Archive for the ‘Scones’ Category
Maple & Market
The sprouting of local bakeries and patisseries has found its way to Cassia Crescent!
Maple & Market
Maple & Market isn’t all that big, probably able to seat around 10-15 people. This bakery is opened by baker and blogger Sarah Khaw, who used to sell her cakes online.
Cassia
Cassia – a fusion of apple, cinnamon, maple with a cream cheese coating. The cake was quite dense, sticky and moist. The cream cheese was pretty decent – soft, subtly cheesy, without being overly creamy. There wasn’t much of an apple or maple taste though, as the cinnamon shone out strongly.
Chocolate Chip Scone
The most attractive feature of the scone was the numerous chocolate chips! And when slightly heated, the chocolate chips melted into semi-solid delights. But other than that, the scone was majorly disappointing. It lacked the characteristic fragrance and taste of an authentic English scone. Instead, other than looking like a scone, the taste could easily be passed off as a normal mediocre chocolate chip bun.
Maple & Market
#01-82, 34 Cassia Crescent
Pasar Bella – A Farmers’ Market
Pasar Bella
After months of anticipation, Pasar Bella has finally opened at The Grandstand! Spanning a total indoor area of around 30000 square feet, with more than 30 permanent and weekend traders, Pasar Bella is Singapore’s answer to the concept of farmers’ market found commonly in Europe and USA.
The most important to remember before heading to Pasar Bella is to go with an empty stomach, as 90% of the stalls sells food, drinks or fresh produce.
Le Patio
Le Patio
Nutella Crepe
We were enticed by the enormous tube of Nutella on the counters of Le Patio and promptly ordered the Nutella Crepe ($3.50). We were slightly disappointed with the crepe. The crepe itself was bland and seemingly just a doughy mixture. The Nutella wasn’t sufficient enough to satisfy us. On the whole, the Nutella crepe was pretty amateurish and underwhelming.
Nibbles by Rabbit Carrot Gun
Scone
Our next stop was Nibbles by Rabbit Carrot Gun. Touted to be the stall that sells authentic British snacks, Nibbles sells quiches, pies, cakes and most importantly, scones! Priced at $4.50 each, the scone was pretty expensive. Unfortunately, the standard didn’t match up to the price. The scone was tasteless, floury and lacking in aroma. The inner core was clumpy and a little damp – making the scone pretty heavy and hard to swallow.
Huber’s Deli
Huber’s Deli
Chicken Cheese
Perhaps one of the more popular stalls was Huber’s Deli, evident from the number of people carrying the Huber’s Deli takeaway boxes. Coupled with the fact that Huber Deli’s hotdogs were grilled on the spot, it is no wonder many visitors were enthralled by the aroma and looks of the hotdogs. We ordered the Chicken Cheese ($7.80), with pickles, gruyere cheese, parsley, spices and sauce. The cheese was slightly charred; though the cheese wasn’t particularly salty or strong in flavours, the spices atop the cheese did add some extra flavour to it. We felt that the cheese could have been a little more melted, which would then provide this extra gooeyness. There was also cheese inside the hotdog, which was like the extra burst of surprise. The hotdog was, as usual, of high standards from Huber’s Deli. Authentically meaty and juicy! In addition, the bread had been toasted and hence exuded a fragrance crisp. Thankfully, Huber’s Deli didn’t disappoint!
Dutch Colony Coffee Co.
Seasalt Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
Our final conquer of the day was the Seasalt Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake ($5.50) from Frootkeyk, which is sold at the Dutch Colony Coffee Co. We especially enjoyed the peanut butter as it provided that salty, nutty fragrance to the cake. The peanut butter also increased the moistness of the cake. The combination of peanut butter and chocolate can never go wrong.
Pasar Bella
200 Turf Club Road
Bukit Timah
Wimbly Lu
A new cafe to chill, relax and have some desserts? Try Wimbly Lu at Jalan Riang. We popped by one morning and got our fix of chocolates and scones from them.
