Scones are a quintessential British food that are best enjoyed with a generous dollop of jam and cream.
Sweet and moreish, they’re the kind of treat that is worth breaking a diet for and they’re surprisingly easy to make, so you don’t have to wait for a fancy afternoon tea out to enjoy one. Now that the weather is turning cold and wet, it’s the perfect time to stay indoors and indulge in a bit of baking. So if you’ve been watching The Great British Bake Off and felt inspired to give baking a go, scones are a great place to start. Scones are straightforward to make as you simply throw all the ingredients into one bowl and mix them together, but if you want to make things even easier, experts recommend sticking to just three simple ingredients.
According to baking experts, all you need to create deliciously light and fluffy scones is double cream, self-raising flour and lemonade and you’ll have perfect scones in just 20 minutes.
Double cream stands in as a substitute for butter and is what will give your scones a softer and more moist texture. It also means you don’t have to use as much elbow grease to make your dough as you get to avoid that frustrating stage of combining the butter and flour together by hand.
Lemonade is the ingredient that will give your scones that desired light texture as the carbonation from the fizzy drink forms bubbles and when these get trapped in the dough, it creates tiny air pockets that expand as the scones bake, aerating the dough and making them rise. This is ultimately what results in that lovely light, fluffiness at the end.
Georgia Mahood, food expert at Taste.com.au, explains: “The thought of rubbing flour into cold butter, which results in butter under the nails and flour all over the kitchen, is enough to make me look up ‘scones’ on Uber Eats and pray I can get my scone fix.
“But before you pick up your phone, there is an easier and mess-free way to make fresh scones… and it all starts with a bottle of lemonade. A cheap bottle of the sweet, carbonated stuff literally solves all the dread that comes with traditional scone-making.
“As cold butter is rubbed into flour, the butter breaks down into tiny bits of butter coated in flour. When baking, these bits of butter melt, creating air pockets in the scone that result in the light and tender texture we’re all after in a scone. But lucky for us, it’s easy to mimic this texture with the use of cream and lemonade – no rubbing required.”
If you want to go for a boozy option, you can swap lemonade for Prosecco instead as this will have the same effect although it can give your scones a slightly fruity, floral flavour.
Recipe creator Karon Grieve at Larder Love explains: “These super easy 3 ingredient Prosecco scones are really just posh lemonade scones and they taste amazing! Ready in just 20 minutes, start to finish, lemonade scones/prosecco scones are a quick and easy treat any day.”
She adds: “It is the bubbles in the fizzy lemonade that help give these deliciously light and fluffy scones the wonderful rise that they have. The sweetness of the fizzy lemonade eliminates the need for sugar in this super easy scone recipe.”
Experts recommend using 400g of self-raising flour, 175ml of double cream and 175ml of lemonade (or Prosecco) to make these scones. Simply place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre using your fingers. Pour the lemonade and the cream into the well and stir the mixture until you have a soft, sticky dough.
Once your dough is made, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead until it’s smooth, before cutting out your scones.
Place your cut out scones onto a greased baking tray and lightly brush the tops with some cream and then bake in the oven at 180C for around 20 minutes, until the scones have risen and turned golden brown.