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What are you baking?

God they look good. Recipe please!
I don't have "the bible" (ancient inherited Good Housekeeping book) with me atm, so I've been improvising. Should be able to post my better, usual recipe after next weekend if you want, or if you were happy with the fruit scones you made recently then just adapt that.

Otherwise it was roughly this:

1 lb self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mustard powder
Good pinch of salt
100g cold, cubed butter
2 tsp dried thyme
150g grated cheese, plus a bit extra to go on top (I used a mix of red cheddar and smoked white cheddar with red onion but use whatever you have in or fancy)
2 eggs
Half a pint of milk - I use milk that's started to turn but it's not essential

Preheat oven to 220C or 200 fan.
Sift first four ingredients into a big bowl and rub in the butter.
Mix in the thyme and grated cheese.
Beat together the egg and milk, then use a butter or palette knife to combine this with the dry ingredients. I'd add half the egg mix first then little bits at a time - you should have a bit left over.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface then roll out to a half inch thickness and cut into rounds. Re-flour the cutter (or whatever - I used the rim of a glass) between each cut and push straight down as you cut, don't twist.
Space scones out on a lined baking tray, brush tops with the remaining egg mix and top with a bit more grated cheese.
Bake until brown on top - these took about 25 minutes, smaller ones would take maybe 15 minutes but I'd check after 12.
Burn your mouth eating the first one while the rest cool on a wire rack.

I didn't use them this time but a little bit of cayenne or a teaspoon of paprika would be good too. If you want to get proper fancy you can finely chop and caramelise some red onion first, leave it to cool and then add when you add the cheese (maybe use less butter if the onion's quite greasy, you can always sift in a bit more flour after adding it though if necessary)
 
Does anyone use olive spread instead of butter for shortcrust pastry? And if so, was it acceptable?
I think it would be too soft and not that great to be honest. It should be fine cakes and things but I think you need a block of pastry. Have you tried Flora plant butter? It's really good.
 
We never had butter when I was a kid cos back then it was a lot more expensive than marg (not sure that holds true today, but there are other reasons ofc to avoid dairy) but my mum was a keen baker and she always had a big tub of Stork that went in everything, absolutely everything was made with marg rather than butter and she did some pretty good pastry.

I can't give any specific advice about modern products (or is modern Stork even the same stuff as it was back then?) but I would say yeah it's possible to make good pastry with plant based products.
 
I think it would be too soft and not that great to be honest. It should be fine cakes and things but I think you need a block of pastry. Have you tried Flora plant butter? It's really good.
Cheers, no not tried that, will check it out for nasties. There's a lot of spreads that are terrible for the gut in terms of the effects of stabilisers and emulsifiers. Not all olive spreads are the same either. Asda do one with the least amount of shite in.
 
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