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 Roasted Irish Rhubarb Scones Recipe create light, buttery soft scones with a crunchy exterior and added fruity, bursts of roasted rhubarb. 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, my Irish Roasted Plum Scones or if you’re looking for something savoury, my Wild Garlic Mature Cheddar Scones Recipe.
To begin making these scones, we need to roast the rhubarb just a little. Toss the sliced rhubarb with sugar, water (and vanilla if you’d like) and place onto a baking tray cover tightly with tin foil and bake in a hot oven for 10- 15 minutes until soft when pierced with a knife. Allow to cool before placing into a small sieve and allowing the liquid to drip off. For the full details follow this link on how to make Roasted rhubarb that keeps it’s shape.
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 rhubarb 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 rhubarb.
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.
After cutting out the scones from the dough, you will have a lot of dough leftover. This can be gently squished together again to make a few more scones. Be careful and try to move the fruit to the inside of the dough. If there is a lot of exposed fruit it has a tendency to leak and potentially burn. This might create a bitter, unpleasant taste in the scones. You can also pat the dough out a little thinner than the original dough as for some reason scones from the leftover dough tend to rise a bit more.
Absolutely you can. If you are using raw rhubarb, slice into small chunks and place into a bowl with 40 grams of sugar. Mix together and leave to one side while you prepare the dough, making sure to strain any juices out before adding to the dough.
Whether you use roasted or raw rhubarb, I would advise draining off any liquid. Rhubarb is quite high in water and can release a lot of liquid during cooking or macerating. If you add a lot of liquid to a scone dough it becomes quite sloppy and difficult to handle. Plus, most of the rhubarb flavour comes from the rhubarb itself, not the liquid.
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.
For more Rhubarb Recipes, you can check out my Rhubarb Recipes, here.
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