Colette, Baking and the Perfect Plain Scone

I've absolutely loved watching The Great British Bake Off on the BBC over the past few weeks and this, along with our ever expanding children's cookery range, has inspired a spot of baking here at Cottontails. And of course, I have had a bit of help from some of our fabric friends...

First up was the lovely Colette, one of our pretty new soft toys from Moulin Roty, and she decided she'd like to have a go at making The Perfect Scone.



The contestants on The Great British Bake Off tackled 'perfect scones' in the second episode and we decided to use their recipe by Paul Hollywood which you can see here. The thing I really love is the specific instructions about how to knead scone dough - apparently there is a particular technique called 'chaffing' : "Lightly chaff the mixture - use your hands to fold the dough in half, and then turn the dough a quarter turn and repeat." (Obviously Colette knew all about this - being French she is of course a natural in the kitchen).





Anyway, it all went very well and Colette created a batch of delicious scones which were all well risen and just begging for lashings of cream and jam!



To be honest I think if I make them again I would add some dried fruit - but this was an exercise in creating the perfect plain scone and it definitely worked a treat. Do have a look at Paul's recipe if your scones (like mine) are a bit hit and miss and you'd like to go back to basics on a baking classic.

And in the next post I'll share Mrs Mouse's posh individual apple and blackberry crumbles with you... another Cottontails baking triumph!




Update... just a thought but I noticed on the forum for Paul's recipe that a few people had a problem with too much of a baking powder taste. I think mine were okay but in retrospect maybe there was a hint of it in the taste? I might be tempted to try less baking powder and use self raising flour next time. I'll see what Colette thinks first though.