Baking
Cuppa Scones
My version of 3-ingredient scones
Three-ingredient scone recipes are all over social media. Although not quite as good as traditional scones, these are very tasty, especially for such an easy recipe.
Some recipes call them Lemonade Scones. That seems to be a British thing. The original three-ingredient scone recipe calls for the lemon-lime soda that Americans call Sprite. Apparently, it’s called lemonade in the UK — Penny Grubb, Susan Alison, and Christine Morris Ph.D., please correct me if I’m wrong about that.
In the U.S., lemonade is a non-carbonated drink made from fresh lemons mixed with water and sugar. Our lemonade will not work for this recipe.
I’ve experimented with the recipe and found you can successfully use any type of non-cola soda, even sugar-free ones. Today, I’m using Canada Dry Sugar-Free Ginger Ale because that’s what was in my refrigerator. I often use Fresca, a sugar-free, grapefruity soda made by Coca-Cola.
Ingredients:
3 cups of self-rising (or self-raising for Brits) flour 1 cup of non-cola soda 1 cup of heavy cream and whatever add-ins you want
Note: if you don’t have self-rising flour, you can make some by adding 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of fine salt to one cup of all-purpose flour.
Directions:
Sift flour into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together the soda and cream, then pour into the flour and mix until combined. You want to maintain the soda’s carbonation, so don’t over-mix.
You can certainly leave the scone batter as-is and add flavors by spreading jam or jelly on the baked scones. Or, you can stir in ingredients like chocolate pieces, nuts, dried fruits, and various spices before baking. I added two tablespoons of cinnamon, two teaspoons of cardamom, and three tablespoons of these Cinnamon Sweet Bits from King Arthur:
I have a regular scone pan and a min-scone pan, both from King Arthur. Note: I am not an affiliate of King Arthur and receive no compensation for mentioning their products!
For this recipe, I used my mini-scone pan. If you don’t have a scone pan, prepare a baking sheet by spraying it with cooking spray and then plop the dough on the sheet. Flour your hands, shape the dough into a circle, and cut it into triangles. The dough will be very wet and messy, so you may prefer to put it into muffin tins to bake. I topped mine with turbinado sugar (Demerara sugar in the UK).
Bake at 425 degrees (220 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes or until the scones are lightly browned and cooked in the middle.
As you can see, I am missing one scone, but that’s because I like thick scones and always use up all the dough before I get to the last triangle in the pan. From the photo, you can see the Cinnamon Sweet Bits and the turbinado sugar on top.
These will keep in the refrigerator for three days. Before serving, heat them in the microwave for 30 seconds. Eat as is or with some butter and/or jam.
From start to finish, including baking time, this recipe takes less than 30 minutes.
© Dennett 2024