I'm really excited to share this date scone recipe with you Dear Reader! These soft and fluffy date and ginger scones are one of the most delicious and easy scones you can make! I think they're one of the best scones I've ever made (also judging from the reaction from my usually scone apathetic friends and family).
This is another pushy recipe courtesy of one of my loveliest readers Robbie who gifted me with a Sicilian Pear and Chocolate Cake recipe among other recipes. I did fiddle with these date scones but minimally, just adding some crystallised ginger to the combination. Okay I also added a salted maple drizzle on top because I can't help myself. I am notoriously fussy and fuss and fret over things.
Mr NQN doesn't like scones. In fact they're among his least favourite foods. To him they're dry and whenever go out to afternoon tea I get his share. Nina is also on a very low gluten diet and both of them devoured their scones and then had seconds (Mr NQN has thirds) all in one sitting.
Recently, I started fussing and fretting because we went away for a holiday for my birthday. That meant that we had to find someone to look after Mochi for just under 2 weeks. Usually we would ask my mother but she didn't want to. And our neighbour upstairs who brought her to us and often looks after her was overseas. Nina who was another choice is busy with her own new bundle of energy Marley.
So we found a pet sitter and left Mochi with her after meeting up and checking out her house. She had her own cavoodle puppy and was looking after a large dog that barked a lot but was friendly to other dogs. Mochi seemed at home there and at ease with the other dogs. We also hoped that she would become more comfortable with other dogs as she had very little contact with dogs during the first 8 years of her life.
"Don't ever feel like you're bombarding me with pictures," I said to the dog sitter hoping that she would do just that. I needed my Mochi fix as I missed her so much. She sent me 3 pictures or videos a day and she quickly learned that Mochi just wants to be somewhere soft and comfortable and next to a human. I wondered whether she would be upset at us for "abandoning" her.
When we picked her up after 2 weeks she was shaking with excitement and easily fell back into our family unit. Another delightful thing was that she no longer barks at other dogs when she comes to cafes with us. She greets them and is more curious about them (although she still doesn't understand the butt sniffing thing yet). So it's never too late to learn new tricks.
Or scone recipes! ;)
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like scones? And do you like trying new recipes or do you tend to use recipes that you've tried and tested before? Do you fiddle with recipes?
Date & Ginger Scones With Salted Maple Drizzle
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1/4 cup chopped crystallised ginger plus 2 tablespoons extra for decorating
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Pinch of salt
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 220C/440F and line a round or rectangular baking tray with parchment. Blitz the flour, sugar, butter and salt until the texture is like fine crumbs. Then place this in a bowl and knead in the buttermilk, soda water, dates and ginger. Do not overknead. Then shape into a round around 1 inch high. Cut wedges with a knife or a dough scraper. Bake for 15 minutes.
Step 2 - Sift icing sugar and mix with the water, maple syrup and add salt until it hits that sweet salty pleasure point. Place in a piping bag and drizzle over the scones and decorate with ginger pieces. Serve with double cream.
Use all-purpose flour for a higher rising scone that holds its shape nicely, both in and out of the oven. To make more delicate, lower-rising, cake-like scones, substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour. Reduce the liquid in the recipe by 1 to 2 tablespoons, using just enough to bring the dough together.
If you are using baking soda, you will want to use buttermilk, an acidic ingredient that will react with the leavener to help them rise. On the other hand, if you use cream or milk, you'll want to use baking powder because it combines the acid needed with baking soda all in one complete powder.
Keep scones cold before putting them in the oven: For best results, chill the mixture in the fridge before baking, this will help to stiffen up the butter again, which will stop your scones from slumping as soon as they hit the oven's heat.
Recipes for scones sometimes provide a make-ahead option that involves refrigerating the dough overnight so it can simply be shaped and then popped into the oven the next day. But now we've found that resting the dough overnight has another benefit: It makes for more symmetrical and attractive pastries.
Although convenient and tasty, scones are a complete loss. They are typically extremely high in calories from the heavy butter and cream. And, although scones with fruit might seem healthier, most are even higher in calories and still high in saturated fat. Steer clear of scones.
Overworking the dough: when you overwork your dough, your scones can come out tough and chewy, rather than that desired light, crumbly texture. The trick is to use light pressure and only the work the dough until it just comes together.
3. Don't forget to sift! Be sure to double or even triple sift your flour, as it takes away the clumps in the flour allowing for more air pockets in the scone dough - the result being a fluffier and more crumbly scone.
British scones are more closely related to American biscuits. While a British "biscuit" is what we would call a crunchy cookie! Sometimes made with raisins or sultanas, British scones are on the plain side compared with American scones, which are typically heavily flavored and topped with a drizzle or glaze.
The longer you get the dough sit before baking it, the less your scones will rise. Try to bake the dough as soon as you finishing kneading and rolling it out. Letting the mixture sit too long will cause the gas bubbles from the leavening agent to disappear. These gas bubbles are what help the scones rise.
Pastry flour is the middle ground between cake flour and all-purpose flour. Professional bakers love that it's finely milled with a protein content that hovers around eight to nine percent, striking the perfect balance between flakiness and tenderness while maintaining structure.
Why? When cold butter is rubbed into the flour, it creates flaky pockets of flavour (which soft, room temperature butter can't do). Once the cold butter and liquid (e.g milk) hits the oven, the water in the butter and cold liquid begins evaporating.
The most likely reason I can think of is that you omitted the leavening, or what you used was flat. Another reason might be that your dough was too warm when you baked it, so it spread more while baking. Of course, scones are not yeast products, so they shouldn't rise as much as bread would.
Introduction: My name is Lakeisha Bayer VM, I am a brainy, kind, enchanting, healthy, lovely, clean, witty person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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