3 Ingredient Sprite Scones

About 9 times out of 10, I would have to say I’m pretty traditional when it comes to baking. I love the old fashioned recipes, rubbing cold butter through flour, making cakes by hand with a hand whisk etc but sometimes you just have to revert to a quick and easy recipe, especially when it’s already warm at 6am and you’ve got the girls coming for morning tea. I overlooked my traditional scone recipe for this quick and easy 3 ingredient one.

This 3 ingredient scone recipe has been doing the rounds for years but I don’t often use it. I just so happened to have lemonade (what we call Sprite or 7Up here in Australia) and whipping cream in the fridge. Scones with jam (jelly) and cream are a pretty traditional thing to have for morning or afternoon tea. The English usually call it “Devonshire Tea”, that is, scones with jam and clotted cream with a pot of tea or coffee.

The result is a lovely light scone and there’s no rubbing involved. Just throw the ingredients together, mix together lightly, and bake in a hot oven. Not the best thing for a hot Spring morning here in Australia but we must do these things. For this particular morning tea, I served sandwiches and store bought individual meringues filled with lemon curd and fresh blueberries. We chatted for several hours and thoroughly enjoyed our time together. We’ve been doing these morning teas for about 4 years now, since our kids started school.

So, onto the recipe. It’s just basically 3 cups of self raising flour, 1 cup of Sprite and 1 cup of whipping cream. If you don’t have self raising flour, you can add 1 teaspoon of baking powder to every cup of plain flour. Notice I’m mixing the dough with a knife. That’s something my Nanna taught me. You don’t want to make the scones go tough. To keep them light, don’t mix the dough too much. Just mix the ingredients until they have just combined.

Once combined, turn the dough onto a well floured surface and roll out until about 1″ thick. I just usually press it down with my hand.

You can cut our circles with a scone cutter (which has been dipped in flour each time) or my Nanna used to cut the scones into squares.

Place on a baking tray lined with paper and brush with an egg/milk wash.

Bake in a hot oven for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.

They really are best served with jam and cream but you can serve them with anything. Any leftovers can be popped in the freezer and taken out as required. I grabbed a couple for a morning cuppa for myself a couple days later and topped with lemon curd and cream. Naughty I know, but a little self indulgent for a hard morning’s work this particular day. We all need a little luxurious time out, right? I think I should use these quick and easy recipes more often, or should I?

Hope you give them a try. They can also be made into savoury scones, for example, adding ham and cheese etc or add dried fruit or chocolate chips, like a traditional scone recipe. You won’t be disappointed.

 

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3 Ingredient Sprite Scones

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Author Anne

Ingredients

• 3 cups self raising flour
• or 3 cups plain flour and 3 teaspoons baking powder, sifted together
• 1 cup Sprite
• 1 cup whipping cream
• Extra beaten egg and dash of milk to brush on scones before baking
• Jam jelly and whipped cream to serve

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 220 deg C (420 deg F).
2. Gently combine flour, Sprite and cream together with a knife.
3. Turn out dough onto a well floured surface.
4. Roll, or press, out to 1 inch thickness.
5. Cut out circles with a scone cutter, or use a knife to cut squares and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
6. Brush with beaten egg/milk and bake until golden brown (approx 10-15 minutes).
7. Allow to cool and serve with jam (jelly) and whipped cream.

Recipe Notes

Can add dried fruit or chocolate chips.
Can be made into savoury scones.

Lemon Myrtle Scones with Finger Lime Marmalade & Cream

Happy Australia Day! Today is the day we commemorate the landing of the First Fleet in Australia in 1788 and an excuse for a public holiday. What a better way to celebrate then with scones with jam and cream. I’ve added an Australian bush tucker theme to my scones this time with the addition of the native Australian spice lemon myrtle and a finger lime marmalade.

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Scones served split open and spread with jam and then topped with cream have become an Aussie tradition. (We just so happened to steal it from the British and their Devonshire Tea.)  Scones are usually plain but can be filled with sultanas, dates or flavoured with pumpkin. Jam is traditionally strawberry but I’ve gone for a real Aussie theme and tried the finger lime marmalade I had in the fridge and they were absolutely gorgeous! I spread some with strawberry jam for the traditionalists among us (and the kids).

