttery and flaky all at the same time and realy is the perfect breakfast or tea time snack!

The pantry goods you will need are….

Flour

Baking Powder

Sugar

Heavy Cream or Whipping cream

Egg

Salt

Butter ( cold)

Vanilla (optional)

Dried Fruit ( optional)

Choc Chips (optional)

Blueberries ( optional)

There are a few optional add ins, if you don’t want/have any don’t use them, these are great scones plain!

Baking Sheet

Baking Paper

Mixing Bowls

Fork / Pastry Cutter

Knife

Realy is pretty much everything you will have already!

Let’s get started making your scones!

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 Cups Flour

1/4 Sugar

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup COLD butter

3/4 heavy cream or whipping cream

1 egg

OPTIONAL

1/2 cup dried add ins / mix in

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat y our oven to 200C and line your baking sheet with the baking paper

2. In a large bowl, mix together your dry ingredients, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

3. Grate/cut your butter into pieces roughly pea size and if using, add in your add ins. Add this all to the bowl with your dry ingredients. Give it a quick mix.

4. In a small bowl whisk your egg, your heavy/whipping cream and vanilla. Slowly add this to your dry mixture and using a fork combine this until you have a shaggy clumpy doughy mixture. Turn it out onto a floured surface and press into a 2cm ish high square. Don’t squish it all tightly together, it needs to be loose and shaggy. Cut this dough in half and stack them ontop of each other. Press them down together, so they form one square or round 2cm high. Now you can decide what form you want your scones. I went for round cut into “pizza slices”. If you want traditional round forms, cut them out with a cookie cutter. Or if your looking for squares use a knife and cut them out. When using up your “leftover” dont knead/squish the layers, this is what gives it the flaky, fluffy texture. I realy do recommend you your your shapes so you don’t have any leftovers!

5. Place scones onto your baking mix and about 2cm apart. Brush each scones with some more heavy cream and sprinkle with some extra sugar! FREEZE them for 15 minutes, this helps your butter stay put!

6. Remove from the freezer and pop directly into the oven for 12-15 minutes! Depending on your size of the scones you cut! Mine, as per picture went 15 minutes!

7. They are done when the have puffed up, the tops are a lovely golden colour! IF they are turning more brown than golden add a piece of tin foil to the top and bake for the remaining time!

These are best eaten on the same day, and are absolutely fine when warmed up for the next 2-3 days! Keep them in a airtight container!

TIPS AND TRICKS

Don’t overmix your dough, you want a loose dough, this is what helps it stay fluffy and keeps its layers!

Don’t use a rolling pin, pat, press your dough!
Use some yummy add ins, nuts, fruit maybe try some yummy spices!

I realy hope you try these! They are amazing!

Keto French Toast - Valentines Day Edition

I love all types of special days! Valentines Day is no exception!

We celebrate as a family, we don’t go out for dinner, rarely, as we don’t have a network of babysitters or any family close by and the kiddos are still a bit young to sit still in a fancy restaurant! They prefer to run amok after the novelty of colouring in has worn off! I wish more places would invest in kids play areas! In the country I was born in, EVERY single restaurant has a play area, and they are AMAZING!! Most of them have wonderful ladies looking after the kids in them too!! Honestly, you can sit and have a glass of wine in peace and quite knowing your children are having fun and you don’t have to wash any dishes afterwards!!! WIN WIN

SO, we do Valentines Day at home, pretty much for the entire day!

Lets start with Keto French Toast for breakfast, shall we!

INGREDIENTS

1 x pouch of Flour and Dough Keto Baking Mix - I used Sunflower Date and Walnut here

1 x egg

Coconut oil, butter, oil for frying

That’s it! Oh, and you will need a pan too :)

TIPS AND TRICKS

Because these loaves are not very high, no gluten, no yeast, they don’t rise heaps! So, I halved my loaf tin, I just added some tinfoil to corner it off! I had a smaller loaf, but it made it allot higher!

This is a 10 cm heart cookie cutter. I got 8 heart shaped bread slices from this loaf.

Don’t waste your cut outs! I love to bake my extra pieces, tossed in olive oil, and use them as croutons! What would your idea be? I did see a realy cute idea for using crusts the other day! In quick - they roll them up and add one roll to the bottom of a muffin tin, add garlic butter on top, grill it, then add pizza sauce and cheese and grill it again. I do wonder if this would work, let me know if you try it!

STORAGE

I actualy don’t know how long it would last, as we made them and then ate them!

TOPPINGS
I think Bob’s your Uncle here!

I love french toast with chutney and cheese

My kids love it with syrup

Hubby likes to add a fried egg, cheese and tomatoe

But, I can imagine, any fruits, syrups, jams would all be amazing!

METHOD
Make up your bread the way it describes on the back of the baking mix packet

Now, do make your loaf tin smaller, like I explained above

Let your loaf cool down completely and make sure your heart cookie cutter fits your loaf. You could also try cutting it into slices by cutting your loaf through the top and not the conventional way from the sides!

