There are few things an Irish person takes as seriously as scones. Joe.ie even created “The Great Scone Map” based on how people in Ireland and the UK pronounce the word scone. Is it scone or scon?
These Irish Roasted Plum Scones Recipe create light, buttery soft scones with a crunchy exterior and added fruity, bursts of roasted plums. Perfect with butter or jam and/or whipped cream. Looking for more scones recipes? Check out my Blueberry Buttermilk Scones Recipe, my Irish Strawberry Scones Recipe (With Secret Ingredient- Mashed Potato!), my Pumpkin Spice Scones Recipe, my Apple Buttermilk Scones Recipe or if you’re looking for something savoury, my Wild Garlic Mature Cheddar Scones Recipe.
To begin making these scones, we need to cook the plums just a little. Toss the sliced plums with brown sugar and place onto a baking tray and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes until soft when pierced with a knife. Once baked, leave to one side to cool slightly.
For the next step, add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Add in the soft, room temperature butter and rub together with the flour with your hands until it resembles breadcrumbs. Next add in the eggs and buttermilk. Mix together briefly until a shaggy dough has formed. Be careful not to over mix , I usually have a little unmixed flour left at the bottom of the bowl. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and pat down gently. If you prefer to keep your scones plain, skip the next steps and go straight to shaping, egg wash and baking.
I have a little system to be able to fit maximum amounts of fruit into the scone dough without it turning soggy. Add half the plums to the patted down dough. Fold over the dough in a “letter fold”. This means you take one third of the dough and cover it over the middle of the dough. Fold over the other third to seal. Roll out the dough a little bit and repeat with the remaining plums.
Dust the dough well with flour and roll out dough to cutting size. You want them very thick, almost the same height as the pastry cutter. Transfer to a lined baking tray with plenty of space in between. Roll out any leftover dough gently and cut until all the dough is used. Egg wash lightly and bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.
My recipe uses soft, room temperature butter. This helps the butter incorporate into the flour quicker and evenly. If your butter is too cold or hard, pop into the microwave for 5 second bursts to soften slightly.
Try to handle the dough as little as possible and gently. An overworked doughy results in a tough, chewy scone that won’t rise as well. Dust the dough with flour whenever needed for easier handling but don’t be too heavy handed with it.
I have never frozen scone dough raw, but according to Nigella, you absolutely can freeze them raw. For best results, follow the steps up until the egg wash. Place them directly onto a lined baking tray, don’t egg wash them and freeze like this. After a few hours, once frozen you can place them into airtight containers or ziploc bags and can keep for up to one month. Bake these straight from frozen, just pop them onto a lined baking tray, egg wash and extend baking time by 5-10 minutes.
You can also freeze baked scones. For best results, freeze them on a tray as soon as they are cooled from baking. Once frozen, place them into an airtight container or a ziploc bag. These can last for up to one month. Defrost for an hour and pop them into a hot oven for 5-10 minutes.
This is usually a personal preference. These plum scones are gorgeous still a little warm from the oven slathered with some good Irish butter. You can also add some freshly whipped cream and/or jam to them. If you have lots of plums and would like to make some plum jam too, you can find my perfect plum jam recipe here.
For more Plum Recipes, you can check out my Plum Recipes, here.
Looking for more breakfast and brunch recipe, you can take a peek here.
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Really tasty scones. Will be using this recipe as the base for all my scones going forward. I didn't have butter milk but normal worked well
These were fantastic! I bought plums too early in the season, so I stuck them in the fridge for a few weeks and let them get wrinkly while I searched for recipes using cooked plums, and yours looked awesome.
I’m not used to measuring in grams (I’m in the US), but I did my best. I think they came out great. I sprinkled a pinch of turbinado sugar on top and some culinary rose petals just for fun. They were, as I suspected, awesome.