Time for Tea

I am a homeschooling "mama" (for the children of friends), and today we started our study of The Chronicles of Narnia.  We will be enjoying them in published order, so our journey began with Lucy and the other Pevensie children who found Narnia in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."

I wanted to make this an experience (especially for the first day), not just a read-aloud book.  We read Chapters 1 and 2 today, and in Chapter 2 Mr. Tumnus, a faun, invites young Lucy into his home for tea.  I discussed with the girls ahead of time that "tea" in England is an event, not just a cup of steaming liquid.  At the very least, there would be a scone, a small sandwich, or a crumpet (which I found out recently is more like what we call an English muffin) alongside the cup of tea itself.  Mr. Tumnus' tea included some boiled eggs, some sardines, and a lot of toast.  The girls writhed and made verbal gagging noises when I mentioned sardines on toast as a side to our tea, so I decided to make scones instead.

I had made THM scones once before, but they turned out rather sad.  (That being said, I think I was also trying to substitute ingredients for a friend who had a food allergy, so the recipe itself may not have been that bad in its original form.)  When I originally thought of the "tea" idea, I had planned to make scones from an off-plan recipe, but (thankfully!) realized I did not have all of the ingredients.  As I looked further, I decided to do my first experiment using an everyday, off-plan recipe and substituting THM ingredients instead.  They turned out really well!  I think I should have cooked them a bit longer, because they were pretty soft for scones.  However, the flavor was really good -- especially for my first experiment with converting a recipe to an on-plan treat!

Fresh out of the oven!  (I used aluminum foil because

I was out of parchment paper, but the bottoms definitely

had a little black singing, so I wouldn't recommend it.)

 

I found the original recipe here on "Baking Bites."  As you can see, there are many ingredients in the original recipe which are not allowed on the Trim Healthy Mama plan.  Since I had a bit of THM Baking Blend left in my pantry, I decided to commence the experimenting.  Here is the recipe, as I actually made it:

LEMON BLUEBERY SCONES  (S)

     2 c. THM Baking Blend
     2 tsp. THM Super Sweet Blend
     2 tsp. baking powder
     1/4 tsp. salt
     6 Tbsp. butter
     1/2 c. almond milk
     1/4 lemon juice
     1 Tbsp. lemon zest
     1 c. frozen blueberries

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Spray with Canola oil, or grease lightly.  In a large bowl, whisk together Baking Blend, Super Sweet Blend, baking powder and salt.
    
2. Cut butter into small chunks and add to the dry mixture, tossing to coat.  Using two knives, incorporate butter by cutting horizontally (ad nauseum) until mixture is crumbly and butter is well distributed, with no pieces larger than a big pea.  (This technique is used in making pie crusts and other crumbly pastries.)
    
3. Add in almond milk, lemon juice and lemon zest and stir until dough comes together.  (I did not include the lemon zest, simply because I did not have it on hand, but it would be a great addition!)  If dough is too wet, add an additional tablespoon of flour to the dough. Alternatively, add a smidge more milk if it is too dry.  Don’t worry if the mix does not look homogeneous… there is still more mixing to do!
    
4. Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface (I used coconut flour), and knead dough for about one minute. Flatten dough and add frozen blueberries.  Knead gently to distribute the berries.  (I think a better word here is “squish” rather than "knead."  Get those berries in the dough!) 
    
5. Divide dough into two balls and press each into a disc about 3/4-inch thick on your prepared baking sheet.  (Lightly lift the circles afterward so that they do not stick to the pan after baking.)  Use a knife to divide each disc into quarters.  Bake for 17-22 minutes, until scones are golden brown.

I let my scones sit on the pan for a while after baking so that they could cool completely into their intended wedge shapes.

(There were eight scones in total, 

but here are the four we ate for our tea party!)

Along with our scones, of course, we needed tea!  Since we were enjoying "S" scones, I was eager to use a splash of rich cream in my tea.

AFTERNOON TEA  (S)

     1 bag of PG Tips black tea (#1 seller in England)
     1/2 tsp. of Super Sweet Blend
     Boiling water
     Splash of heavy cream

I usually let the PG Tips steep for 8 minutes, along with the sweetener (so that it dissolves in the boiling water).  After that, I take out the tea bag and add cream until it reaches a lovely golden color.  If I am drinking my tea from a larger mug, I add more sweetener to taste.

Waiting for the tea to steep...

 

 

 

Creamy British tea, scones, and a good book

 

 The girls enjoyed their first tea party!  They liked the flavor of the British tea, and were a bit surprised by liking cream in their hot tea.  They liked the scones as well, but definitely detected a lot of lemon.  I think you could get away with not using lemon juice in order to have a plain blueberry scone, but I will have to experiment with that on another day!