Instructions
I was never very good at restraint – I usually work with the principle that if a little bit is good, then a lot must be great. Less is more? I don’t think so – more is more, and let’s have more of it.
Unfortunately, my celebration of excess is not always the best strategy, even if I’m not very good at being told so.
In the end, no person was able to convince me of the power of subtlety. Instead it was a scone. A simple, perfect scone.
You see the perfect scone is a work of art – light, puffy, golden and impossibly soft. Its crumbling shell should reveal a lily-white interior which eagerly soaks up the jam and cream spooned on top.
But flour, the scone’s central ingredient, has a cantankerous personality. Treated with anything other than kid gloves, it becomes chewy, rather than delicate. This occurs because of the formation of gluten.
The science is simple – wheat flour contains two proteins, gliadin and glutenin. These, when mixed with water, join to create long strands that we call ‘gluten’. For many wheat products, gluten is vital. Its elastic property forms fine skins within a dough, and this is what enables bread to capture the gas produced by yeast allowing the loaf to rise.
To avoid forming gluten, bakers will use low-protein flour (sold as ‘plain flour’ in the supermarket) and may use oil or butter for softening. But the most important strategy is a light hand.
I remember watching my grandmother mix scones – she used a butter knife to barely combine the dough. I watched in amazement, because it seemed so counter-logical – the knife was for chopping, not mixing. And yet the scones were always extraordinary.
No matter which version of scones you want to bake, plain, buttermilk, pumpkin, raisin or chocolate chip, the same rules apply. Mix as lightly as possible for the very best results.
But there was one final tick I learned: add a little wholemeal flour. Not only does it make the dough richly wheaten with a stronger flavour, but the natural oil in the wheatgerm soften the dough and make them scones crumblier than ever.
Less really is more, at least when it comes to making scones. On the other hand, when it comes to eating them – well, I’ll always want more!
Wholemeal scones