I haven’t participated in a Daring Bakers challenge since July (see all my previous Daring Baker posts here). I’m so pleased to be back and joining in again. When I first saw this month’s challenge I though ‘how easy’, but I was surprised to find that there is quite an art to getting perfect scones.
Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens! I never knew about sifting the flour at a height to allow more air to circulate and Audax even suggested sifting the flour three or four times, although alas, I didn’t do that.
We had fruit scones on Christmas Eve which my mum made and it took two attempts to get them right. Recently on BBC2 show ‘The Great British Bake Off’ scones were made and it was very interesting to watch the two professionals show how the scones had gone wrong, either by using too much butter, not grating the cheese correctly (you need to grate it on the coarse edge so that the cheese does not disintegrate when baking) or overworking the dough. With my new found knowledge I got to work.
I decided to stick with British cook Delia Smith and the recipe is right here. I have a love/hate relationship with Delia, but I love her at the moment because these scones were so good!
Combine until the dough just comes together.
Roll out until an inch thick.
A sprinkling of grated cheese and paprika.
Don’t overcooked the scones, the cheese was golden but the scones were still pale.
Simply served with butter, although mum ate then plain and loved every bite!
Be sure to check out how the other Daring Bakers did here.
~ Pru
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Perfecting Pru 