I used my lemon myrtle spice mix lurking in the pantry, just waiting to be used, and my favourite scone recipe from Lady Flo Bjelke-Peterson, former Premier of Queensland Joh’s wife who is very famous for her pumpkin scones. I love her recipes.

Scones are such an easy thing to bake and made with pantry staples. My dough was a little wet so I added a bit extra flour to the board before cutting out. You might have your favourite recipe which makes a light fluffy scone but my secret is not to overwork the dough. I learnt from my Nanna, a master scone maker in her day, who told me to always mix the dough with a knife which will eliminate overworking and only just bring the ingredients together until a dough forms. Lightly press onto a floured board to your desired thickness and either cut into squares with a knife or use a cutter to cut out scones.

I very rarely pick up super bargains from major department stores because I don’t normally shop at them and I’m never there at the right time but I was the other week. I picked up a beautiful green biscuit tin (complete with choc chip cookie mix, which I threw out because it was made in China and I was a bit suspect about that) but it came with this beautiful ceramic biscuit press and cookie cutter. It only cost me 10 cents! Can’t wait to try out the biscuit press.

Once the scones are cut out, brush with a little milk and bake in a hot oven for approximately 10 minutes.

Wrap in a clean tea towel once baked until ready to use. 

Cut in half, spread with jam and top with whipped cream.

I’ll definitely be looking for new ways to use my lemon myrtle spice. It added a lovely, subtle lemon flavour to the scones and the finger lime marmalade was luscious. Hope you all have a lovely Australia Day no matter how you’re celebrating.

Lemon Myrtle Scones with Finger Lime Marmalade & Cream

(based on “Classic Country Collection” scone recipe by Flo Bjelke-Petersen)

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 tsp lemon myrtle spice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbs butter, melted
• 1 cup milk
• extra flour for rolling & cutting

• Finger Lime marmalade or jam of your choice
• fresh cream, whipped until thick

1. Preheat oven to 220 deg C.
2. Mix spice and salt into flour
3. Add melted butter and milk and mix with a knife until just combined.
4. Sprinkle board or bench top with extra flour.
5. Put dough on floured board and press out until approx 1.5cm (1 inch) thick.
6. Cut dough into squares or cut out shapes with a scone/cookie cutter which has had the edges dipped into flour to avoid sticking.
7. Place on baking tray lined with baking paper.
8. Bake for approx 10 minutes or until golden brown.
9. Wrap in clean tea towel until ready to serve.
10. Slice each scone horizontally and spread with jam and top with a teaspoon of whipped cream.

Scones

Morning tea would have to be my favourite ‘meal’ of the day or should I say ‘time’ to eat of the day. Its probably because of the type of food that is usually on offer. You could have a sandwich if you like for morning or afternoon tea but for me it usually involves something sweet with a hot cup or pot of tea. Its a tradition I grew up with all of my life. I’ve even noticed since my kids started school that their ‘main’ meal of the day at school is around 11am and its the larger meal of the day with a small snack around 1pm. When I went to school we had little lunch and big lunch and little lunch was morning tea. We normally had a cake or biscuits but at home we can make fresh scones.

Absolutely, positively every single time we visited my Nanna, she served scones fresh out of the oven. A simple bread like morsel made with flour, butter, salt and milk, that’s all and sweetened with whatever jam you have (traditionally strawberry jam). My Nanna was an extraordinary jam maker and you never knew if you were going to have something like rosella, persimmon, peach, mango or whatever else she seemed to have made out of what she had.

Its been a two week break from school holidays here and breakfasts have been late so scones were on the menu one morning. This is a great one to get the kids involved. In about 20 minutes from start to finish you can have these toasty little morsels on the table. The heart shape cutter was the chosen cutter for the day by my son but I usually cut the dough in squares or just use a round cutter. I was lucky I had a small amount of cream in the fridge so our scones turned into a Devonshire Tea. Originating from the UK, a Devonshire Tea consists of scones with jam and cream (usually clotted cream) and served with a pot of tea or coffee. They are a big tradition here in Australia and one that I enjoyed with my dear Mum many times. As soon as we saw a Devonshire Tea advertised anywhere, we were there, with bells on!

