This week's episode of ADSactly Food is a reader request. Our lovely friend @gails-word-syrup requested a healthy version of Blueberry Scones. Growing up in South Africa, which at one time was a British colony, and a very prim and proper English grandmother, scones were a weekly occurrence for us, with lashings of cream and strawberry jam. Scones were actually the very first baked item I learnt to make, and so I would invite my gran over for tea and serve my scones. I think this is where I learnt the fine art of small talk 😂😂

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I must say that I was surprised when I was doing my research for a healthier scone recipe, it seems to be a mainly UK and South African thing. I did see a few American scones, but they looked a bit funny. They were triangular! No, people. This is not acceptable.

^{This is a Scone!}

The majority of healthy recipes I found were American, so I had to give in to the triangular shape, as to be honest, I was really unsure of the why behind this strange shape. I actually thought it had something to do with the healthier recipe, and lack of gluten, but after much research, I see that this is just how it is done in the US.

What Makes a Scone a Scone?

This is a question I had to ask myself when developing this recipe, in order to stay true the traditional scone.

A scone falls under the category of "quick bread". Quick bread is classified as "any bread leavened with leavening agents other than yeast or eggs." ¹ Quick breads are known to be, as the name suggest, quick to make, reliable in their structure, ie, they won't flop.

Scones are generally made with the shortening method of mixing, which means that the fat in the recipe is "cut" into the dry ingredients. We do this to create a flaky texture in the bake. Generally, the fat needs to be cold, in order to melt when baking. This creates a lovely flaky, soft texture.

^{A Typical High Tea Table, Often Containing Scones - Source}

So, when I saw that all of the "healthy" recipes omitted butter, I was shook! I just couldn't. I weighed up my options - coconut oil would melt before it hit the oven, I don't believe in margarine (this is wayyy more unhealthy than a natural fat like butter). I considered buttermilk and Greek yoghurt, but all of these were liquid, and I was afraid they would mess with the dry/wet ingredient ratio. In the end, I consoled myself with the fact that my recipe was completely gluten free and had only natural sweeteners, and included the butter.

You may know from reading my past posts, that I love alternative, healthy versions of traditional recipes, for example, my Almond Nut Butter and my chocolate cake made with beans, so developing this recipe was really quite fun. I omitted flour by substituting with ground almonds, an almond flour, if you will.

The result was a light, crumbly bake, sweetened by the juicy blueberries. I'm pretty proud of the outcome, and would definitely recommend making this if you are looking for a tasty, healthy alternative to the traditional scone.

🍰 INGREDIENTS 🍰

• 1 1/2 cup raw, unsalted almonds
• 1/4 cup corn flour
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 cup blueberries
• 2 T cubed, cold butter
• 3 T Honey
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 1 egg

🍰 METHOD 🍰

Preheat the oven to 350'F/180'C. Blitz the almonds in a blender until very fine. You can also buy almond flour, which is already blitzed super fine, but I had some almonds in the cupboard, so I decided to blend them myself. Combine the almond flour, cornstarch, salt and baking powder in one bowl. We are using corn flour as the combination of corn and almond flour creates a flour most similar to actual wheat flour.

Cut the cold butter into the "flour" by pressing into the mixture with a fork. You should be creating quite fine crumbs.

Mix the blueberries into the mixture, and add the honey, vanilla extract and the whisked egg. Mix until just combined, and pour into a lined cake tin.

Bake for approx thirty minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Once cooked, leave in the tin to rest for at least twenty minutes.

Serve as is, or with a drizzle of maple syrup.

Thank you so much for reading along. Please let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions, or would like to request a recipe. I particularly enjoy healthy bakes, and foods that have an interesting history to them.

^{Sources
1 - Wikipedia}

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