MAPLE AND WALNUT SCONES

Good morning, friends.

The weather is getting cooler and it’s time for comfort food!

Earlier this week I told you that I started Kayla Itsines’ BBG workout. I’m not planning on following her eating plan as my objective isn’t to loose weight but just become stronger and more toned and because I certainly cannot cut out all my favourite sweet treats!

Scones are probably one of my favourite snacks. I love making a batch of scones before friends come over as they make the house smell amazing and it’s a great treat to have along side a cup of tea.

This Plain Scones recipe that I posted a while ago is really easy to adapt you can make pretty much any scones by adjusting the recipe. The rules are simple, if you’re adding more liquid, reduce the milk and if you’re adding something sweet, reduce the sugar.

All you need for these scrumptious scones is:

Makes 4 large scones or 6 medium scones

225g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

a pinch of salt

55g butter

14 walnuts, chopped

80ml milk

40ml maple syrup

Method: Preheat oven to 200°C. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Chop up butter into cubes. Rub butter into flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add chopped walnuts. Make a well in the middle of the mixture, pour in milk and maple syrup and mix together with a round-bladed knife until combined.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently (4-5 times) simply to make the dough uniform. Gather into a ball and flatten onto the surface with your hand until about 2cm thick.  If it’s a bit sticky add a bit of flour to your surface. Use a cutter or an upside down drinking glass to cut into rounds.

Place on greaseproof paper on a baking tray. There’s no need to brush these with egg wash or milk as we’ll be covering them with icing. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden.

The sign of a good scone is a natural split in the middle so that it’s easy to pull apart.

For the icing this is totally up to you but make sure to let the scones cool down before your ice them.

For the icing all you need is maple syrup and icing sugar but you can alter the amounts depending on how runny you want the icing to be.

This one I made below was quite runny with two parts icing sugar and 1 part maple syrup.

I also ended trying out a slightly thicker icing that sat really nicely on top. In a bowl add 4 tablespoons icing sugar and 1 and a half tablespoons maple syrup. Whisk together with a small whisk. The icing should be fairly stiff as you mix it but easy enough to spread onto the scones. The amounts you use will depend on the maple syrup so have a play around – there’s no going wrong but you’re aiming for a stiff icing that turns glossy when left to set.

Use a pallet knife to spread the icing onto the top and push it into all the cracks.

*Update* one of my friends tried this recipe out and added cinnamon to the icing which he loved and sounds pretty awesome.

Once the icing has set, eat them with a cup of tea and a smear of butter!

What are your favourite comfort foods? Any recipe’s you’d like to see on here – just let me know!

xS