Truffles (Milk, Dark, Baileys, Rum and Raisins)
The chocolate truffles, priced at $2 per piece, came in 6 flavours – Milk, Dark, Baileys, Rum and Raisins, Milo and Earl Grey. We tried the first four flavours. The Milk chocolate was a little too sweet for our liking and we preferred the richer and less sweet Dark chocolate. The Baileys was sadly lacking in the alcoholic taste, but there was still a mild coffee flavour. Same goes for the Rum and Raisins. We could bite into some tiny raisin bits, but could not detect any rum taste. We weren’t sure if the lack of alcoholic taste was due to the truffles being under the sun for a while, or that the alcoholic flavours were intrinsically milder. However, the warm temperature resulted in the truffles being slightly softer with the “melts in your mouth” texture, something we very much enjoyed.
Raisin Scone
The raisin scone ($3) was not too bad as well. The outer crust looked slightly wheaty, though the interior was pure white. The scone was slightly fragrant, not too overpowering in the butter taste or aroma, and still exuding the typical scone taste. It was not too heavy and starchy. On the whole, it was one of the better scones we have tried, though it would fare better with more raisins.
Wimbly Lu
15-2 Jalan Riang
Four Leaves
Four Leaves Scones
The scones from Four Leaves came in three flavours: raisins, chocolate chips & walnuts and cranberries. The scones had an inviting buttery fragrance, but unfortunately did not feature the slightest hint of scone taste. It tasted more similar to the heavier and denser version of butter sponge cake. The addition of raisins, chocolate chips and cranberries did not make much difference to the scones too. We especially disliked the layer of golden brown egg/butter which had been spread on the surface of the scone prior to baking. These plastic like layers detached very easily from the scone.
Food Ph.D’s Scone Baking IV
Freshly Baked Scones!
We embarked on another attempt at scone baking after getting some tips from The Sunday’s Times on the use of Delia Smith’s recipe. The end products were albino-looking scones, but this time round, the taste and texture were satisfactory. They were dense enough and had a thick, sticky dough like texture in the mouth. These were not overly sweet nor salty like previous attempts but somehow still lacking in the authentic English scone taste. We wondered what could have made the difference. Is it the hard water, butter milk or flour which are found and used in England?
Food Ph.D’s Raisin Scones IV:
Ingredients:
225g self-raising flour
40g butter
1.5 tablespoons sugar
75ml yoghurt
75ml milk
pinch of salt
Preparation Method:
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl and sieve the flour in on top of it. Using your fingertips, rub the butter quickly into the flour. Stir in the sugar, a pinch of salt, followed by the raisins. Take a small palette knife and mix the milk/yoghurt mixture in, a little at a time. When it is all in, flour your hands and knead it all to a soft dough. Press or roll out to form a round about 2cm thick. Cut using a floured plain round cutter. Place on a greased oven tray and glaze with milk. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until scones sound hollow when tapped. Cool on wire rack.
Jones the Grocer
Cranberry Scones
One can expect consistency in the size and quantity of Jones the Grocer’s pastries and breads as they are weighed in their dough form before being sent into the oven. Sadly, their scones are a disappointment. Made from dough using what appeared to be oat/wheat flour, they turned up to be rather tasteless and bland. The cranberries did not seem to make the scone any more flavorful. However, the dough was dense, possessing the correct texture of scone. Freshly out of the oven, it tasted warm and soft in the inside while having a slightly crispy crust. No doubt it was a rather large scone, a price of $4 for the scone was a little too steep to us.
Jones the Grocer
Level 4, #21-23 Mandarin Gallery
333a Orchard Road
Arteastiq – The Art of Teasing
Arteastiq
Kudos to the Duchess of Bedford who introduced afternoon tea! Simply cause we enjoy afternoon tea as well!
