Is making your own scones difficult? Absolutely not! With this recipe for English scones you can easily make them yourself for a high tea or brunch, and serve them with clotted cream of course. Today I give you the recipe and all the baking tips you need.
After I once made scones years back that failed miserably, I was postponing baking them again. With about 6 or 7 years to be exact. I then made a chocolate chip variety that ended up being more like bricks than scones. They really were complete failures.
But every time I ate scones again, I started to feel the urge to make them myself. Last week I finally got around to making my own! At the time, it must have been because of the recipe I had, because actually, making scones yourself is extremely simple. With the right scones recipe to be exact.
There are lots of delicious things you can put on these easy scones, but this is the most important: clotted cream. If you have enough time (and patience) then it is wonderful to make clotted cream yourself (I will share my recipe soon). But you can also buy it at the store.
The clotted cream is usually combined with jam. Usually this is strawberry jam, but I also like raspberry jam very much for my homemade scones.
What is really delicious too: lemon curd! A combination that makes it nice and fresh, perfect for Easter or a summer brunch.
You could even try and change the flavor of the scone itself! Like these absolutely wonderful gingerbread scones.
As you can see, there is no egg in this recipe which makes it egg free scones. Here in The Netherlands, it is more common to make English scones and those often don’t require eggs in the recipe. You really don’t need eggs to make perfectly delicious scones yourself.
What do you actually need if you’re going to make a scones recipe? Not much. I can tell you that in advance. You probably have the ingredients already in your house, so hopefully after reading this post, there’s nothing stopping you from baking these delicious, slightly sweet scones yourself.
It’s best to bake them right away and then store them in a container for a day. The next day they are still delicious! You can reheat the scones for about 8-10 minutes. If I don’t eat them right away (or the next day), I always freeze them. That works perfectly.
Several of you have informed me that soy milk or rice milk works fine in this recipe as a substitute for the cow’s milk. If you want, you can use whipping cream too. It makes the flavor and structure even more rich.
If so, they were probably baked too long and/or hot. Try baking the scones a little less long or hot.
If you prefer to use flour you can, but you will need baking powder. Without leavening agent, you won’t get the desired results in this recipe.
Would you like to replace the self-rising baking flour with a gluten-free alternative? Pay attention to what it says on the package of the gluten-free flour, I have no experience with this.
You can, but then you quickly over-knead it, making it sticky and unworkable.
In the Netherlands we love appelflappen. In America they are better known as apple turnovers. These Dutch apple turnovers are often made for New Year’s Eve, but they are also delicious any time of the year. I give you my recipe.
For me, an appelflap is always a puff pastry filled with an apple mixture. But in some parts of the Netherlands, the same pastry is also called apple beignet. Then they are round.
To make it even more complicated, for me an appelbeignet is an apple slice dipped in batter and deep fried. And depending on where you are in the Netherlands, that can be called an appelflap.
Do you still get it?
Anyway, this recipe is for a puff pastry with apple. We eat it all year round, but it’s a popular snack for New Year’s Eve. Appelflappen and Oliebollen (Dutch donuts) are eaten that day by almost everyone.
It’s always a good idea to make Dutch apple turnovers. Whether it’s for a party, New Year’s Eve or a rainy Sunday. For this recipe, I use store-bought puff pastry, but you can make your own.
To be honest, I usually make my own apple turnovers. I use ready-made puff pastry slices from the freezer. It’s nice and easy, and I can enjoy a fresh, warm apple turnover extra fast.
You can eat them either hot or cold, which makes them easy to prepare. If you prefer them warm, but want to do some prep work, you can heat the apple turnovers in the oven!
I give you all the tips for making, storing and reheating apple turnovers in the article and recipe below. Have fun baking!
TIP: If you love these apple turnovers, you absolutely will love my recipe for traditional Dutch apple pie.
The same applies here as for apple pie: use firm, sweet and sour hand apples. I prefer Jonagold or the Dutch Goudreinetten.
This recipe requires only 3 ingredients: apples, sugar and cinnamon. You can vary the amount of sugar if you like, depending on how sweet your apples are.
True Dutch apple turnovers are made with puff pastry. But if you like, you can also use pie dough. This will of course affect the result. The baking time and temperature will also be different.
You can if you have used fresh pastry. If your puff pastry comes from the freezer, it is better not to bake it again for food hygiene reasons. In this case, it is best to bake the apple turnovers immediately and then freeze them.
If your apple turnovers lose their crispness the next day, reheat them in the oven or air fryer. This will make the apple turnovers nice and crispy again. Maintain the same temperature as in the recipe, 200 °C/400 °F (conventional) and bake the apple turnovers for 5 minutes. The same goes for the air fryer, maybe a minute less.
An easy recipe to make your own creamy chocolate brownies. These are cakey brownies with an intense chocolate flavor and delicious texture.
I love all kinds of brownies, but the smooth variety is my favorite. This brownie is a combination of cakey and fudgy, but more on the cakey side. Most delicious if you ask me.
