For those that have been wondering, for the last month or two I have been cooking some wonderful food, I just haven’t been all that inspired to write about it in between running around sorting out house plans, working, playing with Chloe & freezing through this long winter. Especially at night when dinner is cooked & there is no good light to photograph, we usually just dig right in before even thinking about the potential to show everyone what we have been eating. So there has been lots of slow cooking as you would expect, soups, pasta & other soul warming dishes perfect for winter.
Last weekend I had an itch to bake, I’m sure it had been at least 2 weeks since my last effort & trying to be a teensy bit healthy for Chloe’s sake, I decided on pumpkin scones, they still have the butter & sugar but the pumpkin gave them good brownie points so that I was happy for Chloe to munch away. I’ve never made pumpkin scones before & I was very pleasantly surprised, they were lovely & sweet & the hint of nutmeg gave them a delicious aroma. I cant say mine rose as much as the ones in the recipe picture though it didn’t seem to make a difference, they were very delicious & Chloe loved them too which is always a surprise as she seems to only enjoy one food group at the moment – hot ‘chippies’!
Pumpkin Scones (Florence Bjelke-Petersen's recipe as published in Gourmet Traveller)
250g peeled jarrahdale or QLD blue pumpkin, cut into 3cm pieces
300g (2 cups) self raising flour)
½ tspn ground nutmeg
75g (1/3 cup) pure icing sugar, sifted
40g butter, softened
1 egg yolk
Milk for brushing
Preheat oven to 200c. Place pumpkin in a steamer over a saucepan of boiling water, cover & steam until tender (about 15 minutes), then transfer to an oven tray and bake for about 10 minutes to fry out. Cool, then pass through a coarse sieve.
Sift flour, nutmeg and 1 tspn salt into a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat icing sugar & butter until pale & fluffy, add egg yolk and beat to combine. Using a wooden spoon, stir in pumpkin, then half the flour mixture and, using your hands, bring together to make a dough, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth (dough should still be a little sticky).
Roll out to 2cm thick and using a 5.5cm diameter cutter dipped in flour, cut rounds from dough and transfer to a lightly greased oven tray. Re-roll scraps & repeat. Brush tops with milk and bake until golden & sound hollow when tapped (10-15 minutes). Serve hot or at room temperature with butter.
Last weekend I had an itch to bake, I’m sure it had been at least 2 weeks since my last effort & trying to be a teensy bit healthy for Chloe’s sake, I decided on pumpkin scones, they still have the butter & sugar but the pumpkin gave them good brownie points so that I was happy for Chloe to munch away. I’ve never made pumpkin scones before & I was very pleasantly surprised, they were lovely & sweet & the hint of nutmeg gave them a delicious aroma. I cant say mine rose as much as the ones in the recipe picture though it didn’t seem to make a difference, they were very delicious & Chloe loved them too which is always a surprise as she seems to only enjoy one food group at the moment – hot ‘chippies’!
Pumpkin Scones (Florence Bjelke-Petersen's recipe as published in Gourmet Traveller)
250g peeled jarrahdale or QLD blue pumpkin, cut into 3cm pieces
300g (2 cups) self raising flour)
½ tspn ground nutmeg
75g (1/3 cup) pure icing sugar, sifted
40g butter, softened
1 egg yolk
Milk for brushing
Preheat oven to 200c. Place pumpkin in a steamer over a saucepan of boiling water, cover & steam until tender (about 15 minutes), then transfer to an oven tray and bake for about 10 minutes to fry out. Cool, then pass through a coarse sieve.
Sift flour, nutmeg and 1 tspn salt into a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat icing sugar & butter until pale & fluffy, add egg yolk and beat to combine. Using a wooden spoon, stir in pumpkin, then half the flour mixture and, using your hands, bring together to make a dough, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth (dough should still be a little sticky).
Roll out to 2cm thick and using a 5.5cm diameter cutter dipped in flour, cut rounds from dough and transfer to a lightly greased oven tray. Re-roll scraps & repeat. Brush tops with milk and bake until golden & sound hollow when tapped (10-15 minutes). Serve hot or at room temperature with butter.
