General Chat

Today I had a friend coming for coffee and as she is gluten free, decided to make some scones using a gluten free flour. I use a very easy recipe normally using the cheapest plain flour. They are always light and rise well.

I placed the flour into the bowl and immediately working the margarine into it, I could feel the difference. It was coarse grainy feeling. When I added the milk to mix into a dough, it was very dry and crumbly almost like shortcrust pastry.

I put the dough together then turned out onto a floured board but trying to press it into shape wasnt easy as it kept cracking. Eventually got 8 small rectangles onto a baking tray and in the oven it went.

12 minutes later they were cooked but too brown and when i picked one up, it fell apart and crumbled. Left them to cool and then tried a piece. Well, have to say they were awful. Crumbly but somehow quite stodgy once in the mouth.
Anyway I put some jam on them and when my friend came she ate 2 and said they were very nice but agreed a bit crumbly.

I wont make them again and now have 3/4 bag of flour!!

Anyone else made oven scones, gluten free? If so how did they turn out and did you like them?

Florence in the hebrides

Florence most of the recipes on line using gluten free recipes for scones use xanthan gum as well.
Did you use that?

If I’m using gluten free flour I usually use specific gluten free recipes.

Edit.
After a lot more searching it would appear that some people are allergic to xanthan gum although it is used widely in food manufacture. :-(

Florence I’ll try your recipe using normal flour but will also try and find an easy gluten free one as I do have close family who need gluten free alternatives . I have baked with gluten free flour but not made scones.

Oh the joys of gluten free baking :-P

When my daughter was doing any cookery in school I would have to put a big note on her recipe to tell her helper the methods were very different.

Florence - don’t ever try pastry.

Have a look at this recipe to see where you went wrong.
https://www.freee-foods.co.uk/recipes/gluten-free-plainscones

I just substituted the plain flour with gluten free flour. My recipe doesnt use egg or sugar and does use cream of tartar and baking soda.


Maybe that was my error thinking i could just use a different flour so obviously not!

But just the feel of the flour on its own felt very different and coarse so before i even added marge and rubbed in, i felt it wasnt going to be the same.

Oh well, nevermind, i had a go and it wasnt quite what i expected.

I use golden syrup instead of sugar too.

Florence in the hebrides

I had a look Joan at a few recipes but most have egg which im allergic to.
my recipe was given to me by my ex Mil. Traditional oven flour scones that only take 12 minutes. Probably passed down to her from her mother and very traditional here.

8oz plain flour
2oz marg
5 fl oz milk
2 tablespoons golden syrup
flat tsp of cream of tartar
raised tsp of baking soda

Very basic but they rise and never fail me.

Syrup - interesting - I've never done that with 'proper'scones. I might give it a go sometime.

I have just stuck my hand in a bag of Dove GF plain flour - you must have very sensetive finger tips - very slight grainy feel. Not usually noticed. What brand did you use?

Added: this looks as though it has the same recipe
https://hollyspinny.com/golden-syrup-scones/

Names, just had a look at the recipe and yes very similar to mine but i use a bit less tartar and the marg is really a large scoop about 2oz but i dont put syrup on top of the cooked scones.

I flattten with hands gently to for a large rectangle about 1cm thick. I then cut it across in half and then cut into 8 smaller rectangles but 4 have rounded edges(outside ones) and 4 are straight. I never use a cutter and make them round.

I also checked the flour. Its from the Free From range in the coop. I am also used to ordinary plain flour which is finer maybe.

Joan I have never used sugar but try it with 2oz and see. If its not swett enough, then try 3 the next time. I would use caster as its lighter.

Let me know how he goes, as i am interested to see the outcome.

Also Joan once you have rubbed the marg in and everything else, then add the sugar. Lastly add the milk but add half, mix and a bit more until you have a softish dough, not too dry. Sometimes, i dont need all the milk, just depends.You need plenty flour on the work surface as it may be sticky but if it is, just add some more flour.

The mixture works best with little handling and just shape with hands not a rolling pin.
I heat the oven first then put in middle shelf at 210 degrees fan oven for about 12 minutes or ordinary electric at 220. They do cook fairly quick so you have to keep an eye.

One flour I cant work with is Great Scot. Scones fail with that big time for me. I use supermarket own plain flour.

Must admit my eldest grand daughter was diagnosed with Coeliac disease about 2 years ago, when she was 18. If she goes anywhere (like to friends) for a meal, she takes the things that may contain gluten with her. Last Xmas, she went to her boyfriends for Xmas dinner, and took her own yorkshire puddings! :-D

She's also the deputy manager of a pub. The 'landlord' (owner) actually owns 2 pubs - grand daughter has worked at both - and both, over the pat 2 years have become famous for their fantastic gluten-free meals.

