Anne Morgan To bake Delia Smith treacle scones, you need plain flour, baking powder, mixed spice, soft brown sugar, butter and black treacle. You stir the treacle into the milk, mix it into the rubbed-in flour, then cut about 10 small fluted rounds. They bake at 220°C in under a quarter of an hour, and the whole batch takes about 30 minutes.
They sit in her Book of Cakes (1977) on the page after her Devonshire scones, and they are the darker, richer-tasting of the two. Black treacle and soft brown sugar give them their colour, while a quarter of a teaspoon of mixed spice adds a little warmth.
That treacle goes in with the milk rather than the flour, which is the step that sets them apart from her other scones. She also warns that they spread, which is why the dough is rolled thin and cut small. Like all scones, they taste best on the day they are baked.
Delia Smith Treacle Scones
Course: Afternoon TeaCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy10
servings15
minutes15
minutes150
kcalDark, lightly spiced scones with a deep treacle flavour, baked in 15 minutes.
Ingredients
- For the scones:
225g plain flour, plus a little extra
½ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon mixed spice
40g soft brown sugar
50g butter or margarine
about 150ml milk
2 tablespoons black treacle
Directions
- Oven: Heat the oven to 220°C, fan 200°C, gas mark 7. Grease a baking sheet lightly.
- Dry mix: Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and mixed spice into a bowl. Stir in the sugar, then rub in the butter until the mixture looks crumbly.
- Treacle: Pour all but about 2 tablespoons of the milk into a separate bowl and stir in the black treacle.
- Dough: Pour the treacle milk into the dry ingredients and mix to a soft dough that is not sticky. Add a little of the held-back milk only if you need it.
- Roll: Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead it briefly. Roll it into a round about 1cm thick.
- Cut: Cut out rounds with a 6cm fluted cutter, then re-roll the trimmings and cut the rest, for about 10 scones.
- Bake: Set them on the greased baking sheet and bake them for 12 to 15 minutes.
Notes
- My own tip: dip the tablespoon in hot water before measuring the treacle, and it will slide off cleanly.
FAQs
Which treacle is best for treacle scones?
Black treacle is the one Delia uses, 2 tablespoons of it, and it gives these scones their dark colour. It is thick and strong, so a little goes a long way in a batch of 10.
She stirs it into most of the milk before it ever meets the flour, which spreads it evenly through the dough. Then the brown milk is poured into the dry mixture in one go.
Why is my treacle scone dough sticky?
Usually too much milk went in, which is why Delia keeps back 2 tablespoons from the 150ml at the start. The treacle milk alone is often enough for a soft dough.
Add that last bit of milk only if the dough feels dry, because, as she warns, you may not need it all. Then knead it only briefly before you roll it out.
Why do treacle scones spread?
Delia says these scones simply tend to spread more than usual, so she plans for it from the start. Her answer is a thinner dough and a smaller cutter than she uses for her plain scones.
She rolls the dough only about 1cm thick and uses a 6cm fluted cutter, which she admits may seem rather small. Leave a little space between them on the baking sheet as well, so they do not join up as they bake.
Can I make treacle scones with self-raising flour?
Yes, you can, by building on her other scone recipes, which use 225g of self-raising flour on its own. In that case, leave out the 4 teaspoons of baking powder, because the flour already contains a raising agent.
Keep everything else the same, including the treacle stirred into the milk and the 1cm thickness. The spice, sugar and butter do not change at all.
Why do treacle scones need so much baking powder?
Plain flour has no raising agent of its own, so the baking powder, 4 teaspoons of it, does all the lifting here. In her Complete Cookery Course, Delia explains that baking powder is bicarbonate of soda mixed with an acid, such as cream of tartar.
Sift it with the flour, salt and spice so it spreads evenly. Then bake the scones as soon as the dough is cut, while the baking powder is still at work.
