Recipe: Gluten Free Cheese Scones
Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted a recipe so I’m sorry about that. I had really wanted to post something new at least every couple of weeks but what with having such a busy year growing our market stall and local delivery routes, not to mention developing serveral new products to sell AND of course the fact that I’m growing a baby, well the weeks just seem to roll by at the speed of light.
This week myself, husband and little boy have all come down with a nasty cold so we have been self isolating most of this week and I’ve had to take time off from baking and the market stalls this weekend. While it is always disappointing to miss a market, it has also been nice to take my foot off the gas for a few days and today me and my little boy had a go at making gluten free cheese scones together.
Never having made gluten free scones before i had no idea if they would turn out as expected. As usual i didn’t follow one recipe (that would be too easy). I scoured the internet and cookbooks and looked at several recipes to see the common themes before jotting down my own recipe based on the ingredients i had to hand.
The result turned out far better than i expected. The scones were light and fluffy yet robust, not crumbly as I’d feared. Several people were keen on me sharing the recipe so here it is.
*A note on the flour. I used my own flour blend that i originally created to use for brownies and blondies but found it didn’t work well for them so i had a tub of it kicking around in the pantry. What better way to use it up than with some experimental baking? The flour blend is really simple, 40% rice flour, 60% tapioca flour with some xanthan gum thrown in. It is similar in texture to Edmunds GF flour so I suggest trying the Edmunds plain flour blend . Personally i have never had good results with the countdown (woolworths) brand of gf flour but others seem to love it so just use whatever flour blend usually works for you but throwing in a teaspoon of xanthan gum. I have included this in the recipe so no need to add additional xanthan gum other than what is in the recipe.
I used a flour without raising agents. It could work with self raising flour but as the buttermilk in the recipe is acidic i wanted to balance the raising agents myself to make sure they reacted with the buttermilk to give a nice rise. If you only have a self raising flour blend i suggest omitting the baking powder and just adding baking soda. I haven’t tried this though so if you try this please let me know how you get on.
Of course if you aren’t gluten free (you lucky thing) I’m sure this would work well with regular plain flour although you might need slightly less than the amount here as it tends to be more absorbent.
Ingredients:
325g GF plain flour (see notes on flour*)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum (see notes on flour*)
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried or fresh herbs (optional)
80g strong grated cheese (tasty/ cheddar etc)
50g melted butter
500mls buttermilk or half greek yogurt half milk mixed together
1 egg beaten
Method:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius
In a large bowl mix the flour, xanthan gum, mustard powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and herbs if using until evenly mixed.
Add the cheese and stir until cheese is evenly mixed into the flour
Add the buttermilk or milk and yogurt mixture and butter and mix with hands until you all the liquid is fully incorporated and you have a sticky dough.
tip dough onto a floured surface shape into a rectangle that is about 2.5cm thick. I used a rolling pin. Don’t forget to use plenty of flour so the dough doesn’t stick to it.
Cut into triangle shapes. You should get about 15
Place on a baking tray and brush the tops with the eaten egg. You could also add more grated cheese too the top for an extra cheesy crunch.
bake for approx 20 minutes.
Let cool slightly before eating as they will be quite gummy while still hot.
