Scones with a greek twist!!!

Another miserable, miserable day and only 2 weeks or so till Summer!!!  Trying to keep a two year old entertained indoors for hours on end is a bit difficult..  Sure I have the T.V. on all day (bad mum!) but I have put on the Greek cartoon DVDs so at least it’s educational.

Today I braved it and went to Daydreamers play centre in Windsor.  We both had a ball.  I figure I have another year up my sleeve before it begins to look strange that I’m also going down the slides.  We were there for about 3 hours.  We came home, Evangeline asked for milk and it looked like she was going to doze off but NO…My little energizer rabbit was up and running again.

She loves getting involved in the kitchen so today we made scones.  I have more of a savoury tooth than a sweet one however give me icecream, cheesecake or my koubara’s tsoureki you could never tell.

So today with “giagia” koubara as inspiration I added mahlepi and orange peel to the mix…. They turned out pretty nice.  The Iranian fig & cherry jam and Gippsland Pure double cream made them very special and my greek saffron and honey herbal tea topped it off!

INGREDIENTS

2 cups self-raising flour

1 tablespoon caster sugar

Pinch of salt

1 tsp mahlepi powder (I mixed pinch of salt and tsp of mahlepi kernels in mortar & pestle)

rind of ½ orange chopped

60g butter, chilled, chopped

3/4 cup buttermilk

Extra buttermilk, for brushing

jam and cream to serve

METHOD 

Preheat oven to 200°C fan-forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Position oven rack in the top half of oven.

Sift flour, sugar and salt into a bowl. Add butter. Place all dry ingredients in a food processor until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Make a well in centre of mixture. Add buttermilk. Using a flat-bladed knife, stir until a sticky dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until just smooth.

Using a lightly floured rolling pin, gently roll dough out until 2cm thick. Using a 6cm round cutter, cut out scones. Press leftover dough together. Repeat to make 12 scones.

Place scones, just touching, on prepared tray. Brush with buttermilk. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden and hollow when tapped on top. Serve with jam and cream.

XXX CAROL