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Home Made Apricot scones infused with Rose Pouchong tea

Posted in At home, baking, Food, Fruit, inspiration, lifestyle, Rosewater, Uncategorized by

 

Apricot Scone infused with Rose Pouchong tea

 

When we visited Fortnum and Masons, I noticed  lovely jar of Rose Pouchong infused Apricot conserve, which is the inspiration for these apricot and Rose scented Scone recipe.

Scones are so easy to make, and they are better freshly baked, eaten slightly warm with a big pot of tea, jam and whipped cream. I can’t think of anything better to cheer up a dull cold afternoon.

Here are the ingredients for home made scones:

50grams of dried apricots (diced into small pieces about the size of a raisin. Soak the dried apricots in a strongly brewed dark Rose Pouchong Tea overnight. Drain and remove all the excess liquid.

40grams of room temperature butter

225grams of self-raising flour

1.5 level tablespoons of caster sugar, a little more if you prefer the scones to be sweeter to taste.

A pinch of salt

110ml milk (this can be soy milk if you prefer)

A little extra flour for rolling and dusting the scones with.

To make the scones, preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

The mixture should be made as light as possible, sieve the flour into a bowl. Cut the butter into the flour and rub into the flour as if making pastry. Aim for a light fine crumbly mixture. It’s very important to get the butter combined in well with the flour, next add the sugar and salt and mix well.

Slowly add the milk and then add in the pieces of apricots. By pre soaking the dried apricots overnight in the Rose scented tea, they have taken on the wonderfully aromatic floral qualities of the tea. This is enough to add just the subtlest hint of Rose to the scones.

If you want the scones more fragrant, add a couple of drops of Rosewater. Continue to add the milk and then combine into a soft dough.

Roll the dough out on a well floured pastry board. As my work tops are made of granite, I dusted this with plenty of flour and rolled them out with a well dusted rolling-pin. The dough should be rolled out to the thickness of about 2cm or thicker if you want high-rise scones. I’ve rolled these out to about 2cm and then used a large round cutter to cut out 8 scones.

Lay them out on a well buttered baking tray.

I then sprinkled some granulated sugar and dusted the scones with some flour.

Next, pop the baking tray(s)  into the preheated oven (220 degrees Celsius) for 15-20 minutes until the scones look warm and golden in colour.

Cool them on a baking rack.

Best served freshly baked and still warm from the oven with a pot of tea, with Jam (apricot or marmalade is delicious with these scones) and  cream, clotted if you want to be extra indulgent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making the sun shine in January

Posted in At home, Health & Wellness, inspiration, lifestyle, Uncategorized, Wellbeing by


I don’t know if anyone else has the same thoughts about January. It’s a very long month, we put away the Christmas decorations finally, so they are now hibernating for another year.

My day literally begins and ends in darkness and in between are the working hours in an office. It can be a whole 5 days in an office that’s connected by an underpass from the Tube station straight into Canary Wharf, before I glimpse any daylight to wake up to at the weekend.

Last Saturday, I was running some errands and spotted these lovely roses. They are nothing extraordinary, just the type you find at the entrance of a supermarket. In this case Marks and Spencer.White long stemmed roses

They stood out, because they were the last bunch in white, flecked with a delicate green to their outer petals. I bought them on impulse, because they made me smile.

This week the roses will make some sunshine for me. I will look at them whilst inhaling and drinking a cup of espresso.

I’ve moved them to the dining table so their presence can keep me company, while the rest of the house sleeps on as I get ready to leave for work.

 

Seriously easy chocolate loaf cake

Posted in At home, baking, Food, Home, inspiration, Uncategorized by

Chocolate Loaf cake

I’ve been working on the chocolate magic cake, the one where you mix the ingredients together and in one bake, a magical transformation happens during the baking and the cake mix changes into three layers, the middle is a rich chocolate custard. The only thing is, I haven’t got it quite right and it takes a lot of ingredients not to mention washing up involved.

So, whilst the effort will pay off eventually, what I wanted to do yesterday was to make something seriously simple and easy, but also rich, indulgent and fill the house with a chocolatey aroma that’s warm and comforting.

Looking through all the cookery books, I found a recipe that fulfilled all the requirements, everything in a store cupboard, and a seriously easy, no effort bake.

Hidden within Nigella’s feast recipe for Halloween called Ghoul-Graveyard cake, was the chocolate cake ingredients, all of which are in my store cupboard and fridge:

Ingredients:

250ml milk

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar (white distilled vinegar will work too)

225g plain flour

50g coca

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

200g caster sugar/soft brown sugar

110g softened butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract

To make the Chocolate Loaf Cake:

Put all the ingredients, except for the milk and vinegar in a food processor and blitz into a soft dough.

Scrape the sides down and pour in the milk and vinegar slowly (milk and vinegar should be combined in a small jug – you’ll find that as the vinegar is added the milk starts to curdle, this is ok and I’d say looks like and has a similar consistency to buttermilk).

Once all the ingredients are combined pour into a cake tin. The instructions were for a 26 cm spring form cake tin.

As I didn’t have one to hand and I didn’t want to grease the square cake tin I had – this would have required effort…. I used a loaf tin with a paper case lining. No effort again, just poured the cake mix into the loaf tin.

In a preheated oven, I left the tin to bake for 45 mins on gas mark 3 (170c)

That’s all there is to making this cake. Once cooled, dust with some icing sugar. It doesn’t need much as it’s the richness of the chocolate thats lovely about this cake recipe.

