Thursday 24 February 2011

Wholemeal orange chocolate scones

These are largely inspired by Choclette's recent (well, fairly recent!) chocolate scones here. Rooting around in the fridge I discovered that I had yet another tub of half fat creme fraiche that needed to be used as soon as possible. See also here and here (will I never learn - apparently not given that I know there's another tub of the stuff in the fridge as I type). Since scones are often made with buttermilk, an acidic liquid, I reckoned that I could use my creme fraiche for the same purpose. I liked Choclette's idea of adding chocolate to scones and her idea of using partly wholemeal flour and I also found some candied peel in need of using so I created a recipe to suit my needs.

Wholemeal orange chocolate scones
Ingredients
150g self raising flour
150g wholemeal self raising flour
50g butter
35g caster sugar (plus extra demerara for sprinkling on the tops)
40g dark chocolate with candied orange peel, broken into tiny pieces
35g candied peel, snipped finely with scissors
200ml low fat creme fraiche (I used Yeo Valley) plus some water to slacken

Method
- Preheat the oven to gas 6 1/2/210 C. Line a baking tray with parchment.
- Mix the flours in a large bowl and rub in the butter. Mix in the sugar.
- Mix in the chopped peel and chocolate.
- Pour in the creme fraiche and a few tablespoons of water to get the creme fraiche to a more buttermilk like consistency. I'm afraid I just did this by eye and added a little more water until the dough felt a little sticky.
- Bring the dough together and tip onto a floured work surface. Pat out not too thinly and cut out your scones. I used a 2"/5cm cutter and got about 17.
- Dampen the surfaces of the scones with a little milk or water and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until lightly golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack.


Enjoy, preferably warm with butter.

The creme fraiche worked well enough in these, but to be honest, they weren't my favourite recent bake. I'm not sure why I'm not that enamoured of them, the scones were light and fluffy, if a little on the shallow side (my fault for patting out too thinly I think). I think that the chocolate and orange flavours didn't quite go with the wholemeal flour but I can't put my finger on quite why. My colleagues didn't seem to mind though, and these went quickly.
Edited to add: these are nice, it's just that they're not my favourite - lots of other people liked them....

6 comments:

cocoa and coconut said...

I think it sounds like a great recipe! I would be tempted to add little chocolate bits to it. Sorry you didn't enjoy it!

Chele said...

I so wish I could make scones!!! Mine always turn out like rock cakes ;0(
These ones look fab and light and fluffy. Yum. Was it maybe the flour that you didn't enjoy in scone form?

Victor said...

Sounds like a delicious recipe! Thanks for sharing.

Brownieville Girl said...

I'd be one of the people who likes these!

Abitofafoodie said...

I think I'd like these too. Good idea to use creme fraiche -I'm always much more likely to have this in the fridge rather than buttermilk!

Caroline said...

Brittany - thanks for the comment. They were tasty, just not my favourites!

Chele - I'm sure your scones are great and anyway, less than perfect means you've just got to keep trying!

Victor - thanks for dropping by the blog!

BVG - I bet you would!

Antonia - I go through phases of having buttermilk in my fridge, but I often don't!

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