Reflecting

My Gran (my mum's mum) used to let me help her bake. I have fond memories of making mince pies at Christmas and scones and other things throughout the year. She always said I was good at scone making and as I've learnt more about the art of scones I've realised that's because I always had cold hands so the butter didn't get too hot whilst I was rubbing it in. The ghost of my Gran is always there in my scone making even though I've now usurped her recipe in favour of Rachel Allen's. I like the speed of making scones and the fact that I can do it without having to remember to get the butter out of the fridge hours before.

I have a shelf full of cookbooks but most of the time I want a recipe these days I go onto the internet and get one - even if it's the same as the ones I have in the books on the shelf. There's something quite magical about a cookbook though and as Isaac has been watching DVDs on the laptop I've had to revert back to them recently. My Rachel Allen Bake book falls open at the scones page and the page has splashes and grease marks on it - the sign of a well used cookbook (there's also a notation that I've added that it may need less milk as sometimes I find the dough too wet if I add of it in). It's like consulting a magic book to create a potion or a spell.

I'm mostly a traditionalist when it comes to scones and stick to fruit or sometimes cheese but in her suggestions Rachel Allen has cinnamon, orange and chocolate amongst others and as I happened to have both oranges and chocolate chunks I decided to do chocolate orange scones today. They are amazingly yummy and I'd highly recommend them.