Scones are generally small, round, single portion bread/cake like baked product usually served with tea or coffee. Preferred for breakfast or for evening tea or coffeehouses.

They are usually cut in half and served with jam and butter.

A little theory about scones.. 😀

Scones comes under the chemical aeration process. A chemical aeration is the process where a chemical agent like baking soda, baking powder or cream of tartar is used to aerate the baked product and make it more palatable.

The rising agent used here is Baking powder. Heat, Moisture and Acid are the three main components that is required for the chemical aeration to work.

If you are keen about learning to bake then there are certain terminologies that you need to know in the baking industry. For example we talked about "conditioned" in our muffins post and "coagulation and caramelisation" in cookies post.

In scones we are going to talk about the "Rubbing-in Method"

The method of mixing used to make scones is known as Rubbing In Method. Rubbing in is the process of coating the flour with butter so as to deactivate the development of gluten (protein present in flour) which would make the scones more bread like and tough when it comes in contact with acidic agent (milk).

What happens to the scones when there is

No Raising Agent : The scones remain dense and heavy, does not rise. Remains undercooked. Firm texture and becomes black in colour.

Too much Raising Agent : The scones get an uncontrolled lift, tastes bitter - an unappealing flavour, very light weight and a tough texture.

No Shortening : Was very heavy with a firm and dense texture.

Over-mixed : Over-mixing of scones batter leads to a very firm, dense and heavy texture. It lacks volume and shrinks in size.

Uneven-shaping : Uneven shaping of scones leads to uneven rise or lift in the final baked product.

No-Egg washing: Egg wash gives the baked product a colour, glaze and shine. Scones without egg washing had no glaze to it.

The other day we enjoyed it for our tea time.. A cup of tea and some scones felt as if I am in a cafe in Paris.. hehe.. 😉

You can even pack this in your little one's tiffin.. Nothing like a freshly baked goodie at home.

I have two scone recipes - a fruit and savoury to share with you all today..

Here is a detailed step by step instruction of FRUIT SCONES:

Add softened butter to the sieved dry ingredients and rub in well to coat the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.

Add the conditioned fruit to the flour and mix. Make a well and add the milk. Mix until just clear.

Dust your table top with 3 tbsp flour and transfer the sticky dough to the dusted table top.

Without overdoing the dough, give it a round shape. Using a 70 mm cookie cutter cut out roundels. Egg wash the roundels.

Bake the in a preheated oven at 200° celsius for 12-14 mins turning half way around

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Fruit Scones

Scones are a quick bread individual size bread perfect for afternoon tea or even for breakfast

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings scones

Author Sushma Iyer

Ingredients

Instructions

Start by conditioning the fruit; that is rinse and soak the sultanas in warmed water for 10 mins. Drain well and dry on a paper towel.
Sieve dry ingredients to mix and aerate.
Rub butter into dry ingredients to form a crumble
Add conditioned fruit to the dry mix and combine
Make a well and add the milk, mixing until just combined. (Baker’s Tip : This is one of the secrets of making a beautiful scone.)
Dust your table top with 2-3 tbsp of plain flour. Transfer the batter from the bowl to the tabletop and with the help of dry plain flour give it a nice even size circle shape.
Take a 70 mm plain cookie cutter, dip it into dry flour and cut out 6 small circles from the dough.
Place the scones onto a parchment paper lined in a baking tray.
Egg wash the scones in an outside to inside motion.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°celsius for 12-14 mins turning the pan half way through.

Notes

1.Why is it important to condition the fruit?
Dry fruits have the tendency to suck moisture; thereby making the final product dry and hence it is important to soak them in water.
They remain plump after baking

2.You may be left out with some batter after cutting the 6 scones. You can combine that to make 2 more but that scones will be little tougher than the rest as you have over-mixed the batter.

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Savoury Scones

Step by Step Instruction:

Add softened butter to the sieved dry ingredients and rub in well to coat the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.

Add your flavouring ingredients like cheese, spring onion and bacon if using. Give a good mix. Reserve some cheese for topping at the end.

Make a well in the centre and add milk and mix until just combined.

Dust your work surface with some flour. Transfer the dough onto it.

Give it a rectangle shape working as little as possible with the dough.

Cut the rectangle to form two squares and further cut it to form 4 triangles.

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle the reserved cheese on top of it.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200° celsius for 12-14 mins turning half way around.

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