June 1st
Lemon Scones – we promised you this recipe last month, but we missed the deadline. Here it is now
Lemon Scones. Makes 8.
Ingredients
400 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 g butter, cubed
100 g caster sugar
150 ml milk – not chilled (warmed slightly).
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
Pinch of salt
Method
1 Pre-heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2 Tip the flour and baking powder into a large bowl with a pinch of salt, then mix.
3 Add the butter, then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the caster sugar.
4 Make a well in the dry mix, then add the milk, lemon juice and zest, and combine it quickly with a table knife until it makes a soft dough – use a little more milk if necessary.
5 Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, knead a little, then pat it out or roll it to about 3cm deep. Use a 7cm round cutter to cut out 10 scones.
6 Place on the baking tray and brush the tops with a beaten egg. Bake for approx. 12-15 mins until risen and golden on the top.
Eat with either butter or clotted cream and maybe some lemon curd. You may also like to top the cooled scones with lemon icing (made with icing sugar with added lemon juice).
Editor: As a complete novice, I tested this recipe. I used a food processor for the mixing in steps 2 and 3, then transferred to a large bowl for step 4.
Not sure I got the dough consistency right, but I coped. Couldn’t achieve the recommended thickness, so I used a smaller cutter (6cm) and ended up with 14 small scones of various sizes!
However, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”.
– They were really nice.
June 21st
This month’s message is late. The Editor lost the plot!
(that’s me currently, although I may be removed from office. Sorry)
Here is some input from David for this month:-
Like many of you, Alex and I have been spending a little more time in the garden. I am reminded that the Bible story tells how God provided a garden for us when He first created humankind. Like the ancient hanging gardens of Babylon that seems to have been a garden largely comprised of trees. By the time of Solomon, if the Song of Songs is anything to go by, interest had moved on to any leafy or flowering plant that produced fragrant perfume.
Today we like the wide variety of the many shapes and colours of our flowers easily available in so many different garden centres. All this bears witness to our continuing creativity. It never ceases to fascinate me – humankind’s inexhaustible faith and hope that something new and good is always waiting there to be found and we shall always be provided with the arts and crafts and skills to handle it. And so, every year there are new bulbs, new roses, new clematis.
The Bible calls on us to seek and build the Kingdom of God. That is to do all we can to build a world, as our Bishop John expresses it, of love, compassion, justice and freedom. Everything we do out of faith or hope or love for Jesus and our fellow beings, (the gold, silver and costly stones of 1 Corinthians 3.12), contributes to that Heavenly Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth at the end of time. May the Lord bless as you continue to seek the well-being of those around you.
David New
All this thinking about flowers, gardens, plants will hopefully kick start some creativity within you in art, needlework, poetry, photography, music, etc. . . . .
Send us your contributions as we love to add them to our ever growing website. It’s been so hard not meeting you all so we hope you haven’t forgotten us and will be eagerly awaiting some return to our creative monthly gatherings.
With our love to you and looking forward to meeting up again soon,
Love Alex x and Sue x