I used to love cream teas. But of course these usually involve copious amounts of both gluten and cream - two things I no longer seem to tolerate.
| Time for tea! |
Since cutting out these two major ingredients in a traditional cream tea, I've tried and failed at making scones several times - finding them OK to eat at first, but quickly turning into hard, dry bullet-like objects. So I put scone-making (and eating) on the back burner until a recent search turned up this recipe from Isle of Flora see here.
I really liked the addition of almond flour to the recipe - gluten free flour is often lower in protein, which I find less filling, but the almonds counteract this. Flora's recipe was also very moist. However, I don't know if it's down to the flour I used, but there seemed to be quite a bit more liquid than I required, which made my mixture a bit too claggy to work. You need your scone mixture to be pretty moist, but you have to be able to lift up to pput them on a baking tray! Rather than chucking out the baby with the bathwater, I decided to experiment a bit more, adding flour, decreasing liquid, until I achieved my desired balance.
Then I found my scones too crumbly, and began to peruse other scone recipes. It was at this point, I discovered that my baking heroine Mary Berry added egg to her Devonshire scones see here. Of course you can do without the egg, but I found that it helped bind the mixture - gluten free mixtures can be a bit crumbly. (You can add Xanthum Gum to counteract this, but this I tend to avoid, as I'm not convinced it agrees with me.)
Combining bits from both recipes, and making some alterations of my own, I came up with my own preferred formula, as outlined below. Please note, I used cups in the recipe, rather than grams/ounces, as I suspect my scales are a bit on the temperamental side, and using cups, levelled off with a knife, tends to work better!!
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| Don't know where I'd be without my trusty measuring cups! |
Bonus point: I think cups are a great way of measuring ingredients when working with little ones, as they don't need to be able to read numbers/scales, although you could compare them as they get older, as a learning point.
Scones
Makes approx. 10 scones
Ingredients:
2 and a half cups Gluten Free Self-Raising Flour (I used Doves)
Half a cup Almond
Flour/ground almonds
1 pinch Salt
110g Dairy Free Margarine (I used Pure Sunflower)
Quarter of a cup of Caster Sugar
Two thirds of a cup Dairy Free Almond Milk (I used Almond Breeze)
1 Egg
NB Most scone recipes seem to use plain flour and copious amounts of baking powder. I just use self-raising flour (which has some baking powder added already), as I can't stand the taste of baking powder. However, if you don't mind the taste, feel free to add a couple more teaspoons of baking powder to yours!
NB Most scone recipes seem to use plain flour and copious amounts of baking powder. I just use self-raising flour (which has some baking powder added already), as I can't stand the taste of baking powder. However, if you don't mind the taste, feel free to add a couple more teaspoons of baking powder to yours!
Method:
Preheat Oven to 220 F.
Line oven tray with baking parchment and sprinkle with
flour.
Weigh out and mix together self-raising flour, almond flour/ground almonds and salt.
Rub margarine into the dry ingredients to form fine breadcrumbs.
Stir in caster sugar.
Mix together egg and milk. Reserve about 1 tablespoon of this mixture for brushing on top of the scones, before you put them in the oven.
Make a ‘well’ in your dry ingredients. Pour in the liquid
ingredients and bring the mixture together. Try to avoid ‘over-working’ the
dough, as this could make your scones go a bit hard. The scone dough needs to
be fairly wet, but not so much you can’t pat it out and cut it.
Scatter flour over a clean surface before placing scone dough down.
Pat/roll out the scone mixture a little, until it’s about 3 cm
thick.
Cut out round shapes and place on baking tray.
Brush with the remaining egg/milk mixture.
Brush with the remaining egg/milk mixture.
Cook for 12 mins, then bring them out of the oven, and allow to cool.
These scones will keep well for one day, after which they begin to dry a bit (although they're not quite as hard as the bullets I used to make), or you can freeze them the same
day.
I like to eat mine with homemade raspberry jam, topped with a generous teaspoon of Vanilla flavoured Coyo coconut yogurt, in place of the cream.
Works for me!!
Please note:
This post is not an advert. I have not been paid to write this post. I am not sponsored in any way, even by advertising. I do not receive products free to review, although I have often been offered them. This is to try and maintain an unbiased approach. All views expressed are my own (unless I've asked for The Hub's or Kiddo's). The products listed here are those I genuinely use day-to-day. Changing products may lead to differing outcomes, so you may need to tweak your quantities, if you do so.
I like to eat mine with homemade raspberry jam, topped with a generous teaspoon of Vanilla flavoured Coyo coconut yogurt, in place of the cream.
Works for me!!
Please note:
This post is not an advert. I have not been paid to write this post. I am not sponsored in any way, even by advertising. I do not receive products free to review, although I have often been offered them. This is to try and maintain an unbiased approach. All views expressed are my own (unless I've asked for The Hub's or Kiddo's). The products listed here are those I genuinely use day-to-day. Changing products may lead to differing outcomes, so you may need to tweak your quantities, if you do so.
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