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Apple Scones

Many of you heard about these lovely biscuits, which are called scones. Whenever I see or hear ‘scones’ I immediately imagine the Queen of the United Kingdom, how she’s drinking her 5 o’clock tea, beautiful china teacups are set on a huge royal table, and elegant waitresses serving various treats and of course scones! Did you know that originally scone was round and flat, usually as a medium-sized plate, it was made with oats and baked on a griddle, and only after that cut into triangular sections for serving. Only when baking powder became available and popular, scones began to be the oven-baked. Nowadays, scones are widely liked and popular not only in Britain. Saying honestly, scones aren’t popular in Russia, may be because of large and good variety of cookies and other cakes. Here, in the UAE the same thing, they are not sold in regular bakeries and stores, so I decided to make scones myself and here the result – buttery and tasty triangle scones. 🙂

Apple Scones

Servings: 6-8
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

150g plain flour

100-120g wholemeal flour

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp orange or lemon zest

2 tsp cinnamon

100g sugar

110g butter, very cold

110g sour cream

1 egg

1 apple

1 tsp lemon juice

Glazing

100g powdered sugar

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

In a large bowl or food processor, combine flours, salt, baking powder, sugar, zest, cinnamon. Grate the butter or cut into small cubes, add to the flour mixture and mix in. Knead the dough.
In a small bowl, add sour cream, egg and whisk to combine until smooth. Pour the mixture over dry and fold until just combined.
Peel, core and cut apple into small cubes, sprinkle with lemon juice. Fold apple cubes into dough until just combined.
Put the dough on a lightly floured surface, shape into 20-23cm and 2cm thick disk. With a knife slice the disk into 6-8 wedges.
Transfer wedges on a lined baking sheet with some space apart. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 15 minutes. Allow scones to cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the glazing. In a small bowl, sift icing sugar and whisk with lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle scones with the glazing.

Enjoy tea-time!

Sharlotka

Sharlotka – that’s how one of the popular apple cake in Russia called. I believe this cake is so widely-known that there is no a man in Russian who wouldn’t heard about it. When I was a little girl I ate sharlotka so many times that I hardly can count, I ate it at my home, at friends’ home.. And I still love it! It’s one of the easiest recipe that always turns out great!
There are many varieties of Charlotte dessert. Russian ‘charlotte’ was created by French chef Marie-Antoine Careme who worked for Russian Tsar Alexander I in 19th century in London. Believed that the dessert took its name from Queen Charlotte, wife of George III of the Intied Kingdom, who loved apples. For this dessert the bottom of baking mold was lined with sponge cake or savoiardi biscuits, then filled with Bavarian and whipped cream, and completely cooled. Originally the dessert was named ‘charlotte a la parisienne’ but lately became popular under the name ‘charlotte russe’ or simply ‘Sharlotka’.
In Soviet times the recipe was modified and became sponge cake with apples. Nowadays, the cake continues to be liked and cooked by many Russian women, including me. 🙂 It’s also a kind of ‘rescue’ sweets that you can prepare in minutes when your friends came around unexpectedly. Below recipe is my mother’s recipe, I haven’t change a word in it and the cake turns out perfect every time, I think it will make my mummy proud and happy. ❤

Sharlotka

Servings: 6
Time: 50mins
Difficulty: easy
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You can also roughly chop apples, stir into the batter and then bake.

I used 20cm/8inch cake spring-form.

Ingredients

2-3 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced

3 eggs, at room temperature (better to use large eggs)

80g white sugar

110g plain flour

2 tbsp water

1/2 tsp b.soda

1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar

a pinch of salt

icing sugar for dusting, optional

Preparation method

In a large mixing bowl, add 3 egg yolks, water and sugar. Put baking soda in a tablespoon, pour in lemon juice or vinegar, mix with a teaspoon to dissolve it, then pour into the egg mixture. Beat egg mixture until light and creamy.
In another bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft but steady peaks.
Gradually mix egg whites into egg yolk mixture. Don’t stir too much.
Gradually sift and fold in the flour.
Grease and dust with flour the baking form. Gently spread half of the batter into the form. Arrange apple slices. Pour in the rest batter, evenly spread.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with icing sugar, if desired. Serve warm with a cup of freshly-brewed tea.

You can keep the cake in a box or on a plate covered with foil in the fridge up to 3 days.

Enjoy!

Sharing this tasty cake with Fiesta Friday and all lovely bloggers who is enjoying it!

