Inventor Scones

Recently, I’ve discovered, I’m a lot more brazen with my cooking. If I lack an ingredient or I don’t know what to make I just say “BAH!” and throw things in and alter things at whim.

Perhaps it’s that I’m cooking only for myself, and thus if the food is terrible only I’m subjected to it, or perhaps it’s something else. I don’t know, but I hope that it stays around. I’ve created some really great things because of it.

I do know that part of the transformation from semi-timid recipe mostly follower to willy nilly noodle thrower is partly (but definitely not fully) a child of two things: having a vegan friend who has opened me up to the glories of wok-dom and being too lazy to figure out how many cups of flour is equivalent to 225 grams.

These two came together today when I decided that I needed a pick-me-up and I’d finally make the scones I’ve wanted to make. (It’s the first time I’ve ever really made scones by myself. I know!)

I was really excited so I posted that I was going to make them then I did shortly thereafter. However, I realized that the recipe called for an egg and I had invited a vegan to come and eat them.

“BAH!”

I just threw in some olive oil instead.

That was after, of course, I went “BAH!” and threw two cups of self-rising flour in when it called for 225 grams – for all I know, that’s accurate. I went willy nilly with the rest of the recipe as well, just adding as I saw fit until it looked like a scone dough.

Being cheap and abroad, I used a bottle of soy sauce to roll the dough out then I cut them into tiny scone shapes and…. DA DA DA! Dinosaurs!

They actually were pretty good. Plain, but good (I meant to make seeded scones but I forgot to put the seed flour in. Oops.)

So, my recipe was willy nilly and I substituted about an eggs worth of olive oil, but here is the original recipe:

225 g/8 oz self-raising flour

½ tsp salt

55 g/8 oz butter

30 g/1 oz sugar (or leave this out and put fruit, cheese, etc. in)

1 egg, beaten,

100 ml/3 fl oz milk

1. Preheat the oven to 210 degrees Celsius, gas mark 7.

2. Mix the flour and salt then cut the butter into pieces and mix it in to the flour, rubbing it so it get’s crumbly.

3. Make a well and add the milk and egg. Mix into a soft dough, kneading just a little.

4. Roll out on a floured surface to about 1 ½ cm thick and then cut into your shape (Traditionally scones are round with a scalloped edge, not triangular – or dino shaped)

5. For softer topped scones, dust the top with flour.