March 2013; Scones Month – Lena’s Moonlight Rendezvous Scones

This whole month of March would be dedicated to SCONES! If there is one thing that I really want to master is baking scones perfectly. Scones are suppose to be relatively easy to make but I used to fail many times because I could not achieve that fluffness of double-the-size-when-baking results. So for this theme month, I have dedicated it to several tried and tested scones recipes. Scones are really my beloved tea time treat and don’t be put off thinking you need to do a lot of kneading and rolling. Once you have all your ingredients prepared, they are quite easy to put together as I have discovered after trying out various recipes.

I have a basic way of doing my scones. First with the food processor to mix the cold butter and dry ingredients together, and then when it has reached a desired texture, I pour it out into a big bowl and mix in the wet ingredients manually. That way, I can gadge the wetness of the dough. I find this method works for me but if you have other methods you’d like to share, leave a comment below. For this recipe however, I followed to a T Lena’s instructions, this was to get more experience under my belt before settling into a method of my preference.

I was intrigued by this recipe because of the fascinating name, I only added Lena to the front because it’s from Lena’s blog, Frozen Wings. I first met her at a bloggers get-together and she cooked some really awesome crabs! and also because the recipe calls for the butter to be creamed together with the sugar till light and fluffy rather than using icy cold butter because normally, they always require you to have the cold butter and rubbing it into the flour.

This is a very basic scone recipe which you can have your own preference of filling, raisins, chocolate chips or plain. I like raisins. And my favourite way to eat scones is with my favourite raspberry jam, cream or butter. I guess I rolled and cut it out it out a little too thin based on the pictures, but as a tip for skyhigh scones, roll it out at least a minimum of an inch thick. Now, all I need is a lovely vintage tea set! 🙂

LENA’S MOONLIGHT RENDEZVOUS SCONES RECIPE
(recipe from frozen wings)

Ingredients;

32 gms butter
32 gms sugar ( you can add a little
more if you prefer a sweet scone )
1/2 beaten egg
225 gms flour
15 gms baking powder
125 ml milk (more of less)
1/2 cup raisins
pinch of salt
egg wash for glazing

Steps;

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the egg.
3. Pour in the flour and baking powder and ‘pinch’ with your hands till a crumble forms.
4. Pour in the milk in slow batches and knead lightly with your hands till you have a sticky dough but not too wet. Do not overwork it as this will toughen the texture.
5. Add the raisins roll out the dough to a 3cm thickness on a lightly floured surface.
6. Use a cookie cutter to cut out individual pieces and place them on a tray lined with baking paper.
7. Glaze with egg mixture and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or till they are golden brown.

Enjoy!