Cut out as many heart shapes as you can, I did flip my heart over to get the most out of each slice and the baking mix!

Coat in your egg mixture, and fry until the egg is slightly browned!

Top with your favorite toppings!!

Layered Brownie Cups

Who doesn’t want something guilty but yum! Why not pair both into one delish cup?

Made with some leftovers from your brownie baking mix, or even baked just for this, hey, I’m not judging!

I have made this a few times for the kids, and even once as a dessert for when my parents came over for a visit! It’s always a good hit and does the trick for something sweet after dinner!

STORAGE

This is the part, I can never answer! My kids tend to eat things in record time, except spinach? Go figure!

But, I would think, when making these, you would want to eat them almost immediately as the baked brownie mix, will go a bit soft and soggy if you keep it in between those layers!

Make everything in advance, and then just add them to your glass bowl, or serving containers just before you give them to your friends!

LAYERED BROWNIE CUPS

1 Chocolate Brownie Baking Mix

1 tub of cream

1 packet instant pudding / mousse

1 Tin Caramel

Berries

Mix and bake your brownie baking mix as per the instructions. I made mine in a bigger sheet pan so they baked thinner, and quicker! Let them cool!

Whip up your cream till it’s really nice and stiff! I had a after thought of adding crumbled Flake chocolate or Peppermint Crisp to this cream! ( Peppermint Crisp tart is made this way)

Make your instant pudding/ mousse!

Cut up your brownies into small squares, so they fit in the glass your using, at least a few pieces per layer.

Grab all your ingredients and start layering, this is really up to you and how you prefer!

Once finished put it in the fridge to chill! I had mine chilling for an entire day!

One of our dinner guests mentioned that this would look amazing in a big glass bowl, exactly like you would make a traditional trifle!

Crumpets / Flapjacks / Pancakes

Gosh… these are called all sorts of things in all parts of the world!

But, in short , small, fat little circles of absolute delicious-ness made to taste just like a pancake but topped with something different!

I saw this hack… and I had to give it a try!!

With the holidays coming up, I thought Id start to share some of the things I do, with my family to make life easier and more yummy! Christmas for us is about taking it easy and eating waaaay to much!

TIPS and TRICKS

• You realy need to use a small tray to freeze these in, remember the entire “hack” is about saving time and because you are frying straight from frozen, they need to be small to actualy cook properly!

Ice cube trays actualy work the best, however, I threw a load out the other day and the rest where filled with ice!!

• To save space, once frozen pop, them out and store in a zip lock bag back in the freezer

• Keep your heat low - if not you will burn the bottom and still have a frozen middle

STORAGE

Store in the freezer in a closed container - zip lock bag for 1 month. That’s how long I did it, and they are fine!

INGREDIENTS

2 Eggs

1/2 Cup (125ml) Sugar

1 Cup (250ml) Milk

2 T (30ml) Melted Butter

2 Cups (500ml) Cake Flour

4 Teaspoons (20ml) Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon (2.5ml) Salt

1. Beat the eggs and sugar together. Add
125 ml (½ c) of the milk and the melted butter, margarine or oil.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and stir or beat into the egg mixture.

3. Gradually stir in the remaining milk to form a smooth batter.

4. Spoon into freezer proof containers - Ive just used a silicone muffin tray, add some chocolate chips and/or fruit and pop in the freezer!

5. Cook on LOW heat and once melted turn over!

6. Serve with your favorite topping!

Banana Bread Baking Mix - variation

I have not met a person who doesn’t, at least, like Banana Bread. I do know a lot of people who love Banana Bread - I’ll just put myself into that category!

I was very tempted to make a Banana Bread mix, so a actual Banana Bread Baking Mix, but in all honesty, its just to easy to alter these that I didn’t make that one a reality!

It’s such a nice way to use up all those left over bananas and not have tons laying around frozen waiting to be added to your next smoothie! It’s quick and easy and most of the time is spent in the oven, so if you can wait for it to bake, well then the worst is over!

I tend to make this one quite often as my kids are interesting, one day they will each have two bananas, I then go back to the shop grab a few more…only to have those left to go rotten and everyone is ALLERGIC to bananas! How that happens sporadically, well, I haven’t been able to figure it out! Ha Ha

The last addition I made, I added small chocolate chips to the mixture! For me, I LOVE it just as is, the kids, loved it even more as it had chocolate in!

Banana Bread

What you will need to make this from our baking mix

Ripe Bananas - yes those yucky brown ones that no-one is eating - yuckier the better

Eggs - room temperature is best

Sugar - any sugar of choice, in this one I used norma white sugar, but I have used Allulose and it works perfectly

Butter/ Coconut Oil - either works perfectly

Yogurt - I prefer to use Vanilla Flavoured from The Collective (New Zealand) but don’t use any fruity flavours

This bread is wholesome and nutritious and delicious all in one slice! The Almond flour is high in protein, vitamin E, fiber, healthy fats and low carb! Its great for a more nutrient dense meal!

