Oat and maple syrup scones

I love scones, they make a great snack - not too heavy but substantial enough to fill a gap. And even better when topped with butter (preferably melted) and jam. So when I saw this recipe at Smitten Kitchen I couldn't wait to try it. I loved the idea of including oats and a proportion of wholemeal flour in the recipe, and having enjoyed these maple syrup cupcakes, I wanted to see how the maple syrup flavour worked with the scones.

I didn't want too many scones, so halved the recipe and made them slightly smaller than specified.

Oat and Maple Syrup Scones (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients

130g plain white flour

40g wholemeal flour

20g oats

2 level tsp baking powder

55g butter

40g maple syrup

90ml milk

Method

- Preheat the oven to Gas 6/200C. Put a piece of parchment paper onto a baking tray.

- Rub the butter into the flours, baking powder and oats.

- Add the maple syrup and milk and bring together to a dough.

- Pat out on a floured work surface and then cut out your scones (my cutter was 5cm/2" diameter and I got 8 scones I think). Place on baking tray and brush with milk to glaze.

- Bake for around 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

- Remove to a wire rack to cool.


I added more milk to my adaptation because otherwise I can't imagine them coming together as a dough at all, these weren't particularly sticky to work with and I added quite a bit more milk than specified. I also forgot to add sugar, relying solely on the maple syrup for sweetness.

I'm afraid these really didn't work for me at all. They rose fine and were fairly attractive and I could appreciate the oats had added a nice chewy texture. Sadly the amount of baking powder used was sufficient to give that horrible 'behind the teeth' feeling that I hate - I don't know why it seems to happen if I use plain flour + baking powder, but not with just self raising flour (which after all is just plain flour and a raising agent...) but it was nasty. I couldn't taste maple syrup at all, and found the scones quite dry, perhaps I overbaked them. Anyway, I wouldn't bother with this recipe again, although if you want to try sticking more closely to the Smitten Kitchen recipe perhaps it would work better. Disappointing.