R khooks » Teatime

Rainy weather antidote

rkhooks — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:40:22 +0000

If the weather is anything like it is in Paris at the moment then I have the perfect antidote for it: homemade crumpets and long pepper spiced curd. Head over to designsponge where my recipe (and more pics) is featured in ‘in the kitchen with’ this week.

Confit Cherry & almond cookies

rkhooks — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:33:17 +0000

I whipped these little delights for a girlie teatime. Chewy, buttery with sweet confit cherries and crunchy almonds. They went down a treat. The recipe is the one I used when baking industrial quantities at Autostadt last December, although they were made chocolate chips. Similar to Anzac biscuits but using a brown/white sugar combination instead of golden syrup. It was the only sweet thing I felt like eating. Straight out of the oven with a cup of tea or a glass of milk. Super yum!

Confit cherry & almond cookies

125g caster sugar
125g brown sugar
250g butter
325g oats
100g flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
100g blanched almonds, chopped
100g confit/glacé cherries, chopped
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven 170°c. Cream the sugars, vanilla essence and butter together. In a second bowl mix together oats, baking powder and flour together. Add the chopped almonds and cherries and mix. Combine the two mixtures together and add the eggs. Mix together until you have a cookie dough. Drop a generous tablespoon of dough on a greased or baking paper lined tray. Leaving at least a good couple centimentres space between cookies. Bake for 20 minutes (maybe a little longer if the cookies are bigger). Leave to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Alternatively you can just bake a couple and then keep the cookie dough in the fridge. Use within the next couple of days. Or you form the dough into cookies. Freeze and then bake when you want to (baking time will be longer however).

Teatime at La Cocotte

rkhooks — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:28:04 +0000

Oh so British teatime at La Cocotte on the 29th June 2008. Everyone had a hand on making their own scones, a demonstration on the Art of drinking tea (and how to drink it correctly) and of course a proper teatime with china cups, jam, clotted cream and scones fresh out of the oven.

If you are on a picture and you want it to be removed, please send me an email.

A match made in Heaven – Currant scones & clotted cream

rkhooks — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:42:45 +0000

Like peas & carrots, cookies & milk or fish & chips, clotted cream and scones are a match made in heaven and essential for a proper English teatime. The closest thing to clotted cream is probably mascarpone, although it’s a lot whiter in colour and less heavier.
I smuggled some back from the UK last week. So in between coding for my new site I found some time to whip up some scones for Sunday tea time (to my friends delight).
They’re best eaten warm with lashings of clotted cream and jam and not to forget TEA! If you eat them the next day, warm them up in the oven as they tend to turn a bit brick hard when cold.

Currant scones*

1 tbsp sugar
300g plain flour
11⁄2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
200ml/9fl oz milk
50g/1oz butter, melted
150g currants

Soak the currants in hot water for an hour. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Sieve the flour and baking powder together, add the sugar and salt, mix. Drain the currants. Add the currants and the milk and butter to the rest of the ingredients. Mix and then knead together to form a dough. Roll out to 3cm thickness on a floured surface, then using the rim of a glass, cut out 5cm wide rounds and place on a greased baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes, until golden. Serve with clotted cream, jam and of course, tea!

*P.S. This recipe isn’t an April fool