Growing up I read a lot of British authors. Enid Blyton was a long time favorite to be eventually replaced by PG Wodehouse who to date remains one of my most favorite authors. In most of these books there were references to afternoon tea sessions where the lead characters sat down to a seemingly scrumptious repast of wafer thin cucumber sandwiches and pots of tea and ofcourse scones. Back then I didn't really know what scones what would taste like but they sure sounded delicious!
My first encounter with real scones happened a few years ago in a little tea shop in England and I must admit it was love at first bite. These scones came with clotted cream and jam and I remember the excitement of tasting something I had read about a long ago and it turning out to be as good as I thought it would be. Since then I have always wanted to give scones a try but somehow never got around to doing it.
Last weekend however I remembered that my lovely Scottish friend AM had sent me her Mum's recipe for making scones a long time back after I had admitted my love for scones to her. So I dug up the recipe and tried these out. And she was right, the scones were the best! Thanks AM!
The only change I made to the recipe was to use maple syrup instead of sugar. I am a big fan of Heidi Swanson's blog and she often substitutes sugar with natural sweeteners like maple syrup or honey. So I took inspiration from her Maple Syrup scones recipe here. The scones were a little less sweet but with a little drizzle of maple syrup and butter they were quite fabulous. Highly recommended with a hot cup of tea. Or coffee. And a Wodehouse book maybe.
Recipe:
1 cup All purpose flour
1/4 cup finely granulated sugar or 4 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 tablespoon cranberries
1 tablespoon chopped walnuts
Milk to mix
- Rub flour into soft butter until it forms small crumbles, and then add sugar and baking powder.
- Combine with beaten egg and a little milk to form a soft dough.
- Add in the cranberries and chopped walnuts.
- Roll out on lightly floured surface to ~1 inch thick.
- Cut into shapes and place on greased baking sheet in a pre-heated oven (350F) for ~20 mins.
You can add grated cheese and a little salt instead of sugar if you want to make savoury scones.
