Since last weekend in Tipperary I have had scones on the brain. Every morning when we got up, our gracious host in our B&B had fresh brown soda bread and fresh scones waiting for us. They would set us up nicely before our morning walks around Tipperary, especially one particularly mucky morning in Lisvarrinane (Which called in Irish, Lios Fearnain, means fort of the fairies)! An apt name for a mucky, impassible and wild walk! Scones are one of those easy, comforting things that everybody loves. There is nothing better than a scone hot from the oven with butter melting into it, heaped with a dollop of home made jam and a dollop of fresh cream, or creme fraiche if like me you prefer a bit of a tang.

I had already discovered the perfect white scone recipe with blueberries and almonds which I put up on the blog last summer, however I wanted to make a spelt version that was a bit more wholesome and healthy! I found this recipe on Teresa Cutter’s blog and it was delicious, so soft on the inside and crumbly on the outside. I put some chopped prunes, apricots, raisins and mixed seeds in mine.

I love mine with either a homemade blackberry jam or apricot compote. As apricots are everywhere at the moment I made a compote by throwing two punnets of sliced apricots in a pot with one cup of water and two tablespoons of sugar, stirring until soft. These got the seal of approval, and were delicious warm with butter, compote and creme fraiche! If you try one thing this weekend, let it be these little beauties!

Ingredients:

280 g wholemeal spelt flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp Mixed Spice/ All Spice

100 g butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon honey

150 ml milk

100g dried fruit (I used a mix of chopped prunes, apricots & raisins)

50g mixed seeds

50g  rolled oats

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, mixed spice, dried fruit and seeds.

2. Rub in the butter to the flour mix.

3. Mix together the milk, vanilla and honey and mix it into the dough and work it together lightly until it combines. Don’t worry that it isn’t a wet mix, its a bit solid but it cooks perfectly. You may need a little bit more milk when mixing together to make it bind.

4. Spinkle some oats on a work surface, lay the dough on top and cut out the scones from the dough with the top of a pint glass. Let it be around an inch high.

5. Pop in an oven preheated at 200C to 220C. Bake for around 20-25 minutes, or if you have an oven like mine that has seen better days it could take about 30 minutes. They’re done when they’re golden brown all over.

6. Enjoy them warm with butter, jam and cream! They are best eaten hot from the oven, but it’s best to give them a few minutes before slicing open with a very sharp knife to avoid them falling apart.