Baking Blitz - Mini Scones

For today's mad dash attempt to bake something in my lunch hour a workmate had suggested I go with savoury scones. I thought it was a good idea but my sweet tooth is not that easy to dissuade - so I figured I'd make some sweet and some savoury.

I have a confession to make - I really like fresh, warm, homemade scones - but I don't like making them all that much because they're just so messy!

I made one batch of a basic scone mixture, then divided it in two and added cheese and cumin to one batch and chocolate chips to the other. Simple and tasty. 

I sorta missed most of the photogenic stages of preparation due to having hands coated in sticky dough - if Mr Cake had been around I would have asked him to step in (he takes prettier pictures than I do anyway), but since it was the middle of the day he was at work... Ah well, I'll cut to the money shot:

I used a square cutter to make small, bite-sized scones. I sprinkled paprika on top of the savoury ones, and dipped the sweet ones in milk then in cinnamon sugar before baking.

The sweet ones definitely won the taste contest - I actually ended up bringing some of the savoury ones home (which actually worked out perfectly as they went really well with the soup we had for dinner) which is pretty much unheard of at my work.

I don't use a recipe, really, but the basic quantities were something like 4 cups of flour, 4 teaspoons of baking powder, rub in 150g butter until well combined (recipes always say until it resembles breadcrumbs but I don't see it!), then add milk gradually to make a dough. Then add flavours as desired - I usually add mustard to cheese scones but forgot today in my mad dash. About 1/2 a cup of grated cheese would be about right for this quantity, or an equivalent amount of chocolate chips. Shape as desired (the normal way would just be to roll it flat and cut with a knife) then bake in a 180 C oven - for tiny ones like mine, about 8 minutes should do it, and as they get bigger it takes longer - stick a sneaky knife in one to test if you're unsure about their readiness. :-)

What shall I make next week?