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Sunday 18 September 2011

an irish hedgerow harvest...


Blackberry Drop Scones

Very easy to make and even easier to eat... Made all the better with free hedgerow blackberries. These beautiful berries are available for a limited time only - so get out there and get picking.

Makes 30 - 40 scones

25g butter, melted
250g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp Baking powder
25g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Up to 250ml milk

A little sunflower oil for frying

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre, pour in the eggs and a little milk, and beat, gradually incorporating the flour. Beat in the melted butter. Slowly add more milk and incorporate the rest of the flour until you have a smooth but thick batter that drops off the spoon.

Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat until hot. Grease with a smear of oil or butter (or a little of both for a crispy edge). Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the pan, leaving room for them to spread (you'll have to cook them in batches). After a couple of minutes, when they are set and have bubbles on the surface, flip them over and cook for a minute or so more, until the second side has browned. Repeat with the remaining batter, adding a little more butter to the pan as required.

Blackberry Syrup

Put two large handfuls of blackberries (picked over carefully and rinsed gently under a tap) into a small saucepan with two teaspoons of sugar. Bring up to the boil and simmer for a minute or two until all the juice has been released from the berries. Press through a fine sieve to remove the pips and serve poured over your warm drop scones with a couple of whole fruits for garnish and absolutely nothing else.

11 comments:

  1. Wow, jaw-dropping photograph. Lovely recipe too. Love it.

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  2. A drool-worthy photo + recipe. Awesome

    http://milk-and.tea.blogspot.com

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  3. Lucky you with such fine blackberries - those round our lane had all their plump juiciness whipped away by the wind and rain. That looks delicious.

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  4. What a wonderful picture, those scones look good enough to eat!

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  5. Gorgeous shot. I favour white plates myself especially when shooting colourful subjects like blackberries. I'll bet those went down a treat with the kids.

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  6. Gorgeous photo and great idea for a blackberry syrup. I made strawberry syrup all summer long for our weekly Saturday morning pancakes, can't believe I never thought to make it with blackberries! I know what I'll be making this weekend.

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  7. Lucky for me, Mise, Limerick Husband found a sheltered pocket of juicy ones that survived the storm. His hunter gatherer skills have not been lessened by the hours behind the computer screen after all!

    Thanks for the kind comments, ladies and thank you all for visiting!

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  8. These look fantastic Amee. Very impressed with the hunter gatherer skills that collected these fine berries. Love the blackberry syrup.

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  9. I've got some blackberries saved in my freezer and looking for recipes on my favourite blogs I landed on this one. Those scones look delicious - will be making for breakfast tomorrow!

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  10. I wonder if you'd mind that I go on at length. It's about scones. Irish ones. There are a million YouTube videos, no doubt authentic. We love our scones here in America, but they are all over the map, even more so than some of the videos I've watched from Ireland. This recipe looks more like what we call pancakes, and of course, I realize these are included under this rubric: scone. There's a really nice very fat lady here in Los Osos, California who once worked in Ireland as a cook. She makes the terrific, more bread-like, but still biscuit-like scones that I love. She won't give me her recipe, sadly. She calls them Irish. Do you have any little tip or advice for me. I've been enough to Ireland and England to know what I like in this regard, but still can't quite get the results that I want. Do you have any lil tip or advice for me? My mother's O'Shea ancestors are from Cahir, maybe the scones are in my DNA memory. We Walsh's are from Tipperary too and/or Cork. Sincerely, you lovely lady, John Walsh (I did your hasselback potatoes yesterday. Mmmmm! I'm anon 'cause I can't remember any of my passwords ;-(

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    1. Hello John, well I think I can help you out. You are looking for a recipe that is like a sweet version of the what the americans call a biscuit - that is the closest I can discribe the difference and the similarity of the Irish scone to American baked goods. The problem with getting good results with American and Irish baking is that there are very slight variations in the flour which can be compensated for with the use of a little raising agent, corn flour act. I have a friend who is a baker here in Ireland who makes glorious scones and Irish soda bread. Seeing as he spent 50 yrs in the deep south of the USA, I'm sure he can point us in the right direction to solving the dilemma. I will revert as soon as I have some tips for you to achieve the results you desire. ;-)

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