Strawberry Pop Tart Scones

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I'm always bemused by the difference between scones and scones. You know, the English-style round ones with jam and cream, and the American triangle ones stuffed with things other than sultanas... thank goodness. I just can't come at a sultana scone.
When I saw this recipe for strawberry pop tart scones, I didn't even baulk at them not being round and familiar, like I usually do. All I knew is that I wanted them. I wanted their crunchy, breakfast-food-style strawberry goodness immediately, if not sooner. Pop Tart scones? Amazing.

Unfortunately it was nowhere near strawberry season when I made them, so I decided to add strawberry jam preserves instead of the fresh strawberries the original recipe called for. Not a bad idea, it turned out. Crunchy. Soft in the middle. Strawberry-y. I ate them for morning tea with a cup of coffee, but they could really be had any time. Breakfast, weekend brunch, after-school afternoon tea... you can even tell yourself they're healthier than a breakfast pastry. Probably because they are!

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
85g tablespoons butter, grated
1/2 cup cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup strawberry jam

Icing:
1/2 cup icing sugar
a drop or two of pink food colouring
Enough milk to get to the right consistency - a teaspoon at a time.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250C

2. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, and baking powder. Rub in the cold grated butter with your fingertips until blended and the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

3. Add milk, cream and egg. Mix until a dough forms, adding the jam half way through.

4. Pat dough into a large circle on a lined baking tray and cut into eight pieces. Separate the pieces about an inch apart and bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden.

5. Mix the icing and drizzle over.




So what do you prefer? The traditional English-style scone, or an American-style triangle? And what do you top them with?

Vintage Lane - Cherry Ripe Slice from the Harston CWA Recipe Book

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This little gem of a cookbook was once owned by my great-grandmother, and was given to me after my nana died. I couldn't make the interstate funeral, so my mother brought me back some of her aprons and all the cookbooks she could find. This one has all the recipes for slices and baked goodies I remember eating when I was a kid in the '80s, when it was the thing to do to bring a chocolate mint slice or tupperware container of honey joys to a potluck or backyard barbecue. And it was the thing for me to do to hover around the table and gorge on as many of them as I could...

Oh, hey Granny!

This book is dated October 31, 1981 and the foreword congratulates the Harston CWA members on 25 years' service to the community, and mentions that this cookery book is hoped to be a "challenge to the experienced and an aid to the newly-weds".

My favourite part of the book is this: an aid to good people everywhere.

Disgusting, yet helpful...

Something for everyone

I've said it before, but I'm totally bringing back the word "luncheon" to describe the midday meal. And I get a little excited when something is termed "savouries"... this book gives recipes for curried eggs, savoury tuna slice, toasted cheese sticks and a "desperation dinner" - meatballs in savoury sauce with potatoes on top... all stuff you'd normally find in a pantry.

Other highlights include boiled chicken loaf, rice a riso casserole, braised rabbit, golden syrup dumplings (yum!), jelly slice, and pickled zucchini.

This page looked especially popular:

Mmm flour that's as old as I am...

Casting my mind back to those barbecue tables all those years ago (ahem), the standout favourite for me was the Cherry Ripe Slice. Therefore, it's vitally necessary that I re-live those wondrous moments...

Recipe: Cherry Ripe Slice

Ingredients:
1 lb malt biscuits
2oz chopped glace cherries
1/2 teaspoon cochineal
1 tablespoon caster sugar
3oz Copha
1/2 lb coconut
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 tsp almond essence

Directions:

Grease a 7" x 11" swiss roll tin and arrange a layer of malt biscutis in the base. Melt copha and mix in remaining ingredients, blending thoroughly, spread over layer of biscuits. Top with another layer of biscuits, pressing them firmly into mixutre. Ice with chocolate icing when set, cut into small squares. Cherries and almond essence may be omitted OR replace evaporated milk with 3/4 cup condensed milk and cut out caster sugar.



I totally forgot the caster sugar (but it didn't seem to make a noticeable difference), and only used one packet, or 250g of the malt biscuits. Nor did I grease the tin, but did put down a piece of greaseproof baking paper. Still tastes just as I remember it!

Vintage Lane - Chocolate Mocha Cake from Gold Crest Recipes

Normal and Formal - for every occasion!

