Tag: Countryside

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Autumn Escape

Our motorhome has been back in action this week, on an autumn trip to Cranborne Chase, in England’s south-west.

The area is designated as a National Landscape, which is the new official name given to what were formerly called Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The name may have changed, but the landscape certainly hasn’t – not for hundreds of years in fact. This makes it a perfect environment for long country walks across an expansive, rolling green terrain. Gentle climbs take you up high to reveal dazzling views, while paths weave their way through water meadows with clear trickling, bubbling streams past ancient mills. There aren’t many people around and it is really quite remote. Am I painting a clear enough picture here?

It is particularly special this time of year because, as everyone knows, the countryside generally looks even better with autumn colours.

My main photo at the top of the post shows Philipps House, dating from the early 19th Century. It is at the centre of the massive grounds of Dinton Park, which is fully open to public access. We had very clear skies, and from the highest points it was possible to see the spire of Salisbury Cathedral to the east.

The intricate network of footpaths and bridleways takes in some very old buildings and traditional pubs. This photo shows St. Mary’s Church in Dinton village, dating from the 12th Century.

This photo was taken on a walk through woods and across fields to Baverstock, where St. Editha’s Church is located. It has been here since the 15th Century, and provided a perfect lunchtime picnic spot.

We pitched our motorhome in a small site in the middle of some woods, and spent the week off-grid with no electric hook-up. It is just as well the skies were clear and the sun shone as, along with our gas tank, we were rather reliant on that solar panel on the roof 🙂 .

In such a remote location, with no shops anywhere around within walking distance, we planned in advance and took a week’s worth of food and drink. Home-made butternut chilli soup helped keep us warm in the evening.

Quiches made the week before and warmed up in the gas oven came in very handy – those 10k treks certainly give one an appetite!

The solar powered battery helped keep my phone charged overnight, which meant I could still listen to the David Bowie Playlist I’d downloaded to my phone from Spotify. No first world problems here, mate 🙂 .

I can’t quite believe that it in just a few months it will be 50 years since the release of Young Americans, which is probably my fave album of his. Here’s a great track from it: Right.

There is one more motorhome trip planned for 2024, so watch this space for developments.

Tags autumn, Baking, Blogging, Countryside, Cranborne Chase, England, Food, history, Motorhoming, Nature, Photography, Travel, Walking, writing

Bakes Recipes

New Forest Buttermilk Scones

Post author By Kevin
Post date May 25, 2024
16 Comments on New Forest Buttermilk Scones

Mmm….freshly baked buttermilk scones with butter and home made plum and apple jam. Yes!

This week I found myself with a tub of buttermilk to spare. The by-product of an exercise in making butter from Jersey cream, I was vaguely aware that it could be used in baking scones.

A little further research taught me that its acidity makes it react well with bicarbonate of soda to give a light texture to baking. It also brings a slightly sour, but pleasant taste to a scone mix.

I decided to give it a go, thinking that the scones would make a tasty picnic lunch the following day, when we had planned to go cycling in the New Forest. A remote national park that has changed very little over the decades, the Forest has an extensive network of tracks exclusively for non-vehicle traffic – just walkers, cyclists and horseriders.

And so it worked out! My photos show the plate of golden brown scones, as we prepared to devour them after a morning’s cycle in the peace and solitude of the Forest. Look carefully in the background and you can see some of those famous wild ponies that roam the New Forest.

Just make sure you eat the scones before those ponies do 🙂

Servings

This made 12 scones and, with a couple of re-rolls of the remaining scone mix, another 2 – 3 on top.

Timings

15 mins to make, 20 mins in the oven at 160C.

You Will Need

450g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
100g butter or baking spread
85g caster sugar
300ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
a splash of milk for basting

Method

Switch on the oven to 160C. Sieve the flour into a large bowl with the salt. Add in the butter or spread in cubes or small pieces, and mix with an electric whisk until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.
Tip in the sugar and whisk again to mix in.
Warm the buttermilk and vanilla in a saucepan on the hob for 2 – 3 mins. Then gradually add it in waves to the flour mix, turning over with a spatula after each addition to mix it in. Keep going until all the buttermilk has been incorporated, and a cohesive scone mix has formed in the bowl.
Tip the mix out on to a well-floured surface. If the mix is still a little too wet to work with, don’t be afraid to sprinkle over more self-raising flour until it has a consistency that can be pressed and moulded with the fingers, and rolled out to around 2cm thickness.
Press a scone or biscuit cutter into the mix to produce rounds – mine are around 7cm diameter, and this gave me enough for 12 scones. Re-roll the leftover mix and this should give you another 2 – 3.
Place on a metal tray lined with baking paper. Brush each with a little milk on a pastry brush and bake for 20mins at 160C.
Remove and place on a wire rack to cool.
Serve with butter or spread and jam. We had ours with home made plum and apple jam, as shown in my photo at the top of the post. The scones are best eaten within a day.

Customise it!

If you can’t get your hands on buttermilk, I have read that adding 1 tbsp of lemon juice to ordinary dairy milk can be a useful substitute.

The colour of the scones reminded me of this track, so I have been playing it this week. I don’t think The Stranglers intended the song to be about making scones, or cycling amongst the ponies in the New Forest, for that matter. Never mind – here they are with Golden Brown.

Tags Baking, Blogging, Countryside, Cycling, Food, New Forest, Photography, Recipes, Scones, Travel

Bakes Recipes

Blackberry, Oat & Yoghurt Muffins

Post author By Kevin
Post date September 28, 2022
4 Comments on Blackberry, Oat & Yoghurt Muffins

The end of summer/start of autumn is a great time of year for fresh blackberries. You may find them in supermarkets and farm shops, and some farms will let you pick your own. Best of all though is that they grow plentifully in the wild in hedges in public places and country parks, and can usually be picked free of charge.

Nutritionists will say that they are good for our overall health in various ways, such as being a source of Vitamin C and antioxidants, which protect our body cells.

I recently went on a walk to pick some in a nearby country park. I have included a photo of my haul of two filled plastic containers. My Fitbit told me afterwards that I had earned 52 active zone minutes from the exercise, which shows how blackberries can be good for our health in more ways than one!

There are many ways to use blackberries. A favourite of mine is as a topping on muesli.

I have also used them recently in a blackberry, coconut and almond traybake.

Probably my favourite though is the muffins, shown in my main photo, where they are combined with rolled oats and natural yoghurt, The muffins can be enjoyed for breakfast, as a lunchtime snack, a picnic dessert, or indeed at any time.