Maple syrup and walnut scones

When I think of scones I think of summer, I think of sitting outside in the sun, of jam, of strawberries, and of cream. At least, that's what I normally think of, these maple and walnut scones have a more autumnal feel to them. I sweetened the scones with maple syrup rather than sugar, added chopped walnuts to the dough and used half wholemeal half white flour, altogether this gave the scones a more rustic hearty feel, no less delicious than more traditional scones just different!

Roll the dough into a long sausage shape

What I really love about scones is how amazingly quickly they come together, within half an hour of reading this you could be taking a tray of freshly baked scones out of the oven. What's more you probably already have all the ingredients too!

I served my scones with whipped creap and maple syrup

I served these with whipped cream and more maple syrup drizzled over the top. Delicious!

Maple and walnut scones

Ingredients (makes 8 huge or 12 normal scones):

• 225g white self raising flour
• 225g wholemeal self raising flour (if you can't find wholemeal self raising use plain wholemeal and add two teaspoons of baking powder)
• 100g butter
• 60g maple syrup
• 75-100g chopped walnuts
  
• 225ml of buttermilk (substitute milk or yogurt)
• demerera sugar for sprinkling

Method:

• Preheat your oven to gas 7/220c/425f
• In a large bowl mix the two flours together
• Rub the butter into the flour until no lumps remain
• Stir in the walnuts
• Make a well in the centre and stir in the maple syrup and buttermilk, mix everything together to form a soft dough
• On a floured board roll the dough into a long sausage shape and cut into rounds
• Lay the rounds on a lightly floured baking tray, brush the tops with a little milk or buttermilk and sprinkle with the sugar
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden

Clotted cream scones

I know my posting has been a bit slack recently, I have been very busy with work which means I've had barely any time to cook anything. Of course I still have to eat and when you're short on time super quick recipes are very attractive.Recipes don't come much quicker than these yogurt scones from Chocolate and Zucchini, ten minutes to prepare, fifteen to cook and they're done, ready to eat straight from the oven. I ate my scones outside in the sunshine served with clotted cream and jam, they made a delicious treat before I hopped on my bike and went back to work.

Hopefully normal blogging will resume shortly...

For the recipe head over to Chocolate and Zucchini.

Chocolate and cherry scones

I've felt like making (and eating) scones for a while now, and by coincidence there was a really interesting recipe in a new book I have just bought. "The great book of chocolate" by David Lebovitz, the book is brilliant, I have found it really interesting as it contains far more than just a regular cookbook, although there are planty of great recipes, in fact more than half is about chocolate, from it's history to how it's made and even health benefits.
There are 30 recipes in the back and these scones are one of them.
I have had cherry scones before but never with chocolate in which I thought was a really good idea, the recipe also calls for orange zest which I didn't have so I used orange oil instead. (I recomend buying some citrus oils to keep in the cupboard for when you have no oranges or lemons in the house, they're just as good in my opinion).

The recipe is very easy to follow although this book is american and I did have to find out what cake flour was, apparently a good substitute can be made by mixing 7 parts plain to 1 part cornflour, this seemed to work well as my scones were the perfect texture, light, crumbly and buttery. The orange flavour comes through well, it is subtle but adds an extra and delicious dimension to the scones.
Overall these were a great success and I will definately make them again, judging by the speed they disappeared I'm guessing everyone liked them as much as I did!
I won't post the recipe here because I haven't changed it at all, but I'm sure you could work it out with a basic scone recipe, or even better buy the book!!

David lebovitz has an excellent food blog, probably the best on the internet which can be found here