Vintage Lane is going to be a regular feature on Veggie Mama - to bring you up to speed, go here, or click the "Vintage Lane" tab.
Cute, right?

This book is part of a collection given to me by my sister, and it was once owned by her husband's grandma. She wrapped them up all pretty in a box and gave them to me for Christmas. Good sister!

The introduction tells us that there was "tremendous demand" for copies of Gold Crest's last recipe book, containing "inspiring and practical recipes to please every member of Queensland families".

I have to tell you, the cake I made did just that. Not much of a cake eater, I ate three cupcakes in a row, and I even received glowing reports from Veggie Dad.

The contents include recipes for cakes, puddings, pastry and biscuits, as well as "Special Meat Dishes" (goulash, salmon balls, casserole chops and more), fillings (not the dentist kind... though they might send you there), cookery hints, weights and measures and a list of equipment one should own when setting up their own kitchen.

The Faithful Rainbow Cake is presented in full colour, and we are told it has been reproduced by popular demand. Looks good to me!

Pretty in Pink

There's even an Oriental Cake (which only has cinnamon, cocoa and vanilla for flavouring, so I'm slightly confused... ), Rice Custard Pudding, Cornflake Tart, Cornish Pasties, Iced Vo-Vo Biscuits, and Monte Carlos, among others.

I can't tell when this cookbook was made, as a google search of just about every word combination I can think of comes up with nothing. It was obviously a time when offal was a regular feature in a cook's repertoire...

Om Nom Not:

Tasty: so subjective!

and now for the featured recipe... Chocolate Mocha Cake

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups Gold Crest self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons cocoa
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup cold milk
2 teaspoons coffee essence (I used two tablespoons espresso)

Mocha Frosting:
2 cups sifted icing sugar
pinch salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
3 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 tablespoons coffee
1/2 teaspoon Gold Crest vanilla essence

Directions for cake:

Sift the flour, salt, soda, cinnamon and cocoa together twice. Add coffee essence to milk. Cream the butter, add sugar gradually. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sifted dry ingredients, alternately with liquid mixture, a little at a time. Beat very smooth. Bake in two greased and floured 7in sandwich tin in moderate oven 30 minutes.

Directions for frosting:

Sift the sugar, salt and cocoa together. Cream butter until soft. Add part of sugar mixture gradually, beating thoroughly. Add remaining sugar mixture alternately with warm coffee, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla.


This made a very light cake, with a rich, buttery frosting - really delicious. The batter was so fluffy, and was interesting to see - the addition of cocoa only made it a very light brown, like the cakes I used to make when I was a kid (I only had one recipe book and it was sooo old), compared to the deeper browns of mudcakes and boxed cake mixes.

Verdict?





NOM!



Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

Once upon a time, I joined a Facebook group called "Raisins, stay the f**k out of my cookies". And I meant it. If I was to eat a cookie, fruit was never welcome. Why fruit when you can have a lovely chocolate chip? Or chip of any other variety? Fruit cookies were for weirdos.

Well, colour me weirdo now, as I have come across a delightful recipe that features none other than the feared raisin.

Given that this pregnancy has seen me turn to the chocolate box or the biscuit barrel far more than I ever have in my life (which isn't saying much), I figured that if I were to eat a biscuit or nine with my tea, it should probably have some kind of goodness in it.

Now I'm not one of those crazies that insist every piece of food that goes into someone's mouth must be healthy. I'm not campaigning for McDonald's to cut their calories and add more salads or to ban all fried foods on Earth. While I agree that there should be more nutritious options available, I understand the idea of food that is bad for you and tastes damn good and hell, you've gotta just enjoy yourself a little every now and then. Which I normally would do. But since I now eat twelve biscuits* a day instead of a year, I would much prefer they not whack me in the face with a ton of sugar and fat and pretty much no goodness whatsoever. Hence the move toward this recipe.

It's crunchy on the outside, the merest hint of chewy in the middle, the raisins are plump and kind of caramelised on the outer edges, and the whole thing has a subtle spice flavour. I'm a fan.

Ingredients:
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup hot water
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/175C.

2. Soak raisins in hot water.

3. In a large bowl, mix flour, soda, salt and spices. Mix in rolled oats, sugar and nuts.

4. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and add oil, vanilla, raisins and water.

