The Fluffiest Scones You'll Ever Make

I love scones. As a young child I used to bake them with my grandma almost every weekend so my grandad could have fresh scones with a cup of tea in the afternoons. As I've grown up, I bake them less and less, but I still enjoy making them now and then. I've been experimenting with a couple of different recipes over the last couple of years, changing quantities and adding different ingredients, and I've finally found one that gives me perfect scones every time. The secret is to add extra baking powder into the flour, as it makes them extra fluffy and delicious. 

Start off by preheating your oven to 200C. Tip the self-raising flour into a large mixing bowl (no need to sieve), and mix in the salt and the baking powder. Make sure your teaspoon is level when measuring out the baking powder as you can taste it if you use too much, but you want enough of it because this makes the scones nice and fluffy.

Cut the butter into small chunks and rub in until the mix looks like fine bread crumbs. Top tip - shake the bowl to see if all the butter has been rubbed in as the larger crumbs rise to the top of the bowl. Stir in the sugar.

Measure the milk into a jug, and add bit by bit into the dry mixture. Part way through, add in the vanilla extract and stir into the mixture. Carry on adding in the milk until the mixture is quite wet (but not sloppy). Use your hands to 'knead' the dough until all the liquid is absorbed and it is no longer wet - the dough should be smooth. If you have added too much milk, mix in a little more flour - but not too much. 

Tip onto a clean work surface and use your hands to pat the dough until it's just over an inch thick. Take a smooth cutter (they give a better rise), roughly 5cm in diameter, and cut out your scone. Repeat until you have 12 scones. Place the scones onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, and use a pastry brush (or your finger) to brush milk over the tops of the scones. Be careful not to let it run down the side of the scones as it can burn when in the oven. 

Place on the middle shelf of your preheated oven, and after 15-17 minutes they will be nice and golden! I usually find that most of them are done after 15, but one or two need an extra couple of minutes to finish off! If you can wait long enough, allow them to cool and enjoy with clotted cream and jam. If you don't manage to eat them all within 10 minutes of them coming out of the oven, you can freeze any leftover scones. When defrosting, allow to thaw thoroughly and pop in a low oven (approx 150C) for a couple of minutes to warm through.  

As always, I love it when you send me photos of your baking on Twitter - so if you make these please send me a snap!

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Recipe: Iranian Shirazi Salad

For me it is finally starting to feel like summer - I've just about finished university and I'm ready to collapse and do nothing for the summer holidays. I'm rather partial to a salad, especially when it comes to summertime, but sometimes you just fancy something a bit nicer than iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and a few slices of cucumber. And last summer, whilst looking for a new salad recipe to try out, I stumbled across the Iranian Shirazi salad. With just a couple of simple ingredients, you'd think it would be pretty bland and boring. But you'd be wrong. This is up there in my top 5 salads that I've ever eaten (alongside a gorgeous apple and rocket one that I'll probably end up sharing at some point!) - and I've eaten a lot of salads. 

Makes: 4-5 servings (as a main meal or 6-8 as a side salad)

Ingredients:

• 2 cucumbers (or 4 Persian cucumbers if you can get hold of them)
• 4 medium salad tomatoes
• 1 medium red onion
• Handful of fresh mint - finely chopped
• Juice of a large lemon
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

Step one. 

To a large bowl, add the juice of a lemon and the chopped mint. 

Step two. 

Chop up the cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion into really, really small cubes, and add to the bowl. Mix really well to make sure all the veggies are coated with the lemon and mint, and can absorb the delicious flavours! Traditionally everything is chopped up really small so you can have a taste of each ingredient in every mouthful. 

Step three. 

Season with salt and pepper - I don't add salt to pretty much anything, so I just used the pepper and I thought that was more than enough alongside the fresh veggies, the lemon and the mint!

And there you have it! A delicious salad! As always, please let me know if you have a go at making this and tell me whether or not you liked it!

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Recipe: Warming Tomato and Basil Soup

Hello everyone! Hope you're having a lovely Sunday! I haven't done a recipe post for absolutely ages, so I felt like doing one today! As it is starting to get a little chillier and the sun is nowhere in sight, I thought I'd do a soup recipe as soup is one of my favourite things to eat when I'm feeling chilly or when I have a dreaded winter cold! I've been making it a lot recently as the weather is freeeeezing and this week I've been feeling a bit ill. Making soup is incredibly easy, and you will be surprised at how much better it tastes than it does out of a tin! You can even make it in large batches, freeze some and save it for later! I like to mess around with different flavours but I love making the classics like tomato and basil, and that is the recipe I have for you today!

You will need!

Around 8 large salad tomatoes per person (don't use tins of chopped tomatoes or it will taste like pasta sauce! Which isn't very pleasant - trust me! Ew!)

Vegetable stock cube (I use the Knorr stock pots)

200ml of water (roughly)

Fresh basil (dried also tastes just as good)

A blender - essential!

Salt and pepper (as seasoning - optional)

First things first, you'll need to stick the kettle on (not for a cuppa) to start off your stock! Whilst you are waiting for it to boil, you can start chopping your salad tomatoes (and basil if you are using fresh) into chunks. Smaller chunks will cook faster if you are in a rush or staaaaarving! Once your kettle has boiled, add boiling water to a large pan and pop in your stock cube. Wait for it to dissolve before adding anything else. 

