Gluten Free Wild Garlic and Cheese Scones

A few months back my daughter (10yo) started having ongoing stomach pains and bloating and we thought we'd have her checked out to see if any of it might be caused by allergies or some sort of food reactions. 

To my huge sorrow, the test showed high level of intolerance to wheat - WHEAT !! I've been baking for myself and for my family and with my family for as long as I can remember, and now thats all gone???!!! 

 

After taking a few days to cry and dust myself off and decided that its not all bad, actually if anything, its a new challenge to test my baking skills.

I am hoping that one day I will be baking gluten free sourdough creations but for now I am going to start with easier, more familiar recipes, like biscuits or scones. 

 

I do love a good scone, and after spotting some new season wild garlic on my morning walk, my mind was made up - I shall make some wild garlic scones. 

I've had great success with Rosie Birkett Wild Garlic and Cheddar Scones last year - they came out so light and fluffy, they disappeared in minutes! The recipe is really simple, so I thought I should be able to convert them into a GF version. 

Also, Becky Excell is a gluten free food writer that I have recently discovered, and her recipes have been a great introduction into gluten free baking. 

At the and, I've combined Rosie's flavours with Becky's basic scones recipe and created my own Gluten Free Wild Garlic and Cheese Scones recipe. 

 

Ingredients :

·      340g gluten free self-raising flour

·      1 tsp gluten-free baking powder

·      ¼ tsp xanthan gum

·      1 tsp sugar

·      ¼ tsp salt

·      85g chilled butter

·      150g grated hard cheese (Cheddar or similar)

·      a good handful of wild garlic leaves, finely chopped

·      170 ml milk 

·      juice of ½ lemon

·      1 egg 

 

Extra egg for glazing

 

 

Instructions : 

 

Heat the oven to 200C (220C non-fan). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

 

Combine gluten free self raising flour, sugar, baking powder, xanthan gum, sugar and salt in a medium size bowl. 

Cube the butter and rub it into the flour mix until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. 

Chop the wild garlic finely - I like when you can see bits of leaves in scones rather but you can also mash them into a pesto-like paste.

Add in the wild garlic and the grated cheddar cheese to the flour mix, and mix through until it’s well combined.

 

Add the lemon juice to milk and leave it for a couple of minutes - it starts to curdle a bit - the idea to turn it into a thin buttermilk liquid. Add in egg and mix with a fork. 

 

Combine the milk/egg and flour mix and together until it has a smooth consistency, trying to take care not to overwork it.

 

Turn the dough out onto a floured (gluten free!) surface and gently pat into a circle about 3cm-4cm deep. 

Use a round cutter (I used a 5cm one) to cut out scones, reforming the remains of dough and continuing to cut out scones until the dough is all used up. 

 

Brush the tops of the scones with beaten egg and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until well risen and golden brown 

 

Remove from the oven and cool for about 10-15 minutes. Eat warm or cold, if not eaten the same day (as if !), they can keep well in an air-tight container for 3 days.