2014 Cooking Club Week 30: Sweet Scones

Faith

This weeks poster is a no-show so I've been drafted in at the last minute as a replacement! As such, I've no pictures to share, unfortunately.

This is an old recipe that's been floating around my house since I was a kid. It makes the best scones I've ever had - light, fluffy, without that weird dryness that comes with some scones that have too much baking powder. Sultanas are optional, but I'd always add them.

This is a very versatile recipe too - you could mix it up quite a bit. Alternatives might be a apple and cinnamon version, or you could even do a chocolate chip version!

Enough of the prattle, here's the recipe!

This makes about 18 - 20 scones, but they're perfect for freezing if you won't eat them all in a few days.

Ingredients:

900g plain flour
170g butter
3 eggs
Pinch of salt
55g castor sugar
3 American tablespoons/ 3 heaped teaspoons baking powder
15 fl oz/ 425ml milk
125g sultanas (optional)

Glaze:

Egg wash (1 egg beaten with a a splash of milk - no need for precision here)
Granulated sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 240 degrees conventional/ 220 degrees fan/ gas mark 9

2.Sieve all dry ingredients into a LARGE bowl

3. Rub in the butter well. If you're not sure what this means, cut the butter into chunks and, using your fingertips, literally rub it into the dry ingredients, lifting it up out of the bowl as you do it to get air in. It's done when all the butter is rubbed in and no lumps remain, and the texture will be like breadcrumbs.

4. Make a well in the centre of the bowl.

5. Whisk the eggs with the milk

6. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix to a soft dough, using your hands

7. If you're adding sultanas, now is the time to mix them in.

8. Turn the dough on to a floured surface and knead lightly to form a round. It shouldn't too sticky at this stage - knead with more flour if it still is.

9. Roll out to about 1 inch thick and use a cutter to cut into scones. Be careful about using a glass for this, as the pressure can cause a glass to shatter.

10. When you've cut all the scones from the first batch of dough, gather it together, knead it lightly again and repeat until all your dough is used.

11. Put scones onto a baking sheet, ideally lined with parchment.

12. Brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle granulated sugar over them

13. Bake in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Keep an eye on them after 10 minutes as the tops can burn, but it's likely to take 15 minutes.

14. To check if they're done, knock on the bottom with your knuckle. If it sounds hollow, they're cooked.

15. Cool on a wire rack, and then served decadently with raspberry jam and freshly whipped cream

Enjoy!

leahyl

Sounds like a lovely recipe Faith! Can't wait to try these!

Dizzyblonde

I'll definitely make these Faith, I've been looking for a good recipe for sweet scones

Princess Peach

I love scones but with only two of us in the house would never eat a whole batch. But gonna try this!

Do you freeze the scones after baking or the dough before baking?

Faith

Princess Peach wrote: »

I love scones but with only two of us in the house would never eat a whole batch. But gonna try this!

Do you freeze the scones after baking or the dough before baking?

I freeze them after baking. I'm not sure how freezing the dough would go, but maybe someone else knows!

Princess Peach

I'll freeze them when they are baked, just wanted to check

RosyLily

Made these today. So delish!!! Lovely, light and sweet. The sugar topping made them extra crunchy. Had one of them fresh out of the oven...butter melted into it.

Will definitely bake them again.:)

Charlie 08

Made these last wk and even though they were pathetic looking because I rolled the dough too thin, they tasted fantastic and will definitely be made again!

Faith

So glad that they worked out so well for both of you!

I need an excuse to make these. I love scones! Recipe looks good Faith.

oscarBravo

I've found my new scone recipe, these are amazing! Thanks, Faith!

Faith

Aw, heart-shaped and all! They look gorgeous

tampopo

They DO look very nice. Well done Oscar Bravo...

I'll try your recipe too, Faith...

leahyl

I'm not a bad baker but for some reason I could never master scones...until today! This recipe is amazing! Have no idea what I was doing wrong before! Thanks Faith!

ChewChew

Im currently on maternity leave and I wanted to make something simple and tasty but not too hard work so when I came here and saw this thread it was a no brainer! And omg are they delicious!! Thanks faith, great recipe!

leahyl

They are lovely and big looking Chew Chew! What did you use to cut them? Mine were high too but smaller in size

ChewChew

leahyl wrote: »

They are lovely and big looking Chew Chew! What did you use to cut them? Mine were high too but smaller in size

I just used a small-ish glass because I (embarrassingly) don't have cutters! They are a perfect size and I got 19 out of the mixture so I text my mam a picture and she landed at my door not long after they are yum!!

leahyl

ChewChew wrote: »

I just used a small-ish glass because I (embarrassingly) don't have cutters! They are a perfect size and I got 19 out of the mixture so I text my mam a picture and she landed at my door not long after they are yum!!

