To accompany the navy bean ‘risotto’ on our ski day, I was inspired by Sawsan’s Scone post and decided a scone would be the perfect foil for the beans. I was also inspired by Kristy’s Maple Bacon Biscuits to change up Sawsan’s recipe and add some good old fashioned maple syrup! I am happy to report they were AMAZING. The maple really complimented the saltiness of the crispy fried prosciutto very nicely, the only thing I would change is not add the cheese, it had no impact on the flavour what-so -ever. What’s really interesting about this recipe is that has so little fat in it…most biscuit or scones have at least a half a cup of butter or shortening! I followed Sawsan’s recommendations with some exceptions as indicated in blue below. My one regret is that I didn’t double the recipe! Thanks for a winner, Sawsan, I shall certainly make these again and again!
Basic Scones (from Sawsan at Chef in Disguise)
Servings: about 6 7½ cm scones that are 2.5 cm high
Recipe can be doubled
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm/5 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) (⅓ oz) fresh baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1½ gm) salt
- 1 tablespoons (15 gm/0.5 oz) frozen grated butter
- 1 tablespoons (15 gm/0.5 oz) frozen grated shortening
- approximately ¼ cup (120 ml) cold milk
- approximately ¼ cup (120 ml) cold maple syrup
- 2 pieces of crispy prosciutto (I baked mine on hi broil for 3-4 minutes and then blotted the rendered fat out of them. Break them into smaller pieces).
- ½ cup grated frozen cheddar
- 1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones
Directions:
- Preheat oven to very hot 475°F/240°C
- Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the sifted ingredients until cold.)
- Rub the frozen grated fats including the cheese into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones. I used my pastry cutter to do this. Add the crispy prosciutto bits.
- Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth (make sure your hands are not warm as it will melt the fat). To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.) I also used the folding technique that Sawsan recommended
- • pat the dough into a rectangle and fold 1/3 of the dough over itself (similar to croissant making)
• fold the other third over the first
• turn 90 degrees and repeat patting and folding - Roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about 1 inch thick (15¼ cm by 10 cm by 2.5 cm thick). Using a well-floured 2-inch (5 cm) scone cutter (biscuit cutter), stamp out without twisting six 2-inch (5 cm) rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch (2 cm) layer and cut two more scones (these two scones will not raise as well as the others since the extra handling will slightly toughen the dough). Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.
- Place the rounds not touching on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Glaze the tops with milk.
- Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.
- Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm with sweet butter.
Thank you for the mention Eva! These scones look fantastic. I’ve never made scones before, but was also impressed and excited by Sawsan’s post. I think the addition of maple syrup to the prosciutto scones was brilliant! I’m drooling just thinking about these. 🙂
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Not nearly as decadent as your biscuits, Kristy, but quite flavorful, none-the-less. Thanks for the inspiration.
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I never make scones…but now I’m inspired to do so. Given how much my girls love bacon, I’d be well served to double the recipe myself!
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Thanks Barb, they were a winner for sure.
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Beautiful scones! Have not eaten one in ages! Your version sounds yummy!
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Thank you kindly KF. If you try the recipe, please check out Sawsans tips, it’s worth it.
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Hi Eva – wasn’t Sawsan’s post amazing? As I mentioned on her blog, I went there looking forward to just a recipe, but instead she had all KINDS of information about scones, with multiple recipes. How fun!
I love your versions – scones in general are fantastic – I haven’t one in absolutely ages. Should try and correct that!
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I really loved the post too, Charles. And the recipe is amazing for such a small amount of fat! I hope you do try it!
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Wow, maple and proscuitto. This is scone heaven.
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Thanks Greg; they actually tasted like they were filled with butter. Oops, that could’ve been the dollop of butter I smeared it with! Oh well!
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Gorgeous scones with great flavours. If only I didn’t already have SO much bread that I have to eat (the freezer is full) before I can make these. 🙂
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You must have been very busy baking the past few months, Maria. We have a lot of bread in our freezer at work, but one of our customers are bread makers!
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I don’t eat bread every day and my eyes are definitely bigger than my tummy so I have a whole loaf of fruit challah bread that I bought for french toast or bread pudding and the remainder of a dozen bagels, also purchased, as well as half of the last batch of dill and onion bread that I baked and posted on my LJ a while back. There’s also a package of Greek pita bread in there destined for chicken or pork souvlaki.
I could definitely feed a family of four for a couple of weeks or more on the freezer’s contents. 🙂
I just thawed one of the dill buns and slathered it with margarine (the butter is stone cold) and chowed it down with a big bowl of chicken noodle soup. Luckily I was able to give away 2/3 of the pork crackling biscuits and the rest of the cream puffs I made last week.
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I try to give away home made breads so we don’t have them at home! Too much temptation!
You made the pogacsa? Did you post your photos and recipe? It was a really busy week so I haven’t been able to check out my reading list of blogs.
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I give away as much stuff as I can so most of the pogasca that I made found a home at my brother and SIL’s place. 🙂 I see that you got a chance to check them out.
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definitely no problem with large scones 😉 that combination of maple syrup and prosciutto, in a scone, definitely something new tome, brilliant!
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Thank you Shu Han and welcome to my blog. Hope to see you back again!
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Maple and prosciutto – what an exquisite combination to enjoy in scones… your biscuits look fluffy and golden delicious Eva… and I always say, after a good day of skiing, I deserve some good ol’ fashion carbs!! :0). I don’t have a problem with the large size at all! ;).
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The scones were a perfect foil to the bean dish Kelly! They were so delicious too!
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Sawsan’s post was awesome — thanks for the link. I’m going to buckle down and follow some instructions strictly for once. And you, how could you lose with a combination like maple syrup and prosciutto? I agree with you about leaving out the cheese.
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I was disappointed in the cheese Sharyn, it was old, sharp cheddar.
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You certainly got my attention when you put prosciutto in the title of this post. I just might jump on the scones bandwagon with this recipe. Thanks, Eva!
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Actually John, cooking up the prosciutto until crispy made the scones so tasty with the maple flavour! Definitely doing them again.
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Thank you so so much for the shout out Eva, I am really glad you enjoyed the scones and liked the recipe. I loved the fact that it has so little fat in it and it works with both savory and sweet.
Again, thank you for trying one of my recipes and for the kind shout out my friend
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The recipe and it’s results we’re entirely our pleasure Sawsan! Thank you for putting us on to it.
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What beautiful looking scones. I think they would be the perfect accompaniment to your dinner. Yes, next time triple the recipe!
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It’s one of the tastiest scone recipes I’ve tried Charlie, and so little fat in it! So surprising!
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