Grandad's Pumpkin Scones

Grandad’s Pumpkin Scones

Grandad Hill is the master of bush cooking. All of his best recipes have been developed from years of hiking in the Snowy Mountains, feeding ravenous walkers at the end of the day. His pumpkin scone recipe is best cooked in a camp oven and enjoyed around a fire but it can be recreated in an oven.

Ingredients:

2 oz butter/margarine

Half cup castor sugar

1 egg

1 cup cold mashed pumpkin

2 cups Self Raising flour

Optional nutmeg

Method:

Use the blade of a knife to cream butter and sugar. Beat in an egg. Stir in pumpkin. Add Self Raising flour and mix until just combined. Tip onto a floured surface. Sprinkle liberally with flour. The dough should be quite wet. Push dough out until approx 1.5cm thick. Cut into 16-18 rough square pieces, place on greased and floured tray. Wipe the top of each scone with butter or milk. Place in pre-heated oven (200 degrees). After a couple of minutes drop the temperature to 175 degrees. Cooking time 11-12min. Place scones on wire tray and cover with tea towel. Eat while still warm. Makes 16-18.

Milo and White Chocolate Biscuits

These biscuits were developed through trial and error; Jilllian's Year 12 class being the lab rats used to refine the recipe. They were inspired by the school canteen which sells Milo muffins for breakfast! Hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened

1/2 t vanilla essence

1 cup castor sugar (or less)

1 egg

1/2 cup Milo

1 & 1/2 cups self raising flour

150g white chocolate melts

Method:

Preheat oven to Moderate (180 Celsius). Cream the butter, vanilla essence and sugar then slowly add the egg and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in the Milo, flour and white chocolate. Roll into balls and bake in a moderate oven for 12-15mins or until just golden on top. Makes approx 30 biscuits.

Creating Gift Bags for Year 12

As their final exams loom ever closer Year 12 students need encouragement (and sugar). These gift bags are a nice way to say "keep studying!". We wanted to give gift bags filled with lollies but buying them at $1 or more a bag seemed exorbitant, so we made our own. It turned out to be really easy and meant we could personalise each gift and spend more on the lollies!

 


The finished product



  To make your own gift bags follow these steps:

Step One
Cut paper to 30cm x 21.5cm. We used spare scrapbooking paper as the extra weight makes the bags tougher.



Step Two

Fold the longer length of the paper up 3cm. Once you have a crease open the paper out again.

 Step Three

Glue the shorter edges together to create a tube. Fold the 3cm section you creased earlier into the inside of the tube. Flatten the tube into a rectangle.

Step Four

Using a hole punch make holes for handles through all layers. Measure on each side of the punch to ensure your holes will be centred.

Step Five

Fold the side of your rectangle opposite the holes up 6.5cm and crease. Fold the upper layer of this fold out at both ends.

 

Step Six

Fold the bottom edge of your diamond up approx 2.5cm and then the top edge down the same distance to create an overlap. This forms the base of your bag. Glue the overlapping sections together and allow to dry for a minute or two.



Step Seven

Fold the outside edges of your bag in at the centre of the diamond created by forming the base and crease. Open out this fold.

Step Eight

Carefully open out your bag and form the shape of the sides using the creases you created in step seven.



Step Nine

Cut two lengths of cord approx 32cm. Knot one end of the cord and thread it through the holes on one side of the bag. Tie a knot in the other end of the cord to hold it in place. Repeat this with the second piece of cord on the opposite side of the bag.

Step Ten

Fill your gift bag with a selection of lollies (we used Lifesavers, Time Out's, KitKat's, Nerds and Smarties as they all relate to study in some way).