What makes a great scone? It should be light airy flaky and buttery. Served straight from the oven and slathered with butter it should easily fall apart in your fingers. It can be sweet as in blueberry scones or it can be savoury with a bit of spinach and cheese. When made properly there’s nothing better like Sweet Potato Scones for afternoon tea.
There are many great recipes out there for scones with varying degree of difficulty, but the common thing among these recipes is that the scone dough should be handled minimally and with care so that the scones turn out light and flaky. One thing to remember is that the flakiness is the result of layers of butter trapped within the dough. The steam within also helps the scones to rise taller.
My version of scones is inspired by Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen’s Pumpkin scones. Lady Florence was a member of the Australian senate and the wife of the longest serving Premier of Queensland Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Aside from her political and public service contribution she was also famous for her pumpkin scones. I’ve always loved a good back story about the origin of a certain dish and how it evolved over the years. So Lady Flo, although I love your pumpkin scones, it’s now my turn to make a mark by way of my sweet potato scones. P.S. if you omit the sweet potato in the recipe you got yourself Plain Jane Basic Scones. If you substitute pumpkin for the sweet potato, that’s Lady Flo’s scones. Serve with butter jam & cream and if you’re a proper Aussie, butter and Vegemite.
What you need for Sweet Potato Scones
- Mashed Cooked Pumpkin or Cooked Sweet Potato – This usually comes about when we have dinner roast, so of course I’ve got to cook pumpkin or sweet potato as a side and leftovers goes into scones or if there’s a lot of it into pumpkin soup.
- Pantry/Fridge Staples – Self Raising Flour, Cold Butter, Milk, pinch of salt,baking soda,caster sugar
How do you Scone?
- Grate the cold butter into a mixing bowl.
- Add sifted self raising flour, caster sugar,salt and mix together using your hands or butter knife.
- Make the well in the centre, add the milk and pumpkin/sweet potato and mix lightly to form a dough.
- Form and flatten into a disc about 3 cm thick. Then use a 5-6 cm cutter that has been dipped in flour. Place scones into a lined tray , brush tops with milk and bake in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until golden.
What to serve it with..
- Jam and Cream with lashings of butter
- Maple Syrup or honey works surprisingly with these Pumpkin or Sweet Potato Scones.
Sweet Potato Scones
6
servings15
minutes20
minutesSweet Potato Scones as inspired by Flo Bjelke-Petersen
Ingredients
3 cups self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
80 g cold butter
1 1/2 cups milk, extra milk for glazing the tops
1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato about 1 small potato
Directions
- Preheat oven to 180C and line baking tray with baking paper.
- Grate cold butter with a coarse grated and set aside.
- Sift self raising flour salt and baking soda into a large bowl. Add the grated butter. Use a bread knife to mix them together until it resembles coarse sand.
- Make a well in the centre of the bowl and pour about 1 cup milk into it and use the bread knife to work it through. Add the sweet potato and incorporate it into the dough. You may need to add more milk to make the dough come together. It should be soft but not overly sticky.
- Lightly flour workbench and place dough on top. Form into a ball and gently flatten into a rectangle about 3 cm thickness. Handle the dough gently, do not over work.
- Use a floured 5cm round cutter to cut the scones. Re roll trimmings into 3cm thick and form into more scones. Alternatively if you don’t have a cutter, you can cut the scones into triangles.
- Place the scones into the prepared tray, and brush tops with extra milk.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Serve straight from the oven with butter whipped cream or jam.
- Store left over scones in a covered container. To reheat ,sprinkle a bit of water on top of the scones and microwave for 20 seconds.
Notes
- Makes about 12 scones or 8 large ones. Serve with jam and cream,lots of butter or vegemite.
