I know what you mean about Cosco. We're a household of 3 in a small house and are only able to buy a limited amount of practical things that we know will get used up and not take up a lot of room - like olive oil for soaping!
I did something that made me so happy today (besides buying cream to make clotted cream, that is
). I made a batch of gluten-free scones that actually came out successful! I've been trying to come up with a GF recipe for my SIL who has gluten issues. This was my second attempt. My first attempt a few days ago came out so bad it went into the trash. I absolutely hate throwing away food, but trust me,
it was necessary. Thankfully, it was only a half batch of 5 scones. Five very dense, dry, mealy-mouth-feel/textured scones that could have been used for doorstops. lol
In comparison, the batch I made today was the difference between night and day. It was a half batch, too, but they came out so delightfully (and surprisingly) good that I wish I had made a full batch. If I had not made them myself, I would never in a million years have suspected they were gluten-free- they are
that good. My SIL will be so pleased!
They are beautifully light in weight with a tender, bready/biscuity, airy crumb- just like the regular scones I've been making with the recipe I posted at the beginning of this thread. And the mouth-feel of these is just like my regular scones, which is so many miles above the pathetic mealy attempt that I threw away the other day.
Anyway, here is the (successful) recipe I used today. It's a slight tweak of Epicurious's recipe entitled, 'Best Gluten Free Scones' that I found online. This is the full recipe complete with my tweaks, by the way. I split the below full recipe exactly in half to make my experimental batch today and it worked great. My tweaks/special notes to the recipe are in red:
-1 3/4 cups (224g) gluten-free multi-purpose flour (
I used Cup 4 Cup brand)
-1/3 cup (71g) granulated sugar
-2 tbsp. (20g) teff flour (
my tweak to add some whole-grain- and hopefully slight wheaty-tasting goodness to it. It worked ncely, btw)
-1 tbsp. (12g) buttermilk powder (
my tweak to hopefully combat any possible blandness....it worked, too, btw)
-1 tbsp. (15g) baking powder (
I used Rumford double-acting baking powder)
-1/4 tsp. baking soda (
added because of my buttermilk powder addition)
-1/2 cup (113g) cold butter, cubed
-2 large eggs
-1/3 cup (74g) cold whole milk
-1/2 tsp. xanthan gum (
I used Bob's Red Mill brand)
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/4 cup (40g) dried currants (
down from 3/4 cup additions in the original recipe, because I don't like gobs of dried fruit. 1/4 cup is plenty.)
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
1) Preheat oven to 400F/204C.
2) Grease a large baking sheet or line with parchment paper
3) In a large mixing bowl, whisk the multipurpose flour, sugar, buttermilk powder, teff flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt. Set aside.
4) In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla until frothy. Set aside.
5) Work the cold, cubed butter into the flour mixture with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly with some pea-size pieces of butter still remaining.
I worked the butter in until the mass looked like a bowl of course 'cornmeal and peas'.
6) Stir the currants into the 'cornmeal and peas'.
7) Add the frothy egg/milk/vanilla mixture to the flour mixture and stir until blended. The dough should be cohesive but very wet and sticky.
[Mine resembled something akin to cupcake/muffin batter and I was almost tempted to add a bunch more flour to it, but thankfully I resisted the temptation].
8 ) Place the very wet/sticky but cohesive mass onto a GF floured surface, then with GF floured hands gently pat it out to a disc of 1" thickness. Do not attempt to roll it out (
or to knead it either, btw). The dough will be way too sticky for that, and adding more flour will only create a dry, dense result
(Obey these directions to a 'T' and resist like crazy the urge to make the dough smooth and non-sticky like regular dough. This went totally against every bread-baking instinct within me, but GF dough is not anything like regular dough and needs to be treated much differently. I was so glad I resisted temptation!).
9) Using a GF floured 2.5" biscuit cutter, cut straight down into the 1"-thick disc of moist, delicate dough and cut into rounds as best as you can in spite of the stickiness/delicateness, and
gently place onto the prepared baking sheet.
10) Lightly brush milk on top of the scones and then place the baking sheet, uncovered, into the freezer
(yes-I said the freezer!) for 15 minutes.
11) After chilling for 15 minutes, place the baking sheet into the pre-heated oven on the upper middle rack and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. (
mine took 17.5 minutes)
12) Remove from oven and transfer scones to a cooling rack. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
IrishLass