Welcome to our first stop in our exciting culinary adventure: Around the World in 12 Dishes. I couldn’t have been more exited about our first stop, the United Kingdom, because I love going out for afternoon tea, and I wanted to recreate that experience for my daughter and her friends. Afternoon tea in Britain usually occurs around the mid afternoon, where a dainty meal of tea, scones, finger sandwiches and sweets are served.
During our adventure the girls had a fun morning of coloring United Kingdom place mats, decorating tea hats, making chocolate chip scones, and having afternoon tea.
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
- 8 tablespoons orange juice
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray, or line it with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
With a pastry blender or a large fork, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
It took the girls a while to get the butter mixed in, and with scones, the key to getting buttery, flaky scones is to keep your ingredients cold. So after they were finished I decided to chill our mixture in the freezer before continuing. And so we had a little snack break. =)
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| My daughter provided some measuring spoon music. 😉 |
Next sneak a few chocolate chips in your mouth before adding it to the flour mixture. =)
Mix in the orange juice to form a dough. Do not over mix.
Drop the dough by large tablespoons (I think each one was about 2 tablespoons) onto the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Makes 12 scones.
Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Move to wire racks to cool. Now we’re ready for our afternoon tea.
Setting the table:
-United Kingdom place mats
-Tea cups
-Saucers
-Tea pot
-Plates
-Small bowls
-Spoons
-Two-tiered server
-Vase for floral decoration
Because these girls are only 3 & 4 years old, I modified the menu a bit to accommodate their age. We had mini finger sandwiches, fruit (as our sweets), apple juice (in place of tea), chocolate chip scones, and strawberry jam and Nutella whipped cream ( I didn’t think the girls would like the Devonshire cream to go with their scones…and I must say the Nutella whipped cream was a big hit).
Check out these other blogs for more inspiration!