The only thing left to do is, serve it, with a mug of hot chocolate to make it a proper guilt trip of chocolatey indulgence.

Cake Dough mix in food processor
baked cake in loaf tin
Lightly dusted with icing sugar
Chocolate Loaf
Chocolate Loaf slice
Ingredients for Chocolate Loaf
Chocolate Cake Mix
Chocolate Cake in loaf tin

 

The scent of rain

Posted in In the garden by

image

Last evening as I walked home, the pavement was damp with the rain that had fallen earlier in the afternoon. The weekend had been hot and sunny, the warmest it has been for a while.

As I walked the scent of the rain was everywhere. It is such a wonderful scent and made the walk home all the more enjoyable. The smell evoked freshly cut grass and earthiness as if nature all around had finally burst through.

It seems that there’s a great deal of scientific study that’s been done on this subject.

Scientists in Australia first named it Petrichor, and they worked out that it is the blend of oils secreted by plants after a dry spell.  These oils, when released become mixed in the air and creates the smell that we associate with rain.

We have a screen of ferns, at the front of our house which in wetter years, grow amazingly tall. As I arrived home, I noticed the tiny beads of rain on the fronds. I’m glad that I managed to capture it.

This year, the fronds of the ferns have reached over the windowsill of our front window. I am grateful that they are so beautiful to look at, as they distract everyone from the sight of our windows which have not been painted since we moved in.image

Every year, without fail, the ferns grow back after they have died down in winter and even though, most years we forget and neglect them as they should be cut back once the frost has taken hold.  The fronds turn brown and brittle and lose the lush green of summer.  We usually don’t get round to cutting them back until it is almost spring, and then all the faults in our front windows become glaringly obvious. It is a surprise that they grow back so quickly after being so badly treated.

This year, I am determined to get a decorator to paint the windows, they are very old. We live in what is referred to as a 1930’s semi and the romantic in me wants to keep the leaded panes of glass, but they are now letting in water and urgently need attention.  Having an old house means there is a constant list of things that needs to be fixed.

But, just for a brief while, the rain and the luscious green fronds of these ferns have replaced the never ending to-do list and I am thinking about poetry, the verses of John  Betjeman about surburbia and the beautiful rain in Summer by Longfellow:

How beautiful is the rain!

After the dust and heat,

In the broad and firey street,

In the narrow lane,

How beautiful is the rain

Back to that never-ending to-do list…..

Jasmine and tea drinking

Posted in Drink, Food, Uncategorized, Wellbeing by

 

As far back as I can remember we drank Jasmine tea at our parents house. Even after setting up our own home, tea infused with Jasmine is my go to drink, especially late at night.

The lovely delicate scent of Jasmine seems so relaxing and familiar. I’ve tried lots of other teas, but always return to Jasmine.

I have often wondered why the beautiful little flowers are left in the loose tea.

Apparently, good quality tea that is infused with Jasmine flowers, goes through a time honored tradition of harvesting the Jasmine flowers late in the evening, just before the flowers open, so that when the flowers to open up and the scent is able to perfume the air, it is captured in layers of tea.

In China, Jasmine is used widely to scent a variety of teas, green, white as well as dark leaf tea. Traditions for tea drinking amongst the Chinese vary, but it is an important part of any social gathering or occasion.

The plant originated in Persia and was brought to China around 300AD and has been used in tea, but also used as perfume, in incense and traditional Chinese herbal remedies for improving liver function and for stress and anxiety.

I think that’s why it’s a favourite of mine. Occasionally, it is great to make a full pot of Jasmine tea, using the loose leaf type and let the steaming tea sit for while before drinking and although it takes a bit more effort to make and to clean up afterwards, it is worth taking the time out to enjoy the simple ritual of drinking tea. Most of the time, however, for convenience, though, I drink the green tea variety that comes in a bag.

The loose leaf variety can be found in most supermarkets, sometimes though I like to indulge and seek out a special blend which make the occasion of drinking the tea all the more special. I keep the tea in a small caddy from Whittards of Chelsea that was given to me as a gift one Christmas.

Hello world!

Posted in About, Family, Home, Scent by

Hello World

This is the first post from the Scented Abode, which is all about fragrance, aromas, anything really that provides inspiration for a home and life enjoyed through scents found in everyday things.

When people ask, “what’s your earliest memory?” 

All I could think of was that it was a sense of something, whilst it was very vivid to me, I found it impossible to describe, it was more of a sensation, a feeling that I remember as a very young child.

It wasn’t until much later, probably in my teens that I realised that it wasn’t a sensation or feeling, it was a scent that I associated with my home.

Outside the first house that I remember as a child, was a plant with white flowers. It climbed up the front of the house, I can’t remember exactly if it was a porch or just the drainpipe, but the flowery scent was so strong, it filled the air as I played outside.

Much later, while drinking a cup of Chinese leaf tea, it dawned on me, as I looked at the little white flowers bobbing in the mug, the scent took me back to the memory of playing outside our house.

It brought back the smell of the green plant with white flowers and I realised it must be Jasmine. It is and always will be a scent that brings familiarity and a sense of belonging to me.

Does that make sense? Perhaps I’m crazy. I’m hoping that there are a few people that can relate to what I’m writing about.

Please visit often. I hope to share different scents, discovered and enjoyed from childhood through to present day. Scents that have made a difference to me, my home, my kids and my family, whether they are small or significantly something that has changed my outlook, mood or simply something that’s just, well amazing.

I look forward to seeing you here.