Tuscan Crispy Brioche Panini Chicken
Tuscan crispy brioche panini chicken, served with side salad and creamy mushroom soup with croutons ($11.90) – Smoked chicken and Philadelphia cream cheese puree with a hint of nutmeg, dried cranberry and alfalfa sprouts. The arrival of our panini set left us pretty disappointed. Well, we weren’t expecting Arteastiq to use Sunshine/Gardenia white bread for the sandwich. We have nothing against those breads, but we were just expecting something different such as ciabatta. The sandwich fillings were pretty mediocre, nothing extraordinary. The smoked chicken was pretty bland, didn’t really taste like it was smoked, but more of being broiled. The hint of nutmeg was also sorely lacking. However, the alfalfa sprouts did add a nice crunch to the sandwich. One thing good about the sandwich was that it was light on the palate, no strong flavours or cooking methods, making it a healthy afternoon snack.
The accompanying mushroom soup, though the description read “creamy mushroom soup”, was sadly not creamy at all. It was obviously lacking in the viscosity, thickness and richness of cream. However, we must commend on their generosity in the use of mushrooms. The soup was very strong in mushroom flavours and aroma. We could taste the huge proportion of mushroom bits and thoroughly enjoyed the grainy texture of the soup.
Raisin Scones
The Raisin Scone ($3.50) was served warm and the looks of it had already left us salivating. The nice brown colour to the scone, a “freshly baked out of the oven” fragrance and the generous number of raisins brought our hopes and expectations to a higher level. Once we cut apart the scone, steam rushed out immediately. The scone was very dense in texture. The interior was of a slight shade of brown, leading us to believe that perhaps cinnamon was added to it. It wasn’t too sweet, nor buttery, yet exuding the distinctive scone taste. There were quite a number of raisins, which delighted us as well. Interestingly, the base of the scone was harder and slightly charred, and it added crunchiness to the scone. This was certainly one of the better scones we have tried so far, putting a nice full stop to our afternoon tea.
Arteastiq
Meritus Mandarin Gallery, level 4
Food Ph.D’s Scone Baking III
Our 3rd attempt at scone baking! This time round, we replaced the milk with yoghurt – a test to see if there’s any difference between using milk or yoghurt.
Freshly Baked Scones!
Well, it turns out that there wasn’t much of a difference in taste between using yoghurt and milk. Yoghurt tends to carry a little sourish taste, but this taste was not obvious in our scones. The scones carried a strong buttery pastry fragrance. However, taste wise, they were still lacking in the traditional English scone taste. Texture wise, after the scones had cooled to room temperature, they became a little hard. The best thing about our scones?! The generous serving of raisins!!!!
Food Ph.D’s Raisin Scones III:
Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour
25g butter
150ml plain yoghurt
50g raisins
12g sugar
1 egg
pinch of salt
Preparation Method:
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Sift flour and salt together into a large bowl. Add butter and rub in lightly using fingertips. Stire in the sugar and raisins, followed by the egg. Gradually add the yoghurt, stirring until the mixture comes together to form a rough dough. Knead lightly. Press or roll out to form a round about 2cm thick. Cut using a floured plain round cutter. Place on a greased oven tray and glaze with milk. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until scones sound hollow when tapped. Cool on wire rack.
L’Espresso – Goodwood Park Hotel
L’Espresso at Goodwood Park Hotel has been touted as the choice destination for English Afternoon Tea. The buffet spread looked pretty decent, a wide range of desserts, finger food, pastries and cakes were offered. In addition, each individual gets a choice of 2 drinks – a wide range of English teas, coffees and iced drinks.
Blueberry, Raisin and Plain Scones served with Butter, Raspberry Jam and Whipped Cream
Being scone lovers, the scones were the first items we went for. Scones are a must-have for English afternoon tea! There were 3 flavours offered – Blueberry, Raisins and Plain scones. The glazed surface of the scones added a little sweetness to the scone. Texture wise, the scones weren’t very dense; they were more fluffy and resembled that of bread, but with the typical taste of scones. Our favourite scone has got to be the Raisins Scones, however we felt that the chef could have been a little more generous with the amount of raisins and blueberries. The taste of blueberry was very mild as well.
