Irish Scones

This website is getting me into trouble!  Gemma Stafford is a professional chef from Ireland.  Recently, a link for one of her bread recipes appeared on my Facebook feed and I've spent hours on her blog watching videos and reading recipes as well as tips to make baking more successful.

This is the link for the scone recipe.  If you watch the video you can see how simple these are to make.

The recipe calls for raisins, which I do not care for.  I substituted dried cranberries and added the zest of one orange to the dough.  The results were delicious!

If you pat the dough out to 1 to 1 1/2" thick and use a 3" round cutter, you wind up with a dozen large scones.

Gemma's Best Ever Irish Scones

Servings: 12 scones

Ingredients

•             4 2/3 cups self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting

•             3/4 cup butter, frozen

•             3 level teaspoons baking powder

•             1/2 cup sugar

•             1/2 cup raisins/sultanas

•             1 1/4 cup  milk

•             2 eggs , beaten

Instructions

1.            In a large mixing bowl, add self-rising flour .

2.            Using a cheese grater, grate the butter in until it is all gone. (alternatively using a pastry         cutter, cut/rub butter into flour until fully crumbed and resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

3.            Stir in raisins, baking powder and sugar.

4.            In a small mixing bowl, whisk eggs and milk and until thoroughly combined. Pour mix into flour mix and stir until a soft dough is formed. Transfer dough to a floured surface and press to 1 1/2 inch thick. (if your scones are not forming a dough add a little more liquid)

5.            Cut scones out with a round 3 inch cookie cutter.

6.            Place cut scones onto a baking tray lined with parchment.

7.            Gather remaining dough in a ball, re-flatten then cut scones from dough. Repeat until entire batch of dough is cut into scones. If you have a little excess dough left, just pat it onto the top of the scones.

8.            Bake at 425° for roughly 22-26 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

9.            Serve warm or fully cooled with butter, jam, or fresh cream.

Stained Glass Candy

Brach's candy company used to sell this type of white nougat candy with jelly drops inside.  It was a holiday staple and one of my favorites.  I haven't seen it for sale in years.  When this recipe popped up on my Facebook feed I had to give it a try.

The nougat is much more moist than the Brach's candy but the flavor is pretty similar.

The recipe takes hardly any time to make if you use the microwave for melting ingredients.

You'll need a really large bowl since marshmallows expand significantly as they melt.

STAINED GLASS CANDY

2 T. butter

2 bags mini marshmallows (250 grams each)

2 bags white chocolate chips (225 grams each)

2 cups gumdrops

Melt butter, marshmallows and chocolate chips together.

Stir in gumdrops.

Pour into a parchment paper lined 9 x 13 pan.

Chill thoroughly.  Candy can be stored in freezer.