Tea for Two: A Lesson in Making GF Scones

There has been an awful lot of conspiring assumptions about what I've been up to lately, and no doubt at least three of those assumptions are likely to be possibly true. For the record, I told you exactly what I was doing - making scones! In between naps and sleep crimes. Anyways.

I don't know about you, but I am a big fan of afternoon tea. (Also, see "morning tea", "night tea", and "Hobbit o'clock" tea) It all started when I was a teenager visiting one of my favorite families in the whole world. Pretty much every time I showed up, a pot of tea would be heated up, and we would all visit with each other and chat and sip mugs and mugs of tea. The smell of earl gray still reminds me of those lovely people and their welcoming home. Eventually with all that chatting - and man, can I chat - you're gonna get hungry. And one of my favorite tea-time snacks is a warm scone. Scones have the texture and taste of two of my favorite things combined - cookie + biscuit = scone. Just a little sweet, with a rich texture.

Here is what you need:
Baking Music
1 1/2 cups of stabilized brown rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch (or tapioca flour)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix these dry ingredients.

Add 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pats. Molli will concur (unless she has decided that today is the day to prove me wrong in all things) that COLD butter really does make a textural difference. Squish it up in the dry mixture until blended.

In a separate bowl, mix these things:
2 large eggs
1/3 cup of buttermilk or regular milk or almond milk (you can make your own buttermilk with 1/3 teaspoon of vinegar*)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*I bet you are thinking - vinegar!? WHY!? Well. Because vinegar + milk = Buttermilk, a substance I find repulsive for drinking purposes, but delightfully flavorful for baking purposes. (And for dairy free purposes, you can make "buttermilk" with almond milk and vinegar, same measurements)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix it up. The mixture will be very sticky and viscous. ...man, I love working the word "viscous" into conversation.

The best way to cook these is to put the mixture in a scone pan. Normally, I wouldn't tell you to rush out and get a whole special pan, but I've noticed that it doesn't seem to bake up as pretty on a cookie sheet, and it cooks a little unevenly in a cast iron pan. If you love scones and want them to be a part of your life, and you are not ready for the commitment of a long-term relationship or a puppy, invest in a pan like this and you will not be sorry.



Bake those suckers for 15-20 minutes until they rise & brown. (think tan. dark beige. delicious.)

Also, to make them especially delectable and bakery-like, look at these easy extra steps here at this link: http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/how-to-make-scones-like-a-bakery/

Now. Here are extra tidbits if you are a true connoisseur of scones, or curious about GF baking, or just really picky. I'm talkin' to you, Type A personalities.

Here are some ideas of what you can add if you don't like plain scones.
(Although if you don't like plain scones, you should slice fresh strawberries and put homemade whipped cream on top, because your opinion may change.)
1/4 cup or to taste:
nuts (walnuts are delicious!)
blueberries
chopped up dried fruit (raisins, mangos, peaches, oh my!)

vanilla extract or other flavorings

spices to taste (I like cinnamon & nutmeg)

OR if you like more savory things - leave out the sugar and
add some grated cheese and chives or rosemary

And some notes on GF baking.

You COULD use white rice flour, but I find it grittier than brown rice flour, plus with brown rice flour, you will have healthy bran (brown rice flour being made from whole grain rice). I better stop throwing around the word healthy when I could be saying things like MORE DELICIOUS. If you don't plan on baking for a large family or a pack of gypsies or troupe of circus folk, stabilized brown rice flour is the way to go as brown rice flour can go rancid really quickly due to its natural oils.

Non-GF people (and some noninformed GF people) want to know about xantham gum. See how it's got the word "gum" in it? That's cause it glues together your ingredients. Oh yes. Since gluten is what makes baked good cohesive, we've gotta add some xantham gum so we don't get that dreaded crumbly GF baked goods texture. Not on my watch, buddy.

Now you are pretty much a professional at making bakery fresh GF scones. Why, the sugar on those scones is sparkling like magical fairy dust, you kitchen wizard! I am so impressed. Could I come over for tea?