Banana Scones

Not much else to report for today, I cut the soap this morning, and made a lovely batch of Banana scones.

BANANA SCONES
3 cups Self Raising Flour
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
125g unsalted butter
2 mashed bananas
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tspn vanilla essence

Cream butter and sugar.
In a seperate bowl, mash banana, stir in milk and vanilla.
Combine both mixtures with a wooden spoon.
Fold through the flour and lightly mix into a dough.

Press out onto a lightly floured bench to about 3/4 inch thickness.

Use an upside down drinking glass as a scone cutter. Cut rounds and place on floured tray.

This is the way I have always stacked my scone rounds on a baking sheet. I find that this way, helps each scone to rise straight.....Bake in hot oven of 200oC for 10-12 minutes.

Once cooked to a lovely golden colour, separate the scones and turn the cooked scones to the centre...leaving a gap around each scone, bake in the oven for another 4 minutes....this helps to seal each scone....this method works better with plain, savoury, and pumpkin scones, as the banana scones I found were very light...but they still turned out soooo delicious...and the aroma in the kitchen while they were baking..........well your just going to have to make them yourself so you can experience the same aroma.

I got a heap of bananas before they went up because of the floods....I have 5 bags of 1 cup of mashed banana in the freezer just waiting to be cooked up in some way.  Now please note that I did not measure the amount of mashed banana I had....and when it thawed it was very watery....Because of this, I needed more than 1 cup of extra flour.....probably closer to two....

Any way they turned out so delicious, for lunch I had left over meatloaf (2 slices), a cup of mushroom soup and 2 fresh out of the oven Banana Scones....what a lovely way of using up leftovers...

SCONE RECIPES - DIFFERENT VARIETIES

PLAIN SCONES – ALWAYS DOUBLE THE RECIPE, to fill the tray

2 Cups Self Raising Flour                     
1 tblspn butter
¼ tspn salt                                           
¾ cup milk

Set oven to 200oC.
Rub butter into flour and salt until texture of bread crumbs
Mix milk into flour quickly with the blade of a knife. Don’t over mix and discard excess flour in bowl.
Roll out to 1 inch thickness, cut into rounds.
Glaze with milk.
Place in oven for 10 minutes or until golden.


SAVOURY SCONES

1 pkt French Onion Soup Mix                
1 cup milk
3 cups Self Raising Flour                      
1 tspn baking powder
2 oz butter                                           
1 egg
2 tblspns chopped parsley                   
1 tblspn dried mixed herbs

Put onion mix and milk in a bowl and let soak for 15 minutes.
Sift flour and baking powder into mixing bowl.
Rub butter into flour until it resembles bread crumbs.
Make a well in centre, add slightly beaten egg, parsley and onion mixture.
Mix into a soft dough with a knife blade, knead lightly on floured board.
Pat dough out into 1 inch thickness. Cut into rounds with an upside down drinking glass.
Put on lightly greased tray and bake in a very hot oven of 200 oC for about 12 minutes.


LEMONADE SCONES

4 cups Self Raising Flour                      
300ml tub thickened cream
1 cup lemonade (cheapest)                   
¼ cup milk

Sift flour into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add thickened cream and lemonade.
Stir gently with a wooden spoon until mixture forms a soft, sticky dough.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Dust with extra flour and knead gently until smooth.
Gently roll dough until 1 inch thick, using an upside down drinking glass, cut rounds from dough and place on an oven tray lined with baking paper.
Cook in a hot oven 200oC for about 12 minutes, or until lightly golden and cooked through.

PUMPKIN SCONES

2 cups Self Raising Flour                      
1 cup mashed cooked cooled pumpkin
½ tspn salt                                           
30g butter
¼ cup caster sugar                               
1 egg
Extra milk for glazing

Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter, add pumpkin, sugar and egg. Mix into a dough, and knead with a little extra flour. Pat dough to 1 inch thickness and cut into rounds.
Place on a greased tray brush with milk and bake in a very hot oven 200oC for about 15 to 20 minutes.