Canadian Tea Food

CANADIAN TEA BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut in shortening with a knife or pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir Cheddar cheese and chives into flour mixture; gradually stir in milk to form a soft dough.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and with floured hands, knead until smooth, about 15 times. Roll dough out to a 1-inch thickness with a floured rolling pin. Cut biscuits with a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter; place onto an ungreased baking sheet. Press dough trimmings together, roll out again, and cut remaining dough into rounds.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

SCONES / TEA BISCUITS (CANADIAN LIVING)

Steps:

• Line rimless baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat; or dust lightly with flour. Set aside.
• In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Pour buttermilk over top and stir with fork to form soft, slightly sticky ragged dough.
• Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. With lightly floured hands, knead gently 10 times to smooth dough, adding a sprinkle more flour to the work surface if needed. Gently pat or roll out into generous ½-inch thick round. Using 2-inch cutter, cut out rounds. Place on prepared baking sheet. Gather up scraps and repat dough; cut out more rounds, pressing any remaining scraps into a final scone (the bakers's scone).
• Brush tops of scones with egg. Bake in centre of 425°F oven until golden, about 15 minutes. Let cool on pan on rack for 5 minutes. Transfer to racks to finish cooling.
• Tip: Before cutting out scones, dip cutter into flour, repeating the dipping between cuts so cutter doesn't stick. Always cut out scones, or any cookie, with as little space as possible between rounds as possible. You can reroll the scraps, but at every rerolling the results are tougher. So get as many rounds as you can out of the first roll.

CANADIAN TEA

Steps:

• Combine the cranberries, cinnamon, lemon juice, orange juice and sugar in a large saucepan and pour on the rapidly boiling water. Stir well and let the mixture steep for 10 minutes. Strain and serve hot, or chill and serve cold over ice.