Polenta Ginger & Raisins Scones

I have tried to make scones before but there was always something wrong with them. I think the dough was always overdone. I also never follow the recipe, unless it is my mum's or grandma's [because it has been checked many times, so I know it works] . I know what works for me so I always try to make suitable adjustments. Unfortunately with scones somehow those adjustments never worked before. That was until yesterday! I looked through the Essentials of baking by Williams - Sonoma and thought that it would be great to try scones again. 

By the way the book is a great read for anyone who likes this sort for "literature" ;-) I do, and I READ about cooking a lot, as well, as I like looking at lovely pictures of food. I think eating is my hobby, but not as big as for J!

So yes, I read about cooking, but not necessarily like to follow the recipes. It is more as an inspiration to me.

So here come scones - roughly based on the above mentioned book, but if you start comparing, you will see that my scones have not much to do with the ones from the book. 

Ingredients:

for 8 large scones

300 ml buttermilk;

315 g flour & fine polenta [corn-flour] mix [half/half];

2 tbsp of brown sugar;

100 g of butter;

1 tsp of soda;

2 handfuls of chopped ginger and raisins;

1. put butter, flours, sugar and soda into the ball and chop for couple of minutes with a knife. Add dried fruit and continue chopping until butter has very small lumps.

I use a crystalize ginger - here is the close up of the dough:

2. start adding buttermilk - do not add everything at once in case your dough starts getting too wet. But 300 ml should be just right for this recipe. Do not overdo your dough - it needs to be still lumpy. It should look like this:

3. I did not cut my scones into perfectly formed rounded shapes. Instead there are hand thrown straight onto the greased and floured baking tray. And off to the oven! 220C [gas mark 6] for about 15-18 minutes.
It makes 8 large scones:

Tip: leave more space between them if you like, because they spread a lot. Mine looked like this after baking. There was no problem with separating them though.

I had 2 - J the rest!
Yummy but already forgotten. Next time I will bake more... today?