I am happy to share my recipe for the best brownies ever! You can make your own with just a handful of ingredients.
Remember to let the brownies cool after baking. They will be a little firmer and easier to cut.
BAKING TIP! I use a 20×20 cm/ 8×8 inch square baking pan for this recipe (and many others). If you are still looking for one, I have this square baking pan myself.
You’ll see that brownies don’t require very weird ingredients. I only use 10 ingredients in this recipe:
As for the chocolate, the better the quality, the better the result. This applies to all ingredients, of course, but chocolate is simply the most important ingredient in this recipe.
Big fan of chocolate? Try dipping some brownie pieces in your chocolate fondue. You will love it!
Do not mix the batter until it is airy and fluffy! That is not the intention with brownies. If you’re using a mixer, mix on the lowest setting. Basically, a spatula will do just fine.
I always use a 20×20 cm/8×8 inch square baking pan for brownies, as well as for sheet cakes and many other recipes. This pan provides the perfect size brownies and the right doneness with the baking time in the recipe below.
Don’t bake the brownies too long. Unfortunately, you can’t use a cake tester to check if a brownie is done like you can with a cake. With brownies, use your eyes. The top of the brownie should be dry, and when you shake the pan a little, it should stop wiggling. If it does, the brownie can go in the oven an extra minute or two.
Basically, if you are using a 8-inch pan, the temperature in the recipe below should be just right. Are you using a convection oven? Lower the temperature by 10-20%.
Every family has it’s own family recipes. I am especially interested in the sweet recipes. I am a fan of this recipe: Grandma’s Apple Pie. The recipe is from my maternal grandmother. Unfortunately, I never met her, but how I would have loved to bake this pie with my grandmother and enjoy it together with a cup of tea.
When I was abroad, I never came across an apple pie like the one we make in Holland. When I searched for English recipes for a Dutch apple pie, I found many. But none the way we make it.
For example, these recipes said that Dutch apple pie always has a crumb topping. This is not true, Dutch apple pie should have a lattice topping. I admit that I have occasionally made the pie with a crumb topping, but only when I was running out of time.
For a Dutch apple pie you always use a springform pan. For this recipe, I use a 24 cm/9 inch springform pan. I have been using one for years from Le Creuset, which I am a fan of. No matter how many times it is used, it still looks beautiful.
Don’t have a springform pan at home? You can also use a pie pan; depending on the depth, you can go up a size.
It doesn’t take much to make your own delicious apple pie; I’ll go through the list of ingredients with you and give you a brief explanation.
The most important ingredient in an apple pie: apples! Always use firm, sweet and sour apples for an apple pie. I prefer the Dutch Goudreinetten, but they are not available all year round. It’s also a Dutch apple variety and not available in every country. Jonagold and Elstar are good alternatives.
In my grandmother’s apple pie recipe, I use breadcrumbs on the bottom. Sometimes I replace them with 2-3 tablespoons of baking powder. Both breadcrumbs and baking powder absorb moisture. The moisture from the apples goes into these ingredients instead of (all of) the crust. As a result, your cake will stay firmer and drier.
If you sprinkle breadcrumbs on the bottom of the apple pie (on top of the dough), it will not do much for the flavor. You can sprinkle custard powder through the apple slices or cubes, this will do a lot for the flavor. It will look like you added a little custard through the filling, which is very tasty.
Now that you know all about the ingredients, you are ready to get started. To get you started in the best possible way, I’m going to share all of my baking tips with you. We’ll start with preparation tips and then move on to tips for storing and reheating the apple pie.
If your dough is very sticky, you can add a little extra self-rising flour. Add small amounts and knead gently until the dough is no longer sticky. Too wet/sticky dough is not good for an apple pie because you are also adding a lot of moisture with the apple filling.
Add a little more egg or butter. Also, knead the dough well with your hands instead of using a mixer.
While most baked goods should be baked in the center of the oven, an apple pie should be placed just below the center of the oven for best results.
When your apple pie is a nice golden brown color at or around the specified baking time, it’s time to take it out of the oven.
As the apples cook in the oven, they become softer and collapse a bit. So it is normal and certainly not a bad thing if your apple pie gets a bit lower in the middle.
It helps to use apple slices instead of cubes in your apple pie, but this is really a pie where you need a plate and fork. Also, make sure your pie is completely cooled, which will make it firmer.
For the reason I mentioned above: it makes your pie firmer. It also makes an apple pie tastier. I like to bake my apple pie a day ahead. An apple pie is at its best after one day.
Do not remove the pie until it has cooled. Then the pie is firm enough.
Okay, that was a lot of prep tips. Once your apple pie is done and waiting in all its perfection to be served, you may have questions about storage, freezing, and more. You guessed it, I have a nice collection of tips for that, too!
I put my apple pie -in the springform pan- covered with aluminum foil on the counter. You can keep it there for 2-3 days. In the refrigerator it will keep for 1-2 days longer, but I personally don’t like cold apple pie.
