A new season of Bake-Off has started, and yet again, Paul shows he has no idea what’s happening on the internet. Every year he asks stupid questions about huge food trends that he apparently has never heard of. This year it was ruby chocolate. Dude, you can get a ruby chocolate Kit-Kat at Tesco. Is he being purposely obtuse to force exposition? It makes him seem like an idiot. Also, I’ll never forgive him for mispronouncing chipotle.
The season 1 episode 2 technical challenge for biscuit week was scones. Season 1 technicals were so easy. If they gave them the measurements for the ingredients, contestants should have been able to pull these off with no problem.
I used the recipe from the season 1 book, The Great British Book of Baking. Though I did read the instructions, there’s no shocking techniques required here. It’s a pretty standard, albeit totally reliable, scone recipe. These came out great with very little effort. They rose beautifully and were tender in the middle. The perfect vehicle for jam and cream.
That being said, I still wouldn’t have gotten first place because I didn’t have the patience to make sure every single scone looked exactly the same, particularly after I had to reform the dough once I’d cut out as many scones as I could from the first go-round.
The great thing about baking in your own kitchen and not on a competition show is that things don’t have to be perfect. These scones were awesome, and you should make them today. Happy baking, friends.
Scones
8 servings
20 minutes
10 minutes
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Ingredients
250 grams self-rising flour
Pinch of salt
50 grams caster sugar
50 grams cold butter, cut into chunks
1 egg
100 ml buttermilk
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 220C (425F) and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
- Add the flour, salt, and sugar to the bowl of your food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
- Add your cold butter pieces to the dry ingredients and pulse the food processor to cut the butter into the flour. Your mixture should look like fine crumbs.
- Combine the egg and buttermilk. With the machine running, add the buttermilk mixture slowly through the chute of the food processor. Keep processing until the dough just comes together in a ball. You may need to add a bit more buttermilk to make it all come together if your mixture is too dry.
- Turn your dough out onto a floured surface. The dough will be quite sticky, so use a rubber spatula for this, rather than your hands. I speak from experience here. Sprinkle a bit more flour over the dough and on your hands, and work the dough for a few turns until it comes together. Use your hands to pat the dough out until it’s about 3 cm thick. Use a 6cm fluted round cutter to cut out your scones and place them on your baking tray. You’ll likely have to reform the scraps a couple of times. You should be able to get 8 scones.
- Bake your scones for 10-12 minutes. They should be golden brown on top. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool slightly before serving, still warm, with jam and cream, or your favorite toppings.
