Scones. I have to admit (and it probably won’t come as much of a surprise to you) that I don’t usually make such homey things. But sometimes, just sometimes, I do fancy scones. I also know that everyone in the global universe favours them, because every time someone brings them to work, people flock over them like seagulls.
I was innocently reading Smitten Kitchen’s blog today and she was espousing the virtues of her recipe for buttermilk biscuits. I confess I have zero idea what makes a scone different from an American biscuit, except that some hardly ever dips an English style “scone” into a plate of beef stew.
On my last trip to Wanaka my cousins took me to Edgewater Resort where you can, of a morning, order freshly made scones off a menu. They were all wonderful, but perhaps the best was a crystallised ginger version.
So when after a horrible headache today I decided to try Smitten Kitchen’s buttermilk biscuits, the idea of crystallised ginger scones with strawberry jam sounded pretty good.
I wasn’t wrong.
Were you looking for an amazingly soft, light and gingery scone recipe? Found it.
Crystallised Ginger Buttermilk Scones
makes about 15
ingredients
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
125g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/3 cup finely chopped crystallised ginger
3/4 cup buttermilk
mixing
Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Using fingertips or a pastry blender, rub the butter into dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the ginger.
Add buttermilk and stir gently until large clumps form. Using your hands, knead the mixture briefly until it just holds together.
Dust the kitchen bench liberally with flour and tip the dough onto the surface. Pat out the dough with your hands until it is about 2 cm thick. Cut rounds with a 6cm cookie cutter and transfer rounds to prepared sheet, spacing them at least 3 cm apart. Bake the scones for about 13 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius or until the scones are golden brown on top.
Serve warm with ginger butter and a lot of good quality strawberry jam. To make ginger butter, blend soft butter with minced crystallised ginger to taste. Try 1 tablespoon minced crystallised ginger to 50g of butter and go from there.
Enjoy!xxx
