A British classic, but with an Italian twist. Scones with baked strawberries and mascarpone cream.
I love a good scone. I love the simplicity of it, the texture, the filling(s). And it even comes with some controversy about how to serve it, the long debate about cream first or jam first. Not-so-controversially, I like it both ways.
For this recipe, I decided not to change the traditional one too much as it just works so well, but I gave it my own twist by slightly tweaking the fillings.
This year was a great one for English strawberries and they have been available and at a very good value for money throughout the season. And they taste delicious. For this reason, I did not feel like using a jam or making one. Instead, I simply baked the strawberries for 10 minutes to soften them up and bring out their flavour, acidity and aroma even more.
As a second twist, I decided to replace the traditional clotted cream with the quintessentially Italian mascarpone cheese. I must say, the first time I tasted clotted cream, it totally reminded me of mascarpone and I find it really fascinating that both products are predominantly known only in their own country but are also so similar (or at least this is the case for clotted cream, completely unknown in Italy – what a shame).
So, be it for a traditional cream tea, for a quick dessert to serve to unexpected guests, or for your daily breakfast, rest sure you can never go wrong with scones. Even if you put cream first. Or jam first. Or mascarpone and baked strawberries. It doesn’t matter. They are just simply so good.
Makes about 8 scones
Ingredients
FOR THE SCONES
- 250g plain flour
- 18g baking powder (1.5 Tbsp)
- 3.5g fine sea salt (1/2 tsp)
- 20g caster sugar
- 55g butter, cold and cubed
- 140g cold whole milk
- 1 beaten egg
FOR THE BAKED STRAWBERRIES
- 500g fresh strawberries
- 50g caster sugar
- 50ml lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- Extra 40g caster sugar
FOR THE MASCARPONE CREAM
- 150g double cream
- 100g mascarpone
- 30g icing sugar
Method
TO MAKE THE SCONES
- Heat the oven to 190℃. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the butter cubes and rub it into the mix until you obtain a fine sandy/crumbly consistency. Move quickly to prevent the butter from melting. You can do the same process using a food processor or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
- Pour the cold milk into the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until everything comes together into a dough. You can do the same in the food processor and the stand mixer, just make sure that you stop as soon as the dough comes together. Flour a work surface and transfer the dough on it.
- Bring together the dough into a ball using your hands to press it together, but do not knead it . Sprinkle some flour on the top and, using a rolling pin, gently roll out the dough a little, until you achieve a thickness of about 3cm.
- Line a baking tray with some parchment. Lightly flour the inside of a 5cm wide ring or round cookie cutter and stamp out as many scones as you can achieve and move them onto the baking tray. Press the leftover dough together working from the sides towards the middle, again avoiding to knead. Flatten it to the right thickness of 3cm and cut as many additional scones as you can.
- You can bring the dough together again if you think you will get one more scone out of it. I normally don’t do it (unless the scones are all for myself) as it’ll come out quite wonky and not as fluffy as the first round. Gently brush the top of the scones with beaten egg and transfer to the oven to bake for 20 minutes.
TO MAKE THE MASCARPONE CREAM
- Transfer the mascarpone into a small bowl and using an electric whisk on low speed, loosen it for a few seconds. Add the rest of the ingredients and whip on medium/high speed to stiff peaks. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
TO MAKE THE BAKED STRAWBERRIES AND SERVE
- While the scones finish baking, clean, wash and chop the strawberries in medium sized chunks. Transfer to a small bowl alongside the first quantity of sugar, lemon juice and vanilla and give it a good stir.
- Once the scones are nice and golden, transfer to a cooling rack. Pour the strawberry mix into a small baking tray or a medium ovenproof pan and bake for 10 minutes. Once ready, leave to cool. Taste the baked strawberries and the second quantity of sugar if needed (if they are in season, it should not be necessary).
- Serve the scones alongside a pot of the baked strawberries and a generous dollop of mascarpone cream. I’ll leave it to you to decide what filling goes on top of the other. It’ll be equally delicious.
Can I use fresh strawberries without baking, What are the pros and cons?
Hi!
Of course, for semplicity you can definitely use fresh strawberries. My advice would be make sure they are nice and ripe, otherwise that tanginess they give if they are not ready will clash a bit with the rest of the flavours. Baking them ensures they are smooth and lush, with the acidity coming from the lemon juice, rather than from the raw fruit.