Entertaining With Friends – Hostco’s High Tea Treats

Image by HostCo

If you’re a lover of entertaining at home, getting your friends together and whipping up some treats to share over a bottle of wine (or two, we won’t tell), then we’re helping you create the perfect High Tea Treats with these delicious recipes you can easily make at home. Test your culinary skills to create yummy English scones and zesty Lemon Tartlets.

SCONES

Ingredients

3 cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon salt
60g butter
1 ¼ cup milk
Zest of one lemon
(Serves 4)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200c. Place baking paper onto baking tray. Sift flour and salt, add lemon zest into a bowl. Rub in butter with fingers until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Add the milk and mix until the dough comes together into a rough ball. Place the dough onto a floured board. With a rolling pin roll the dough to 5cm thick, then with a round cutter dipped in flour, cut out as many circles as possible. You can reuse the off cut by mixing them together and re-cutting with the cutter.
3. Place scones on the baking tray. Brush tops with a little milk and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until well-risen and golden. Serve warm with butter or with jam and cream.

SOUR CREAM SHORT CRUST PASTRY

Ingredients

125ml sour cream
250g plain flour
200g unsalted butter chilled

Method

1. To make the pastry, dice the butter, then pulse with the flour in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Add the sour cream and continue to pulse until the dough starts to incorporate into a ball.
3. Wrap the dough in plastic film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
4. Flour your bench and roll the pastry out with a rolling pin.  Cut with a cookie cutter and place in a mini tarts shell tin press down with fingers. Place into fridge and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Remove from the fridge, prick bases with a fork and cover with a small square of grease proof paper. Fill with a tablespoon of rice or baking beans and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and remove paper and rice, return to oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until pastry is golden. Set aside and allow to cool.

LEMON CURD

Ingredients

3 egg yolks
2 1/2 tbspn caster sugar
2 tspn lemon zest finely grated
50ml lemon juice
25g unsalted butter chopped

Method

1. Whisk yolks and sugar in a small saucepan until pale. Place over a low heat, add lemon zest, juice and butter and whisk until frothy. Stir continuously for 5 minutes or until curd coats the back of a spoon. Transfer to a bowl, cover with grease proof paper and allow to cool.
2. Fill the tart shells with the lemon curd and dust with icing sugar.

For extra flavour add bits of your favourite fruits. We suggest strawberries or berries for a delicious treat. Yum!