Plum And Cinnamon Oat Slices That Are Better Than What You Buy In The Store

So, the end of the quarter is coming up in about a week and, of course, most of my teachers have decided to give me tests this week. Of course we have the vocab final on Wednesday in English, but I have known about that for the entire quarter, same thing with my vocab final in AP Geography. That makes them acceptable. My french on the other hand, not quite. She decides to give us this huge, 6 part test, with barely any warning. What happened was, apparently on Monday it was on her canvas page saying we had a test on wednesday, but then on Tuesday, it wasn't on her canvas page and same thing on Wednesday. It did not say that we had a test.But.. she gave it to us anyways, and so we had to take the test with about a ten minute warning (as if that would have changed how I studied for that particular test), but I still managed to scrape a 100% (not meaning to brag, JK, I kinda am :\ ). So then she announced that we would be taking the next four parts of it on Friday (2 days away) and so we all said out loud, "ooh, I need to study up on the vocab" and in our heads "god, why does she have to give us a stupid test that we are supposed to study for but I'm really not because I will end up watching movies on Megashare instead." So that was how the second to last week of the quarter went for me. Not too great because now I need to prepare the whole weekend for my four gimongous test that are coming up in the next week before the quarter ends. So since I had that French test, I figured, why don't I be different from everyone else and instead of watching movies, I'll make myself a little snack for all of this hard work I will soon be doing to prepare for my quarter finals, and so I riffled through my copy of Delia's How To Cook Book Two, and I came across the recipe for Plum And Cinnamon Oat Slices. So, since you will probably be studying for finals soon, let me give you the recipe so that you can concentrate better whilst studying.

Ingredients:

1 lb (450 g) fresh plums
1 rounded teaspoon ground cinnamon
10 oz (275 g) organic plain wholemeal flour
5 oz (150 g) organic porridge oats
1 teaspoon salt
8 oz (255 g) butter
4 oz (110 g) light brown soft sugar

Method:

First, preheat the oven to 400ºFahrenheit
Cut all of the plums in half, around an through their natural line, give a little twist to separate the halves and remove the stones, then cut them into thin slices.
Now place them in a bowl and toss them around with the cinnamon.
Next mix the flour and the porridge oats together with the salt in a mixing bowl, then melt the butter and the sugar in a small saucepan over a fairly gentle heat.
Stir from time to time until the butter has melted.
Now mix the melted butter and sugar with the oat mixture, starting with a wooden spoon but finishing it off with your hands so you end up with a lump of dough.
Now half the mixture and press one half into a lightly greased non-stick baking pan measuring 10 x 6 inches and 1 inch deep, pressing it firmly all over the base with your hands like a wall-to-wall carpet.
Next scatter the plums evenly over the surface.
Then top with the remaining oat mixture, again pressing down firmly.

Now place the pan on the center shelf of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or a bit longer if you like the top really crispy.
Then, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting into 15 squares (To do this make 2 cuts lengthways, then 4 cuts width ways. Don't worry if they aren't perfectly even.)
If you would like it to be round, it can also be made in a 9 inch springform pan.

Beautifully Buttery Buttermilk Scones (And Also A lesson On How To Make A Proper Black Tea)

So as you may know if you have ever met me, I am British, which means that I have some habits that are different to y'all Americans. First, I drink tea. Lots of it. I have kind of stopped drinking tea ever since I went on a Paleo diet. As you know, a paleo diet cuts out milk, and in my tea, I drink English Breakfast Tea from Trader Joe's (my mother's favorite place to shop for food) and I boil the kettle (something my mother also loves to shop for), and then I pour the boiling water over the tea bag, and let it brew for maybe a couple minutes (maybe a longer or shorter time depending on how strong you like your tea). Once it has brewed, take the the tea bag out and pour in the milk. I usually put in enough for the tea to turn a beige-ish color. Anyway, now that y'all know how to make a proper black tea, How about I tell you how to make a scone. Hang on a sec, first let me tell you why I chose to write about scones. So my grandma came to stay with us a couple weeks ago, yes a couple weeks ago and yes, she is STILL HERE. Anyways, she came up to me and my older sister Charlotte last weekend and said "So it is mothers day on Sunday (that is not the American mother's day, the British one), so you guys should do something nice!" So then on mother's day, that Sunday, I didn't go skiing because I had to do a spanish project for Mrs. Aplanalp and when I went home my sister Charlotte was there because she drove home from the resort (she finally turned 16!) and so she wanted to make scones. Once they were done I ate one and thought that they were really good and decided to share the recipe with you.
So after you have now read this super long paragraph where I explained maybe too many things, here is your well deserved recipe by one of my favorite chefs, Delia Smith:

Ingredients (makes about 10 scones):

2-3 tablespoons of buttermilk (plus some extra for brushing the tops)
8 ounces (225 grams) of self raising flour, plus a little extra for dusting
A pinch of salt
3 ounces (75 grams) of butter at room temperature
1 1/2 ounces (40 grams) of golden caster sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 425ºFarenheit.
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and then rub the butter gently into the mixture. Do this until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
Next add the sugar.
Now, you will want to beat the egg and 2 tablespoons of the buttermilk together and begin to add this to the rest of the mixture using a palette knife.
Once it begins to come together, finish it off with your hands (it should be soft, but not sticky).
Once the dough has been formed into a ball, put it onto a lightly floured surface, and roll it out into a circle that is no less than 1 inch thick.
Cut out the scones by placing the cutter onto the dough and giving it a sharp tap, but make sure that you don't twist it and you just lift it up and push the dough out.
Once you can no longer cut another scone out, roll the remaining dough into a ball and roll it out so that it is 1 inch thick again.
Continue this process until it is no longer possible to cut out anymore scones.
Place the scones onto a baking tray and brush them lightly with the buttermilk and dust with  little bit of flour.
Bake them on the top shelf for 10-12 minutes, or until they are well risen and golden brown.
When you take them out of the oven, place them on a wire rack to cool.

Image courtesy of Tales From A Happy House