Bake the cold away

Today has been a cold day.  Throughout the week the weather has been getting warmer, the skies bluer, the evenings are longer and the garden is waking up, all signs that the year is moving on, out of the darkness and into the light.  Then today it was cold, and wet, and dismal.  A parting gift from Winter reminding us that he's not yet ready to give it all up to Spring.

So today I wanted to bake, I wanted the warmth of the oven, the security of the kitchen and the sweet comfort of some baked goodies. But what to make?  Well Karen from Lavendar and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked host a monthly blogging and baking event called Tea Time Treats.  The March event is being hosted by Kate on Lavendar and Lovage and the theme is scones.

This fit my mood very well today.  Scones are comfort food, they are hearty and warming, yet synonymous with summer afternoons and luxurious afternoon teas. So scones I decided to bake.


I looked through lots of my recipe books and in the end decided on 'Apple Scone Round' from The Great British Book of Baking which accompanied the BBC series The Great British Bake Off.

I chose apple scones as I have apples on the mind at the moment, having last week moved the two apples trees from my Grandma's house into our and my parents' gardens.  I didn't manage to get the apples identified last year as planned and as the house is being sold since Grandma passed away we have moved the apple trees in the hope of holding on to these amazing fruits.

So in honour of these apple trees, hopefully busy putting down new roots and settling in to their new home, here are my apple scones all lined up ready to be baked, although the recipe says to bake in one big round I did small ones as I have a thing for individual portioned puddings!

One of the things I really like about these scones is they are made with demerara sugar, which is just not a sugar I think to put into bakes yet it tastes so good.  An added advantage is that combined with the cinnamon it gives the dough a darker colour and a texture that makes it look as if the scones are made with wholemeal flour, so this sugary spicy indulgence has a wonderfully deceptive healthy image, particular combined with the apples.

 The scones smelt amazing while cooking, I love the smell of cinnamon and it definitely helped to warm me today.  They only took about 15 mins cooking and came out deliciously golden thanks to the topping of milk and sugar.

Then comes the tortuous wait while the scones become cool enough to eat, or more importantly cool enough to be able to cut and spread with cream without falling apart!

My advice, spend these minutes making a delicious cup of tea, before you know it the scones are cool (enough, still best warm!), add some clotted cream and...

Perfection!