Ham and Cheese Scones - An Easy Ham and Cheese Scone Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What to avoid when making scones? ›

Flours: the perfectly fluffy texture of these consistently reliable scones is owed to 3 cups of self-raising flour (and a little plain flour for dusting!). Chilled butter: if you want to achieve beautiful, flaky and fluffy scones that rise well, cold butter is key!

Heavy Cream or Buttermilk: For the best tasting pastries, stick with a thick liquid such as heavy cream or buttermilk. I usually use heavy cream, but if you want a slightly tangy flavor, use buttermilk.

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.

The explanation is simple: As with other doughs, including pizza dough, resting lets scone dough's gluten relax completely, so that it doesn't snap back during shaping or baking.

To bake, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator and then bake. (I've found that sometimes frozen scones can turn gray due to oxidization. The dough is still safe to consume but might not look very appealing).

Using self-raising flour, cream, and water is excellent for what I consider great scones. Lemonade or soda water can also be used instead of plain water to add more rise; we had some fun with this at our Bake Club meetings using different flavours.

It is far better that the scone mixture is on the wet side, sticking to your fingers, as the scones will rise better. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and flatten it out with your hand, or use a rolling pin, to a thickness of 1-2 cm (1/2 – ¾ inch).

Don't overwork the dough!

When the wet and dry ingredients have been mixed, try to not overwork the dough, it makes the scones very tough and quite dry. Even if the dough looks crumbly, that's a good thing! It allows for those air pockets to help increase the fluffiness.

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.

Is it better to sift flour for scones? ›

Sifting flour is usually a good idea, says Penny Stankiewicz, chef-instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education. “It lightens the flour and aerates it, making it easier to mix into any emulsion.

Butter must be COLD from the very start to when the dough enters the oven. The cold butter melts upon entering the oven and the water content in butter evaporates in steam. As the steam escapes, it bursts up and creates that beautiful tall, flaky, fluffy texture.

For example, if you substitute oil for butter or margarine, you can significantly reduce the amount of saturated fat in your baked goods. This streamlined recipe for Light Scones uses just 3 tablespoons of canola oil, which contains a fraction of the saturated fat found in butter or margarine.

If you want a lighter tasting scone just use milk or half-and-half (light cream) instead of the heavy whipping cream. And to make the tops of the scones nice and crispy with a wonderful golden brown color, just pop them under the broiler, with a dusting of powdered sugar, just after they are baked.

To ensure taller scones, start with a thicker dough disc and place the scones on a tray with sides, allowing them to slightly touch one another. This arrangement encourages the scones to push against the pan and each other, promoting height.

Try placing your scones closer together on the tray as this forces them to rise upwards and not outwards.

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.

My scones have a dense, heavy texture and poor volume

You may have used too little raising agent or over handled the dough before it was baked. The oven may have been too cool.