Let's get old-fashioned: English Tea Biscuits

[tamawrite]

Does anyone know how to make the sort of cakes/biscuits that would be served with a traditional English tea? I know recipes vary and aren't very sweet, but other than that, I'm clueless. Help?

[TerriS]

Do you mean scones? And not the monstrosities you get at Starbucks, I mean little scones, sometimes made with dried fruit.

I did an English tea for a book club recently and used the British style scone recipe below. They were fantastic. I did a batch as written with lemon zest and craisins, and another batch without lemon zest, added vanilla and mini chocolate chips. If you can get or make clotted cream, serve them with that...I served with nutella, yogurt cheese, and a variety of jams. Yum.

British Style Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 to 1/4 tsp salt
4 T. butter
2 T. sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon zest (optional)
1/3 cup cherry flavored craisins (optional)
2 tablespoons milk (for brushing tops)

Preheat oven to 425. Line baking sheet with foil, parchment or silpat.
Mix together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
Add butter and stir until mixture is coarse and crumbly. Stir in sugar and enough milk to soften dough. Turn onto floured surface and roll into 3/4 inch thickness. Cut into 2 inch rounds and place on baking sheet. Brush tops with milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until brown.

They also take well to variations. For instance, lately I've been leaving out the lemon zest and cherries and using vanilla extract and blueberries. Chocolate chips are also good.


Strawberry Scones

Recipe By :Ina Garten
Serving Size : 14 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Bread

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 pound unsalted butter -- cold, diced
4 extra-large eggs -- lightly beaten
1 cup heavy cream -- cold
3/4 cup dried strawberries -- small-diced
1 egg -- beaten
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Combine 4 cups flour, 2 T. sugar, baking powder and salt. Blend in the
cold butter at the lowest speed and mix until the butter is in pea-sized
pieces. Combine the eggs and heavy cream and quickly add them to the
flour & butter mixture. Combine until just blended. Toss the
strawberries with 1 T. of flour, add them to the dough, and mix quickly.
The dough may be a bit sticky.

Dump the dough out onto a well-floured surface and be sure it is well
combined. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4"
thick. You should see lumps of butter in the dough. Cut into squares
with a 4" plain or fluted cutter, and then cut them in half diagonally to
make triangles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Ad the 2 T of milk to the 1 beaten egg and brush onto the tops of the
scones. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the
outsides are crisp and the insides fully baked.

Source:
"The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook"
Yield:
"14 pieces"
Ratings : Fantastic - Make Again! 0 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 268 Calories; 28g Fat (91.1%
calories from fat); 3g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber;
144mg Cholesterol; 543mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean
Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 5 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

[tamawrite]

Scones are a favorite in my house -- thanks for the recipes! What I'm actually looking for, though, is more like a shortbread cracker.

[boisewinesnob]

Hi Tamara :)

Are you thinking of crumpets? Here's a link to an old thread with a recipe: http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37256&highlight=%2Acrumpets%2A

[cinnabun]

How about this one?

English & Australian Afternoon Tea Biscuits

3 cups sifted plain flour
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt

Sift flour, add baking powder and salt and sift again. Add butter. Add
milk gradually until a soft dough is formed. turn out to a floured board.

Knead slightly and roll out to 3/4" thick. Cut with a small biscuit
cutter into desired shapes and placed on a greased tray.

Bake in a hot oven (450 degrees) 12 - 15 minutes.

[SPITFIRE]

Originally posted by tamawrite
Scones are a favorite in my house -- thanks for the recipes! What I'm actually looking for, though, is more like a shortbread cracker.

There's a recipe for Pistachio, Lemon and Vanilla Shortbread in the May issue of Bon Appetit (Scotland travel issue). If anyone is interested, I'll post it.

[Little Bit]

I just went to recipesource.com and did a search for tea cakes, and found a lot of recipes. The first one looks very similar to the one cinnabun posted. You might give them a look if you'd like some variations on a theme.


http://www.recipesource.com/cgi-bin/search?search_string=tea+cakes+

[Shirley Ekstein]

I don't come on much these days and is not because I don't want to or don't find topics interesting, is purely lack of time. If I had more, I'd be on here every day!
Have been pointed to this thread by Gail.
English teas - actually, as I'm sure you all know, we don't really eat them any more. No time - no longer are we Edwardian or Victorian ladies, for whom 'tea' was a great punctuation in the longeurs of their days.
But if you really want to eat a real English tea then you HAVE to have cucumber sandwiches - made with a sandwich loaf, crusts cut off - and really really thinly sliced bread and thinly sliced cucumber - and bread REALLY well buttered. (And don't forget the salt on the cucumber.)
Then, you must have a plate of plain, thin, bread and butter.
And yes - just plain bread, buttered.
You can have scones if you like, but they are not classic.
A big fruit cake is classic - use any good fruit cake recipe - and do NOT ice it - just serve it plain.
Also, any plain cake - an orange cake, a Victoria sandwich - all good.
A proper old-fashioned English tea (which, as said, none of us at any more) is easy - just go with the above and serve a pot of really really good tea alongside - and in England you'd have afternoon tea with milk - never with lemon - and the tea is ALWAYS poured into the cup before the mik is added.
(Think have lost half this thread - has disappeared on computer - am gonna post anyway and see what happens. If is lost, apologies.)

