Musings by Mia – Staycations for Celiacs – Afternoon Tea

Gluten-Free British Scones with Clotted Cream

In order to celebrate the summer and explore the world of food from the comfort of your own home, I am writing a ‘staycation’ series! My partner, a wonderful cook/baker, has been busy developing some tasty gluten free recipes that I am eager to share. For the series, we will be sharing a delicious recipe and a suggestion as to how to make a ‘staycation’ meal out of it!

Our second ‘staycation’ meal is a delicious gluten-free Afternoon Tea. Below is a recipe for gluten-free scones and clotted cream. To make it a true ‘staycation’ meal we recommend pairing with jam and a pot of tea. For the sake of tradition, the scone recipe is for plain vanilla scones, however, given the abundance of summer fruit available consider these scones blank slates! Here are a few flavour pairings we recommend:

• Blueberry lemon
• Cherry dark chocolate
• Raspberry white chocolate
• Strawberry rhubarb
• Blackberry lemon
• Pistachio peach
• Apple cinnamon
• Lavender lemon
• Cheddar chive/garlic scape

Enjoy!

Clotted Cream

• make a few days before desired scone feast

INGREDIENTS

• 1 litre heavy cream (yields about 1 cup of clotted cream)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In the evening preheat oven to 180F, pour cream ~2 inches deep into a glass baking dish (8” or 9” pan is best). Bake overnight for ~12 hours (no stirring).
2. In the morning remove from oven and let cool to room temperature, cover with plastic and refrigerate until completely chilled (~12 hours).
3. Once chilled you will notice a clear separation between the liquid and ‘clotted’ cream, pick out a corner of the top ‘clotted’ layer and carefully pour the liquid into a separate bowl (*this is the liquid you could substitute, instead of milk, into the scones for extra richness).
4. Stir the clotted cream and store in a bowl or jar in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Scones

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups (500g) gluten-free flour blend (containing xanthum gum, we used Bobs Red Mill 1 to 1 baking flour)
• 7 TBSP (100g) unsalted butter – room temperature
• ¼ cup (50g) of sugar
• 2 eggs
•  1 cup (250g) whole milk* (or almond milk)
• 1 1/2 TBSP (20g) baking powder
• ½ TSP (3g) of salt
• *Or substitute the excess liquid from the clotted cream

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400˚F
2. In a mixing bowl whisk together sugar, baking powder, salt and flour.
3. Mix in butter with hands (or using a food processor) until breadcrumb-like texture.
4. Add eggs to the milk (*or clotted cream liquid) and mix together and pour most of it over your dry ingredients (save a little to brush over the scones before baking). Note: Here is where you could add other ingredients (blueberries + lemon zest, etc.).
5. Mix well before moving dough to floured work surface and roll out into a 1-inch thick rectangle.
6. Shape as desired: to make traditional British scones use a cookie cutter to cut circles out and arrange on baking tray (triangles make fun scone shapes too).
7. Chill the dough for 10-15 minutes.
8. Brush with leftover liquid from step 4.
9. Bake in the preheated oven until golden and risen, ~15 minutes for circles and ~20-25 for triangles

About Mia

• “Musings by Mia is meant to be a collection of topics that I wish had been more discussed when I was first diagnosed with Celiac Disease as a teen. I will explore topics from the perspective of a young adult with Celiac Disease and share my personal experiences in these articles. As these are my own experiences, they are by no means meant to be a ‘how-to’ guide, but instead an informative glimpse into the situations a typical young adult with Celiac Disease might face.”

• If you have questions or comments,  or if you have topic suggestions, Mia would be happy to hear from you. Scroll down to the comment field below or email ellen@theceliacscene.com with your thoughts.