It’s also naturally sweet with the added bananas, so you don’t need to use a lot of added sweeteners.

Tips and Tricks

I like to add a pinch of cinnamon to the mixture, it feels all sorts of christmas vibes and smells delicious when baking!

When adding the Chocolate chips, make sure you take some of the sugar away, I like to remove 1/4 cup, otherwise it becomes realy sweet

Do not open the oven - I know it’s tempting and I will tell you to check your bread for when its done, as every oven is different, but do it quick and stealthy!

Let it cool COMPLETELY in the pan before you take it out and cut it!

My favorite way to eat this is just layered with butter! But you do you and add what you want! My kiddos love it with peanut butter!

BANANA, BANANA, BANANA

2 Medium Ripe Bananas, mashed - extra for decorating

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

3/4 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Melted Butter

1/2 Cup Vanilla Flavoured Yogurt ( I use The Collective)

1 Pouch Original Nut Flour Bread Baking Mix (or any pouch you would prefer)

Preheat oven to 170° celsius. Line/Grease your tin of choice, loaf tin, muffin tin.

Add the pouch to a bowl, add the sugar, melted butter, eggs, yogurt, vanilla extract and mashed up bananas.

Mix it all thoroughly and pour into greased/lined tin. Place some bananas on top and sprinkle with some sugar. The sugar on top caramelizes the banana and the top of the loaf, yummy! (I tend to sprinkle it over every corner of mine! )

If the top starts browning too quickly, put some foil on top to cover it all up!

Bake for 60 minutes, please check your loaf after 50 minutes.

This will keep in a airtight container for up to 3 days. Make sure you eat it before then and leave me a comment of how you got on!

Lets whisk our eggs…

This is such a random topic - I know!!

But I cant stress it enough!

WHISK

YOUR

EGGS

I can realy make it easier on you by saying, if you don’t want to, just add a extra egg, give it a stir and your good to go… but who wants to use another egg when they have become so expensive!

This is what my eggs look like when Im done giving them a good beating! Frothy and foamy!

This is how you want your eggs to look for your keto bread mix! The frothy foamy texture in the eggs helps give your baking mix the added extra ooomph it needs and captures the air inside the loaf! Nobody has time for a dense thick sandwich!

I don’t use any fancy equipment on these breads. If you know me, you know I love, and almost always use my mixer, for everything… well, not this!

I add my eggs to a cool plastic little jug I got from Kmart 🤣 and pop in my whisk and hold the whisk between both hands and with flat palms twist the whisk! This makes them nice and frothy in record time!

Egg whisking!

This video was made one handed though… but Im sure you get what I am trying to say!!

After you have whisked those eggs to perfection, add them and the rest of the ingredients needed, give it a quick mix! You dont want to loose all your bubbles and effort you put into whisking them up!

Bake for 30 minutes and enjoy!

Pancakes using a bread baking mix

When I started out Flour and Dough, I promised myself Id whip up a new recipe using one or more of the baking mixes AT LEAST once a month - well, clearly that didn’t happen!

So, I have been busy in the kitchen making a mess, so that you don’t have too! I have baked, tweaked, flopped, succeeded and shared heaps of food coming up with some much loved new ideas!

For this recipe I used the Original Baking Mix, jip, a gluten free bread mix turned into delicious fluffy pancakes filled with good for you almond flour and loaded with all the goodness you can think of!

My youngest loves blueberries, my oldest, not so much, both loved whipped cream, but neither enjoy nuts, so it was a pretty dire situation to try and figure out what to use!

Roll on over a bottle of maple syrup, some bananas that I do have to admit HAD to be used! Caramelized banana slices with gluten free pancakes to the rescue for after school, as this is was the time they were done and kids were hungry! Who am I to say they cant have this deliciousness for lunch and not for breakfast!

SOME TIPS TO GET IT RIGHT

• Make your pancakes on the smaller side, ie 3 tablespoons - they tend to be easier to flip when smaller and don’t break

• Make sure your pan is hot before you start - I was too eager and had to leave them too long and ended up burning the first batch

• The pancakes freeze beautifully! Just thaw and re-heat - preferably back in the pan

• They keep for a few days in an airtight container in the fridge

Keto Low Carb Pancakes

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

1 x Original Bread Mix

1 cup milk of choice

3 large eggs

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Take care to mix the eggs before you add the melted coconut oil, as when it hits the egg, it slightly cooks it!

Heat your pan to medium heat and add your choice of oil/butter and wait for it to be nice and hot

Add about 3 tablespoons of batter per pancake, if the pancake doesn’t fit nicely onto your spatula, they do tend to break! So see what works for your spatula!

Make sure you keep an eye on them, as soon as the bubbles form and they can be turned, not runny on the top, flip them. You don’t want them too burn

Complete until all your batter is used up

SERVE with your favorite toppings!

MIX IT UP

Why not try adding some extra ingredients before you bake them?

Zucchini seems to be making a big come back in all sorts of baking! Or try some banana mashed up

Enjoy and happy baking!