Baking Scones

Scones have been one of my favourite breakfast on-the-go picks; handy, filling and scrumptious! I have tried a lot of recipes, mostly online, getting them from AllRecipes.com, BBC Food, or other websites. I will make a list of websites where I get my recipes from. Some of the recipes I got were from my mom, my aunt and wonderful cookbooks. I always look for traditional or family recipes instead of "Standard" ones. Unit conversion is very important, here it is.

I am not a professional chef and I need references. I believe practice DOES make perfect. I learn by doing it and never think using recipe means you are a bad cook. I still remember when I was in school I was forced to follow the recipes from the textbook (Yes we have textbooks for home economics!!) precisely, and I did not like that. I am the kind of person who follows the heart over the head, and thinks that rules are made to be broken.  Some of them, not all. And my friend, who is the exact opposite, always follows the exact amount, "1 decimal place! No more, no less!". My style is more layback and relaxed. I am not against any style, everyone should have one that makes them excel in cooking and enjoy the process, and the result of course.

Scones are real easy to start with. There are traditional English scones and other biscuit/scones available. Sometimes I will just bake according to recipes but most of the times I integrate everything. I tried the scones and biscuits from different places, in different countries, just to figure out what is inside and remember the texture. The honey biscuit from KFC, the English scone that is merely bigger than your eye from BurgerKing, the huge triangular scone from Starbucks, scones from local coffee shops and bakeries etc. are very different in texture and taste.

The below recipe was modified from Joy the Baker's recipe (Modification in bracket), her cookbook is very user friendly, especially for starters! Oh and by the way, I like the fact that she and I are both tattooed bakers :P
Let's start shall we?

Oatmeal Raspberry Scones

Oven Preheat: 200'C/170'C with fan/400'F           Makes around 15 scones

Ingredients:

1 2/3 Cups all-purpose flour (1 cup cake flour & 2/3 cup wholewheat bread flour)

1 1/3 Cups old-fashioned oats (I mixed roll-oats, barley, oatmeal)

1/3 Cup sugar (Brown sugar is better)

1 Tablespoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (I added 1 teaspoon of mixed spices, including nutmeg, grind ginger, cinnamon, cloves, etc.)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon ginger, finely chopped (If you don't like the taste of ginger, just skip it.)

1/2 Cup buttermilk, cold (What I did was adding milk, cream and lemon juice, or just replace it by yoghurt, perhaps soy milk next time?)

10 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed (That's around 140g)

3/4 Cup fresh raspberries, puree it with a fork briefly 

How I did it:

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a big bowl.

Rub in the butter cubes until they become fluffy crumbs.

Whisk the egg, mix well with butter milk or what I have suggested above.

Add crushed raspberries, do not over mix it, try to make a marble pattern, keep the colour difference! Say yes to style.

Scoop them onto a baking tray covered with a baking sheet/cloth, each scoop would be around the size of a Kiwi fruit if you want to make around 15 of them. The texture should be like very thick oatmeal/congee, if it is too watery, add more flour or rolled-oats. If it is too dry, add more milk.
Bake for around 20 minutes or turn off the heat when they turned golden brown.

Hot and Fresh!

Loving the moisture content :)

Steps at a Glance

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl.

2. Rub in the butter cube until they become fluffy crumbs.

3. Whisk the egg, mix well with the buttermilk or what I have suggested.

4. Pour the mixture into the crumbs.

5. Add crushed raspberries, no need to mix too well, slightly more than how you make a marble cake/pattern. Keep the colour patches!

6. Scoop them onto a baking tray with a baking sheet on, or baking cloth; each scoop would be around the size of a Kiwi fruit if you want to make around 15 of them.

7. Bake for around 20 minutes and they are ready to serve!

Twist it! 

*You can change the 3/4 cups of raspberries into other fruits/nuts that goes well with scones. The only thing you need to consider is the moisture content of the dough, other fruits might not necessarily be as juicy as raspberries! 

If you want to add other berries, you don't need to add anything extra.

If you want to add apple, add some lemon juice. 

If you want to add nuts, add 1/4 cup of nuts, 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup honey/maple syrup.

Apple Pie - Extra cinnamon added, raspberries replaced by adding cubed apples and lemon juice.

*Turn it into bite-size party snack? You just need a smaller spoon to scoop them. And be careful when baking, because you literally increased its surface area to volume ratio, the baking time required is shortened. Depending on the size, sometimes 10 minutes will suffice.

Enjoy it and stay tuned for more! Ciao!