Before I was diagnosed as coeliac, there was a milky restaurant in Golders Green which used to make its own artisan bread, infused with olives, walnuts and herbs. It was great dipped in a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar and was a simple treat which unfortunately isn’t to be any more – aside from coeliac disease, the restaurant has also closed down.
Over Shabbat, I’ve been dreaming of a savoury something which is quick to prepare and great on its own or as an accompaniment to a bowl of soup or scrambled eggs and I decided to whip up a batch of savoury scones, artisan bread-style. As the dough is yeast free, there’s no time spent proving, so within 30 minutes (plus time for cooling) they will be ready to eat warm, so they are a great last minute bake, or you can make up a batch to stock up your freezer.
I made up a big batch of savoury scone mixture, split it into two and then added olives and herbs to one half and pecans to the other, but you could add anything to create your own favourites; feta and sundried tomatoes, rosemary and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or roasted butternut squash and chestnut. Keep the cheese or leave it out – you can do pretty much anything with this recipe to suit your own tastes.
I’ve made 2 adjustments here to my usual scone recipe. First of all, I’ve added a little sweet rice flour (also known as sticky or glutinous rice flour – but there is no gluten in it) to try to add a little more bread-like bite to the scones. The other adjustment was using a few spoonfuls of Greek yoghurt in place of my usual buttermilk as I’m low on full fat milk. It added beautifully to the flavour and texture of the final product, but buttermilk will work just as well on its own. You could also replace 25g of the all purpose gluten free flour with a little teff flour or ground walnuts in a nutty scone to make it a little more ‘wholemeal’.
Gluten free ‘artisan’ scones
Servings
Ingredients
- 375 grams gluten free all purpose flour blend
- 75 grams sweet rice flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 175 grams butter I use a low fat butter which is 50% vegetable oils to reduce the fat
- 4 tablespoon Greek yoghurt or buttermilk
- milk to combine or buttermilk
- 50-75 grams flavouring 1: nuts olives etc
- 50-75 grams flavouring 2: grated cheese feta etc (optional)
- 1 tablespoon dried herb of choice optional my favourites are oregano or thyme
- 1 egg beaten, to glaze scones
Instructions
- Rub together butter and flours, baking powder and xanthan gum until crumb like.
- (Stir in cheese).
- Stir in the Greek yoghurt, then add milk, a bit at a time, until combines to a smooth dough. I’d recommend kneading the mixture together as the yoghurt is thick, but quite sticky and can absorb more of the dry ingredients than you’d think. Knead in your flavouring (this gives you the opportunity to halve the dough to try 2 different flavours).
- On a floured surface, roll out dough to 4cm thick and cut into rounds (I prefer to use a smaller cutter which makes 12 scones). Brush tops with egg wash. Bake for 20-25 mins at 180 degrees celsius.
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