Some of the savoury stuff offered at the buffet included the Potato Croquette, Prawn and Yam Spring Roll, Pork and Beef Meatballs with BBQ Sauce, Crab Mushroom & Bacon Panini and Smoked Mozzarella Tomato & Pesto Panini. There was nothing fantastic about these few items. We mistakenly took the Pork and Beef Meatballs, without realizing that it contained beef. Something to improve on would be to explicitly label the individual dishes to avoid confusion and ensure the diners are able to correctly identify the food items.
Hot Smoked Salmon Croissant; Slow-cooked Chicken with Crepe; Foie Gras Terrine with Cranberry; Edamamme Hummus with Tomato Olive Salsa in Tartlet; Parma Ham with Melon; Butterfly Prawn in Vol-Au-Vent; Smoked Eel with Pickle Cucumber & Caviar; Smoked Chicken with Apple & Apricot in Crispy Shell
The various finger food looked really exquisite and interesting. The croissant was rather tough and cold; it felt like it was left in the open for extended periods of time. The foie gras looked and tasted like luncheon meat or pate. Our favourites included the Butterfly Prawn in Vol-Au-Vent, the Smoked Chicken with Apple & Apricot in Crispy Shell and the Slow-cooked Chicken with Crepe. The buttery crust of the Butterfly Prawn in Vol-Au-Vent was crispy and fragrant – a nice compliment to the savoury prawn. The Smoked Chicken with Apple & Apricot in Crispy Shell was a revamped kueh pie tee, with the fillings replaced with juicy sweet sour apple and apricot. The Slow-cooked Chicken with Crepe tasted very healthy and did not add on to our guilt in indulging in a buffet. An unique thing about the Edamamme Hummus is that it deviates from the conventional British hummus made typically from chickpea or beetroot; rather, it was a more fusion with Japanese or Asian fare.
Crunchy Hazelnut Chocolate; Cheesecake; Apricot Tart
The cakes offered at L’Espresso were a little disappointing. Cheesecake – no doubt it had a strong cheese flavour, it wasn’t dense and sticky enough. The base was also a disappointing spongy layer which would be better if it was a crunchy digestive-biscuit layer. The Crunchy Hazelnut Chocolate had a very rich crunchy ferrero rocher layer and an extremely soft layer of chocolate mousse. It would be better if the mousse was a bit harder and more fudgy. We felt that the cakes were left in the open for too long without any refrigeration and that probably degraded the overall texture, resulting in both cakes being on the soft side. We liked the juicy sweet apricots embedded within the egg tart-like curd of the Apricot Tart.
Chocolate Brownie; Mango Soup with Pomelo; Cassis Slice; Floating Island; Coffee Eclair; Hazelnut Praline; Chocolate & Coffee Mousse in Cup, Assorted Fruit Tartlet
Mini Desserts Galore! Perhaps the Mango Soup was left in the open for too long, it was rather warm and did not taste well. The Coffee Eclair was filled with a rather large amount of coffee cream, not as bare as the eclairs we normally have at other buffets. The Chocolate and Coffee Mousse in Cup was pretty novel and unique. However, the strong bitterness from the coffee completely overshadowed the taste of chocolate. The Chocolate Brownie was filled with walnuts and pretty dense on the outside. The Cassis Slice and Hazelnut Praline weren’t exactly mind-blowing. They were just average sponge-mousse layered cakes.
Bread and Butter Pudding with Vanilla Sauce and Raspberry Compote; Vanilla Creme Brulee
The Bread and Butter Pudding had a generous serving of raisins! That was the best part of the pudding. Somehow, though it was labelled as “raspberry compote”, we felt that they looked and tasted more like raisins. The Vanilla Creme Brulee was pretty good too. It was served on a rather shallow dish hence the proportion of charred caramel was comparable to the custard itself.
Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream
There were 2 flavours of ice cream from Häagen-Dazs. One was conventional Chocolate which tasted like Milo; the other was something akin to Raspberry Swirl with chunks of digestive-like biscuits within the ice cream. L’Espresso should probably display their ice cream under proper refrigeration. The ice cream that we took were stored in metal tins and turned out very soft and melted. It was a waste of Häagen-Dazs ice cream!
Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Cucumber; Ham with Sauteed Mushrooms; Ham with Cheddar Cheese
We left the sandwiches to nearly the end of the buffet as we didn’t want to fill our tummies up with carbohydrates. There were other sandwiches including Tuna Mayonnaise, Egg & Truffle Cream, Roast Beef with Gherkin, Smoked Pork Loin with Caramelized Onions, Turkey Ham with Dried Pear. Perhaps L’Espresso could consider making smaller slices or even open face sandwiches. The presentation of the sandwiches were pretty mediocre and hence not all that appetizing. Tastewise, it is just as it looked. One should forgo these sandwiches for the other more interesting afternoon tea items.
Cheese Board
For cheese lovers, there’s also a cheese board with 5 different kinds of cheeses!
Tea and Coffee!
We tried 2 different teas – Rosehips with Hibiscus Flowers (Fruit Infusion Series) and the Sencha (Green Tea Series). The Rosehips was very rich in flavour. It was on the sour fruity side and was rather refreshing, definitely a drink that simulates your appetite for afternoon tea. The Sencha, on the other hand, was more mild and bland. In fact, it tasted like any other green tea we have around. We also had the Caffe Chocolate which was chocolate sauce, regular coffee topped with whipped cream. Honestly, we did not detect any chocolate taste, all we tasted was the rich bitter black coffee.
The English Afternoon Tea at L’Espresso was priced at $42 per pax. For a meatless, carbohydrates and sugar loaded meal, it was on the expensive side. However, this is definitely a good place to while away an idle afternoon, catch up with friends as well as indulge in sweet treats in a comfortable and relaxing ambience. Service was commendable too.
L’Espresso
Goodwood Park Hotel
22 Scotts Road
Fosters – An English Rose Cafe
Hidden in a corner of a row of shop houses at Holland Village is Fosters – An English Rose Cafe. From 3 – 6pm daily, Fosters is offering its Devonshire Cream Tea Set, and this is the main pull factor attracting us there.
Devonshire Cream Tea
(clockwise from top left) Scones; Sandwiches; Lemon Tea
The Devonshire Cream Tea Set consists of Fosters’ signature oven hot scones, a fruit pound cake, finger sandwiches (tomato and eggs), freshly brewed coffee or tea and served with butter, homemade strawberry preserve and fresh cream.
Let’s talk about the bad parts about the Devonshire Cream Tea Set. Firstly, the sandwiches aren’t appetizing. It was simply wholemeal and plain bread sandwiching a layer of boiled eggs and tomatoes. The whole preparation and plating of the sandwiches seemed rather slipshod. Secondly, the fruit pound cake was rather dry and lacking in dried fruits as well.
And now, the good thing! The discovery of good scones!! The scones from Fosters had a harder and crispier outer texture, with a fluffy centre. There was a strong buttery fragrance and taste. The scones weren’t too sweet and was rather light on the palate. The scones were honestly one of the better ones we have tried in Singapore. The downside was that there were very few raisins.
Fosters – An English Rose Cafe
277 Holland Avenue, Holland Village
Food Ph.D’s Scone Baking II
Our 2nd attempt at baking scones saw us tweaking the recipes here and there, reading up a little more on scones and playing with the ingredients here and there.
before putting into the oven...
baking in the oven...
freshly baked! 13 raisin scones
This time round, we reduced the amount of butter while maintaining the same amount of flour. No baking powder and sugar were added. We also added water to create lighter scones. At the same time, we reduced the force and time spent kneading the dough. If you are too heavy-handed and knead the dough too much, the scones would turn out very tough. Less extra flour was also added during the kneading as too much would result in a tougher and drier mixture.
