Honey, Ginger and Walnut Scones

I would much prefer to have a scone over cake as they are not too sweet and go well with a cup of tea or coffee. Like crumbles, the possibilities are endless, and I make scones on a weekly basis for what has become known as “Scone Sunday”. These scones are perfect for one of those dull, cold days when you just need something to warm you up. The addition of grated ginger with the ground ginger gives that ginger biscuit taste and is so comforting, especially on a chilly day. These are really good still warm just with butter, although some extra honey spread on them makes them even better in my opinion. All scones should be served fresh from the oven!

This recipe makes 4-5 large scones (scones should only be large!) but you can double the recipe for more. You may want to make smaller ones, just be sure to adjust the cooking time.

Scones should always be eaten as fresh as possible. They just should not be eaten any other way! They just shouldn’t!

Makes 4-5 large scones.

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp caster sugar

35g butter

1 dessertspoon ground ginger

15g freshly grated ginger

Pinch of salt

2 tbsp honey, plus extra for glazing

1 egg, beaten

Roughly 100ml milk

25g walnuts, roughly chopped

Squeeze of lemon juice (optional – see tip below)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C.

2. Grease and line a tray, or just grease if you have a good quality non-stick tray.

3. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the baking powder, ground ginger, sugar and pinch of salt and mix. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

4. Stir in the grated ginger and walnuts.

5. Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add the honey and egg. Gradually add the milk a bit at a time and bring together to make a soft, but not too sticky dough. You may not need all the milk.

6. Turn out onto a floured surface and briefly knead the dough to bring the ingredients together making sure not to overwork it.

7. Roll out to about 4cm thickness and stamp out using a 7cm round cutter.

8. Place on the baking tray. Push trimmings together and briefly knead, re-rolling and stamping out more rounds, until the mixture is used.

9. Lightly brush the tops with milk and bake in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes. In the last 5 minutes you could add a light glaze of honey and milk to make them extra honeyed and crisp.

10. Serve with butter and more honey if you like.

Did I mention that you should eat them warm and fresh from the oven? Always!

Tips

I always add a few drops/squeeze of lemon juice to the milk before starting, to curdle the milk which gives more of a rise to the scones, although you don’t have to do this.

I don’t often roll my dough out and instead form rough balls of dough that I place straight on the baking tray. Although, this does not form perfect looking scones (I suppose they look more like rock cakes), I find the scones are lighter as the dough is processed less. It also saves some time and mess!