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A Favorite British Teatime; Plain and Savory Scones – Peynirli Pogaca

Plain and savory scones with feta cheese and parsley, just baked

I love the British teatime tradition and all the treats that come with it. Scones are a special favorite; I simply can not resist them with clotted cream and jam over the top. So I was delighted to see their appearance on the Telegraph food writer Rose Prince’s Baking Club  a few weeks ago.

What I also loved seeing at the column was that Rose Prince provided recipes for plain as well as the savory scones, which is quite unusual. Savory pastries, pogaca as we call it in Turkish, (with various fillings e.g. with cheese, grated potatoes, courgettes, onions) are very common in Turkey, and one of the favorite accompaniments to our afternoon tea. I vividly remember my mother baking pogacas with various fillings for afternoon teatime gatherings in our home. The savory scone recipe here therefore has a Turkish influence to it, as I added crumbled feta cheese and flat parsley to mine (you can replace the feta cheese with fresh goats cheese for a less salty and milder flavor, as Rose Prince did).

Cheese and parsley scones (peynirli pogaca), lovely with a cup of tea

Though there are only a few ingredients that make the perfect scone, it can be of a challenge to get that tearable soft inside, that wouldn’t go dry.Rose Prince gave two recipes using plain flour in one and strong stoneground strong white flour in another, which makes the scones lighter with a slightly elastic crumb. I had a go with the plain flour, as that was the one available, and we all very much enjoyed the end result.

Makes about 12 scones

Preparation time: 20 minutes               Baking time: 15 minutes

390gr plain flour

200gr butter

1 tsp (5gr) – or a little less, if you prefer – salt

2 tbsp baking powder

300ml butter milk

If you’d like to make half of the scones savory, please include:

80gr feta (or fresh goats cheese or cottage cheese for milder flavor), crumbled

Handful of flat leaf parsley (or fresh dill), finely chopped

Clotted cream and jam to accompany the plain scones

Preheat the oven to 220 C/425 F/Gas 7

Put the flour in a bowl and rub the butter into it until it has a crumbly appearance. Add the baking powder and the salt and mix lightly but well with your hands. Add the buttermilk, mix with a spoon, until it just about holds together and tip out onto a floured work surface. Fold the dough onto itself two or three times. (Work the dough as lightly as possible, and keep it cool. Too much kneading will make the dough tighten up and the scones will not be airy.) Bring the dough into a ball shape and dust with flour.

 

Work feta (or any other cheese of your choice) and parsley into the dough

Divide the dough in two halves, if you are making savory as well as plain scones like I did.  For savory scones, dust first half of the dough with a little more flour and work the cheese and parsley into the dough until it ripples through. On a floured surface, roll lightly with a rolling pin to a thickness of 3cm. Use a straight edged round cutter, 4cm in diameter, to cut out the savory scones.

Shake them out of the cutter and place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.

For plain scones, roll the other half of the dough and repeat the same procedure as above.

Bake the scones for about 15 minutes , or until pale gold and nearly doubled in size.

Teatime favourite; plain scones with clotted cream and jam

Afiyet Olsun!

Tuesday, March 20th; Offical Start of Spring

My diary showed Tuesday, 20th March, as the offical start day of spring. All the wonderful blossoms, newly emerging buds, daffodils are all around to prove it, so wonderful and uplifting to look at.

Beautiful daffodils are everywhere at the moment

Spring; beginning of new life, new growth, new hopes, beginnings. I hope you enjoy the spring shots from the RHS Wisley Gardens, England.

Magnolia tree with lovely pink blossoms

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2 Responses to A Favorite British Teatime; Plain and Savory Scones – Peynirli Pogaca

  1. Peri March 20, 2012 at 4:17 pm #

    Ozlem, these scones look so very delicious!I love the savory version, going to try both, feta and goat-cheese to see which one is better. My parsley is overflowing, glad to find uses for it!

    CM has clotted cream and their scones have become a staple at our place with the fig jam… happy to have a recipe to make scones at home finally. Thanks for the recipe:)

    The gardens look beautiful…I just pinned your daffodils and scones on my pinterest board:)

    • Ozlem March 20, 2012 at 7:33 pm #

      Glad you liked the scones Peri 🙂 Great that CM carries clotted cream, it’s a perfect match for the scones with the jam! Flowers are in full bloom at the moment, Wisley is the place to take you when you come over!

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