Another new cookery book has arrived in the post, this one is Brighton Bakes by Jessica Haggerty, a lovely vibrant book, gorgeous photography and comes with that Brighton buzz and eccentricity. I love Brighton, I love how it openly invites everyone into its fold, how ever odd, however normal, who ever you are, you will fit in somewhere and be accepted.

This book had me captured at the intro, ‘Brighton has a reputation for licentiousness and liberality’, how many cookery books start like that. This is a colourful, quirky and cheeky cookery book, giving it a really interesting edge over the more mundane run of the mill ones, it is full of fabulous cosmopolitan recipes, which you can not help but fall in love with, with recipes including a Brighton Rock Cake you will have a lot of fun with this book. On top of my baking to do list are, saffron cake with honey frosting and borage flowers, plus lemon geranium muffins!

In keeping with my new theme for my Blog, Jessica also uses local suppliers and ingredients and works with what is in season, so the first recipe to jump out at me had to be these gorgeous violet and sultana scones.

So at the weekend Hubby, Pup and I set off in search of some wild violets, living locally for nearly 20 years now I luckily know the best places to look and we soon found a bountiful harvest. I do have to confess here that I feel that I have left this recipe rather late in the violet season, or was just unlucky with my violets, but they didn’t smell!!! I did however carry on with the recipe and even though on this occasion I could not taste the violets coming through, I felt the scones were still worth posting as they are lovely and light, really tasty and as Jessica advises, eaten warm were a gorgeous treat. I have already ordered some violet essence so that I can re-bake these, as I think they will be heavenly when flavoured correctly and next Spring I will be picking my violets a lot earlier in the season! When I have worked out how much essence to use I will add this to the recipe below.

Well anyway, violet or not, this recipe did get me thinking about other flower flavoured scones and I am working on a spelt flour and geranium scone and will post the recipe if all goes well.

Buon appetito

Brighton Bakes is available on Amazon:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brighton-Bakes-Jessica-Haggerty/dp/1846247160/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie;=UTF8&qid;=1369125237&sr;=1-1&keywords;=brighton+bakes

300ml milk
20 violet flowers (gathered away from the roadside & unsprayed)
450g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
100g butter, cold and cubed (I do this first, then pop it back in the fridge while I weigh out all the other ingredients)
50g unrefined golden caster sugar
100g sultanas
2 medium eggs

Infusing the milk :- Pour the milk into a small saucepan and add the violet flowers (I removed the petals and only added these, maybe this is where I went wrong, but they just didn’t smell). Simmer for 3 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to infuse for an hour to absorb the flavours. Sieve and discard the flowers.

Preheat the oven to 220C, gas mark 7 and grease or line a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, sift the flour and salt together. Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until you have a mixture that resembles fine breadcrumbs. This may take a while and does require a little patience, not easy for someone like me that always want to throw everything into the Artisan, but it is rather therapeutic.

With a wooden spoon, stir in the sugar and fruit until thoroughly combined.

Mix the egg and milk together with a fork, then add to your bowl, keep a little back in a small ramekin for brushing the tops of your scones before popping them into the oven, it will give them that lovely golden look.

Lightly flour your work surface and place your scone mix onto it. Bring it all together with your hands, keeping it loose and light. You really do not want to over work it, so be gentle and try to keep as much air in as you can. Then gently roll out your dough to about 1cm thick and using your chosen cutter, cut out and place onto your baking sheet. Try not to re-roll more than once as your scones will be a little tough and chewy. Anything left after the second roll I usually pile into a ball on the baking sheet and have as a bakers treat hot straight from the oven. My excuse being, well I had to taste it for perfection!

Brush your scones with your saved egg wash, making sure you only wash the tops and not the side, as this will prevent your scones from rising and you don’t want skinny scones.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of your scones.

Enjoy warm straight from the oven, with a nice cup of tea and your chosen favourite homemade jam. Mine on this occasion was my blackberry and apple.