Scones are a wonderfully quick treat to bake, and adding one common supermarket ingredient can help them rise perfectly in the oven. May frequently brings bright sunshine and extended daylight hours, making it a delightful time to spend outdoors and savour simple picnic fare like freshly baked scones. There's something particularly soothing about relaxing in the open air with homemade bakes and a cuppa, and scones are remarkably swift to make, with the dough ready in roughly 15 minutes.
The Secret to Perfect Scones
Nevertheless, the secret to success lies not only in the baking itself, but in selecting the correct ingredients at the supermarket, as this determines whether you end up with tall fluffy scones or flat, crumbly ones. Danielle Ellis, a French-trained baker and founder of Severn Bites, has revealed that one of the most crucial ingredients for helping scones rise is buttermilk.
She explained: 'The first ingredient to seek out is buttermilk. Once I started making scones with buttermilk, they got better and better. It's easy to find in many farmers' markets (including Stroud) and most supermarkets, and it keeps remarkably well.'
Why Buttermilk Works
Buttermilk is the liquid remaining after churning butter from cream, and you can either prepare it yourself or locate it in the baking aisle of most supermarkets. The mild acidity in the buttermilk reacts with the baking powder, producing bubbles in the dough as it bakes, helping the scones to rise wonderfully in the oven.
Using buttermilk also helps to tenderise the gluten in the flour, giving the scones a light and delicate texture rather than something dense or bread-like. Buttermilk is slightly thick and provides additional moisture to the dough, delivering a richer taste without requiring lots of fat, while also preventing the scones from becoming dry. Overall, it helps you create taller, lighter and more delicious scones, so even if you're baking them for the first time, they're far more likely to turn out brilliantly.
How to Make Better Scones
Ingredients
- 225g of plain flour
- 45g of butter (salted or unsalted)
- Two large eggs (one for the scones and the other for an egg wash)
- 125g of buttermilk
- 8g of baking powder
- A pinch of salt
Alterations
To make sweet scones: You will also need 25g of caster sugar and you can also add 50g of raisins if you wish.
To make savoury scones: Add 100g of mature cheese and 5g of smoked paprika.
Method
To begin, preheat the oven to 200°C or Gas Mark 6. Prepare a baking tray by dusting it with flour, then set it aside.
Place the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Take the butter straight from the fridge, cut it into cubes, and add it to the bowl. Only use cold or frozen butter when making scones, as melted butter releases substantial amounts of steam, which causes the pastry to puff up, creating a flakier, more delicate texture.
Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the dough until it looks like breadcrumbs. Now, add your extra ingredients and combine them. If you are making sweet scones, add the sugar and raisins, and if you are making savoury scones, add the cheese and smoked paprika.
Add one large egg to the mixture and combine with a fork. You should now have a dough that is beginning to stick together. Gradually pour in the buttermilk bit by bit until there is no remaining flour in the bowl. You won't necessarily need to use the full amount, as you're looking to achieve a soft dough — take care not to let it become too runny.
Tip the dough out onto a clean surface and gently shape it into a rectangle roughly 2.5 centimetres thick. Press a 60mm cookie cutter firmly into the dough to stamp out your shapes. Avoid twisting the cutter — instead, lift it straight up and carefully place each piece onto the baking tray. Cut out six scones, or continue until all the dough has been used. Don't be concerned if the dough appears to crack at this stage.
Next, crack an egg into a small bowl and beat it with a fork to create an egg wash. Lightly brush this over the top of each scone. For those opting for savoury scones, scatter any leftover cheese over the tops.
Pop the baking tray into the oven and bake for 12 minutes, or until the scones have risen fully, turned a lovely golden colour and appear delightfully fluffy.
