the hungry mum

I adore a tea – be it Devonshire, high or afternoon I think it is all wonderful. I would have been right at home in the Victorian era: nibbling on dainty sandwiches, sweet morsels and pillow soft scones. Ahhh, it is all about the scones. For as much as I adore a freshly made scone I’m not too fond of the mess they make of my bench tops. I’m not a clean freak but nor am I fan of scraping remnants of dough off my countertops.

But every so often the need for scones hits and when it does this easy peasy 3-ingredient recipe is the one I reach for. It is child’s play and produces light, floaty scones with a lovely colour. The recipe has been around forever so I’m not sure who to credit for it.

And what are freshly made scones without a real, fruity strawberry jam? I’d been wanting to make strawberry jam for ages but every time I bought the required two punnets of berries my fruit bat daughters would devour the lot. So last time I saw strawberries on sale I bought three punnets, cut one up for the fruit bat daughters then set about making this jam with fruit bat daughter number one. Having never made any type of jam before I picked an easy recipe from kidspot.com.au that called for it to be made in the microwave. It tasted amazing but I don’t know that it would have been any quicker than using the stovetop recipe. It made a sticky mess of my microwave but beauty is pain…

Miss 6 loved the fact we made & labelled our own jam. A gorgeous vintage label wold have looked waaaaay better than my slapdash attempt but I’ll remember that for next time.

EASY THREE INGREDIENT SCONES:

GATHER:

325g self-raising flour

2/3 cup cold lemonade

2/3 cup thickened cream

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 200C and spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray.

Sift flour into a large bowl. Combine lemonade and cream in a jug and pour to the flour bowl. Gently mix until just combined – it will be very sticky.

Tip onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead until about 3cm thick. With floured scone cutters or a glass cut out scones and place side by side on the tray.

You can brush the tops with a smidge of milk if you like but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

Bake for between 12 and 15 minutes/until pale golden. Serve warm with strawberry jam

STRAWBERRY JAM

GATHER:

Two punnets of strawberries, washed, hulled and roughly chopped

1 1/4 cups caster sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

LET’S DO IT:

Put a saucer in freezer [you’ll need this to test the jam later]

Put strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a very large and deep microwave-safe bowl.

Leave for 15 minutes to allow the strawberries to soften.

Place in microwave and cook on high for 4 minutes, stopping every minute to stir the jam to ensure sugar is dissolved.

Microwave a further 25-30 minutes on high, stirring every 5 minutes or until the jam reaches setting point. (To check, place a spoonful of jam on the cold saucer and place it in the freezer for two minutes. Run your finger through the jam and if it stays in two separate portions it is set.)

Leave to cool for five minutes then gently decant into a sterilised glass jar.

Tags: afternoon tea, bake, cream, easy, fast, lemonade, microwave, recipe, scones