I wasn’t familiar with scones until I came to Australia. I remember I tried them at my Pilates teacher’s house a few years back. It was a weekend private course at her house to become a Pilates instructor. She had a beautiful townhouse in Fremantle overlooking the ocean. Her husband was babysitting their grand-daughter during the day. She was so shy saying hi behind her grandpa’s legs and ran away from us. Then about 4pm-ish, we were a bit sluggish after hours of learning and overwhelmed by so much information in so little time. Wanting to have some sugar-kick! This little girl came into the room with a little basket of scones and, of course, jam and cream on the side. She told us she made them for us with a shy smile. How cute! We all sat around the fireplace (it was winter time!) and shared a little scone with her. It kind of looked and tasted like KFC biscuits when I tried it for the first time. Rich buttery taste and soft fluffy inside. It reminded me of the cornmeal bread I used to like when I was little. I’ve tried to bake scones at home several times since then. Sometimes it turns out to be okay, but other times it doesn’t rise, fail! I didn’t realise how hard making scones is. It definitely got harder since I need to make a gluten-free version now, too. My tips for making good scones are…
- Firstly, use cold butter. Yes, butter. It is better to use butter in scones than coconut oil. As it melts into the dough in the oven, it creates beautiful layers.
- Add a knob of cold butter into dry ingredients and cut into little pieces with your knife or fork. Then start massaging with your fingers until the dough comes together.
- Don’t work your dough too much. Otherwise scones will not rise because kneading converts the protein in flour to gluten.
- Gently fold the dough in half and in half again, a few times to get flaky and layered scones.
- Don’t pat the edges of the scones after cutting them.
- Bake them for a short time in high heat. I bake for 15-20 minutes in the 200 preheated oven and take them out to cool.
- If you have any other tips, please share with me 🙂
Ingredients (make 8 little scones)
2 cups of gluten free flour blend
1 teaspoon of baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cold butter
1 egg
1/4 cup of milk*
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips for chocolate chip scones
1/2 cup of cooked pumpkin for pumpkin scones
*You might need more or less milk depending on what flour you use and how moist your pumpkin mixture is.
