Naughty or Nice?
Enjoying food is all about balance, so let foodiesAoife McElwain and Aoife Barry give you a naughty and anice option each week. Choicenever tasted so good!
Books for the naughty: Dan Leader left New York City with his family in 1983 to set up a bakery (www.breadalone.com) near Woodstock in New York state, powered by a wood-fired oven and producing just five types of bread.
It now includes a café and pastry room, and Dan has a line of cookbooks, his latest being ‘Simply Great Breads’. Order at amzn.to/simplygreat breads.
Books for the nice
Living without gluten, refined sugar and animal products is easier with people like Ricki Heller concocting delicious recipes. Ricki is behind the blog DietDessertn Dogs.com and her hugely popular book, ‘Sweet Freedom’, is on sale at a special price. The book is crammed with healthy desserts. See tinyurl.com/ sfreedom.
SCONES TWO WAYS:
NAUGHTY: Cheesy bacon scones
Try these delicious scones from Irish blog nessasfamilykitchen.blogspot.com. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6. Fry six smoked streaky bacon rashers until golden, then slice into small cubes. Beat 1 large free-range egg into 225ml milk. Sieve 450g self-raising flour and 25g caster sugar into a food processor and combine with 85g cold butter. Transfer the flour mix into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour and add the egg and milk mixture. You will now have a wet and sticky dough.
Now add the bacon and 100g grated Cheddar. Knead the dough lightly on a wellfloured surface. Don't over-knead as this will make the scones tough. Adding more flour if needed, roll out the dough and cut into scones. You should get around 12. Brush the tops with a bit of milk, then sprinkle grated Cheddar on top of each scone. Place on a buttered baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the scones and let them cool slightly on a rack.
NICE: Debbie’s multi-seed vegan
wholegrain scones
Debbie is the wonder woman behind ‘Maple Spice’, a fantastic vegan blog. You will need: 200g wholemeal flour; 80g rye flour; 2 tsps baking powder; ˝ tsp salt; 80g cold vegetable fat (shortening); 100ml rice milk; 100ml water; 100g mixed seeds. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Mix all the dry ingredients, except the seeds, in a large bowl. Add the fat and cut it in with a pastry cutter until the mixture is like fine crumbs. Then, stir in the seeds. Mix the rice milk and water and pour over the dry mixture, then stir with a fork until a dough forms. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and gently knead it a couple times. Shape into a one-and-a-half-inch high disc, cut into eight triangles, place on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden. See www.maplespice.com.
