Categories: Baked Goodies - Biscuits & Scones
Ingredients
Directions
-
Light, fluffy scones take some practice, but you can do it! There are a few secrets you need to know before you tackle a recipe.
-
First of all, make sure the recipe you are using is a good one. The best proportion of flour to butter is ½ cup of butter for every 2 cups of flour. More butter will make softer scones but too little butter will result in dry and heavy scones.
-
The type of flour you use is important. Don’t use bread or strong flour unless the recipe calls for it, and avoid wholemeal and other whole grain flours. They will make the scones tough and heavy.
-
The best combination is plain flour or what the Americans call cake flour. Cake flour is soft flour that has less gluten protein. We don’t have it here in Australia, but you can make your own from plain flour and cornflour. For every 1-cup plain flour, take out 2 tablespoons and replace with 2 tablespoons of cornflour, then sift using a sieve or a metal sifter.
-
When the recipe calls for baking powder and bicarb soda, make sure to use both! Baking powder provides the most reliable leavening, and baking soda helps neutralize acid ingredients in the scones for the best flavour.
-
Butter is essential for the lightest and fluffiest scones! And it must be cold, ideally frozen, then you can grate it into the flour, the same way you would when making pastry.
-
Butter forms small pockets throughout the scone dough, and as it melts in the oven, the carbon dioxide from the raising agent (baking powder and bicarb soda) takes its place so the scones rise. If the butter melts or softens before the scones bake, the scones will be hard and flat because there’s no place for the carbon dioxide to go except out of the scones!
-
Finally, a light touch is essential! Handle the dough and the scones as little as possible. You don’t want gluten to develop and you want the butter to stay cold until the scones bake, so hands off! Think of handling clouds or other very delicate objects during this whole process.
-
If you’re using a cookie cutter to cut the scones, don’t twist the cutter after cutting the dough. Twisting a round cutter, while removing it, will cause the scone edges to seal. This will inhibit them from rising.
-
Fresh ingredients, especially the raising agents bicarbonate of soda and baking powder, are essential to perfect scones.
-
For soft-sided scones, bake them with the edges touching, or instead of cutting right through the dough, just cut indentations almost all the way just enough to allow the dough to be broken apart when baked.
-
For crusty-sided scones, bake them ½ -1 centimetre apart on the baking sheet.
-
To freeze scones place them individually on a paper lined baking sheet. Place in the freezer until frozen. Once frozen remove them to a zip lock freezer bag.
-
To make them even more special, serve them with a sweet or savoury compound butter.
-
Scones can also be flavoured with dried fruit such as raisins, sultanas and dates.
-
You can substitute the milk with buttermilk for a slightly tart scone.