Coconut and Lime scones

I put a picture of my everyday scones up on Instagram recently and it was liked by someone called ‘The Philosopher’s Scone’ I do love a good pun, almost as much as I love a good scone..Anyway, I followed them back and although they don’t actually publish any recipes, they do upload pictures of scones, one of which caught my attentions recently –  Coconut and Lime scones, with lime-flavoured icing.  Well, I can’t just read that and not do something about it.. As I write, there’s a delicious coconut-y smell in my kitchen – so here’s my recipe, adapted from my own basic scones:

EQUIPMENT:

• Baking tray, lined with non-stick baking paper (or  well-dusted with flour)
• Weighing-scales
• Flat-bladed knife
• Medium-sized bowl, for mixing
• scone cutter
• Food processor (handy but not essential)

INGREDIENTS:

For the scones:

• 8oz Self-raising flour
• 1/2 of a teaspoon (NO MORE!) of Baking Powder
• 1 oz. caster sugar
• 2 ounces of unsalted butter (that’s slightly more than my regular recipe)
• 2 heaped tablespoons of desiccated coconut.
• Finely grated zest of 1-2 limes ( keep the lime itself for the icing)
• A tin of coconut milk (you definitely won’t use it all, so there’s some left for a second batch in a few day’s time – (keep it in a sealed container – not the tin – in the fridge)

For the icing:

• 3 heaped tablespoonful of icing sugar, sifted
• Juice of the lime ( you won’t need it all)
• A little extra lime zest if you have it, for decoration.

METHOD:

• Heat the oven to 180 degrees Fan
• Put the flour, butter, baking powder and salt into the food processor and blitz it until it looks like breadcrumbs (or simply sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and rub in the butter by hand)
• Put the flour/butter mixture into a medium-sized bowl

• Add the sugar, desiccated coconut and lime zest, and mix in with a knife.

• Pour about 2-3 tablespoonful of the coconut milk into the mixture and fold in with a flat-bladed knife. Add a tablespoonful extra at a time, and keep mixing until you’re left with a soft, but not wet, dough.
• Sprinkle some extra flour, firstly onto a clean work surface, and then some more onto the dough (it makes it easier to lift).
• Pat it down gently until it’s a vaguely circular shape, and about an inch and a half ( 3-4 cms) high.
• Quickly cut out the scones and remove them to the lined baking tray.

• Put them straight into the oven and give them 15 minutes at 180 fan until they’re risen and lightly browned.
• Remove them from the oven, but keep them on  the baking paper.
• Allow to cool completely – yes, of course you’re allowed to have one while you’re waiting, but funnily enough these scones are best, like revenge, served cold 😉 .
• Then make up the icing, and simply drizzle it over the scones.

                                

 

• Drizzle over the icing, and let it set ( which doesn’t take long at all, as the scones are completely cold)

• They’re nice as they are, but I think to really make them something really special, you could cut them in half, and sandwich together with some freshly whipped cream and home-made lemon curd.

NOTES:

• Don’t even think of using any more than the 1/2 teaspoonful of Baking powder, unless you want that horrible soda-bicarb feeling on the back of your teeth –  that feeling you get when you get a poor-quality scone when you’re out? Yuck.
• If you have it, add the zest of another lime to the dry mixture.
• It turns out that these scones  are much better cold than hot – the flavourings really come when the scones are cold .
• I think the little bit of extra butter and the addition of the coconut milk make these scones much richer than my simple buttermilk ones. We’ve been nibbling them simply as they are today – no butter or anything!