[kima]

Nice to see you here Shirley! So now we know how to lure you out of hiding...next thread will be about a traditional British breakfast!:D :D
Thanks for contacting her Gail!:)
My city ,Victoria ,likes to pride itself on being more British than Britain...but that's debatable.:rolleyes: :)

[Shirley Ekstein]

And am so sorry - have just realised after reading my post, that I've waffled on and not really answered you - I have a good shortbread recipe if you want it - it's a thickish biscuit (cookie) and not too sweet - gimme a yell if required. (Also have a good ginger biscuit that contains proper ginger, again, not too sweet.)

[Gail]

Does the ginger biscuit use stem ginger? If so, remember how much trouble I had trying to find it...

Sure. Post away.

[Terri-Lynn]

Hi Shirley, it is great to see you around here.

If it is not to much trouble I would love your shortbread cookie recipe, I am looking for a good shortbread to use as a base in a cake I am trying to reproduce.

Thanks Terri

[Shirley Ekstein]

Hi Kima - and thanks!
I really really MUST try and make the time to come on more often - you are all so welcoming. But if I don't, well - I keep up with you all via Gail.

[JJeannette]

http://labellecuisine.com/Archives/fruit/breakfast_recipes_with_fruit.htm

use this link and click on "surprise"--it should take you to several pages about putting on a High English Tea--on the second page there are several recipes for cookies/biscuits that may be what you are looking for---

[Shirley Ekstein]

Oh crikey - have you lot got any IDEA how welcome, even after not being here for AGES, you make me feel?

Thank you.

Terri-Lynn- will make time to put up shortbread recipe tomorrow, and Gail - er - well - er - mmmmmmmm.
NO!!!!!!
Crystallised ginger is just as good. . .

(And I'm giving up ellipses, remember. . . )

[Terri-Lynn]

Thanks so much Shirley, and please know that you are missed.

Terri

[Shirley Ekstein]

And JJeanette - an English High Tea is way way different from an English Tea.

Now then - d'you wanna hear about an English High Tea????

(Oh crikey - and I have no TIME. . . .)

[Gail]

Does it use cake mixes? :p

[Shirley Ekstein]

The board does not wish to hear what I just said to you in my head.

[Gail]

:D :D :D

You're not just going to dangle a carrot under their noses then not TELL them about HIgh Teas and go to bed, are you?

[tamawrite]

(This is Tamara's DH) I'm actually the one who badgered her (not that it took much) into posting this thread. I was dying to make some sort of biscuit/cookie to go with the tea i was drinking.

Shirley, I would love to get your shortbread recipe.

TerriS, I made the British Style Scones this morning and they were absolutely delicious. I will try the Strawberry Scones later this week.

Cinnabun, I am making the English and Australian Afternoon Tea Biscuits now and i will let you know how they turn out.

Thanks for all your ideas and help!

[Shirley Ekstein]

OK- as promised -

Shortbread Biscuits

6ozs plain flour (all-purpose)
4ozs butter (room temperature)
2ozs sugar

Beat the butter with the sugar till soft, then work in the flour and gather to a paste with your hands.
Have a board dusted with confectioner's sugar then GENTLY roll or pat the dough out to around an 1/8 inch thick - it's quite sticky, so you'll need to dust your rolling pin or your hands with sugar as well as the board.
You can now stamp the biscuits out with whatever size and shape cutter appeals to you, but I find it vastly less messy to divide the initial lump of paste into two, roll each one out more-or-less round, get a sharp knife and cut it into what the Scots call 'Petticoat Tails'. These are triangular, and all you do is slice your round of rolled out paste in half, then in quarters and then cut each quarter in half again.
Transfer them to a baking sheet with a palette knife, and puncture each one several times with a fork (this helps stop any pretensions they might've had as to rising, and looks pretty too.)
(Also, I've had to come back on and edit this - the word I originally used for 'puncture' - which was the obvious word one would use to describe making holes in something with a fork, was *****ed out by CL. Naughty moi, obvs.)
Bake Gas 2 300F for 30 mins.
Lift them carefully onto a wire rack, sprinkle with sugar and leave to cool and crisp.

V nice with a cup of tea.

There is an alternative recipe which uses 6ozs plain flour, 6 ozs butter, 3ozs sugar and 3ozs fine semolina - method as above.
This apparently gives a crisper result, but as I've never been sure what 'fine' semolina is, I've never tried it.
Wonder if polenta would work?????

[Terri-Lynn]

Thanks for posting the recipe Shirley, I will be sure to try it soon.

Terri