Doing It Ourselves - Episode 1

My name is Michael Petherick and I live with my family at Chateau de la Basmaignee in north west France.
My brother and his fiancé bought this building with some inheritance money three years ago and we are slowly restoring it to live in, and run as a business.
It’s always a financial struggle to keep the place going and we have to work hard to keep our heads above water, but we love it and wouldn’t have It any other way.
When they knew that they were buying the château, my brother asked me if I would like to move over and take part in their new adventure... so I packed my bags, gave up my life in England and moved here to help bring this place back to life.
We do all the renovations ourselves including construction, decorating and collecting antique furniture that we buy cheaply to restore. Our goal is to fill the château with beauty and life as it once was.
I have a passion for history, art and all things old.
These videos are a series of stories about my life and experiences living in a French castle.
We film and edit everything ourselves.
I’ll be showing all aspects of life here, from renovation and DIY, to crafts and baking, art, daily life and a bit of fun thrown in for good measure. There’s much more to see and our journey is still just beginning.
Help me to keep making videos and restoring this building by visiting my patreon page.
www.patreon.com/user?u=33158583
Follow the château behind the scenes on Instagram
/ chateaudelabasmaignee
Visit the chateau website
www.basmaignee.com
Find me on Instagram / picturepetherick
Link to my friend Stephanie’s tour:
• TOUR THIS MAGNIFICENT ...
All Music Licensed through Epidemic Sound
Michael’s rough sulatana scones.
This recipe works best when done by hand the old fashioned way. Food mixers tend to ruin the final texture.
Makes 8 (double ingredients for 16)
Preheat oven to 220C/200-fan oven (420f)
Ingredients.
240g Plain Flour (or half plain / half bread flour)
1 tsp Cream or tartar
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
90g Unsalted butter (chilled)
45g Caster Sugar
90g Sulatanas
1 Large egg
100ml Milk
( If you don’t have cream of tartar or bicarbonate of soda, you can use 1 slightly heaped teaspoon of baking powder instead. Although the cream of tartar and bicarb’ tastes much better)
Method:
Sift together flour, sugar, cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl.
Cut chilled butter into small cubes and add to bowl.
Gently rub the butter and dry mix together between thumb and fingers. (This bit requires patience)
When completely combined your mixture should look like fine breadcrumbs.
Add the sultanas.
Beat together the egg and milk in a separate bowl and add to the mix - saving just enough to brush a tiny bit on each scone before baking. (One or two tablespoons full)
Mix well with a wooden spoon until fully combined.
The texture should be a fluffy but firm, slightly sticky paste.
Spoon 8 separate heaped tablespoons of mixture on to your baking tray, lined with a silicon baking sheet or greased baking paper.
Space evenly to give them enough room to double in size when baking.
Add any leftover mix to the scones that seem smaller than the rest. Or scoop some mix from oversized ones to add to the smallest.
There should be 8 evenly sized mounds.
Gently fluff up each scone with the tip of the spoon so each one has a slightly spiky texture.
Gently brush on a little of the remaining egg/milk mix.
Bake in the oven on the middle shelf for 15 minutes, or until risen and golden.