Ruby Grapefruit Marmalade

Earlier this week I made ruby grapefruit marmalade based on the recipe for orange marmalade in Sally Wise's A Year in a Bottle - great book, so inspiring!

When I say 'based on' I mean that rather more loosely than I intended... not only did I substitute ruby grapefruit and their juice for the oranges and orange juice (which is fine according to the recipe) I forgot to put in a lemon (which is NOT fine according to the recipe).

I was rather cranky when I realised that I had forgotten the lemon because I thought it meant that the marmalade wouldn't set properly... it looked very runny. But what do you know - once it had thoroughly cooled it set just fine! So I am over my grump.

Gosh I love marmalade, making it AND especially eating it! Do you? This one tastes great. And it was so easy - you chop the fruit finely in the food processor so it doesn't take long at all.

My husband and I have had the ambition this year to make one preserve a month - we're a bit behind (although I cheated a little and made lavender sugar and cinnamon sugar one night, just to get us a bit up to speed! Ha!) but we're not doing too badly, which means we will have plenty of homemade goodies to all ready to hand out at Christmas time rather than making things in a bit of a rush at the last minute!

Thyme and Prosciutto Scones

I signed up to be part of Bake Your Own Bread, which is not just about baking bread but baking oodles of other things as well, and this is my first... Hmm, I'm not even sure what to call it... entry? installment? Whatever, it's my first thing for BYOB, anyway. 

I made these scones to have with some pumpkin and carrot soup when my parents and brother came over for dinner on Sunday night. The recipe is from The Women's Weekly Bake cookbook and originally called for sage, but then I remembered that my dad doesn't like sage (pity! It's so nice!) so I used some thyme instead. You actually couldn't taste it that much unfortunately; I should have used more.  

Other than that the scones were very yummy and a perfect accompaniment to the soup. I would normally serve bread with soup but I hadn't had time to make any, and I thought that some savoury scones would be a good alternative. It was certainly a perfect day for baking and having soup; incredibly changeable weather, pouring rain one minute, sunny the next, and chilly the whole time! 

I remember from Home Ec classes at school, when we made cheese scones we were told we should never end up with flour in the palms of our hands when rubbing the butter into the flour, only on our fingertips. I try! I am not sure about my technique though, it always seems to make my hands cramp up. Maybe I'm rubbing too hard? Or maybe I just need more practice. 

Speaking of scones (or rather things to have with them), on the weekend my husband made the pumpkin jam from A Year In A Bottle (I helped a bit, but got caught up with the baby). Isn't it the most amazing colour? 

There's quite a lot of lemon zest and juice in it so it tastes almost like a lemon curd. Can't wait to have it with some plain scones for afternoon tea! Perhaps when my first flush Darjeeling tea order arrives from Thunderbolt Tea...