From Siobhan DiNatale of Needham, MA
Scones...
One of my favourites....always on hand in May O'Brien's kitchen to have with a cuppa..
5 cups self raising flour
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 sticks of cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup raisins
4 eggs
1/4 cup of milk (or enough to make consistency whereby the mixture is moist, but easy to roll out with flour sprinkled on surface and on rolling pin)
Method:
Heat oven to 400 degrees
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper
Place dry ingredients in bowl
Cut up butter and rub into the dry ingredients (can use a mixer)
Add raisins and mix in
Beat eggs and milk together and add slowly to above mixture until batter is moist, but not too sticky
Place on dry surface, sprinkle flour
Roll dough out to 3/4 inch thickness and cut into circle or square shape
place on cookie sheet and bake approx 15-20 minutes
Scones are delicious on their own, or with butter and raspberry jam, or indeed if you want to be very fancy, some fresh whipped cream with jam!
Enjoy with a lovely cup of afternoon tea....my favourite, Barry's tea of course!
Another favourite of mine is "Bride's Brown Bread"
Bride and Des are our next door neighbours in Ireland and Bride was my Mam's best friend (Mam died 2 yrs ago). Talk about being as close as family, I actually asked Bride and Des would they adopt me, when my Dad died this year...
Bride made 2 loaves of brown bread every week and also sent a hot one right out of the oven wrapped in a tea towel over the wall into the O'Brien household, and we dived into it and devoured it by nightfall...
I moved away to Boston, but on returning "home", Mam always asked what I wanted, and my first request was always Bride's brown bread.... to this day, when I return back to Boston, I always have a loaf of Brides bread in my suitcase!
Bride's Irish Brown Bread.
4 cups brown wholemeal flour
2 cups white flour, sieved
1 cup bran
1/2 cup wheatgerm
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons bread soda, sieved
2 tablespoons brown sugar
20 oz buttermilk
1 egg
20z sunflower seeds
Method:
Heat oven to 400 degrees
Grease bread tins
Mix all ingredients together..mixture will be quite moist.
Pour into tins.
Bake for 1 hour.
Delicious with a big knob of butter while still warm!
Also great if you want to use with smoked salmon on top...
