Bread Alone with Scones

‘This Book makes me Cook’ will be a regular feature on this blog from this month onwards and I have already started wondering why I had not joined it earlier. First of all as I have mentioned a lot of times earlier, I love reading and in spite of the busy schedule now or earlier when I was working, I have somehow always managed to squeeze in some reading. But most importantly the Book Club gives me an exposure to a lot of good books which otherwise I might not come across.

Take for example, this month’s Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks. If I had passed this one on the shelf in a library I don't think I would have actually picked it up, but having read it now, I am glad I did.

Its all about ‘Wyn’ who is jolted out of her ‘too good to be true’ comfortable life, which in turn makes her realise that there is more to life than being tied to a single person (her husband in this case). The writing itself was very interesting, changing between past & present tense with ease. The separation from her husband proves to be beneficial to Wyn as she realises her long lost passion for baking bread. Once she has it in her, for baking bread, she is not deterred by various hurdles, the main one being the tough Linda, in the bakery where she takes up work.

The most striking part of the book, for me, was the friendship between Wyn and CM. I completely identified with them and felt fortunate to have experienced a similar kind of relationship with my friends. Its funny how your friends sometimes know you better than yourself and can actually predict how you will react to a certain situation. This was a good read although I would have liked some more ‘action’ in the end.

It looks natural to be making a bread inspired from this book but I settled for Scones. Scones are mentioned on more than two occasions in the book and everytime the vivid description made me want some :) So I decided to make Cherry Scones, following a recipe from the Home Baking Cookbook which is the latest addition to my fast expanding Kitchen bookshelf!

Cherry Scones

Makes 8-10

Ingredients

• 225 gm (2.25 Cups) Plain Flour
• a pinch of salt
• 85 gm (0.4 cups) Butter, chilled
• 1 Egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tblsp Caster Sugar
• 3-4 tblsp Glace Cherries, chopped
• 2-3 tblsp Milk

Method: Pre heat the oven to 220 deg C and grease a baking sheet.

Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub the flour & butter between your palms till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar, cherries and add the beaten egg. Mix along with 2 tblsp of milk, using a spoon to form a soft dough.

Sprinkle some flour onto the work surface and knead the dough very lightly. Roll out very lightly to a thickness of about 2 cm. Using a cookie cutter, cut out 8 rounds and transfer them to the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough to form more scones. Brush lightly with milk.

Bake the prepared scones in the pre heated oven for about 8-10 min until well risen and golden. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool and then serve with butter.

My Notes: This was our breakfast last Saturday and we loved it. The original recipe has Sultanas along with the cherries but I skipped it as GM is not too fond of them. If you want to use them, add about 2 tblsp of Sultanas along with the chopped glace cherries.

Make sure that the rolled out dough is quite thick otherwise you will end up with cookies instead of scones! Exactly what happened to my second batch of dough :)