Thursday Teatime ~ Lemon and Mixed Nut Meal Scones

 
It seems that my yesterday's post gave everyone the wrong idea that I am doing 'Flourless Bakes" this week. Actually I thought about that theme, cooked a few dishes based on it but the dishes got scattered under various themes when the final planning happened. I divided my posts under six themes based on the days of the week rather than basing on the varieties of bakes. My post titles  are going to represent my themes and I had reserved 'Wednesdays' to showcase vegetables while 'Thursdays' are meant for tea time snacks. Now that's off my chest, I will move towards these subtly lemon flavored scones made with nuts meal. :)

A scone is according to wiki, a single serving cake / quick bread. They are a basic part of a Devonshire tea / Cream tea where scones are served along with clotted cream and jam during tea time. The pronunciation of scone rhymes with the word 'gone' in England regions while it rhymes with 'cone' in the U.S. I have never been in England to vouch for the authentic texture of scones and have eaten mostly the ones that have come out of my oven. Most of the recipes I have tried so far have been flaky, slightly on the crispier side and subtly sweeter ones. And I had never felt the need of a sweeter jam or cream to go along with it even though they are traditionally eaten that way. Yesterday I was going through some discussion boards regarding scones and read that British scones are more like dense cakes and are lightly sweetened. If that is the case, this recipe is a winner and for the first time, I understood why jam is needed to enjoy these subtly flaky dense cakes. The exterior was very slightly crispy and the scones were redolent with lemony flavor.
 
We all loved these scones to the core and enjoyed them for our yesterday's evening tea and today's breakfast. This recipe gave the inspiration for these scones and I was attracted to the beautiful images captured there. Mine looks different in color than the original one probably because I used pistachio meal more and used flax  meal. However they rose as they should be and tasted good, with only subtle hint of sweetness.

Ingredients: 
2 cups flour
3/4 mixed nut meal (I ground almonds, pistachio and walnuts together finely and substituted for almond meal.)
2 tbsp. sugar
2 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 
1/2 cup / 1 stick frozen butter, grated (This method proved a lot easier and if not following it, cut the butter into small cubes)
Substitute for 1 egg (I combined 1 tbsp. flax meal + 3 tbsp. water for about 5 minutes.)
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp grated lemon zest
2 - 3 tbsp. almond slices to garnish

Method:
* Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
* Combine all the dry ingredients (From flour to salt in the list) in a mixing bowl. Toss in the grated frozen butter. 
* In another bowl whisk the egg substitute, buttermilk, almond extract and the lemon zest. Add them to the dry ingredients' bowl and gently combine with a fork.
* When the dough roughly comes together, transfer to a lightly floured surface and gently knead just until it comes together into a ball. (My dough was on the sticky side and I lightly greased my hand to work.)

* Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet and gently pat it into a circle of about 9 inches in diameter. Score into 8 wedges, keeping the circle intact. Sprinkle slivers of almond over it.
* Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and springs back when gently touched.
* Cut the wedges when they are still warm and enjoy with jam.

Alternatively the recipe mentions that they can be cut into 8 wedges and baked for 15- 20 minutes at 400 deg F. I haven't tested it.

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