I get up early. Not everybody’s early, but some people’s curfew early. Like 4am early. That doesn’t mean I’m fully functioning then, but luckily, routine procedures work even when the brain’s on autopilot.
It may come as little surprise that baking is a routine procedure to me, so whipping up a sweet treat for breakfast is something you might catch me doing in the wee hours of the morning.
If you don’t have the time and / or patience to wait for a yeast dough to rise or if you want something that can be prepared in advance, scones might just be the thing for you.
Scones are best known as teatime treats, but they also double as slightly sweet breakfast buns. Prepare the dough a day or two ahead and keep it in the fridge until ready to bake; that works for me everytime.
Breakfast Scones
This recipe is based on the BBC’s version of classic scones, which are slightly more delicate and more of a teatime treat rather than a breakfast item.
You’ll need:
350gr flour
2 tsps baking powder
85gr butter, chilled
a generous pinch of salt
3 tbsps sugar
cinnamon to taste
150ml milk
raisins etc. (optional)
Combine dry ingredients by rubbing buttet into the flour. Stir in milk, knead into a smooth dough. Don’t overwork the dough. Add raisins etc. to your liking.
To make your scones a quick-yet-pretty fix, skip the cookie cutter approach. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, pop the ball of dough onto it and press it into a circle, about 1.5 inches tall.
Use a serrated knife to saw (!) the circle into six or eight segments. Distribute the triangles / edges across the baking tray. Brush the scones with milk or an eggwash if you like and bake them in a preheated oven at 200°C for about ten minutes or until the tops are slightly browned and the bottoms are browned.
Pro-tip: to tell whether a bread, roll, or bun is done, flip it over and tap or knock onto the bottom. If you get a hollow sound, it’s done.
