Gluten Free Lemon Scones that brighten your day

All you need on a rainy day to make it all better.

I just love scones. To me, they represent cosy days in front of a fire, with a good book and great company. They also bring me back to Scotland, where my husband and I had the best pre-kids holidays. The most delicious scones I ever ate, I ate in Scotland. In front of a fire. And pouring rain outside. My day was made.  To make them gluten free still is a bit of a thing for me. Making scones isn't difficult, but somehow the gluten free ones always were either too crumbly or just rock hard. Not good. I realized these scones turned out the way they did, because they lacked extra fluids in the recipe. Gluten free flour tends to need more fluids to get the same result. So when I bumped into a (gluten) recipe that used double cream I decided to try to make that one gluten free. Since I didn't have double cream, I decided to use plain old yoghurt. And they turned out wonderfully well. Maybe the could have risen a bit more, but other than that, they taste like proper scones. Real, proper scones. Needless to say, I'm over the moon!

Here's the recipe. If you love scones, go for it!

Ingredients:

• 250 grams (9 oz) of gluten free rice flour
• 25 grams (1 oz) of almond flour
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• a quarter of a teaspoon of (iodized) salt
• 2-3 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of cane sugar
• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of cold butter, chopped in tiny pieces
• 1 lemon
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons of yoghurt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (400 degrees fahrenheit)
2. Mix the flour with the cream of tartar, xanthan gum, cane sugar and salt. 
3. Knead the cold butter through this mixture, until it turns a bit flaky. 
4. Grate the zest of the lemon and add it to the flaky dough together with the egg, 4 tablespoons of yoghurt and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. 
5. Knead the dough, make it into a ball, cover it with cling foil and put it in the fridge for about 15 minutes. 
6. Roll out the dough till it's about 3 cm (a bit over 1 inch) thick and punch out the scones with a round cookie cutter. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchement and bake them for about 15-20 minutes until golden. 
7. Leave them to cool on a wire rack and them serve them with clotted cream and lemon curd.