Visitors to the rhubarb festival at Kellie Castle this weekend will be able to dig into rhubarb scones, sponge puddings and more.
Kellie Castle staff are hosting a celebration of the 23 rhubarb varieties in their garden.
Over the three day festival, the castle’s bakers will serve up a range of baked goods – each of which will feature, you guessed it, rhubarb.
Tricia Danson, one of the Kellie Castle bakers, let me try one of her rhubarb scones that she’ll be serving up on the day.
And it certainly changed my mind about rhubarb.
Rhubarb can be very sour sometimes, and people often avoid it because of a misnomer that rhubarb can make you sick.
However, this rhubarb scone surprised me by being absolutely delicious.
There was a sour kick to the rhubarb, but it was perfectly balanced with the sweet scone. It also had a lovely gooey texture.
The scone was the perfect consistency and – as all scones do – it paired deliciously with the cream and strawberry jam.
The rhubarb celebration will run from Saturday April 29 to Monday May 1 from 11am to 4pm each day. National Trust members can get in for free and other visitors can pay £5 for garden entry.
Why not bake one of the scones for yourself with Kellie Castle baker Tricia’s recipe below?
Ingredients:
- 400g self-raising flour
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1tsp baking powder
- 3tbsp caster or regular sugar
- 3oz or 85g butter, cubed
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- A squeeze of lemon juice
- Beaten egg to glaze
- 400g rhubarb chopped into small chunks
Bake Kellie Castle rhubarb scones yourself
Pre-Heat Oven to 220oc/425F/Gas 7. Also preheat your baking tray. In a mixing bowl, add the sifted flour, salt and baking powder, and combine. Add the butter and rub in with your fingers until the mixture looks like fine crumbs.
Using a flat bladed knife, stir in the sugar. Put the milk into a jug and heat in the microwave for about 30 secs until warm, but not hot. Add the vanilla and lemon juice, then set aside for 2 minutes.
Make a well in the dry mix. Then add the liquid and chopped rhubarb and combine it quickly with a flat bladed knife. Once combined, place it on a well-dusted work surface. When it starts coming together, I use my hand to gently gather the dough around the side of the bowl so it’s nice and smooth. It will be quite a wet dough at first.
Almost there…
Dust some flour on the work surface and place the dough on the surface. Shake some more flour on the dough and your hands, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it’s a little smoother. Pat into a round about 4 cm (1 ½ inches) deep.
(Please note, the thickness is very important so measure if you are not sure!) Take a 5cm (2 inch) cutter (plain cutters cut more cleanly and give a better rise than patterned edge cutters) and dip it into some flour.
By this point, you’ll probably need to press what’s left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four. Plunge in a single movement into the dough, then repeat until you have four scones.
Brush the tops with beaten egg, then carefully place onto the hot baking tray. Bake for 20 mins until risen and golden on the top. Then transfer to a cooling rack or serve warm from the oven.
Happy baking!
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