Heather Honey Scones

Inspired by my recent visit to the the Balmoral Hotel and with the the Bakelady running a scone challenge, I decided to make some Honey Scones using a lovely pot of Heather honey I picked up in Edinburgh. Most supermarkets should have some form of heather honey or other different types such as blossom, acacia etc... and I emplore you to buy a decent pot for this recipe just for the superior flavour, or instead of using a supermarket, find and support your local supplier. For those of you living in Sheffield the Sheffield Honey Company is the local producer but I'm sure there is one near where you live.

This recipe is really simple and can be quickly made in about 30 minutes.

Heather Honey Scones (makes 8)
225g Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
50g Butter
7 Tbsp Milk
1 Tbsp Honey (warmed slightly)

Method
Rub the Flour and salt together with the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the milk and the honey to the mix and bring together, using a knife, until a soft but not sticky dough is formed.
Knead together quickly to make a smooth dough.
At this point either roll out with a rolling pin, (to about 1cm thick) and use a cutter or do what I do and rip bits of the dough and mould into a scone shape using your hands, I like the scruffy and non uniform look it gives to the scone.
Place on a greased baking tray and brush with milk.
Place in a preheated oven at 230C for 10 minutes.

Serve with jam and clotted cream, if anybody uses squirty cream I will hunt you down and confiscate the remainder of your scones.

Enjoy.

Afternoon Tea at the Balmoral, Edinburgh

For the Other Half's birthday (which was in October) one of her presents was Afternoon Tea at the Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh and because I'm nice I splashed out on the Champagne Afternoon Tea.
Afternoon tea at the Balmoral is served in the hotel's Bollinger bar, a rather nice champagne bar (as the name suggests) with its own harpist who plays from an overhead balcony.

We were warmly greeted upon arrival and our coats were taken to be hung up, we were given the menus to look through containing a quite extensive tea menu of which I opted for a Silver Needle white tea, a very delicately flavoured and fragrant tea. First to arrive on the table was little circles of shortbread followed by a quite impressive tower of sandwiches, scones and patisserie.

Sandwiches
Fresh Salmon and cucumber
Honey roast ham
Egg mayonnaise and pepper
Tomato, basil and brie
Beef and red onion marmalade

Scones
Fruit, Heather honey and cinnamon scones served with jam and clotted cream

Patisserie
Blueberry cheesecake
Mini Bakewell tart
Sponge cake
Tiffin



All the food was superb and there was plenty of it as well with both of us very full and sleepy afterwards, my personal favourite was the Tiffin and the heather honey scones which I plan to make at some point. Service as you would expect was excellent, the Other Half couldn't manage to eat all her scones and requested to take them home, this request was willingly met and the takeaway box was topped up with more shortbread, a lovely touch.

Excellent food and service, a lovely extravagant way to spend an afternoon.

Chocolate Chili Cake

Having never had the opportunity to sample a chocolate chili cake and being in a chocolaty mood, I decided to give it a go.










Chocolate Chili Cake
Ingredients
250g Butter
300g Light Muscavado Sugar
100g Plain Flour
100g Self Raising Flour
4 Eggs
300g Dark Chocolate
2 - 4 Red Chili's

Topping
200g Dark Chocolate
200g Double Cream

Method
Preheat the oven to 160C
Line a 20cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs a bit at a time, add a bit of flour if mix starts to split.
Melt chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, leave to cool.
Once cool add chocolate to the mixture.
Fold in the flour to the mixture.
Chop chili's finely or crush into a paste and add to the mixture.
Spoon into the cake tin and bake for about 1.5 hours and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.

To Decorate
Use a bread knife to cut the cake horizontally in half.
Melt the chocolate in the same way as above, remove from heat and stir in the cream until smooth and glossy.

Spoon about a quarter of the choc/cream onto one half of the cake and sandwich the halves together.
Spoon the rest of the choc/cream over the top and spread across and down the sides of the cake.

Serve with a brew

Verdict: Squidgy, rich, chocolaty with a little chili heat, Lovely.

Enjoy

Beef Wellington

 This recipe was used on Ramsay's F word programme and I had been planning on attempting it for awhile so when better than Christmas day.










The amount of ingredients for this depends on how many you are serving (obviously). A 1.4kg piece of beef was more than sufficient for 6, however making a wellington of this size is one hell of a battle so I advise you make two smaller ones of about 600g each

Beef Wellington

Ingredients

600g Beef Fillet

400g Chestnut Mushrooms

100g Cooked Chestnuts

6 Slices of Parma Ham

English Mustard

500g packet of Puff Pastry

2 egg yolks

Method

Season the beef well with Salt and Pepper.