They’re enjoyed best plain I believe but they can have anything added to them for a special treat. Versions like pumpkin scones, add white chocolate and raspberries, dates and grated orange rind, sultanas/raisins, chocolate chips, savoury additions like ham, cheese, grated zucchini, corn and anything else you can think of. Perfect for the kid’s lunch box. There are a lot of recipes going around for a plain scone too but I’ve always used my recipe from my high school textbook “Day to Day Cookery” and I’m pretty sure that’s the recipe my Nanna used too. And here in Australia we pronounce scone as in the name “Ron”.

Basic Scones
(from “Day to Day Cookery”)

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 2 tbs butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• extra flour for rolling

1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
2. Rub butter into flour with finger tips.
3. Make a well in the centre and pour milk in all at once.
4. Using a knife, mix quickly and lightly until a moist dough is formed. Be careful not to overwork the dough.
5. Turn out onto a floured board. Knead lightly and press out to 2.5cm thickness.
6. Cut out with a round cutter and place close together on a floured tray.
7. Brush top of scones with egg wash or milk.
8. Bake in a hot oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden on top.
9. Wrap in a cloth until cold or eat warm with butter or cream and jam.

Lady Flo's pumpkin scones recipe

 

Here in Australia, we love pumpkin (it’s my favourite vegetable). It’s nearly as popular as potato as a vegetable served at most main meals, it’s one of the first solids our babies eat and also quite a popular vegetable for dishes like risotto, pizza toppings, lasagna, ravioli fillings, dips and the way I like, in baking. My fussy nearly 7 year old daughter just won’t eat vegetables but I’ve been putting them in most of my baking for years now. Besides helping her get some goodness, it makes for a lovely moist cake or muffin. But we do love using pumpkin for Lady Flo’s pumpkin scones.

 

 

Some varieties of pumpkin (or butternut squash as it might be known in other parts of the world) we enjoy here in Australia are Queensland Blue, Jap, Butternut, Sweet Dumpling or Golden Nugget.

They’re good to eat because they’re:

• an excellent source of beta carotene and the deeper the flesh colour, the higher the level of this pro-vitamin (it’s converted to vitamin A in the body).
• also a good source of vitamin C, with Queensland Blue coming top of the pumpkin class for this vitamin.
• a source of dietary fibre and they supply (especially Golden nugget and Butternut) a good source of potassium.
• not full of carbohydrate, but some of it is present as natural sugars, which is why they taste sweet.
• low in kilojoules and depending on the variety of pumpkin, 100g has from 125-200kJ.

(Source:  http://www.freshforkids.com.au/veg_pages/pumpkin/pumpkin.html)

 

My Nanna’s homemade vintage scone cutter made from a tin can (a bit rusty to use now but a wonderful keepsake)

One of the most famous ways to use pumpkin in baking (well, here in Queensland at least) is in pumpkin scones. We had a politician here in Queensland called Sir Johannes “Joh” Bjelke-Petersen, (13 January 1911 – 23 April 2005). He was the longest-serving and longest-lived Premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987. His wife, Flo, herself a politician was reknown for her homely, old fashioned advice and recipes, including Pumpkin Scones, which she served to the Queen of England. (For more information on Flo, check out the Wikipedia entry.)

 

I actually had a request from Di at Di-licious Cupcakes, herself an excellent baker, to make some pumpkin scones and I’m only just getting around to it.

Lady Flo’s Pumpkin Scones
(from Classic Country Collection by Flo Bjielke-Petersen)

1 tbs butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup cold mashed pumpkin
2-2.1/4 cups self raising flour
milk for brushing

1. Beat together butter, sugar and salt.
2. Add egg, then pumpkin. Beat well.
3. Finally, stir in very gently, by hand, the sifted flour until just combined. (Do not over work dough as scones will turn out very tough.)
4. Turn onto floured work surface, flatten dough to approx 1″ thickness and cut using scone cutter or cut into squares with a knife, as I did. (I prefer that more square look of a scone.)
5. Place close together on baking tray (this will assist with the rising), brush with milk and bake in a preheated 225 deg C (435 deg F) oven for approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

 

I prefer my pumpkin scones with just butter or butter and jam. Scones in Australia are traditionally served in the form of a Devonshire Tea with whipped cream and jam at morning or afternoon tea time.

So, don’t throw out that last bit of mashed pumpkin. Boil it, mash it, whack it in the freezer and make yourself some beautiful, soft fresh pumpkin scones.