Chicken Liver Pâté

Hey guys! To say the last few weeks of my life have been filled with sport, beach and meeting with friends, so I hadn’t been posting regularly and commenting on your lovely blogs, but I will resume blogging and posting more often. 🙂 And I want to share with you a simple but super delicious recipe – chicken liver pate! The pate is very quick and easy to make, and require only a few ingredients. Another advantage is a low cost of chicken livers. Pureeing the cooked livers along with butter and a little cognac or brandy transforms the plain part of chicken into something magnificent! It’s a great breakfast on a slice of toasted bread or can be a nice appetizer topped with a cornichon or little pickled onion. 🙂

Chicken Liver Pâté

Servings: >6
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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If cooking for children, omit the cognac.

Ingredients

1 large onion

1 medium carrot

20g butter

500g chicken liver, cleaned

1+1 tbsp cognac (or brandy/whiskey)

1/2 tsp dried thyme or 1-2 tsp fresh leaves

a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

50ml water or chicken stock

100ml cream (12-15%)

50-60g butter, at room temperature

sea salt to taste

freshly grated black and white pepper to taste

Top

40-50g butter

Preparation

Peel onion and cut into small cubes. Wash, peel and grate carrot.
In a deep frying pan or saucepan, heat butter and add vegetables, cook on a medium heat until soft (don’t brown). Add liver and fry for 8-10 minutes. Add one tablespoon of cognac, herbs and season to taste. Simmer on a medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Add water, cream, bring to boil and turn off the heat. Leave to cool at room temperature.
Transfer to a food processor or puree with hand blender. If the consistency is too thick, add more warm water or stock. Adjust the seasoning. Add soft butter, cognac and blend again.
You can make a butter ‘lead’, for that heat the butter in a small bowl and pour over the cooled pate.
Transfer pate to a bowl and keep covered in the fridge up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

Coriander Chicken Drumsticks

Today I realized that I haven’t ate chicken for quite a long time. When I was a teenager chicken drumsticks weren’t available as a separate part of a chicken. When my mother wanted to prepare chicken for dinner she used to buy whole chicken thighs and cook it as is or cut into two parts.. I’m not even sure that drumsticks are on sale in Russian stores now, may be except the capital. Anyway, nicely spiced and roasted chicken drumsticks is a good and quick-to-cook midweek meal (with some rice or potatoes on a side) or a very good accompaniment to a beer! For this recipe I grind dried coriander seeds, then add turmeric and mild paprika, stir into the meat along with olive oil and let it marinade. If you’re hungry, skip the marinating and roast it straightaway! 🙂

Coriander Chicken Drumsticks

Servings: 2-3
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

500g chicken drumsticks (I used without skin)

2-3 tsp dried coriander seeds

1 tsp turmeric

3/4 tsp mild paprika (or hot if you like)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp lime juice (or lemon)

2-3 garlic clove, unpeeled

freshly ground black and white pepper, to taste

sea salt, to taste

Grind or crush coriander seeds, mix with turmeric and paprika. Combine with olive oil and lime juice. Rub the marinade into chicken drumsticks. Add garlic cloves, season generously with pepper and salt to taste. Cover and leave to marinade in the fridge for 1-3 hours, or skip this step and arrange chicken (with all marinade juices) onto a baking tray or dish.
Bake in the preheated 200C oven for 20 minutes. Then low the heat to 150C, cover with a piece of foil and bake for 10 minutes longer or until the drumsticks have cooked through.
Serve warm, but they are also good cold. The cooked drumsticks will keep in the fridge for 2 days.

Plum cake

It’s a fact that spring came to this year-round sunny city too, and temperature start to creep slowly. During the day the weather is still nice for swimming and sunbathing without uncomfortable sweating like in the summer months. Another pleasure is to take an evening walk in the fresh air, or to sit outsite and enjoy sipping a tea while the weather is till cool. Having a tea without a piece of cake is absolutely wrong thing! 😀 So, you can guess that one of my favourite ‘indoor activities’ is baking! I had mascarpone cheese and ripe plums that used to be a jam, but mascarpone was nearly to expiry date and I had to use it somehow.. It was a ‘mix all what you have’ cake, I also added a splash of cognac for an extra hit. After a half an hour of baking the cake was still uncooked and I was a bit worried. But the final result was a wonderfully divine and delicious cake! It was totally worth the wait: tender, moist and filled with amazing flavour! I will be making this cake again! 🙂

Plum cake with mascarpone and cognac

Servings: 6
Time: 1hr 15mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients for 18cm baking tin

50g butter, very soft

80g brown sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tbsp cognac (or brandy)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp lemon zest, optional

100-120g mascarpone, at room temperature

100-110 g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

4-5 dark plums, sliced

1 tbsp plum jam (or apricot jam), optional

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter with sugar. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with cognac, vanilla and lemon zest. Gradually stir into the butter mixture. Fold in mascarpone cheese. Sift flour with baking powder into the batter, mix to combine.
Pour the batter into greased baking tin. Arrange plum slices on top. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 50-60 minutes or until the inserted toothpick comes out clean. Grease the top with jam. Let it cool slightly before serving.

Enjoy!