Description
So what makes a good Irish scone? Soft and fluffy on the inside, a good crust on the outside, and just a little sweetness. Not a lot, but just enough. We’re not baking bread after all!
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 3/4 cups self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp sea salt flakes
- 70g unsalted butter
- 250ml buttermilk + 1 extra tbsp to brush the top of scones
- 1 tbsp honey
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Give them a good whisk in order to remove any lumps and aerate the flour.
- Add the chopped butter pieces. Using your fingertips, and working quickly, rub the cubes of cold butter between your fingers to create a mixture that resembles coarse crumbs.
- In a small bowl, combine the buttermilk and honey. Give them a quick mix with a fork to combine. In the dry mixture bowl, make a well in the center and pour the buttermilk mixture into the well. Using a wooden spoon, gently combine the wet ingredients into the flour, being careful not to overwork the dough. It should come together into a rough, scraggy, soft dough.
- Pop the dough into a lightly floured work surface and with a rolling pin, lightly roll the dough out to be about 3cm thick. Using the scone cutter, cut scones out of the dough and place them onto a prepared baking sheet a couple of centimeters apart from each other. When all the scones are cut out, leave to rest on the bench for 10 minutes.
- While the scones are resting, preheat the oven to 210 degrees Celsius.
- Brush the top of the scones with a little extra buttermilk. Bake in a preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Turn onto a wire cooling rack to cool
- Serve warm scones with lashings of jam and double cream.
Notes
Don’t be tempted to twist the cutter when you are cutting out the scones. Big mistake, HUGE! If you twist you’ll lose the crumbly fluffy layers of dough rising and instead, your scones will spread. To get the fluffiest scones, we want our scone dough to go up, not out people! Work the butter in as quickly as possible without overworking the dough.
If it’s a really hot day, try freezing the butter beforehand and then grating it into the bowl with a coarse grater. I then give it a really quick work-through between my fingers in the flour mixture.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: per scone
- Calories: 211
- Sugar: 6.8 g
- Sodium: 556.3 mg
- Fat: 6.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 33.2 g
- Protein: 4.3 g
- Cholesterol: 17.9 mg