Mocha Scones Recipe | My Baking Addiction (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good scones? ›

Baking tips for making the perfect scones

The colder the better when it comes to scones, we recommend a chilled bowl and pastry cutter too. Use pastry flour: This will create a noticeably lighter scone. However, self-raising flour works just as well and creates a higher rising scone that holds its shape nicely.

Just a reminder: Don't overwork the dough or the scones will turn out rubbery – or worse, bullety and hard. Cut out your scones cleanly. Twisting the cutter can impair the rise.

A final crucial ingredient in scones is some sort of leavening agent such as baking powder or baking soda. In the oven, these leavening agents will react and form carbon dioxide, a gas. This puffs up your scone – it's why it increases in height in the oven!

They are typically extremely high in calories from the heavy butter and cream. And, although scones with fruit might seem healthier, most are even higher in calories and still high in saturated fat. Steer clear of scones.

Know what flour you should use! We recommend using all-purpose flour. There is some debate as to what flour one should use to go around achieving the perfect scone. This is because within different flours comes different levels of protein.

Not chilling the dough before baking: to really ace your scones, it helps to chill your dough again before it's baked. Using cold ingredients does help, but your hands will warm up the dough when you're working with it and the extra step of chilling will help you get the best result.

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.

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.

The egg gives the scones a golden and shiny finish once they are baked. It is however possible to omit the egg and use 1-2 tablespoons of extra milk as a glaze for the scones instead. They will not quite have the same colour and shine but they will still be delicious to eat.

Place pan of shaped scones into the freezer for up to 30 minutes before baking. This short rest relaxes the gluten, making scones more tender; and cold chills the fat, increasing flakiness. Make scone dough up to three days ahead.

What happens if you put too much baking powder in scones? ›

Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.) Cakes will have a coarse, fragile crumb with a fallen center.

The Secrets of The Rubbing-in Method

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.

When combined with baking soda, it becomes a leavening agent (the stuff that makes baked goods puff up in the oven) by producing carbon dioxide gas. If you ever run out of baking powder, you can substitute 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar for 1 teaspoon baking powder.

In general, scones should be baked at a higher temperature than most other pastries. Using too low of a temperature will prevent the scones from rising. If the recipe called for a lower temperature, try baking the scones at 400°F (205°C) next time, and see if that helps.

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.

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.

Recipes for scones sometimes provide a make-ahead option that involves refrigerating the dough overnight so it can simply be shaped and then popped into the oven the next day. But now we've found that resting the dough overnight has another benefit: It makes for more symmetrical and attractive pastries.

The first batch into the oven was 'plain' Original Recipe. I preheated the oven to 405 degrees (it runs hot so this is the setting that gives me 425 degrees). The scones came out of the freezer, were set onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, placed into the oven. I set timer for 18 minutes and moved on.