Today I am still talking scones. They have been on my mind since yesterday. There are so many flavours which can be made, sweet or savoury. I have tried cheese and leek scones which we had for tea last night. We had them with broth , in fact, I placed the cooked scones on top of the broth to warm through and they made a nice change to dumplings. Frying the leeks really helped with the flavour of the leeks. It intensified the flavour and helped to dry them out so that less moisture was added to the mixture.
Other flavours which I would try are cheese and pancetta, which my daughter would enjoy. The pancetta which has a smokiness to it, would enhance the cheese in the scone. I would also try mozzarella but this is a very watery cheese and would probably ruin the scone texture. My daughter would enjoy gruyère cheese in them but I think this cheese is quite tasteless.
I would also like to add mushrooms in the scones or even sundried tomatoes. I would remove the cheese from the scones and alter the recipe by adding garlic, rosemary, basil ( fresh would be fantastic). There are so many combinations and all of these would be an instant hit with my family.
My scone recipe is a very basic one which includes egg and milk. The egg definitely enriches the scone mixture as I have made scones before without egg and they are just not the same. I add mustard powder to my scone mixture as when combined with the cheese it helps to increase the flavour of the cheese tenfold. I always sprinkle plenty of cheese on the top of the scones before baking as it crisps up in the oven and the colour of the top of the scone is so enticing. I would even try sprinkling parmesan cheese on the top of the scones prior to baking to give a different flavour and colour to the scone.
[lt_recipe name=”Cheese & Leek Scones” servings=”8″ prep_time=”10M” cook_time=”15M” total_time=”25M” difficulty=”Easy” print=”yes” summary=”Nutritionally, one scone contains 209 calories, 8.9g total fat (11% daily total fat), 24.2g total carbohydrate (9% daily total carbohydrate), 0.9g fibre (3% daily fibre) (based on a 2000 calorie diet).” image=”https://www.love-to-bake.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/cheese.jpg” ingredients=”8oz self raising flour;0.5 tsp salt;1 tsp baking powder;0.5 tsp mustard powder;1oz butter;4oz cheese;2oz leeks;1 egg plus milk up to 150 ml;” ]Preheat the oven to gas 7.;Mix flour, salt, baking powder and mustard together.;Rub in the butter.;Add the cheese and leeks. (keep some cheese for the topping);Add the egg and milk into the mixture to form a soft dough.;Pat out the dough to desired thickness and cut out the scones.;Sprinkle with cheese.;Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.[/lt_recipe]
For the sweet scones, one idea I am going to try involves using up the sweet mincemeat and swirling it through the sweet scone recipe. My husband is looking forward to these scones as when I told him my idea his reply was “go for it”. For the topping I will be sprinkling with brown sugar which will crisp up in the oven. Other sweet scone flavours which I am going to try are plum and ginger. My two favourite crumble flavours at the moment and what I have on my granola and yoghurt on a morning. I would sauté the chopped plums to try to remove some of the moisture from them before adding to the scone mixture. This would give the plums a slight caramelisation and it would help bring out the flavour of the plums. I would use some crystallised ginger in the recipe as it would even up any bitterness which the plums may have. I would garnish these scones with a sprinkling of sugar.
When making scones light fingers are the way to go. Handle the mixture as little as possible. I do not roll out my scone mix when it is ready to use. Instead I pat it down to the desired thickness and then use the cutter. I don’t like my scones too thick or too big as I tend to eat them as they are unless there is some fresh cream and strawberries to hand. 🙂
The best thing about scones is the cooking time which is very short on a high heat. When eaten warm straight from the oven scones are my favourite thing.
The most important point to remember when making scones is the amount of liquid which must have the egg taken into account when measuring the liquid out. If too much moisture is in the scone mix the scones will just spread in the oven and not rise as much. The moisture in the ingredients which are being added for flavourings must also be taken into consideration and maybe some of the milk be removed when adding moist ingredients.
From this recipe alone there are many ingredients which can be changed to make them suitable for different diets. For example, lactose free diet, the milk, cheese and butter would have to be changed. Also for gluten free diet the flour would need to be changed. Finally, if allergic to mustard the mustard powder would have to be omitted. These are all easy changes which can be made to make these scones suitable for many dietary requirements.