The grandson came to tea after the Spurs match on Sunday, out of the blue, so I needed something really quick to put on the table. I haven’t made scones for a long time, and thought they would be rather tasty with some of Vickie Humber’s delicious apricot jam. And maybe a little plate of something slightly sweeter too..I have a new(ish) silicone madeleine tin (what do you call a silicone “tin”? Is there a name for it?) that I haven’t used yet as for some reason I haven’t ever made madeleines before. Both only needed about 12-15 minutes in the oven, so I should have it all done in an hour.
So first I turned to Dan Lepard’s fabulous baking book “Short and Sweet” where I reckoned I would find recipes for both and I wasn’t disappointed. I used Dan’s basic scone recipe, except in my usual fashion, I substituted things…… I didn’t have any double cream so used ordinary skimmed milk. And I didn’t have any low fat yoghurt so used Total 2% (and anyway I probably needed the extra bit of fat as I didn’t have the double cream). I found that the mixture was very dry, as I was using 00 flour and Total Greek Yoghurt, which is strained, so thicker and with less liquid than normal low fat yoghurt. I added more milk until I had a soft sticky dough. and patted it out. It was VERY sticky! I cut neat little rounds, popped them in my baking tin as instructed and cooked them for 12 mins as instructed. The centre ones were a little underdone, so I gave them another 3 mins making 15 in all.
They were very light, and no taste of bicarbonate of soda (which I dislike and can usually taste in scones) but sadly, they all toppled over as if they had drunk too much… and although I had egg washed the tops they didn’t have that nice smooth top. So I went wrong somewhere, but the important thing was that they tasted light and delicious with their topping of apricot jam ..
The other little cakes on the plate are both madeleines, baked in different shaped tins, as there was too much mixture for the madeleine tins. I made these from Dan’s recipe for Madeleines de Commercy
They are really just little genoese sponges, and to be honest, I prefer the French recipe I have for friands, but I love the shell shape. Be aware that you need to eat them FAST, they will go stale in a matter of hours despite the butter in them. I think the ground almonds in the friands keeps them much fresher for longer.
The thing is as there are only two of us, I like something that can stay in the tin for a couple of days, otherwise I just have to scoff them.
After all they are only little and light, aren’t they!
