After seeing how easy it was to bake scones the other day, I continued with making 2 additional batches, each time trying out different ideas and quantities to see how each batch turned out.
Today, I made the 4th batch - probably the best taste-wise so far.
Ingredients:
4 cups plain flour (sufficient for 16 buns)
3 ts cream of tartar
2.5 ts baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
7-8 tbl brown sugar
1 ts salt
Half of 250-gm block of frozen butter, grated
Cinnamon powder, 1 tbl
Almond slices, handful
White sesame seeds, 3-4 tbl
Grated Kraft Parmesan Cheese, 5-6 tbl
4 ts vanila essence
2 eggs
Fresh milk
Filling (optional) - cooked red beans
Set oven to 200-d C and baking time is 20 minutes.
GLAD non-stick baking and cooking paper
Preparation:
First, mix the dry ingredients. I used 4 cups flour as that amount will fill up a whole oven tray - maximizing oven space and thus optimize time and effort in baking scones! As baking powder is 2 parts tartar to 1 part baking soda, I decided to buy cream of tartar and baking soda directly for economy, and made up my own formula for baking scones through trial-and-error. Consequently, I found a ratio of 3:2.5 cream of tartar to baking soda works well, producing scones that are not too heavy or too light. Adjust the sugar and salt to suit your taste. For me, 2 tbl sugar per cup is just right as I dislike scones or cakes that are too sweet.
After mixing the dry ingredients, grate half of a frozen 250-gm butter block with a grater that I left in the freezer for 30-minutes to ensure easier grating. While you can use your fingers to "crumble" the grated butter into the flour mix, I used a tablespoon instead to blend and mix the grated butter into the flour.
When that is done, add the spices, cheese and almond slices. The amounts shown are estimated as this was my first time incorporating spices and cheese. You can add more or less according to your fancy. Err on the side of caution using less rather than more. You wouldn't want your scones to taste too much of cinnamon, for instance, right? So use your common sense.
Next, add vanila essence and 4 tbl fresh milk to the 2 eggs and beat with a fork. Again, the amount of fresh milk to add is estimated: it is best you add too little milk instead of too much, the objective being to form a dough that is not too "runny" but quite firm and doesn't stick to fingers and hand. If you use too much milk you will get a sticky and messy dough. After incorporating the milk+egg+vanila liquid into the flour, I added sparingly more fresh milk until I get a "firm" dough that could be formed into a single large ball mass.
The Glad non-stick baking paper is a God-send ! I lined the oven baking tray with the non-stick baking paper and sprinkled some dry flour onto the paper before I formed balls of scones.
Each scone ball is formed as follows: roll a 2-inch ball of dough in your palms and flatten into a 2-3 inch scone circle. Place 1 or more tbl red beans onto the scone circle, then cover with another dough circle made in a similar way. Pinch the 2 circles around the edges together, then carefully roll the dough in your palm to form a ball.
As I enjoy red beans that still have a slight "crunch" and not too "mushy", I cook the red beans using only enough water to ensure the beans are cooked. This is carried out through trial-and-error: pour enough water so that you have about a 1-inch water depth over the beans, then as the beans cook add more water if needed to ensure there is enough water to cook the beans.
It took me about 40-45 minutes to make 16 scone balls using the quantities specified. Since it took about 20 min for the oven to reach 200-deg C, I turned on the oven about halfway through forming the scone balls. When the balls are formed, the oven is ready and at the right temperature to receive the tray of scone balls.
In previous batches I baked the scones for 15-17 minutes at 200-d C.
However, for this batch, i decided to bake for 20 min as the quantities / balls are larger.
As in previous bakes, the aroma was really arresting after 15 minutes of baking.
Try these scones with hot tea - you'll really enj oy then!
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