Scrumptious Scones

Yesterday I made scones. I love baking sweet things, but sometimes I just need something a little more savoury! These are the perfect size for me, as I find when a scone is too big, it one, sits in the pit of your tum tum and second, it is a little bit of a waste.

Alright, if you are ravenous and want a big one, I get that. This is coming from someone who loves their food, I'm just like my dad in that way. But the thing about these little ones I make is that you can have as many as you like, and without the worry of having too many. If you don't want a whole massive one, you don't have to. Four of these little ones I make are like the equivalent to one massive one.

They stay fresher for longer too. If you think about it, cutting through one large scone and only eating half, means that it'll go all stale and sad. Whereas, if you have one little scone, it'll stay fresh as you'll eat the whole thing and then if you want another, have one. No waste or sad little stale scones.

I love making scones, from the texture of the dough to the shine of the egg wash on the scones. Then when they puff up and go all golden brown and crisp, it is just wonderful.

The ingredients you'll need to make these are pretty simple and humble. They are your basic kitchen staples. This is a BBC Food recipe, made more unique to me by adding a few changes.


Ingredients:

- 225g Self-Raising Flour, it says organic, I use my regular flour
- 1/4 tsp salt, I put less than that- the smallest pinch you can muster
- 50g Butter, it said slightly salted, I used unsalted
- 25g Golden caster sugar, I used normal caster sugar, either way it wasn't golden
- 125ml buttermilk and 4 tbsp full fat, I used 130ml of semi-skimmed
- I added an egg then to egg wash the tops of the scones

These are very small changes, but they make a big difference.

The recipe said to bake these at 200C fan oven, I baked them at 180-200 C and fluctuated it when and if it was cooking quicker or slower than I needed.

It also said to bake them for 12 minutes, I found it took around 15 minutes and then cooled them on a cooling rack until they were cooled.

Method:

I started by lining two trays with a little flour, same as I used for the scones themselves. and then left them to chill, get to know their surroundings and relax.

I then weighed out all the ingredients and left them until they were needed.

Put the flour into a deep mixing bowl along with the salt and sugar. Mix this in to ensure it is all combined.

Add in the butter and use your fingers to rub it into the flour. This should go a slightly creamier colour and look like breadcrumbs.

Add in the milk and mix this in until it binds together. Knead with your hands slightly to make a smooth, pliable dough. Don't knead too much though or the scone dough will go all tough.

Flour a clean surface with a little flour and plop the dough onto it. Use the bottom edge of your hands and rotate the dough. This will shape it into a little ball shape and then flatten. Flatten this until it is around half a thumb's height and use a small cutter to cut the scones out.

This recipe makes around 7 scones.

Place the scones onto a floured tray and then brush them with egg wash and bake for around 15 minutes until they have risen, are golden brown and puffed up.

Take out of the oven and have a look at the base of them, and if they are golden brown on the top and base and sound slightly hollow, they are done.

They may look under done, but they aren't. They need to cool and settle.

Then they are done and ready to eat! Enjoy these either on their own, as they are perfect as is, or with jam and then cream or just plain and simple, butter.

I really enjoyed making these and I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog post? Short and sweet.

Thanks again and I'll be blogging about the lemon meringue buns soon!

Ciara