Wild Garlic Gal.
Heavy on butter, heady on garlic.
Everyone is busy making pesto with their foraged wild garlic and I get it, coming from a gal that loves to preserve & ferment, preserving the season of an ingredient as much as possible is the ultimate gain. But what if you just want to live in the moment, are scones living in the moment? What a worrying thought. But how about a fresh from the oven, hot, flakey, garlicky scone, smothered in butter, perhaps that is the moment I do want to live in and thats one thing that doesn’t worry me right now.
The recipe I use for scones is an amalgamation of a classic British scone and a American biscuit, fluffy and layered but still a good crumb.
Wild Scones
Makes 6 chunky scones
Small bunch of wild garlic, about 12 leaves (& buds if you can get them)
260g Self raising flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate soda
90g Butter
200ml Full fat milk (+ a couple of teaspoons for glazing)
2 tsp Maldon garlic salt
1 tsp Caster sugar
Oven at 180c, baking tray lined with greaseproof.
In a large mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients (Flour, salt, bicarb & sugar) quickly mix so evenly distributed.
Importantly you need cold butter, which as a butter on the counter household I don’t always have. Cube your butter into lovely little chunks. This will help to give the scones the layers and flakiness required for ultimate moment making.
Add the cubed butter into your flour mix along with the wild garlic, which needs to be finely chopped. Keep aside 6 smaller leaves and/or buds to add to the top of your scones, you know to make them look pretty, worthy of a trendy bakery in North London.
Get your hands in the mix and start working it like you would a crumble topping, smushing the butter between your fingers and mixing with the flour. Grab a spatular and then start adding the milk, mixing as you go. The aim is to keep a mix of sizes of butter chunks, big bits are great.
Dust your counter with a bit more flour, then dump your dough on it. Don’t overwork it, but form it into a rectangle, you can use a rolling pin, or just your hands. Fold your dough in half then place on top of each other and flatten again into a rectangle.
These scones are thick and chunky, so keep your dough that way. I had mine at about 5cm thick. Cut into equal rectangles and place on the baking tray you have prepared with greaseproof.
Brush the tops with some remaining milk, then gently press your leaves on the top of your scones. Brushing with a bit more milk.
Cook your scones for 15 - 18 minutes.
Enjoy hot & buttery.