Heat a frying pan with plenty of oil until very very hot.

Sear the beef quickly on all sides to seal in the juices, do not cook the beef just colour.

Brush with plenty of mustard and leave to rest and cool on a plate.

Blend the mushrooms and chestnuts in a food processor.

Place them in a hot dry pan in order to remove all the water, this may take some time but is critical to the recipe. The mixture should be sticking together and no bubbling water should be seen.

 Leave to cool

Roll out a long length of clingfilm and overlap the Parma ham in the middle.

Spoon out the mushrooms and spread over the ham, leave a bout an inch from all sides.

Place the beef in the centre.

Using the clingfilm roll up the ham, mushrooms and beef very tightly and twist the clingfilm at the ends as much as possible. 

Leave to set for 20 minutes in the fridge.

Roll out the pastry and place on a long piece of clingfilm.

Place beef on the pastry and roll up, trim off the excess pastry and tighten up with the clingfilm, twisting tightly at the ends.

Leave to rest in the fridge for an hour. You can also leave it at this stage overnight in the fridge just remove a few hours before cooking so the beef can return to room temperature for cooking.

Brush the Wellington with egg wash and bake in a preheated oven (190C) for 45 minutes, depending on how you like your meat, (use a meat thermometer for a bit more guidance)

Enjoy

Baileys Cheesecake

This was my alternative choice to Christmas pudding, (not that I have anything against Christmas pudding). This recipe is very very easy, requires no cooking and can be made days in advance of whatever you need it for.








Baileys Cheesecake
Ingredients
100g Butter
250g Digestive Biscuits
600g Philadelphia cream cheese
25ml Baileys
100g Icing Sugar
300ml Double Cream
100g Grated Chocolate

(If you are a coffee fan, add 10-25ml of Kahlua or Tia Maria with the Baileys)

Method
Crush digestives and melt the butter in a pan.
Add the digestives and mix until all the butter has been absorbed.
Spoon and flatten into a lined 18 inch springform tin.
Leave to set in the fridge for about an hour
Lightly whip the cream cheese and beat in the icing sugar and Baileys
Fold in the whipped cream and chocolate.
When smooth, spoon evenly onto the biscuits
Leave to set for a minimum of 3 hours.

Decorate with a bit more grated chocolate or go nuts and be extravagant, up to you.

Recipe from BBC Food

Honey Glazed Ham

There is nothing better than a proper honey glazed ham so here is my recipe, altered slightly from Ramsay's.







Ingredients
1 Gammon
Small handful of cloves
Cinnamon Stick (crush slightly)
Onion (quartered, leave the peel on)
Black Peppercorns (crushed)

Glaze
75ml Sherry
100g Dark Brown Sugar
100g Honey

Stick the Gammon in a large pan with the Peppercorns, Onion, Cloves and Cinnamon Stick and enough water to cover it completely. Boil for an hour for each kilogram of Gammon you have e.g. 2kg = 2 Hours.
Keep the water topped up and scoop off the foam on the top every so often.

20 minutes before the boiling time is complete, add the sherry, sugar and honey to a pan and bring to the boil, constantly stirring, lower the heat and simmer for a couple of minutes until you have a glossy syrup. Do not leave unattended or good luck cleaning your hob.

Remove gammon  from pan and cut off the string and place into a foiled baking tray, score the fat and stick a clove into each diamond shape.

Pour over the glaze and place into a preheated oven (190C) for about 30 minutes. Every 5 - 10 minutes baste the ham with the glaze in the tray.

Remove from the oven and enjoy once cooled slightly.

Bank Tavern, Keswick

Taking a break from Christmas food shopping in Keswick we decided to get a beer and some pub grub to escape the winter chill.
Bank Tavern is located on Main street in Keswick and is a cosy traditional style pub with dark wooden beams and slate floors. It serves a good selection of bar meals alongside the full range of Jennings ales and a couple of guest beers including Wychwood's latest seasonal offering, Bah Humbug.



I ordered the Game casserole consisting of Venison, Wild Boar and Rabbit and made with Jennings Bitter and served with jacket potato and vegetables for the reasonable price of £9. The casserole was very rich and gamey with lovely varying textures of the different meats and went well with the jacket potato (also available with chips and new potatoes). The vegetables were of the frozen variety but the casserole was more than tasty enough to stop me caring.

Is there anything better than having a pub lunch in a cosy pub with good beer while it is in minus figures outside?

The Bank Tavern
45-47 Main St,
Keswick,
Cumbria,
CA12 5DS
017687 72663


*Top image borrowed from http://www.cumberlandtaverns.co.uk