The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is one of the more engaging books I've read recently. I find that the books I read come in a variety of categories- there are the "Coffee Shop Books" that I read partly for their merit, partly because I want to be seen reading them (see: The Master and Margarita). And then, like Sweetness there are the "Sunday Morning Books." Sunday Morning Books can tend to be as light and airy as the pastries I eat while reading them, and are best read while wrapped in a cozy sweater sipping tea. This doesn't mean Sunday Morning Books are all fluff- I would count Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go among my Sunday Morning Books, both of which are have a depth to them that goes beyond mere entertainment.
Sweetness's strength is it's precocious 11 year-old protagonist Flavia de Luce. She is nosy, far too smart for her own good, and can often exhibit a curious lack of empathy (mostly towards her sisters). But she is so, so much fun. And it speaks volumes that a book could take something as boring-sounding as stamp collecting and make it a glamorous pretense for a murder mystery.
So with a name like Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the obvious choice for a cook-a-long to go with this book would have been pie. I was feeling a bit more inspired, however, and a little bit put off of pie since a one in the book contained something in the bottom that was far from sweet. Instead, I decided to go for the quintessential anglophilic fare: Scones and a hot mug of tea!
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Spelt Flour Lingonberry Scones
Adapted from One Frugal Foodie, who in turn adapted it from Erin McKenna's Babycakes Cookbook.
These scones are dairy-free, wheat-free, soy-free and vegan, if you use agave instead of honey. Don't expect them to be the scones you're used to- the texture is a little bit cakier, and the taste isn't quiiiite there- they aren't the flakey, rich and somehow mellow at the same time taste I remember- but they're close. As I've learned in coping with a food sensitivity, sometimes you have to settle, and these scones don't hit too far off the mark.
Ingredients
I've provided two sets of measurements below- one for the folks stateside, and a second set using the Finnish measuring system. Note that they're not necessarily equal (1 cup equals about 4.7 dL while I've called for 5 in the Finnish version).
2 cups Spelt Flour / 5 dL spelttijauhoja
1 Tbsp Baking Powder / 1 rkl leivinjauhoja
1/2 tsp Salt / 1/2 tl suolaa
1/3 cup Canola Oil* / 1 dL ripsyöjly
1/3 cup Honey or Agave / 1 dL hunajaa
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract/ 1 rkl vanilija-aromia
1/4 cup Hot Water / 1/2 dL kuumaa vetta
1 cup fresh or frozen Lingonberries / 2 dL puolukoita
Large Sugar Crystals (optional) / Rapea Raesokeri (valinnainen)
Preheat oven to 350 F / 175 C and grease a baking sheet. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together spelt flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the oil, honey, and vanilla extract- the dough should be at this point all combined, but fairly dry. Add the hot water and stir. Lastly, fold in the Lingonberries.
Scoop the batter in little palm-sized lumps onto the baking sheet. Lightly brush the tops with oil, and sprinkle with the large sugar crystals if using. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning once. When you pull the scones out, they'll have gained a little color and will be slightly firm. Let them cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
* About the oil- Coconut oil would be a great choice here; I didn't use it because it is expensive and I have no idea where to find it in Turku. If you do decide to use coconut oil, just know that you have to melt it first (putting the sealed jar in a tub of hot water well beforehand works for me), and that you should either use fresh berries or defrost the frozen ones, as they'll cause the coconut oil to re-solidify.
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Other things that go well with this book:
- a necklace Flavia would love
- the Penny Black itself
- can't afford the stamp? how about a mouse pad to show off your love for philately?
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That's all my thoughts for now! Here's my Goodreads review, if you're interested- I'm off to finish my tea, eat a scone, and bury myself in the next novel...
<3 ta!
