Skip to main content

Vanilla Bean Scones with Strawberry Cream Filling


I know it's not terribly original, but when you're faced with the letter 'V' for Alphabakes, what can you do? There have already been some fab entries involving Vodka and Vinegar, as well as Victoria Sponges and Vanilla goodies galore. But I was in a total fug trying to come up with something. Then, I came across this lovely little recipe for scones in an Australian Women's Weekly publication 'Afternoon Tea'. I've never seen one which includes vanilla pod seeds before, so thought I would give this one a go.


As with all scone recipes, these are best eaten on the day of baking, and preferably while they are still fluffy and warm from the oven. That said, Mike and I were very happy to finish them off the next day, when they were slightly firmer but still had a lovely soft vanilla flavour coming through.

Vanilla Bean Scones with Strawberry Cream Filling

Ingredients (makes 9)

375g self raising flour
1 tbspn caster sugar
30g chilled unsalted butter, diced
pinch of fine salt
180ml milk
125ml water
1 vanilla bean

For the filling
300ml double cream
2 tbspns icing sugar
strawberry jam
fresh strawberries, sliced thinly

Preheat the oven to 200 Fan / 220 conventional / 425F and grease a baking tray.

Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a bowl. Add the chopped butter and rub in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.


Combine the milk and water in a jug. Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds to the liquid and discard the pod (or add to a jar of caster sugar and leave for at least a week to make vanilla sugar).

Add the liquid slowly to the flour mixture using just enough to make a soft, sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently until smooth. Press dough lightly to form a square, and then cut into nine pieces. Place the scones on the baking sheet, leaving a small gap between each one. Brush the tops with a little extra milk.


Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until risen and golden.


To make the filling, whip the cream with the icing sugar to the soft peak stage.  Cut a scone in half, and smooth a little strawberry jam over one side. Add a dollop of cream, and then some sliced strawberries.


These were really delicious and a perfect summer tea time treat.



As they are definitely a 'V' bake with the vanilla, I'm submitting them for this month's Alphabakes challenge, organised  (and hosted this month) by Ros, of the More Than Occasional Baker, and Caroline, of Caroline Makes. A round up will be published after 25 June on the More Than Occasional Baker.


As delicious summer strawberries comprise the filling, I'm also going to submit them to this month's Tea Time Treats challenge, organised by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked. This month's theme is summer berries, and so I hope these will fit in  with all the other gorgeous entries. Kate is hosting this month, so a round up of the entries will be available after 28 June on her lovely blog.


Enjoy,

Susie

Comments

  1. How fabulous...I LOVE scones...and scones with cream and strawberries...there's nothing not to like!!! These look great, I'd love one of these...I'm almost tempted to go out and find scones right now!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vanilla bean scones sound delicious. I'm queuing behind Caked Crusader for one!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is the perfect summer scone recipe! Thank you so much for entering TTT!

    PS: I think you'll need a second batch- I'm waiting patiently behind Jo and the Caked Crusader in the queue!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you ladies, your comments did make me giggle!

    There is definitely something about scones - I think everyone loves a good one!

    8)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Make that a third batch for me too!! They look delicious - love vanilla and strawberry and scones. Thanks for entering these to AlphBakes :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks - yes I think the vanilla worked really well with the strawberry. Hope you come up with an easier letter next month, though! ;)

      Delete
  6. Sorry I've been out of the blogging loop for a while! wow these look and sound amazing. I am in love with anything that uses pure vanilla bean, I would never have thought to put it in scones - genius! I am in love with vanilla bean paste frosting - it tastes like melted ice cream and is one of my all time faves, you should definitely try it out if you love vanilla beans! This was a great idea for a V bake...I did plan to enter Alphabakes too this month but in between moving house and my birthday everything's just been crazy busy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sometimes life just gets in the way of baking doesn't it? I know I'm finding it difficult being back at work as I now have even less time to try out all the recipes I've been planning. Anyway, Gem, hope you had a fab birthday. Thanks for the lovely comment - glad you like these. :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Your comments are very much appreciated.

Popular posts from this blog

Dark Indulgent Chocolate and Walnut Brownies for the Weekly Bake Off

It's been a great couple of weeks in the Bake Off , as Amy has chosen some fantastic chocolate recipes from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes . Although I made last week's American Chocolate Ripple Cheesecake, I didn't enter it. Not because it was a disaster (it was incredibly delicious though very rich - Josh has been able to eek it out all week as he only needs a little piece to get his daily chocolate fix!), but I simply ran out of time. So this week, I decided to get my skates on and make the bake early. Particularly as it's brownies. Yes. Brownies. Those dark, fudgey, chocolatey little bites of heaven. But for me, this week was an experiment. You see, I already have a fantastic brownie recipe . It's been made countless times and been played around with to give an endless variety of treats. (Have I ever mentioned Maya Gold in brownies? Yes? Well I'll have to post about them someday soon because they are amazing - like some sort of out of body exp

Not Viennese, but Swiss Cakes for the Weekly Bake Off

One of my strongest childhood memories is the ritual of our family's Sunday Tea, which always took a certain form. My nan would put the kettle on at just before 4pm, and a pot of steaming hot tea would soon be brewed. There were sandwiches, and always, always some form of cake. Quite often, if nan and mum had had a busy weekend, it would be provided by Mr Kipling. My brother and I looked forward to this with some enthusiasm, as there were quite often French Fancies and Vienniese Whirls, which were our hands-down favourites. We could leave the Battenburg Slices, and the jam tarts were often a bit too dry  for us (definitely not as good as homemade). But the soft sweet inside of an iced French Fancy (my favourite being the lemon yellow ones), and the moistness of the Viennese Whirls were something to savour. Of course, you can still buy these. But they just don't seem to taste the same somehow. So when Amy announced this week's Bake Off challenge as the Apricot Swiss

Limoncello Cake

I really love this cake. I mean really love it. So much so, it's my new best friend. It's like sunshine on a plate. The citrussy aroma tempts you while the sultry lemony pucker hits you full in the mouth. And who can resist anything with 'Limoncello' in the title? The mere mention of the word transports you to to the Sicilian sun. It's one more reason I have to thank Random Recipes for getting me to delve into my cookbooks. This month's challenge had a bit of a twist. Dom, of Belleau Kitchen (who runs the challenge) created a Randometer thingummy-bob to test us. You had to enter how many cookbooks you owned, and then it would generate a random number. You counted along your shelf to that book, and then entered the number of pages, to generate another number and so find your Random Recipe. The gods must have been looking favourably on me this month, as I ended up with this gorgeous lemon cake, from Peggy Porschen's 'Boutique Baking