Anyway, date syrup and all the things I made with it had become a sweet memory until a couple of weeks ago when the lovely Laura Faire emailed to ask where I bought mine from. I sent her a few suggestions for stockists, but she went one further and sent me a DIY recipe. Not only does it work a treat, it means I no longer have to worry that the date syrup I use might actually be made from camels.
Homemade date syrup is less, well, syrupy than the bought version, but it does the trick just as well. Try it on porridge, drizzled over yoghurt, or in these double date scones.
Double date scones
I made these yesterday morning when I realised we had slim pickings for breakfast. They are so easy and using spelt flour makes them very easy to eat. That is to say, a small child and her mother can easily gobble down quite a few of them without feeling in the least bit weighed down.
300g (2 cups) white spelt flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
1 cup dates, chopped
1/4 cup date syrup
1 cup cream
Heat the oven to 210C and put a baking tray in the oven.
Sift the flour, baking powder and spice into a large bowl. Stir through the chopped dates.
Mix the date syrup and cream together and pour into the dry ingredients. Fold together gently and quickly to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a piece of baking paper and shape into a rough rectangle, then cut into eight pieces. Transfer the baking paper and scones to the hot tray in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, until risen and golden.
Eat with lashings of butter or dollops of ricotta and honey.
Have a great weekend, everyone x
never heard of date syrup but I can imagine how bloody wonderful it must be... dates are ridiculously fattening, not that i'm counting but one of these scones would be deadly to anyone on any kind of diet... oh what the fuck, who cares?
ReplyDeleteI love date syrup, and this could just be the scone recipe that will help me overcome my scone-making nemesis. Never yet made a scone that didn't resemble a small brick, but I'm heading out in the morning to get some spelt flour and give these a try.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the camel on the syrup being the big clue. I can just imagine walking around a mysterious unidentifiable supermarket and exclaiming 'that must be the butter! There's a cow on the side!'. And goodness, what delectable sounding scones...
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried these yet, but I will. They sound delicious. I've just followed the recipe on the Camel Dates packet. Making a paste out of the dates is a revelation to me and it's spread thickly between two layers of scone dough. My son, who's off school today, said that they were 'pretty nice'.
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