Sure, just wrap it in plastic and put a plastic bag around it and tie it off. You can keep the apple pie in the freezer for up to 3 months.
If you freeze an apple pie, you should defrost it. You can take it out of the freezer the day before and defrost it in the refrigerator. Thinking about it too late? Allow 5-6 hours on the counter. Note that the defrosting time also depends on the temperature in your house. It’s better to give it a little more time to defrost than too little.
Turn the oven back on to 170 °C/340 °F (conventional) and let it preheat. Warm the apple pie (in the springform pan) in about 10-12 minutes. A single slice of apple pie will take less time, start with half the time.
A good apple pie needs little, but I know few people who would turn down a nice dollop of whipped cream. Apple pie and whipped cream go well together. A scoop of ice cream is also very nice, but I would keep the apple pie slice a little smaller.
A good recipe for Dutch butter cake should not be missing in any household. Is this recipe not yet in your personal recipe book? Then grab it, because you really want to add this one to your collection.
Butter cake is not often eaten here at home (or in my childhood home), but that doesn’t mean we don’t like it. My sister and I love a piece of this rich and dense cookie, but the biggest fan is still my dad. He loves it and can’t get enough.
So I was thrilled when my dad approved this recipe! He thinks I should make it more often. And I definitely will, because this butter cake is insanely delicious and easy to make.
The literal translation of “boterkoek” is butter cookie, but the common translation is butter cake. The result is a bit in between, but to me it is closer to a cookie. Or a cookie cake if you like.
It is a flat compact, soft and creamy cookie cake, rich in flavor. A good butter cake almost melts in your mouth.
You can also make good flavor variations, I already have many different butter cake recipes on my Dutch blog, which I will still translate for you of course.
No, I do not recommend it. A butter cake should be dense and creamy. Self-rising baking flour is a mixture of flour and baking powder, and the baking powder will make your cake rise and become airy. Exactly what you don’t want! Preferably use all-purpose flour.
No, the butter needs to be at room temperature. In fact, this is a common rule in baking: all your ingredients must be at room temperature before you start baking, unless the recipe says otherwise.
You do this so that the cake will have a nice shine when it is baked. A beaten egg will do, but it is even better to mix the beaten egg with milk. This will prevent the glossy layer from flaking off.
There is no trick to test whether butter cake is done like a cake. But the most important thing to remember is that this creamy cake is always a bit soft when it comes out of the oven. It should also have a nice golden brown color. If you hesitate and push the cake back into the oven anyway, chances are it will overcook and becomes too dry.
Today I am sharing my favorite gingerbread cookie recipe to make the most delicious Christmas cookies. You can use this recipe to make gingerbread houses and decorated gingerbread cookies.
Gingerbread is becoming more and more popular in Holland, although speculaas is still the most popular spiced cookie. You can find gingerbread cookies in Holland a little better these days than a few years ago when I decided to make them myself.
These are the best gingerbread cookies I have ever had, much better than the ones you can buy in the store (here). The reason I think these cookies turned out so delicious is because the spicy flavor of the gingerbread spices did not become too overwhelming.
This has to do with the amount of spices I used in the recipe, but also because I like to make my own gingerbread spice mix.
This spice mix is tailored to my taste and you only need four types of spices: ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and gingerbread. In proportion, you need the most ginger and cinnamon, with the ginger tasting well above.
If you want to make gingerbread cookies, you can choose from a variety of cookie cutters. The most popular is the gingerbread man cookie cutter. The jolly cookie man is a part of Christmas. But of course you have many more options. How about a cookie cutter shaped like a beautiful star, a Christmas tree, a Christmas sock, a bell or an oven mitt?
BAKING TIP: This Christmas cookie cutter set is ideal for making Christmas cookies.
Aside from the different shapes you can give your cookie by choosing all kinds of Christmas cookie cutters, you can also vary how you decorate the cookies. I like to use white royal icing, which gives the cookies a classic look.
You can also choose different colors of icing and not only draw subtle lines on the cookie, but decorate the entire cookie.
An easy alternative to royal icing is melted white chocolate.
Like me, many of you like to decorate gingerbread cookies in the shape of a snowflake. I will of course give you more inspiration, but for now I would like to refer you to my Dutch blog, where I have a how to for gingerbread snowflakes with royal icing.
The pictures should be clear enough to get you started.
About two days. Just keep in mind that you may have to take the dough out of the fridge a little earlier or it will be too hard to roll out immediately.
If you’re looking for more tips, check out all my tips for perfect cookies.
You can freeze cookie dough just fine, it will keep for up to 3 months. I would then freeze it in sheets, so it defrosts more easily.
You can, but I wouldn’t. The dark brown sugar adds a lot of flavor.
You can call them that. They hold their shape in the oven which is most important for me.
I bake my cookies for about 16 minutes. If you want to make them smaller, I would start with 10-12 minutes. It depends on the size, shape and oven how long they’ll need.
If you’re like me, you probably want to bake all kinds of christmas cookies! Here are a few of my favorite christmas cookie recipes:
