How to Bake Crackling Scones

Yields: 12 scones

Preparation time: 3 hours

Cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients needed to make Crackling Scones:

• 1lb 2 oz all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 4 fl oz sour cream
• 4 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated
• 4 ½ oz unsalted butter
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp dried yeast
• 9 oz streaky bacon, diced
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp water
• 1 tbsp caraway seeds

Cooking instructions for Crackling Scones:

• Pour the milk in a small saucepan and heat it briefly until turns tepid and transfer it into a jug.
• Whisk in the yeast and set aside for about 20 minutes or until the mixture turns frothy.
• Heat a skillet over moderate heat and throw in the chopped bacon to stir fry until they turn crispy golden brown; drain them out into a bowl and set aside to cool.
• Stir in a dash of salt and baking powder into the flour and sift it to a medium bowl.
• Fold in the caraway seeds as well as the parmesan cheese into the dry mixture until they are uniformly scattered throughout the mixture.
• Melt butter in a separate small saucepan over slow heat and turn it off.
• Pour in two of the beaten eggs, followed by the sour cream and whisk them together until they are mixed thoroughly; check the heat of butter to prevent the eggs from curdling.
• Stir in the yeast milk as well as the bacon bits until well combined and pour it into a large mixing bowl.
• Fold in the dry mixture gradually, beating it into the mixture after every addition, until all them are blend together to form a smooth dough.
• Knead the dough on a lightly-floured surface for about 5 minutes or until it becomes more pliable.
• Grease a bowl lightly with oil and place the dough in it.
• Wrap it up with a pre-greased plastic sheet and let it rest for a couple of hours in a dry place, until it rises to become twice its previous size.
• Peel off the wrap and punch it down to bring it back to its original size.
• Flatten it out of a floured working surface into a 1 ½’’ thick rectangle and carve out discs using a cookie cutter.
• Arrange the dough rounds on a parchment paper, spread across a baking tray and carve out shallow, criss-cross marks on the surface of each; set aside for half an hour.
• Warm up your oven to 400 degrees F.
• Whisk in a tsp of water into the remaining beaten egg and brush it all over the scones.
• Bake them in the oven for half an hour or until they turn golden brown.
• Serve warm.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Last Updated on February 27, 2013 by