Apple Cinnamon Scones

My mouth is watering

I'm posting this now so you can make them for your Sunday morning breakfast. I'm feeling rather poorly and rather sorry for myself, so I thought I'd share the ultimate comfort food.

Scones are something I’ve always found difficult to make. Which is terrible, because they are delicious, and most delicious when you eat them freshly warm from the oven. I’ve tried for years to make the perfect scones. My mum makes great ones, but I’ve never been able to mimic them using her recipe. I’ve had issues with every recipe I’ve tried, even Mary Berry’s (sacrilege!), even the Guardian’s “How to make the perfect..”

So, in order to get to the root of my problem, I had to look at where I was going wrong. The main issue was that they were just too sticky and I was unable to lift them from the floured surface to the baking tray. Now, scone dough is meant to be sticky. So you can’t just fix it by bunging a load more flour into the mix.

Then I discovered a method called “chaffing,” where you coat the dough in flour, and fold it, turning it 90 degrees as you do so. Do it quickly and don’t overwork it. Paul Hollywood has an excellent video demonstration.

This has transformed my scone life! I’m still on the lookout to get a bit more volume into the scones, but it’s not a bad place to start from! I’ve whipped up some apple cinnamon ones, but the choices are endless now. Plain scones, cheese scones, nutty scones.. The possibilities are endless to beef up this classic scone recipe. There’s no stopping me now:

So, like the day after making the apple scones, I made a double batch, half plain, a quarter apricot and a quarter coconut and white chocolate. The coconut ones in particular were incredible

Makes 6 large scones

Ingredients

• 1 apple, diced small
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ginger
• 2 tsp vanilla sugar
• 225g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarb of soda
• 40g butter
• 25g sugar
• 1 egg
• 120ml milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 220 Celsius.

Add the diced apple to a small bowl with the spices and sugar and stir until all coated. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, baking powder and bicarb and stir. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingers until you have fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

At this point you should add the apple pieces, I didn’t because I forgot, but you should.

In a separate bowl whisk together the egg and milk briefly. Pour this into the flour mixture (reserving approx. 2 tbsp for glazing).

Mix briefly until all incorporated. The dough will be sticky.

Cheekily adding the apple bits late..

Tip out onto a floured surface and scatter a little more flour on top. With floured hands, work the dough (“chaff” it) quickly to cover the surface in flour and flatten it out to approx. 2cm deep.

Using a round cutter, cut out your scones and place them on a baking tray.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden and risen,

Allow to cool on a wire rack until cooled down enough to handle. Then slice and eat warm from the oven. I like mine smothered in butter and strawberry jam.