Soft Sourdough Scones
In the mornings, I usually bake and lately I’ve been baking many batches of these soft sourdough scones.
As the weather has cooled down warming the kitchen with soft notes of butter and flour really brightens up our home. I’ve been using my sourdough starter for a couple of years and now, whenever I bake, I look to my starter to give a natural rise and gooey softness to any baked good.
The truth is, I never baked before. I mean yes, I could mix up a ready made box of brownies, if you can call that baking (that was in my non healthy-living days).
But make bread, or scones or pie crust? From scratch?
No way.
If you are someone who can’t bake then all you might really need to baking freshly made delightfully soft gooey scones for breakfast, is a sourdough starter.
Sourdough is a natural process of fermentation of water
and flour
This fermentation happens without much effort from your part. As flour is mixed with water at room temperature, the enzyme amylase breaks down the starch into maltose and glucose. Flour comes ready with hosts of bacteria and yeasts. The bacteria begin fermenting maltose while the yeast metabolizes byproducts making carbon dioxide gas.
This is what leavens the dough.
And it tastes wonderful. Beyond anything I’ve ever tried before. This food is alive and brimming with beneficial bacteria, increasing digestibility while giving the kind of chewy texture you’d expect from a gooey batch of brownies.
To make sourdough bread the fermentation period is needed as well as proofing the dough over night.
To make these scones though, there is no proofing required or rise time.
You mix, stir, form the dough, cut and bake.
Simple and easy.
For these scones I used Spelt flour. Spelt flour is an ancient grain and a nutritional powerhouse. I’ve been using Spelt because it’s easier to digest and loaded with health benefits. Spelt is high in fiber already which makes it easily digestible so fermenting it not only increases its digestibility but makes it’s nutrients and minerals more bio-available thanks to all those beneficial bacteria.
For those with gluten sensitivities, spelt flour might be a good choice.
Soft Sourdough Scones
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups Spelt flour (plus extra for dusting)
- 100g cold butter
- 3/4 cups cold sourdough starter
- pinch of salt (optional)
Directions:
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper and pre-heat oven to 200C/392F
- Cut the butter into the flour
- Rub the butter into the flour to form a dry coarse mix
- Pour in the sourdough starter
- Mix well to form a ball (add more flour if needed at this point)
- Place the dough on parchment paper and press down
- Cut into 8 pieces
- Bake for 30-35 minutes
- Serve warm with spread of choice. We like butter, raw honey and a dash of cinnamon.
How about you? Do you like scones? Have you ever tried sourdough scones?
