Apple Cinnamon Scones

Living and working in the UK makes most people grow irrationally and irretrievably fond of Cream Tea – a ‘light meal’ of scones, clotted cream and jam with your favourite tea. While delectable and swoon-worthy, whoever called this combination light has a serious confusion about weight and what certain kinds of foods can do to YOUR weight, IMHO. Scones are the bane of anyone looking for a healthy snack, but does that make them any less yummy? I think not!

On our trip to York, we had some blueberry scones with lavender cream and it tasted so different, yet so nice, I realised, I need to make my own variant too! So, I gave it a healthy twist, replacing butter with Greek yoghurt; had a couple of apples in the house, added a dash of cinnamon to it, and girl, we had a festive affair!

Makes: 8                              Ready in: 1 hr                                   

Calories: 175 per scone (+ low in fat – happy dance!)

Ingredients

• Greek Yoghurt: 2 tbsp + extra to replace clotted cream as spread
• 1 egg: beaten
• 50-75g sugar
• 200g flour (may go for self-raising)
• 1 tsp baking powder (ignore if you use self-raising flour)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ tsp cinnamon powder (I added a pinch of nutmeg powder too)
• 2 small apples: cored, grated and excess juice squeezed out
• 3 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• Black/raspberries: to serve (optional – I used a home-made reduction of berries I already had)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/160C Fan and line a baking tray with some baking paper
• Beat together the egg, yoghurt, 50g sugar and set aside
• Sift the flour, the raising agents and cinnamon powder into a large bowl. Add the grated apple and mix. Add the egg mixture, a little at a time and keep mixing
• Tip the dough into a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Roll into a rectangle about 2 inches thick and divide into 8 squares
• Put the squares onto the tray, spacing them evenly, brush the top with 1 tbsp of the milk and bake for 20-25 min
• Make a glaze by heating the rest of the milk and adding the remaining sugar, stirring until fully dissolved. Turn off the heat and let it cool.
• When the scones are done and cool, drizzle with the glaze and sprinkle some nuts if you wish.

Serve with yoghurt (I mixed mine with some chopped apricots for extra kicks) and berries ( or a reduction, as I did) and your favourite cuppa – bliss! And no muffin top scare either (yay!)

Do give it a try – I promise it tastes great  – and let me know how this variant works for you – if it works for you!

Right, its Ganesh Puja today and that can only mean the season of festivities has begun for us! 🙂

Until next time,

Paulomi x