Fruit Scones

As Sous Chef J has been feeling under the weather recently, we have been trying to find food that tempts his tastebuds.  It seems that fruit scones with jam tend to do this... so a recipe was sought.

Having memories of baking fruit scones with my Nana, I remembered she'd add to the mix enough buttermilk to make a dough (this was never an exact amount as depended on the size/freshness of the egg and also the flour).  Needless to say, having a gluten free scone to produce, we needed some guidance with our measures.  So, armed with Phil Vickery's Gluten-Free Cooking book (which we use for plain scones - blogged here), we adapted his recipe.  So, our scone mix ingredients are:-

300g plain flour (we use Dove's Farm)
100g unsalted butter, cubed
1 Tablespoon caster sugar
4 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
2 teaspoons xantham gum
2 medium eggs, beaten
about 125ml natural yogurt
pinch of salt
Large handful of sultanas

Sous Chef J was at golf whilst the baking took place so I was supposed to be taking the photos.  Apologies, but I forgot... until the dough was made!

The dry ingredients were mixed together well, the butter was added and rubbed together (using just one hand) until they looked like fine breadcrumbs.  Then the wet ingredients were added, not all at once, to the middle.  A table knife was used to combine the wet and dry together until they started to form a dough.  Then the dough was thoroughly combined by hand.  Today, not all the wet ingredients were needed, but you do have to do this 'by eye' or feel.  When it was like this, it was placed on a floured board and the handful of sultanas were added and folded in.

Once the dough was lightly rolled to a thickness of about 2cm (1 inch), a 6cm cutter was used.  The scones were placed on a non-stick baking sheet and brushed with beaten egg.  They were then baked in a 200ºC (fan) oven for 12-15minutes (this depends on their size).  Once browned on top, they were cooled for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before being transferred to a cooling rack.  This amount of dough made 6x 6cm scones and 3x 5cm scones...

They are delicious eaten, still warm, with butter and jam.   The scones freeze well (if they last that long) and we halve and butter them prior to freezing.