Raspberry, buttermilk and white chocolate scones

Serves: 12
Course: Dessert
Cooking Time: 0 hr 25 mins

Ingredients

  • 250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2tsp baking powder
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 120ml buttermilk
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 100g unsalted butter, cut into cubes and frozen
  • 75g good quality white chocolate, roughly chopped
  • 100g raspberries

1 Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, or 180 degrees if using a fan oven. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.

2 In a large bowl, sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. Add in the sugar and mix until combined.

3 In a separate bowl or jug, whisk the egg with the buttermilk and vanilla extract and set aside.

4 Use a box grater to grate the frozen butter onto a board or large plate. It is important that the butter stays as cold as possible to achieve light and fluffy scones.

5 Add the butter into the flour mixture and combine with a fork, knife, or your fingers, until the mixture comes together to form pea-sized pieces. Don't worry if there are a few larger lumps of butter.

6 Pour the buttermilk and egg mix over the flour and butter mix and add the white chocolate pieces. Add the raspberries and gently mix everything together until the dough just comes together. It is important to work the dough as little as possible to avoid ending up with dense scones. Over-handling the dough will also cause the raspberries to break, making your dough much wetter and more difficult to handle, so take care.

7 Dust the work surface with flour and pat the dough into a disc about 20cm in diameter. Use a little more flour if needed.

8 Using a 6cm fluted or plain ring cutter, cut out 10 scones, reshaping the scraps to use up the dough.

9 Place the scones on the prepared baking tray, leaving a few centimetres between each.

10 Use a pastry brush to brush any remaining buttermilk and egg mixture left in the bowl or jug lightly on top of each scone.

11 Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and well risen.

12 Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about five minutes before serving.

Aoife Noonan

Aoife Noonan

Aoife Noonan is a pastry chef and culinary consultant. She writes a weekly baking column for the Irish Times Magazine