May Baking Club

Did you know that one of the collective nouns for a group of bakers is a kneading? But we've heard the secret to scones (this month's Baking Club theme) is not to handle them too much. No kneading here.

Standing in for Emma as she was having a well- earned break, my first thought was….what sort to make? Sweet, savoury, weird? (hmm, wonder what Emma was thinking there!)

My go-to scone is usually the lemonade recipe, sure to rise, sure to look and taste good. But I really wanted to try something out of my comfort zone.

The crack of dawn on the morning of Baking Club saw me bleary eyed in the kitchen, mixing and measuring my chosen recipe for cinnamon pinwheel scones. Having carefully read all the reviews and hints associated with my recipe I was all prepared. Less salt than the recipe called for (a handy tip to remember, when you use salted butter), melt the butter and spread it on, only adding the brown sugar and cinnamon afterwards (to avoid leaking filling). The scones came out risen, golden, smelling delicious and I was sure they were going to be the only ones like that on the table.

Imagine my surprise then to find that we had several flavours of pinwheel scones set out on the table for us to enjoy. Bacon, cheese, pesto, sun dried tomatoes; even a marmite variety.

We even had some good old ginger gems, made using an original gem iron. I found out that the cast iron gem iron is very much a New Zealand institution and not really as common anywhere else.

One of the best things about Baking Club is that collectively we have a great deal of knowledge about baking and can talk from heartfelt experience not only about our successes but also our failures. The members of the group enjoy baking and are happy to share their stories.

If you enjoy baking, come along next month on June the 7th (and every first Tuesday of the month except January), from 10:30-11:30am in the Wattie Room at Hastings War Memorial Library. For June, bring along some baking on the theme "International". Think global! Throw a dart at a map and hunt out a recipe, or browse our baking section (head for the 635s in non-fiction). We look forward to seeing you and your creations!

In the meantime if you fancy making scones but are looking for something just a little bit different, try out this recipe for Cheddar, Smoked Paprika and Sage Scones. You can view it online or borrow the magazine from the library: Dish magazine, Reprinted Issue #100. Dec21/Jan22, page 148

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