Alas, after all our considerations and tweaking of the recipe, the scones did not turn out as well as expected. Texture wise, they deviated even more from the authentic British scones. Taste wise, it was less buterry but did taste a bit over-baked. The scones were too starchy as well; it felt like we were having balls of starch. Disappointed we were, but we will still try again!
Food Ph.D’s Raisin Scones II:
Ingredients:
2 cups (250g) self-raising flour
30g butter
1/2 cup (125ml) milk
1/2 cup (125ml) water
50g raisins
pinch of salt
Preparation Method:
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Sift flour and salt together into a large bowl. Add butter and rub in lightly using fingertips. Combine milk and water. Make a well in the centre of the flour. Pour in liquid all at once, reserving about a teaspoon for glazing. Mix quickly to a soft dough. Turn onto a floured board. Knead lightly. Press or roll out to form a round about 2cm thick. Cut using a floured plain round cutter. Place on a greased oven tray and glaze with milk. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until scones sound hollow when tapped. Cool on wire rack.
Food Ph.D’s Scone Baking!
For the past few months, we have tried scones from all over the island. And today is the day – our virgin attempt at baking scones!
before putting into the oven...
baking in the oven...
freshly baked! 7 raisin scones!
This recipe gave scones that turned out with a bread-like texture, more fluffy and less dense than the usual scones we usually have. The butter taste is rather strong with a fragrance. I guess we’ll have to tweak our recipe to achieve the best scones!
Food Ph.D’s Raisin Scones:
Ingredients:
50g unsalted butter
225g self-raising flour
150ml milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
25g sugar
50g raisins
pinch of salt
1 egg
Preparation Method:
Preheat the oven to 220°C and grease a large baking tray with butter. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and add the butter. Using your fingertips, rub the ingredients together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add a pinch of salt. Sift in the sugar and raisins, followed by the egg. Gradually add the milk, stirring until the mixture comes together to form a rough dough. Lightly knead until the dough is smooth. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and roll out until it is 1cm thick. Cut out scones with a round 3cm cutter. Place the scones onto the baking tray and brush with milk. Bake the scones for 10 minutes, or until golden-brown and cooked through. Serve the scones warm.
Gloria Jean’s Coffees
Plain Scone
Nothing beats having a good scone to kick start our days! Till date, Gloria Jean’s Coffees has one of the widest scone selections – 4 flavours including the original (plain), raisins, pumpkin and green tea. Since it’s our first time trying their scones, we went for the conventional original flavour.
Taste and texture wise, the scone met our requirements. The scone was not too sweet, rather dense and moist.
Gloria Jean’s Coffees
#01-100/101, Vivo City
1 Harbourfront Walk
Sun Moulin
Piroshiki
Piroshiki – Japanese white soft bun with Japanese style pork and bamboo shoot filling. Piroshiki was something like an adapted version of the chinese dabao (大包) – a steamed bun with flavoured chicken/pork fillings. Fillings wise, the Japanese style pork did not taste different from the conventional dabao. However, Piroshiki’s uniqueness lies in the melted cheese on the top! Coupled with the baking process, Piroshiki is chinese dabao transformed!
Cheddar Scone
The Cheddar Scone from Sun Moulin does not belong to the category of authentic British scones. It was more like a scone-flavoured bread, which was less dense and more fluffy. We guessed that amount of milk/cream wasn’t enough and perhaps yeast was added, resulting in the bread-like texture. The Cheddar taste wasn’t particularly strong as well. This will be our first and only brush with Sun Moulin’s scones; we would stick to their interesting variety of breads and best-selling egg tarts.
Sun Moulin
Basement 1, Isetan Scotts
350 Orchard Road
Ph.Ds of FOOD 