Orange Blossomwater Scones

After recently being sent a bottle of Nielsen Massey Orange Blossom Water to try & being wife to a man that loves good, simple baking, I dug out my trusty, basic scone recipe and set about making him a batch of scones.

225g Self raising flour

Pinch salt

50g Butter, cold & cubed quite small.

25g Caster sugar

50g Sultanas

1 Egg (medium sized)

5ml Nielsen Massey Orange Blossom Water

1 Medium sized orange

100ml Greek yoghurt

1. Heat your oven to 220C

2. Rub the butter into the flour and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Grate the zest from the orange and stir into the flour with the sugar and sultanas.

4. Lightly beat the egg to break the yolk.  Reserve 1tbs to glaze the scone tops.

5. Squeeze the juice from the orange.

6. In a measuring jug, put the egg, orange juice, orange blossom water and enough Greek yoghurt to make 150ml.  Mix together thoroughly.

7. Add the yoghurt & orange mixture to the dry ingredients and work together gently until it just forms a ball.

8. Gently knead the mixture on a lightly floured board.

9. Lightly roll out to a thickness of 1cm.

10. Cut out using a 6.5cm circular cutter and place onto a greased baking tray.

11. Re-roll any trimmings and cut out more scones.

12. Glaze the scone tops with the reserved egg, being careful not to allow it to dribble down the sides.

13. Bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown on top.

14. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

The lighter you handle the scone dough, the better your results will be.  Mix the wet and dry ingredients together gently, knead the dough lightly and roll out carefully.

Perfect sandwiched together with some Roddas Clotted Cornish Cream and strawberry jam.

My husband's verdict on these scones? Let's just say they didn't last long after the first bite! 

I was sent a bottle of Nielsen Massey Orange Blossom Water free of charge.  I was under no obligation to either use it, develop a recipe or to give it a positive review.

Rosewater meringues

Having recently been sent a bottle of Nielsen Massey Rosewater to try and loving the simplicity of a good meringue, I was keen to develop my basic meringue recipe to make this light and delicate dessert.

4 Egg whites (8tbs egg white)
225g (8oz) Caster sugar
5ml (1tsp) Cornflour
5ml (1tsp) White vinegar
5ml (1tsp) Nielsen Massey Rosewater
Pink gel paste food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 130C

2. Line two baking trays with baking parchment.

3. Making sure your mixing bowl is very clean and grease free (or your egg whites won't whisk up), whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks.

4. Gradually add the caster sugar, a spoon at a time, whilst continuing to whisk.  Your mixture will become thick and very glossy.

5. Mix the cornflour, vinegar and Rosewater together then fold into the meringue mix (add any paste colouring at this point too, if desired).

6. Spoon the meringue mixture into a piping bag (I use disposable ones, to save on the washing up!) Snip off the bottom of the bag horizontally to give you a 1cm cut.

7. Pipe even sized circles onto the parchment, approx 3cm in diameter.

8. Place in your preheated oven for 60 minutes, until dry.

9. Remove from the oven. If you gently remove one from the baking parchment and tap the base, you'll know it's cooked because it'll give you a hollow sound.

10. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

I've sandwiched mine together with some double cream which I've whipped up with some icing sugar and 5ml of the Nielsen Massey Rosewater to make a decadent, deliciously light and summery dessert.

You can see in my photos that I've created a 'striped' effect on my meringues.  This is incredibly simple, but effective to do.  Using a disposable piping bag, pinch the bottom point between your thumb, fore and middle fingers.  Turn the bag inside out, over your hand and arm.  Keeping your hand inside and the point pinched to hold it still, use a clean cocktail stick to smear stripes of your chosen gel colour down the inside of your bag. Gently turn the bag back the correct way and fill with your meringue mixture.  The first couple of piped meringues will be more subtle in colour and the stripes less defined than subsequent ones.

I was sent a bottle of the Nielsen Massey Rosewater free of charge.  I was under no obligation to develop or publish a recipe using the product.

BBC Good Food Show Bloggers at the Brompton Cookery School

As one of the BBC Good Food Show Midland Bloggers, I was invited to join the rest of the team up at the Brompton Cookery School near Shrewsbury for a day of chatting, baking, tastings and inside information on the show.

Upon arrival at this beautiful cookery school in the middle of National Trust land in Shropshire, we were treated to rich coffees and wonderful muffins from resident chef and owner Marcus Bean.

After an introduction from Katy and Flo representing the BBC Good Food Show, we were introduced to Marcus and also to Robert Swift from Richard C Swift Ltd (a fifth generation bread baker with a passion for the dough that would be hard to top).

We were given an overview and lots of inside information on the show that I know you're going to love when you attend next month!

We were given a tour round Marcus' gorgeous and very well stocked cottage garden from where we foraged pine cones, herbs, wild garlic and flowers to include in the breads that Rob was going to get us to make when we returned indoors.

While Rob worked his magic with the dough that he'd been up from very early that morning preparing for the shop and the Ludlow Festival, Marcus set to work creating a wonderful wild garlic pastry to encase a fresh quiche using locally produced ingredients that we were later to enjoy for lunch as well as an amazing marmalade ham that he was making; the smells from the kitchen were amazing & made us all very hungry!

The history of Swift's bakery and Rob's amazing bread recipes were included in a copy of his book, Born & Bread, which we all received.  I'd thoroughly recommend Rob's book for anyone interested in making bread themselves at home.

Rob taught us to flavour and shape breads that we brought home with us to enjoy.   I filled mine with a delicious combination of locally produced cheese, red onion and sweet chilli sauce.

While our breads were cooling we were treated to a fabulous lunchtime spread of Marcus' quiche and ham, Rob's British tomatoes and a selection of some of the amazing food producers who will be exhibiting at the show from fruit teas, to chutneys, sauces, cheeses, pâté, chocolate and meringues.  For dessert Marcus created the most amazingly light and creamy chocolate mousse with a delicious honeycomb topping created by a new to the UK imported chocolate from Vietnam.

As it was Marcus' birthday on 9th May, we baked cakes to take with us which were judged by the birthday boy himself.  I'm very proud to say that the carrot and lime cake with a mascarpone & orange zest frosting won!!!! I'm now a very proud baker indeed.

We were given fantastic goodie bags to take home packed with some incredible ingredients, all of whom will be exhibiting at the show next month.

As part of the BBC Good Food Show blogging community, I'm offering my readers a discount of 15% on ticket prices. If you want to grab yourself the discount, then click on the image below to take you to the BBC Good Food Show website and enter the discount code of FYC20 at checkout.

BBC Bakes & Cake Show 25-27 October 2014

Tickets are now on sale for the BBC Good Food Bakes & Cakes show at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London from 25th to 27th October.  The show's going to be packed with baking, bread-making and cake decorating demonstrations as well as free master classes and lots of products to get you baking like a pro.

Watch your favourite baking stars such as Mary Berry, Mitch Turner, John Waite and Paul Hollywood and lots of others live on stage during their demonstrations.  Every adult ticket purchased includes a seat in the Bakes and Cakes Theatre.

It's the perfect place to pick up hints, tips, techniques as well as pick up essentials to help you perfect your hobby.

I'm able to offer you a whopping 25% off tickets to the show.  In order to take advantage of this discount, simply click on the picture below to take you to the show site and quote the reference EBPAR1 upon checkout.

I can't wait for the show and am looking forward to seeing some of my favourite bakers & cake decorators, as well as to pick up hints, tips and do a bit of shopping for myself too!

As apart of the promotion where I'm able to offer you a 25% discount on your own tickets, I have been given a complimentary ticket to enable me to attend.