River Cottage Scones

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

I saw these being made on River Cottage recently and they looked truly delicious, so I had to try them as all the scones I’ve made in the past were quite heavy and stodgy. But these are light and crumbly and absolutely AMAZING! Easily the best scones I’ve ever made and possibly eaten! They are not for anyone on a diet as they contain double cream, but they are well worth making and doing a bit of exercise to burn the extra calories!

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:
I will admit I forgot to glaze them with milk as I was too busy thinking about sprinkling them with demerara sugar, which is my own addition to the recipe, as I like the crunchy sweetness it gives. They still came out brilliantly without the milk.

• Makes: 8 scones
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• Oven shelf: upper-middle
• You will need: large mixing bowl and a baking tray, lightly greased
• Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 300g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt (optional, I didn’t use this as I used salted Anchor butter)
• 75g unsalted butter (at cool room temperature), cubed
• 50g caster sugar (on TV they used 100g but I found 50g enough)
• 1 egg
• 120ml double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional, I only used ½ tsp)
• Milk, for glazing (optional)
• Demerara sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C and lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub in with your fingers until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Alternatively, do this in a food processor before transferring the mixture to a bowl. Either way, then stir in the sugar.
3. Beat the egg and cream together, with the vanilla extract too, if you’re using it. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and bring together lightly with your hands into a dough. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead very briefly to form a fairly smooth ball (it will be a bit sticky so just dust with a little bit of flour).
4. Pat or gently roll the dough out to a thickness of about 4cm. Use a 6-7cm diameter cutter to stamp out scones from the dough (I used a 7cm cutter and only managed to get 7 scones).
5. Put them on the prepared baking sheet, brush the tops with a little milk or demerara sugar, and bake for about 15 minutes until risen and golden.
6. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for a few minutes, then serve slightly warm. Scones do not keep well so eat them up quickly!

Duck Puffs

MUNCH RATING: 3/5 

 

This is Ching-He Huang’s recipe, but I have adapted it slightly to suit the ingredients I had.

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

Ching’s original recipe says it makes 10 Duck Puffs, but you will have lots of filling leftover, which is fine as I used it in some stir-fried some noodles (the duck tastes like Aromatic Crispy Duck so would be nice in wraps with cucumber and spring onion).

 

I have also changed the way the pastry is rolled out, as Ching’s way results in a lot of wasted pastry, so if you do it my way then you should get 16 Puffs out of 1 block of pastry.

 

They were quite time consuming to make, but I think they would be good for a dinner party as they can be prepared in advance and then popped into the oven for the last stage. I served them with cucumber and carrot matchsticks.

 

TASTE TEST:

The duck filling is gorgeous, but the puff pastry makes them a bit dry in the mouth. I would prefer to just serve the filling in wraps.

 

• Prep: 30 mins plus 20 mins marinating time
• Cook: min 1 hr 50 mins
• Can be frozen before baking

 

Ingredients:

• ½ finger-length piece fresh root ginger, grated
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons plum sauce (I used Hoi-sin sauce instead)
• 1 tablespoon groundnut/vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons clear honey
• 1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice (this is my addition)
• 2 duck legs, skin on (make a few cuts into the skin & flesh)
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced (I didn’t have any!)
• 1 340g block ready-rolled puff pastry (I used Jus Rol)
• a little flour, for dusting
• 1 egg, beaten

 

Directions:

1. Marinate the duck: Mix the ginger with the soy and plum sauce (or hoi-sin), oil and honey (and Chinese 5 spice) in a deep dish, then add the duck legs, turning to coat. Cover and chill for at least 20 mins.
2. Cook the duck: Heat oven to Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C. Lift the duck legs onto a non-stick baking tray, then roast for 1½ hours until crisp and golden. Meanwhile, tip the remaining marinade into a small saucepan and simmer for 2 mins, then cool. When the duck is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and finely shred the meat. Mix with the cooled marinade and spring onions.
3. Prepare your pastry: Take your block of pastry and cut it into 16 even pieces. Dust your board and rolling pin with a little bit of flour and then roll each piece of pastry into a square.

YOU CAN MAKE TWO DIFFERENT SHAPES FOR YOUR PUFFS:

• Triangles: put 2 tsp of the duck filling in the middle of each square, brush the edges of pastry with a little egg, then fold the pastry squares in half, pressing to seal so you have a triangle shape.
• Half-moon: using a 9-10cm round cutter stamp out a circle from each pastry square. Put 2 tsp of the duck filling in the middle of each circle, brush the edges of pastry with a little egg, then fold the pastry circles in half, pressing to seal so you have a half-moon shape

To cook:

Transfer the puffs to a lightly greased baking sheet and brush with more egg. Bake at Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C for 15-20 mins until golden (I turned up the oven to Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C for the last few minutes to make them golden brown).

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• If you need to re-roll your puff pastry, stack the trimmings on top of each other to keep the layers.
• Freezing: Can be frozen for up to 1 month. Cook for 5 mins longer from frozen.

 

You might also be interested in: Hoi-sin Pork

Curried Potato Pasties

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I made these ages ago but I didn’t take a photo because I couldn’t wait to eat them! Luckily I kept some in the freezer and we had them for lunch today. They were just as nice cooked from frozen.

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:
This recipe is from BBC Good Food, but I tweaked the recipe and added sweet potato, which adds a lovely sweet flavour and compliments the curry flavour. Because I added an equal quantity of sweet potato to normal potato, I had some leftover potato filling so I’m going to use it to make fish cakes.

I used the other 340g block of puff pastry (from the pack that I bought for the Duck Puffs) to make these tasty little pasties. I have changed the method for rolling out the pastry to make it easier.

• Makes 8 and I would serve 2 per person
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 30 minutes 

Ingredients:

• 300g/10oz potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
• 300g/10oz sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1cm dice (optional)
• 100g/4oz frozen peas
• 2 teaspoon oil
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 1-2 teaspoon curry paste (I used 2 tsp curry powder, ½ tsp chilli powder and 1 Tbsp tomato ketchup instead)
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds (I didn’t use these)
• Juice of ½ lemon (About 1 tablespoon)
• handful coriander, chopped (I hate this stuff so didn’t use it)
• 340-375g block of ready-rolled puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten 

Directions:

1. Heat a large pan of water, add the potatoes, then cook for 8 minutes until just soft. Add the peas 1 minute before the end of cooking time. Drain, then set aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion until soft and slightly coloured. Add the curry paste/powder mix and mustard seeds, then fry for a few minutes more until the mixture smells fragrant. Carefully stir in the potatoes and peas, trying not to mash them. Add the lemon juice and coriander, then leave to cool.
3. Heat the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C. Place your pastry block onto a lightly floured surface and cut it into 8 even sized rectangles. Roll each rectangle flat until it is approximately 3x5 inches in size. Place about a tablespoon of the potato filling onto one half of the rectangle, then brush the edges with beaten egg and then fold the pastry rectangle in half to cover the filling. Pinch the edges together along the 3 open edges to seal the parcel.
4. Place on a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper and brush with more egg and bake for 20 minutes until puffed up and golden brown. 

COOK'S NOTES:

• If you need to re-roll your puff pastry, stack the trimmings on top of each other to keep the layers. 
• Freezing: don’t brush with beaten egg if you want to freeze the pasties and cook for 30 minutes if cooking from frozen.

You might also be interested in: Duck Puffs