I wonder why? :-D :-D

One specialises in pizzas - it actually has a pizza oven - and people are amazed that they can order a pizza with a gluten-free base!

If you're ever in Hampshire and want to try them, they're 'The Shoe Inn' at Exton, and 'The Bucks Head' at Meonstoke.

Thanks for that Maggie as I have friends who are in the south so will make a note of those pubs/restaurants for future use..

Its always good to know as friends are GF, vegan etc and quite hard to find good reasonable places that come recommended.

If it any consolation Florence, even chefs get it wrong. We have just come back from a cruise winters they had bought in gf bread and good in house baking. Suddenly it all went terribly wrong. Their flour had been changed and their bread, rolls and baked goods were inedible. The head chef said they were really struggling to get it right.

I didn’t know the Coop did their own GF flour - ours just seems to do the Dove flour. I’ve tried looking for a syrup gf scone recipe and have only managed to find a spiced Scottish scone recipe on Coeliac Sanctury.

Names, my OH gets his flour on prescription and, like the chef you mentioned, his last two attempts to make his own bread were complete failures. He contacted the firm who, kindly and unexpectedly, sent him two bags of its flour.

It turned out (probably like your cruise baker) that he had been baking bread from memory as he’d done for years but when he looked at the instructions on the pack there were a couple of slight differences so he followed the pack recipe and the loaf he made yesterday was good.

I wondered whether the company had bought its flour from a different country (not Ukraine or it’s neighbours, perhaps) but that was only my musing.

Ooo I’m jealous. Our area stopped all prescriptions some time ago.

The cruise bread was odd. I could probably have built a wall with all my first goes - with the rolls on offer I suggested my OH could use it as a squeeze ball to help his arthritic hands.

I’ve just had a look at the recipe on the Dove freeee packet and it would be different to the other flour but I did notice that the recipe had changed from whole egg to egg whites. I wonder what difference that makes. I hate it when I then have to find something to do with the other half.

I am going to try the original syrup scones later, but making half the amount as they would just be for me.

Similarly here, names. My OH has only ever out flour on his prescription and I’d hazard a guess that our doc left it as it was because we are both long-time pensioners because I know a few people here who now have to buy gf foods from supermarkets what they were previously allowed to get on prescription. (A cousin’s granddaughter being one - but luckily her Mum is a very good gf cook.)

OH does not use Dove for his bread, by the way.

Dove was just a guess as it is easily a aialanle.

Florence - sorry, but never again!

Names, what did you do?

I halved the ingredients. OK, so the mix was a bit wet and the Cream of tartar was old. The scones didn't rise, they were cracked on top and so soft as to be squidgy but lets just say I am relieved that it is recyling this week and the food waste will be taken away.

Florence, I have just made a few gf cheese scones for my OH and we’ve had one each with our coffee just now.

Here’s what I did. (I am a cobble-together cook who doesn’t really like cooking by the way).

Into a mixing bowl, I put

225 g Dove bread flour (I had bought two bags in 2020 in case OH was unable to get his type on prescription because of covid).

225 g butter

A dash of salt and pepper

One egg and a
shake of vinegar because he had no xanthan gum. (Next time I’ll make it a shake of vinegar and one egg plus one egg white which should replace the xanthan gum better.)

some grated Red Leicester cheese.

I mixed with a fork and it was like a dough ball. I forked out clumps onto a rectangular flat glass plate and moulded each clump into the shape of a small scone with the palms of my hand swizzling the mix between my palms as you’d do to pottery.

I made them about 6 cm across by 3 cm high so they only took 15 mins to bake at 180 degs C.

They taste good and were not crumbly - about the same as normal scones.

Good luck if you decide to try it. :-)

JL, so glad they turned out well. Im not Gf, i had wanted to make some just for a friend who came for coffee.

Yesterday evening, I made my normal plain oven scones with ord plain flour and they turned out fine. Had them with strawberry jam. But I dont put egg in my recipe, its not needed.

I had thought actually about using up some cheese and doing cheese scones but was too tired, however i may do some more at the weekend.

Hope hubby enjoyed them :-)

Florence in the hebrides

Egg does seem strange, unless you are cooking gluten free - it even goes in bread!

Now I have another conumdrum, do I make my GF scones this week with GF plain or bread flour. Maybe I will do half each way and see which is best.