Tea Time Treats

Everyone knows how well tea goes with cake, or biscuits, so we've teamed up with Mrs Simkins a local cookery author to provide you with some tempting treats to accompany your cuppa.  Mrs Simkins will be providing a new recipe each month to tempt us all and we hope you'll enjoy them.

If you like this recipe and want others we are now selling Mrs Simkins cookbook in our shop.

The season of mellow fruitfulness

This is a lovely cake for any time of year but especially in the autumn when there are so many apples around. It is a really easy cake to make and is delicious warm or cold. It goes very well indeed with a dollop of clotted cream.

There is often fierce debate within Dorset itself as to whether a true Dorset apple cake should contain dried fruit or not. Opinion is divided but most people are happy to be offered either. This is the kind with dried fruit.

Serve with a pot of your favourite Clipper tea.
 

Dorset Apple Cake

225g (8oz) plain flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
110g (4oz) butter
110g (4oz) unrefined granulated sugar
225g (8oz) of peeled, cored, apples, finely chopped (cooking, eating or a mixture of both)
75g (3oz) currants or raisins
2 eggs, beaten

You will need a greased loose bottomed 20cm (8 inch cake tin)

Preheat oven to 160C (fan ovens) or equivalent

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl and rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar, dried fruit and apple. Mix in the eggs. Turn into the prepared tin and smooth the top with the back of a metal spoon: a wet spoon makes it easier. Sprinkle some more sugar over the top. Cover loosely with greaseproof paper, tucking it underneath the tin to secure and bake in a preheated oven for approximately 1¼ hours, until golden on top.

Leave in the tin for a few moments, then remove and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight tin.

Mrs Simkins © 2010
www.MrsSimkins.co.uk
 

Summer Cakes

This is a beautiful summery recipe: perfect for tea in the garden. The buns are lovely topped off with the Vanilla and Lemon Buttercream or leave them plain. Alternatively, you can always ice half of them so everyone has a choice.

Serve with a pot of your favourite Clipper tea.

Strawberry Buns

Makes 12

175g (6oz) plain flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
50g (2oz) ground almonds
110g (4oz) softened butter
75g (3oz) unrefined caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract or a dab of vanilla bean paste
175g (6oz) strawberries, sliced

You will need a greased 12 cup muffin tin (alternatively use paper muffin cases in the muffin tin)

Preheat oven to 160C (fan ovens) or equivalent

Whiz the butter and sugar together in a food processor until combined and fluffy. Add the bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar to the flour and sieve half of it over the mixture. Add the eggs and vanilla. Add the rest of the flour and raising agents and the ground almonds. Whiz again. Add the strawberries and whiz until they are all pulped and incorporated into the mixture. The mixture should now be dusky pink with the odd speck of strawberry. The gorgeous pink colour disappears after baking, which is a shame!

Divide the mixture equally between the cups of the prepared muffin tin and bake for 18-20 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Lift out with a small palette knife and cool on a wire rack.

Lemon and Vanilla Buttercream Icing

50g (2oz) softened butter
110g (4oz) icing sugar
Squeeze of lemon juice
Few drops of vanilla extract or ¼ teaspoon of vanilla bean paste

Cream the butter in a bowl large enough to give you room to manoeuvre. Use a wooden spoon. Gradually add the icing sugar, passing it through a sieve. When the icing sugar is all combined, add the vanilla and stir in a squeeze of lemon juice, just enough to loosen the mixture slightly.

Spread over the top of the cooled buns. Serve with more strawberries on the side.

Mrs Simkins © 2010
 

Scones for Tea

What could be nicer on a summer’s day than a traditional cream tea with home-made scones, clotted cream, strawberry jam and a pot of your favourite Clipper tea?

We'd recommend serving scones with a pot of Clipper's Assam.

Plain Scones and Fruit Scones

This quantity is enough for about 8-9 scones: if you want to make more, make separate batches, rather than one big one, it’s easier to handle

225g (8oz) plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
40g (1½oz) softened butter
25g (1oz) unrefined caster sugar
150ml (¼ pint) semi-skimmed milk, warmed slightly

For fruit scones, add 75g (3oz) of raisins or sultanas or a mixture

Preheat oven to 200C (fan oven) or equivalent

Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar into a bowl large enough to give you room to manoeuvre, rub in the softened butter, stir in the sugar (and fruit if using). Mix the milk in gradually, an ordinary dinner knife works well.

Knead gently and place on a floured board. Roll out quite thickly: a generous couple of centimetres or three quarters of an inch, with a floured rolling pin, and cut out with a 6cm (2½ inch) cutter, a fluted one looks professional. Re-roll the trimmings and cut out again (these won’t be quite as good as the ones you cut out first).

Bake on a greased baking sheet, for 8-10 minutes until well risen and golden brown on top. Don’t overcook. Cool on a wire rack.

Mrs Simkins © 2010

It is really easy to make scones yourself but it’s also easy to convince yourself that you can’t. This may be because they can end up flat or hard and tough or have that bitter tang on the tongue of too much bicarbonate of soda. Here are a few helpful notes for scone success.

Make up your own baking powder with 2 parts cream of tartar to one part bicarbonate of soda. This will give the most beautifully light texture to the scones and will also avoid the bitter ‘bicarb-tang’.

Try to minimise re-rolling the dough as much as you can as too much handling will give the finished scones a tough texture. Be sure to warm the milk to assist the raising agents to even greater heights.

Roll the dough out quite thickly: a good half inch or more, or generous 1-2 centimetres, otherwise you will have a flat biscuit and lastly, don’t overcook them or they will be hard.