Scone Recipe Challenge

09 January 2011

I recently took on a Scone Recipe Challenge by the ‘Baking Lady‘ (aka Lynn). Who has a Secret Tea Room (shhhhhh) in Leeds and, as the name suggests, is all about baking delicious treats.

The challenge was to try to get lots of people to share their favourite scone recipes, and as I’m a Scones-O-holic; anything from plain, wholemeal, fruit, savoury – served buttered, plain, or with jam & cream – I want to share with you my favourite scone recipe: The ‘Missie’ Rainbow Scone (a downloadable/printable PDF will be put up shortly).

The inspiration for my scone recipe comes from my relationship with colours and chocolate. The Rainbow bit comes from the Smarties – A word of warning – if you make this with children, keep a spare tube of Smarties as you’re bound to ‘lose’ a few to eager tummies! You can make these Scones which you roll out (gently) and cut out with a cutter or, if you want to do what I did, add a little more milk to the recipe mixture and instead of any rolling and messing around with a cutter, just drop the mixture from the spoon! :)

This recipe makes about 12 scones (or 6 big ones like the ones I’ve made pictured above), multiply as necessary.

Ingredients
350g self-raising flour , plus more for dusting
2 tubes of 40g Smarties
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
85g butter , cut into cubes
2 tbsp caster sugar
180ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
beaten egg , to glaze

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Tip the flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking powder, then mix. Add the butter and then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the 3 spoons of sugar.
2. Add the vanilla and lemon juice to the milk and stir.
3. Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a cutlery knife (or a mixing spoon’s fine too) – it will seem pretty wet at first – don’t worry, this is how we want it. Tip in your tubes of Smarties and give it a final good mix.
4. Using a large dessert spoon, divide the mixture into 12 mounds evenly spaced onto two baking sheets – it doesn’t matter if these fellas look a little messy. Brush the tops with beaten egg, then carefully place into the oven.
5. Bake for 10-15 mins until risen and golden on the top. Eat just warm or cold on the day of baking (I reckon 10 mins out of the oven’s best!).  Serve warm with butter or generously topped with jam and clotted cream.

Good luck and remember to share your Scone photos with me too!

Missie Cindz