5. Pour into dry ingredients and mix well.

6. Roll into balls and place on a baking tray, slightly flattening them as you do so.

7. Bake 10-13 minutes until edges are golden. The longer you bake, the crunchier they get :)


*Exaggeration may or may not have just occurred.

Original recipe here

Apple Cinnamon Scrolls

I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of fruit. Not really, anyway. I know it's good for me and all that, but I just don't have much of a sweet tooth. It is also a conundrum that I adore baking, but rarely eat the fruits (tee hee) of my labours for the above reason.

Now being 21 weeks pregnant with bumpington, I know it's important to eat lots of fruit. Plus, I live in Queensland, Australia, where it's sunny and beachy and summer-fruity and I can get just about whatever I want in good quality. I don't mind a mango or peach here and there but apples and bananas? Winter fruit? nuh-huh.

Therefore if I'm going to bake, then I try to at least get some fruit in somewhere. Even if it's covered in a sugar-butter caramel (hello Pineapple Upside-down Cake). Hence the attempt at Kidspot's Apple-Cinnamon Scrolls. Which, by the way I have just received a text from Veggie Dad as we speak (how's that for timing?) describing them as the YUMMEST SCROLLS EVER!!!!!

And I concur. Apple whole? No thanks. Apple cooked in soft bread with a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar? Well I might just eat that. Especially if it goes nicely with a cup of tea (it does).

You can find the recipe here... As you can see, baby brain led me to read the recipe quite vaguely and I failed to chop my apples fine. I also sprinkled caster sugar before realising it should have been brown. So I sprinkled both. To hell with it, I'm pregnant! I think I will also try it with applesauce to get a smooth filling. Or jam. Or lemon curd. Or vegemite and cheese (oh my!) Or apricots and almonds. Or cheese and chutney. Or cheese and jalapenos or... etc etc, ad nauseam.

They freeze well, and need nothing but a little heating up before eating. Yum!

Banana pineapple cake

Scene: Back porch.10am.  You're busy organising your lesson for tomorrow on privacy law and confidentiality as it pertains to writers. You're having a delicious piece of home-baked cake and a cup of coffee with just a hint of vaniila.

Enter: creepy bird.

This is not the first time creepy bird has crept up on you. Once he and a friend advanced on you so eerily that you had flashes of Hitchcock's The Birds and you retreated to the safety of indoors.

Not today. Today you will stay. Today you will fight.

Creepy bird has already been shooed out of your indoor sanctuary that morning. He's getting bold.

Creepy bird leaps onto the table and creeps ever closer to your delicious cake....

But you are vigilant. You watch closely, munching the cake. He creeps over to your left hand side. You bang the table and ask him politely to leave.

He merely jumps on the chair next to you. You move your cake to the right hand side and continue your surveillance. He cocks his head and looks at your cake. Eventually you relax. He's not pecking your eye out, nor is he getting tangled in your hair. If he moves a muscle you will spring into action.

Or so you think.

Suddenly, when you least expect it and you're deep in the subchapter of telecommunications and tapping phones, a flash of black and white explodes from your periphery, almost hitting your nose. It swoops down over your plate, clutching his prize in his beak and dropping it mere inches from you. Eating it. Triumphant. Ignoring you.

When you've recovered from your heart attack and your cardiovascular system calms down, you mourn your loss, cut another slice of cake, reheat what's left of your coffee and marvel at how delicious your cooking is even the wildlife risk their necks in order to eat it.

It is only fair that you share the recipe. It comes with a bird warning.

Ingredients: 

1 cup raw sugar
2 tablespoons honey (or another 1/4 cup sugar)
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
3-4 medium ripe bananas
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp salt
450g can crushed pineapple, drained
A sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon (optional)

Method:  

Preheat oven to 180C

1. Mix sugar, honey, butter, eggs, bananas and milk.

2. Add flour and salt and stir.

3. Add drained pineapple, nutmeg and cinnamon, if using.

4. Pour into cake tin and bake 45 minutes. Test after this as it may need a little longer.


You can substitute the pineapple with apple, pear, peach... any fruit almost. Or leave it completely out. It makes a good, moist cake that's not overly sweet. You can frost it, or just smear it with butter, like I do, and keep out of reach of birds.

Adapted from Betty Crocker Bananaberry Bread