Granny didn’t teach me much about cooking, but I’m channeling her with these Date, Orange & Sour Cream Scones.
When I was young, we lived with my maternal grandmother. She was quite elderly when we went to live with her and not the world’s best cook (a lack of skill also inherited by my mother, but which happily skipped my sister and me) so warm, fuzzy memories of grandma’s cooking are a bit thin on the ground for me, however she could turn out one hell of a scone. Even a cursory glance across this blog will indicate that I am fairly keen on carbs and baking, so when I saw mention of the link to International Scone Week I knew it was for me! This scone round-up by food bloggers used to be hosted by my lovely friend Celia over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, but is now in the very capable hands of Tandy at Lavender and Lime so, once you’ve committed this page to memory, do check out the rest of the scone posts on Tandy’s site.
My grandmother lived through two world wars and the depression, so extravagance or wasting food was simply never an option. As we were relatively poor, luxuries like cream weren’t a staple in our fridge, but only for special occasions and were used right down to the last scrape of the jar. If the unthinkable happened and the cream spoiled before we could use it up – no matter – so long as it wasn’t actually mouldy (although, now that I think of it …), grandma could always come up with a way to use it.
Her standard go-to recipes for soured cream were a fruit cake using currants and mixed citrus peel which I was never all that fond of back then (but would kill for the recipe now, of course) and scones. The sour cream made up the fat component of the scones, with a dash of milk thrown in if there was not quite enough cream. One thing I do remember was that she always mixed the scone dough with a knife and cut it with an ordinary glass tumbler.
A recent rummage through my fridge resulted in not one, but three cream containers which were all past their use-by date – how times have changed. Like I said, I’m a bugger for carbs, and plain scones would make me just as happy as anything, but I’ve got a large tub of big, fat Medjool dates to work my way through and a bag of fresh oranges which were a gift from a friend, so this recipe was all a bit of a no-brainer.
This very quick recipe simply can’t fail and results in light-as-air scones which will boost your baking cred no end. Just remember to mix with a knife until a soft dough is formed, lightly pat it out on a floured surface until it is about one inch thick and then cut with either a glass tumbler or a scone cutter if you have one. DO NOT twist when you are cutting or the scones are much less likely to rise. They cook quickly – giving you just enough time to put the kettle on and clean up after yourself before sitting down for a delicious break.
Date, Orange & Sour Cream Scones for International Scone Week!
Ingredients
- 2 cups of SR flour
- 1 cup of soured cream
- pinch of salt
- 1 Tbsp caster sugar
- 6-8 dates chopped
- zest of one orange
- A little milk if needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C (400F)
- Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
- Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix with the blade of a bread and butter knife until a soft dough forms - adding a little splash of milk if necessary.
- Turn dough out on to a lightly floured surface and gently pat out until it is about one inch (25mm) thick.
- Cut into desired shape with either a scone cutter or a glass tumbler - do not twist while cutting.
- Place close together, but not touching, on prepared baking tray. Bake for 12-14 minutes.
- Remove from tray and wrap in a clean tea towel to keep warm for serving.
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Mmmm – another fabulous scones recipe!
That is the closest recipe I have ever seen to my nan’s recipe. Funny how our grandmothers scones are more memorable than the rest of their cooking isn’t it 🙂
Your grandmother and my grandmother sound very similar. My grandmother could also whip up a batch of scones in no time and they were excellent and she always said the key was in not fussing over the mixture too much. She was also very thrifty and nothing went to waste. I used to make date scones all the time but never added orange! What a terrific idea. Your scones look like something your grandmother would be very proud of xx
I really wanted to be part of scone week but I am out of flour! I’ll just have to drool over the scone recipes like these 😀
Hi Amanda, your scones look lovely, delicious combination of ingredients. Your grandma sounds wonderful.
Thank you for sharing the memory with us Amanda, I am going to remember this for the next time I have cream that has soured 🙂
What a great combination scone Amanda! I can almost smell them from here! Glad we are connected through our love of scones!
Hi Amanda, your scones sound really tasty, I love the combination of dates and orange. I love the idea of using sour cream for the fat, save all that cutting in of butter. I’ve booked these for later baking indulgence!
I usually just cut my scones into squares but the non-twisting trick is a good tip. These look awesome. I LOVE a good scone.
That is a fab recipe Amanda. As simple as simple can be. All these scones sure look good.
Delicious looking scones and the story is great. The addition of orange and dates sounds quite tasty.
Your scones look fantastic Amanda – your grandmother would be proud 🙂 My mum, bless her, is a terrible cook (god I hope she’s not reading this!!) but thankfully that didn’t happen to me – where would we be without our love for carbs!! Jan x
Another fab scone recipe. There are so many different ones around. These look good. Love the addition of orange.
Beautiful scones Amanda… I love your flavours! 🙂
Both my grandmothers and my mother baked lots of scones so I find them very comforting – these look great – I grew up using a glass to cut scones (always a vegemite glass) and wrapping them in a tea towel – I have heard about using a knife but I think I am too impatient – should remember this though
Oh gosh I didnt read his story before. Your Grand ma sounds like mine in many ways. I live date scones and now want to make them ….badly.
I’m a newbie Baker. I inherited my grannies recipes and cherish them as she is gone now and I miss her terribly. Only wish I had taken her more seriously when she tried to get me interested in cooking!! As a newbie I have I’m sure a silly question. What is Caster sugar?
There’s no such thing as a silly question, Tara, & we all began somewhere! Caster sugar is fine ground granulated sugar – sort of halfway between ordinary sugar and powdered sugar. 🙂