Once your stock is ready, you can add the tomatoes into the pan. You want to let them simmer down so they go all soft and squishy. Once they are soft enough, turn off the heat and add in your basil. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes before blending (or you'll burn yourself if it splashes!) and serve! I like to have mine with a granary bread roll as the two go together perfectly!

See I told you it was simple! And so so quick! 

As always, if you make it tag me in a photo as I love it when you do this! 

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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Recipe: Spiced Chicken Burrito Bowl with Coriander and Lime Rice

Hello everyone! So after scouring for recipes and dinner inspiration on Pinterest, I came across this and I've been enjoying making it (and eating it!) a lot recently so I thought I'd share it with you! I'm making mine with chicken but you could use whatever meat you like - beef steak, turkey, quorn?

In no particular order, you'll need:

 

The first things first, you'll need to create the marinade for the chicken - so in a large bowl, mix a good glug (extremely accurate measure there Charlotte) of olive oil with your taco seasoning mix, add the juice of 2 limes (or more/less if you choose) and add the chicken. With your hands, or a spoon if you don't like touching raw meat, coat the chicken in the marinade and cover and set aside for 15 minutes - 24 hours.

When you have set the chicken aside, you can start on the rice. I've used Tilda Easy Cook Long Grain Rice as I think it absorbs more of the flavouring, but you can use any long grained rice! Simply boil the kettle and cook the rice following the cooking instructions on the packet, then leave to cool.

Once your rice is on you can start chopping your veggies! I absolutely love most of the veggies in existence, but these are my favourites to go in this particular dish. If you don't like what I have used, feel free to swap and change as you please! :) 

By the time you have chopped your veggies, the rice will have cooled slightly. Chop your coriander and stir it into the rice. You can use dried coriander if you wish, but the fresh tastes and looks so much better. Juice more limes into the rice and stir to make sure all the rice is flavoured. 

Heat up a pan with a LITTLE oil (there is oil in the marinade remember!), and add in your chicken. Cook the chicken through and place in your bowl along with your rice and the salad!

If you want to be all 'Jamie Oliver' you can finish off the dish with a few leaves of coriander and a wedge of lime. Perfect!

Bon Appétit! 

And as always, if you make this dish - remember to send me your photos on Twitter (@charrrroberts) or Instagram (@charlottesophiaroberts)!

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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Recipe: Banana Breakfast Pancakes

So the weekend is fast approaching and I thought I'd share with you a little treat that I like to whip up now and again. Banana breakfast pancakes! Now I made these last Sunday and had plenty left over for a little Monday morning birthday treat before heading off to work. These were originally a Paul Hollywood recipe that I adapted to make them a little more interesting as his were rather bland (Sorry Paul!). Paul originally said that the recipe makes 25 pancakes, but I find that it makes about 10 decent sized ones.

Ingredients

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

Approx. 100g Icing sugar (add more or less to sweeten to taste)

Pinch of salt

1 medium egg

300ml full-fat milk (I use semi-skimmed to make them slightly healthier)

1 tbsp melted butter, plus extra for frying

1+1/2 bananas (or any other fruit; strawberries, raspberries, blueberries)

Method

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and mix well. In another bowl crack the egg and beat it with the milk. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and slowly whisk in the milk and egg mixture, until you have a smooth batter. Melt the butter in the microwave and mix with the batter. Stir in as much of the icing sugar as you want, until it tastes sweet enough. Add in your chosen fruit and mix well to distribute throughout the batter. Heat up a large frying pan with the extra butter. Once you pan is hot, add 3 lots of batter into the pan (allowing a couple of tablespoons of the mixture for each one). Cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. These are incredibly filling and you'll only want 2/3 at most, but if making for multiple people, repeat until you have used all or most of the batter up (adding more butter to the pan if needed). As the pancakes are cooked, stack them on a plate and cover with a tea towel. Once the pancakes are cooked, serve them immediately and enjoy! I drizzled mine in golden syrup and served them with the remaining banana on the side.

If you make pancakes using my recipe, please Tweet me a photo (@CharrrRoberts) so I can see how they turned out! 

Hope you enjoy, thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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The Best Smoothie Ever!

So it is no secret that I love smoothies. If you look over my entire Instagram feed I'm sure theres dozens of photos of smoothies.  I like to try and start my day with a smoothie as they are so filling (a good substitute for breakfast when you're in a rush) and full of vitamins!

Smoothies are really easy to make and you can make them as thick or thin as you like. The thicker the smoothie, the more filling it will be. 

Now I've made my fair share of smoothies, some a lot better than others. I've found that practice makes perfect - have a play around with all different kinds of combinations  and find out what you like and what you don't.

Recently I have been making this little gem after finding this combination worked! So for all you readers that are eating more healthily for 2015, you might want to give this a try!

Blend together:

• 1 handful of strawberries
• 1 handful of raspberries
• 1 handful of cherries
• 1 handful of blueberries
• Approx. 20mls of cold water (optional - to make it thinner)

The strawberries contain ellagitannin which has been shown to have anti-cancer properties. The antioxidant phytonutrients in raspberries can help improve learning capacity and motor skills. Cherries may help a wide range of conditions affecting the joints, including arthritis, gout and rheumatism. Blueberries are a good source of zinc and many other antioxidants and nutrients. 

So clearly it's one to try!

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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