That's ok I used a glass too but they weren't quite as big as yours, still delicious though!

Faith

Just be careful using glasses because the pressure can cause them to shatter :eek:

tampopo

Faith, just tried your recipe there now. I got a bit freaked by the 900g of flour, so I halved all the quantities. Incl an egg and a half! I used the other half for the sheen on the top. Only thing different I used roughly 50g of sugar and it still wasn't as sweet as I'm used to scones being, so I had 'em with raspberry jam on.
With a mug o' tae, they were wonderfully fluffly and light, just the way I like them and have not been able to replicate. It must be the egg that's making the difference. 'I just made it home without getting too wet and felt a bit miserable what with it being Friday and all, and the inclement weather. They're good comfort food.
I ran out of plain flour so added the difference with self-raising. That's why the packet is in the photo...




Well, I'll give it a go again, half quantities and report back! ty

homemadecider

I made these today, it was a great recipe and easy to make. I left out the sultanas as I'm not a fan of dried fruit. I've just eaten one of these with a big dollop of strawberry jam, they are feckin gorgeous! Thanks for a lovely recipe.

Faith

Oh they look great! Beautifully risen

leahyl

Faith, just so you know, my dad loves a fruit scone so I gave this recipe to my mum and she uses it very regularly to make a batch of scones for him and freezes them! Fab recipe!

RuckingSwimmer

Made these tonight. Didn't quite have enough flour for half the recipe so topped it up with ground almonds. Got ten out of the recipe using a pint glass as a cutter and flattening with my hands as haven't got a rolling pin yet 😠(only eight in the picture as we obviously had to test them immediately!) First time making scones and they'll definitely be a regular recipe now! Thanks Faith!

Faith

Glad you enjoyed them! I'm intrigued that you used almond flour. Did it work well?

RuckingSwimmer

Faith wrote: »

Glad you enjoyed them! I'm intrigued that you used almond flour. Did it work well?

I used less than 100g of the 450g so it probably wasn't enough to make any difference really - I'd be tempted to make a small batch (1/3 the original recipe) and use 150g flour 150g ground almond with some flaked almonds on top. That might be next weeks plan if I remember to buy flour

Dizzyblonde

I made these last night and they really are amazing

Photo in the Cakes & Bakes forum:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=99641078&postcount=27

Great recipe Faith. They didn't rise as high as some of the others here and I wonder why... I've never managed to get big tumbly scones even when I consciously don't overwork the dough. Maybe I needed more raising agent, I dunno. But either way, they were delicious, and having 18 of them, I was able to drop off scones with jam and cream to multiple friends yesterday. :pac:

livinsane

I finally made these today and am well impressed with them! Baby due in a few days so most have gone into the freezer to see me through the next few weeks. Thanks for the recipe!

Liamalone

Could you prep these beforehand, at say 8am, and then bung in oven at 10am? Or would the mix then fail

BaZmO*

Liamalone wrote: »

Could you prep these beforehand, at say 8am, and then bung in oven at 10am? Or would the mix then fail

Would you not just bake them and then let them cool?

Liamalone

BaZmO* wrote: »

Would you not just bake them and then let them cool?

Time constraints, only have twenty mins or so in work kitchen before starting work, then fifteen minutes around 10am to make stuff for morning tea.

Faith

Liamalone wrote: »

Could you prep these beforehand, at say 8am, and then bung in oven at 10am? Or would the mix then fail

I reckon you could, as long as you refrigerate the dough in between. Scones are best made with very cold ingredients, so chilling between prepping and baking should enhance that.

Report back and let us know how it went!

Dizzyblonde

I made these again today, and I have a load of mascarpone cream and jam just waiting for them to cool

DavyD_83

I'm going to try make these this evening if i get a chance.
Has anybody successfully converted to Gluten Free?

I'll just try same quantities with subbing in GF flour (then maybe tweak later versions based on the results), but if somebody else has already done the trial and error it'd be great to hear.

Faith

I’d imagine you’d need a stabilizer with gf flour, like xanthan gum. Likely to be too crumbly otherwise and may fall apart when you cut into them.

Faith

I actually just made these myself today, for the first time in years. You just can’t beat a good scone!

Cork Lass

I have them in the oven now - can’t wait to have one with a nice cup of tea