Nothing is better than sitting outside on a warm summer day and enjoying the sun with a fluffy scone, and they are incredibly easy to bake yourself at home. Beth Sachs, a Cornwall cook and creator of the Effortless Foodie has shared her scone recipe takes just 10 minutes to make before they go in the air fryer for eight minutes.
She said, “These golden, fluffy air fryer scones pair perfectly with strawberry jam and clotted cream, and best of all, they’re ready in just eight minutes.” However, the key to making air fryer scones is to use the right ingredients, as it is incredibly important to use lemon juice if you want them to come out as light as possible
Beth said, “A squeeze of fresh lemon juice sours the milk to produce light and fluffy textured scones.”
Why do you need lemon juice for air fryer scones?
Baking in the air fryer can be tricky, as food cooks at a much quicker rate in the oven, so it is very easy for dough creations like cakes or scones to come out dry or cracked.
The acidity in lemon juice helps tenderise the dough to help make it softer, which greatly helps improve the texture.
Lemon juice will react with milk to curdle it slightly, which turns it into buttermilk, a thicker liquid that helps moisturise the dough and also create the perfect soft scones.
However, the best reason to use lemon juice is that it also reacts to baking powder, which greatly helps the scones rise so they puff up properly in the air fryer to come out taller and fluffier.
Creating scones with an air fryer is simple, as long as you make sure to use lemon juice, as it is needed to make sure the scones rise so they do not just lie there flat in the air fryer.
How to make air fryer scones
You will need (for five scones):
- 175g of self-raising flour
- 85ml of milk
- 45g of butter (cold and cubed)
- Half a teaspoon of baking powder
- Half a teaspoon of vanilla extract
- Two tablespoons of caster sugar
- A squeeze of lemon juice
Instructions
To begin, preheat the air fryer by setting it to 200C for five minutes.
Meanwhile, place the flour, baking powder and cold butter in a large mixing bowl. Mix it together by rubbing the butter into the flour mixture until you get a breadcrumb-like texture.
It is crucial to use cold cubed butter when making scones as it will create steam when cooking, which also helps them rise. Room temperature butter will just create a sticky mess in the air fryer.
Add the caster sugar to the mixing bowl. Then, place the milk in a jug and heat it in a microwave for 30 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract to the hot milk to create buttermilk, and then let it sit for two minutes to cool down slightly. Then, mix the buttermilk into the flour mixture.
Use your hand to bring the dough together. It should feel soft and even slightly sticky.
Then, lightly flour a kitchen worktop and use the surface to shape the dough into a round disc that is three centimetres thick. Use a 5cm biscuit cutter to cut out five scones.
Place the scones on the air fryer tray and add a little cold milk to the top of the scones to make a glaze. Cook in the air fryer for eight minutes until the scones are golden, and then remove them from the tray to cool down for 10 minutes.
Your perfect fluffy scones will now be ready to eat. This is a really quick recipe that is perfect for picnics, barbecues, or simply to treat yourself on a hot summer day.