Friday 17 March 2017

Chocolate Orange Scone Loaf.



Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

It's my last recipe before I leave for Umrah!
Alhamdulillah, once again we have been blessed with the opportunity to perform the Umrah and visit the blessed cities of Makkah and Madinah.
Insha Allah, it will be a chance to reconnect with our Creator and spend some quality time away from the demands of daily life. If you have never been for Umrah or Hajj, I cannot recommend them enough. They are both experiences that are life-changing so if you've been thinking about going for a while, I hope my post here is an incentive to get planning and booking.

This past week has been so hectic with lots of last minute packing. I'm one of those people who is forever convinced that they're forgetting something. I don't think I'll actually be able to relax until the suitcases have been officially locked and we're on our way to the airport.
I will most probably be offline for the next few weeks so will catch up with you all when I'm back. In the meantime, please keep me and my family in your prayers. Pray that we have a safe, rewarding journey and that Allah accepts our Umrah and all our efforts. 
Before I leave, a final recipe. We are big scone fans in our house and when I came across a recipe for a scone loaf, I was all in. I like mixing the dough for scones but am not the biggest fan of rolling and cutting them out. This recipe will have you make a scone dough and then simply dump it into a loaf tin. I flavoured my buttery, light dough with two of my favourites - lots of orange zest and dark chocolate chips. Once baked, cut into slices before topping with plenty of whipped cream and strawberry jam for the perfect Spring teatime treat. Enjoy!

A Simple List of Ingredients:
1. Caster Sugar
2. Oranges
3. Plain Flour
4. Salt
5. Baking Powder
6. Unsalted Butter
7. Eggs
8. Vanilla Essence
9. Double Cream
10. Dark Chocolate Chips
11. Demerara Sugar

Bismillah, let's begin!


Heat the oven to 200C. And, prep a loaf tin!

Grease and line a large loaf tin with baking parchment. Set aside until needed.

Now, let's make the scone loaf. In a small bowl, place 60g Caster Sugar.

Then, take 2 Oranges. We're going to zest them and you can use a fine grater but I love this microplane zester.

The best thing to do is to zest the oranges over the sugar so that the perfume from the orange goes into the sugar.

Once the zest is in, it might seem like a lot for the amount of sugar. But I promise, that this zest will give so much flavour to our loaf.

Rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips.

Then, set up your food processor.

You can also make this loaf by hand.

Into the processor, place 300g Plain Flour.

Add in the orange sugar that you made.

This orange sugar is going to give the loaf the best orange flavour.

Add in 1/2 teaspoon Salt.

And to help our loaf rise, 1 tablespoon Baking Powder.

Once the dry ingredients are in ...

... blend until combined.

Once blended, let's add in the butter.


Take 170g Unsalted Butter, cold and cubed. To do this, I cut up the butter and pop it back into the fridge until needed.


Add the cubed butter to the processor.


Blend again until the mixture is well combined.


And, it looks like fine breadcrumbs!


Next, let's whisk together our wet ingredients. Into a jug, crack in 2 large Eggs.


Add in 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Essence.


Next, the orange juice. You can use pure orange juice from a carton but I squeezed mine fresh from the oranges that I zested earlier.


Squeeze in 60ml Orange Juice.


Finally, to keep our loaf really light in texture, add in 60ml Double Cream.


Grab a fork!


And, whisk until well combined.


Gradually pour the liquid through the processor.


Pulse as you go!


You may not need all the liquid!


Add enough liquid until you get a dough.


Like this!


Finally, the best bit! 100g Dark Chocolate Chips! You can use milk too but I really like the bitter dark chocolate with the sweet orange.


Add in the chocolate chips.


And, give them a quick blend to combine.


I see so much orange zest! This is going to be good!


The dough will be quite stiff so use a strong spatula or wooden spoon to get it out of the processor.


Get the dough into your prepared tin.


Smooth it out until even.


Brush the top with a little Double Cream. I actually forgot to do this at this point and had to pull my loaf back out of the oven. Guys, don't be like me!


Then, sprinkle with Demerara Sugar.


The more you sprinkle on, the crunchier your loaf top will be.


Bake the loaf at 200C for 40 minutes or until golden brown on top. You'll know it's done when a toothpick or skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean with no wet batter on it.


Let the loaf cool in the tin for 10 minutes.


Then, remove and cool on a wire rack.

How long you cool it is up to you? Just remember the longer you cool it, the cleaner your slices will cut.

I let my loaf cool completely and then sliced it up. By the way, how beautiful are those daffodils? Nothing is more Spring-like than a big bunch of daffodils so be sure to treat yourself to some this season.


I got about 8 thick-ish slices out of this loaf. The loaf is so good on its own with all the orange zest and dark chocolate running through it. But in our house, scones wouldn't be scones without two things.


The first is vanilla whipped cream which I always make at home by whisking together double cream, icing sugar and vanilla essence until soft peaks form.


And, the second is jam! My favourite is this seedless strawberry one.


Here, I used the strawberry jam and some homemade raspberry jam that I had leftover from this recipe


So, pile your slices high with whipped cream.


Spoon on the sweet berry jam.


And, enjoy straight away. The combination of the buttery orange loaf studded with dark chocolate and the pillowy whipped cream with tart jam is the best. I hope it makes an appearance at your next afternoon tea.

Chocolate Orange Scone Loaf.

Prep Time: About 30 minutes.
Bake Time: About 40 minutes.
Serves: Cuts into 8 slices.

Ingredients

60g Caster Sugar
Finely Grated Zest of 2 Oranges
300g Plain Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
170g Unsalted Butter, cold and cubed
2 large Eggs
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
60ml Orange Juice, freshly squeezed if possible
60ml Double Cream
100g Dark Chocolate Chips
Double Cream, to brush on top
Demerara Sugar, to sprinkle on top

To Serve
Vanilla Whipped Cream
Strawberry Jam

Heat the oven to 200C. Grease and line a large loaf tin.

Put the caster sugar and orange zest into a small bowl. Rub the two together with your fingertips until well combined.

Into a food processor, place the plain flour, orange sugar (from above), salt and baking powder. Blend until combined. Add in the cubed butter and pulse until combined. The mixture should look like fine breadcrumbs.

In a jug, whisk together the eggs, vanilla essence, orange juice and double cream until well combined.

Gradually pour in the wet ingredients, pulsing as you go. You most likely won't need all of it. Pulse together until everything comes together in a dough. Add the chocolate chips and pulse again until combined.

Use a strong spatula or wooden spoon to remove the dough from the processor - it will be on the stiff side. Place the dough into the lined loaf tin and evenly press in. Brush with double cream and sprinkle with demerara sugar.

Bake the loaf for 40 minutes at 200C until golden brown. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean with no wet batter. Let the loaf cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Then, remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Cut into slices and enjoy with whipped cream and strawberry jam.

{adapted from the vanilla bean blog}

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Keep me in your duas please, and enjoy your scone loaf!

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!


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