Tahini & Carrot Scones
Servings: 8
A super easy, brilliant recipe for making savoury tahini and carrot scones for picnics, parties or a tasty afternoon snack. They taste absolutely amazing straight out of the oven slathered in plenty of butter!
INGREDIENTS LIST
- 375 g self-raising or plain flour (all-purpose) (plus extra for dusting)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 100 g butter (see notes)
- 100 g cheddar cheese
- 100 g carrot (grated)
- 50 g tahini (4 tbsp)
- 100 ml whole milk (plus extra for brushing the tops)
- 1 medium eggs (60g each)
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)
Preparation
- I recommend freezing your butter for 20-30 minutes, prior to starting. *See notes.
- Line your large baking tray with baking paper or a silicon mat.
- Into a medium mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, baking powder and grate the cold butter.
- Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. This should take around 1-2 minutes. Don't worry if a few small lumps remain.
- Grate the carrot and cheddar cheese, then add them to the flour mixture. Give them a good stir to make sure they are well mixed in.
- Make a well in the centre of the flour mix, then add in the milk, egg and tahini.
- Gently bring the whole mixture together to form a dough ball. Dust a clean kitchen work surface with flour and turn out the ball onto it.
- Using a floured rolling pin gently roll the ball out into a circle 3cm (1 inch) high.
- Now it is time to cut out your scones and there are a couple of methods you can use. The easiest by far is to take a large knife and cut the dough into 8 triangular pieces. This method means you don't have to fiddle re-rolling the dough and avoids overworking it.Using a knife, you can also cut out alternative shapes, such as squares, as you can see in some of the pictures on the blog. The last method is the classic biscuit cutter version. Dip a 6 cm (3 inch) biscuit cutter in flour and cut out 8 scones from the dough. Clean and flour the cutter every time you cut out rounds. (To cut out the scone rounds, press the cutter straight down into the dough without any twisting motion.)
- Bring any leftover dough back into a ball and re-roll to a 3 cm thickness and cut out more rounds, until all the dough has been used up.
- Place the scones onto your prepared baking tray.
- Preheat your oven to 200°C / 180°C fan / 400°F / Gas 6Optional step is to chill the scones for 15-20 minutes to allow the dough to relax.
- Brush the tops of the scones with whisked egg or a little milk. Then sprinkle with sesame seeds if using.
- Baking: Place in oven and bake for 12-14 minutes, until risen and golden.
- Remove from oven and serve immediately with butter or cool on a wire rack.
Notes & Tips
Butter - It is important to use cold ingredients when making pastry. And because we use our warm fingers to mix the butter into the flour, it is especially important to get the butter as cold as possible. I recommend freezing your butter for 20-30 minutes, prior to starting and then grating it when it is required.
