Sunday, May 3, 2009

Scones with Ricotta and Lemon Butter

Scones with Ricotta and Lemon Butter
Home Cooking



It's been a few weeks now and my scone cravings are still alive and kicking. I've had a few good ones but that didn't stop me from wanting to make my own at home. My usual method of whipping up scones involves natural yogurt, butter and self-raising flour. I substitute a mixture of yogurt and skim milk for buttermilk... and they normally turn out well. Soft, buttery, crumbly and great with jam and cream.



I didn't have cream today so I decided to try having scones with something else. There's fresh, whole-milk ricotta cheese at home and I wanted to use that, plus make my own lemon butter.

The lemon butter was SUPER easy and turned out really well. As for the scones... well, I experimented a bit and the result was edible but not fantastic. There are so many recipes around for lemonade scones and I heard these are supposed to be awesome and a cinch to make. Most of these recipes just call for 3 ingredients: lemonade, cream and self-raising flour. My 'inspired' version used diet tonic water (it was all I had), Greek yogurt and a bit of butter, whizzed together in the food processor. Because the scones didn't turn out any where near as good as my usual ones, I'm not going to harm you innocent people by posting a recipe.



There IS the lemon butter recipe and if you've never tried it with scones, maybe this post will encourage you to give it a go.

Lemon Butter
Makes 3/4 cup (approx)

Ingredients:

  • 50g butter
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup sugar
Procedure:

1. Plop all the ingredients in a small non-stick saucepan.2. Turn the heat to low and stand by... as the butter starts to melt, whisk whisk whisk. You don't want the egg to cook.
3. Keep whisking until everything is mixed together.
4. Keep whisking till the mixture is slightly thickened and the whisk is leaving indentations on the surface.
5. Pour into a jar, seal and cool in fridge till needed.


Ricotta and lemon butter go really nicely with the scones (especially whilst they're still warm). I've actually never tasted lemon butter before but this is exactly what I imagined. Tangy and sweet, it's a bit too sharp on its own but the ricotta makes a perfect compliment.

Close-up of lemon butter and ricotta on scone

No comments:

Post a Comment