A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down

I've received a fair amount of bad news lately and it was a rainy cloudy and fairly gloomy day today.  So, I took a break from work for a nice cup of tea and a sit down.  That is a title of a book I have actually and there are occasions that call for just that - a comforting cup of creamy sweet tea and a few moments to reflect.  So, I did that.  I sat down, sipped at my tea, had a few biscuits and took some time to think.  I paid homage to my Nan with that cup of tea.  With the packet of Sweet and Low I put in it and with every warm nourishing sip I drank, I said "here's to you, Nana."

Scones with Strawberry Jam

I have written about the scones we enjoyed in England last summer and the awful scones we had at the Crown & Crumpet in San Fran, but I've yet to write about my own scone recipe. My scones are more of the English style scones that are a biscuit like shape and texture. I don't much care for the triangular shaped scones that most cafe's and bakeries have and they always seem to be very dry, tasteless and covered in huge crystals of sugar. What's special about mine? I always use pure full fat unsalted butter. It's best to use unsalted to control the amount of salt in the recipe and most scone recipes don't call for much sugar, so it's good not to overdo it on the salt, especially for fruit scones. You also must use baking raisins. Most people don't know they exist, but you can buy Sunmaid baking raisins in 1 cup pouches in most grocery stores. They are much juicier for baking unlike those dry pebbles of raisins that come in boxes. They are great for scones, but also for oatmeal raisin cookies and even to put in your morning oatmeal. I use a scalloped biscuit cutter and you can also make different sizes. I usually do this to make some smaller ones more suited for afternoon tea vs. the bigger "breakfast size" scones with the larger biscuit cutter. When baked just the right amount of time, they are moist but not doughy, rise nicely and break apart perfectly without the need for a knife...aside for spreading on the clotted cream and strawberry jam! I enjoyed afternoon tea with Audrey last weekend and used the last of my homemade strawberry jam.

Afternoon Tea for Two Weeks

On our recent visit to England with Audrey, we vowed to try to find somewhere to have afternoon tea every day we were there. Audrey always has an afternoon snack, so going out for afternoon tea would allow us to find a place for her to have her snack and we could enjoy afternoon tea and scones each day and take a breather from sightseeing. For the most part we succeeded in having afternoon tea most every day and it ranged from the quaint tea rooms of Alfriston, the Pump Room in Bath to a café in Caerphilly. I was surprised to discover that most places didn’t offer fruit scones with raisins, so we primarily had plain scones and always tried to get the sinfully good clotted cream and strawberry jam to go along with it. Here are some photos of the scones we enjoyed. The English strawberries with cream were fantastic at the Pump Room. But, my favorite is still The Singing Kettle in Alfriston.