I wouldn’t exactly call scones a superfood, but they can certainly be made into a vaguely healthy snack: they’re home made, delicious, especially with home made jam on an autumn or winters afternoon, and can be easily be made dairy and gluten free.
There are countless recipes for scones, but the basic method is extremely simple, which means you can knock out a batch in less than 30 minutes: 5 minutes preparation and approximately 20-25 minutes baking time.
Some recipes add egg to the mixture, but I’ve never found any advantage to doing this, and adding sugar is completely unnecessary – you’re about to cover them in jam!
I’ve given the basic scone recipe below, which is very quick and easy, but check out this other recipe for a more interesting variation.
Basic scone recipe:
Ingredients:
- Self-raising flour (gluten free works fine) – 3 cups
- Olive oil or butter – 3 tablespoons
- Milk (cow’s milk, rice milk, oat milk, it doesn’t matter) – 1 cup
That’s it!
Instructions:
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C
- Mix the flour and oil/ butter in a bowl
- Rub together with your fingers until you get a fine breadcrumb-like texture. (you can sift the flour if you want but I find it doesn’t makes a great difference to how the scones rise)
- Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the milk
- Mix, just enough so you get a smooth dough, but try not to over-mix or knead
- Flour your hands and roll out the mixture into a slab about 3-4 cm thick
- Use a cookie cutter (or knife) to cut out your scones – you should get about 6-8 depending on size; place on a baking tray
- Brush the tops of the scones lightly with milk
- Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until a light brown colour
- Serve immediately with jam or honey
(Tip: pack the scones tightly together on the baking tray – they will rise better)