Wild Garlic Sourdough Scones (vegan)
Does it get more hipster than a vegan scone made with foraged wild garlic and sourdough starter? I think not. Get the recipe below.
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A sourdough discard recipe
My sourdough starter “Ryan” is almost a year old and over the last 12 months I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve studied under the experts at Bread Ahead Bakery in Borough Market and I’ve devoured countless videos, books and snippets of advice from social media. Does that make me a sourdough expert? No absolutely not. But, it does make me someone who is a little bit obsessed with sourdough and finding new ways to take excess starter (sometimes known as discard) and to turn it into something delicious.
Most people who nurture a sourdough starter do so so that they can bake beautiful artisan loaves of bread – that was certainly Jon’s reason for doing so. But, I love the pancakes, waffles, crumpets and other baked treats you can make with this tangy, fermented mixture of rye flour and water. This recipe is one of those.
If you regularly feed your starter and find yourself with discard that you need to dispose of then this is the perfect recipe for you. But I don’t really subscribe to the idea of throwing starter away. I keep my starter in the fridge and bring it out on a Thursday and give it a good feed.
It’s usually a bit sluggish if its been in the fridge for any length of time (the longest I’ve left it is 2 months) and so after day 1 it will be a little bit active but not active enough to produce an outstanding loaf.
By the second day I usually have a vibrant, bubbly starter that’s ready to go! These scones will work with starter at any stage of the process but the more active it is the lighter they will be.
Serving suggestions
As well as having the signature “tang” of sourdough, these fluffy scones are flavoured with the mild warmth of wild garlic. If you’ve not tried it before, it’s very similar to regular garlic but is more subtle and less overpowering. It has a green, freshness to it you just don’t get with a garlic clove. As these are savoury scones you could enjoy them with a little butter (or non-dairy spread for my fellow vegans).
I love to serve them with plant based cheeses. The sourdough and wild garlic combo is the perfect match for something like a blue cheese or goats cheese. In the picture you’ll see I devoured mine alongside a slab of Kinda Co’s Spirulina Blue. It’s not quite as strong as a regular blue cheese but delicious nonetheless! Whatever you decide to serve these with one thing is for sure, you will devour them fresh out of the oven before they’ve gone cold – they are that good. Enjoy.
The recipe
Wild Garlic Sourdough Scones
Ingredients
- 400 grams self raising flour plus extra for dusting your work surface
- 100 grams non-dairy butter cold from the fridge
- 2 handfuls wild garlic
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 250 grams sourdough starter
- 75 millilitres non-dairy milk plus extra for brushing the tops of the scones
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 200C / 390 F / gas mark 6.
- Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the non-dairy butter cut into cubes.
- Rub the non-dairy butter and the flour together until it resembles breadcrumbs (see my tip in the notes below if your non-butter is very soft).
- Dice the wild garlic and stir through the breadcrumb mix.
- Next add the salt, sourdough starter and milk and stir, gently bringing together until it forms a crumbly dough – you want to be very careful not to overwork it and force the dough together.
- Lightly dust a work surface with a little flour and tip out the dough.
- Using just your hands, bring the dough together and pat down until it is roughly 5 cm / 2 inches high.
- Using a circular cookie cutter, cut out 12 scones.
- Place the scones on to a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper and brush the tops with a little non-dairy milk.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes or until they are golden brown.
- For best results, serve while still warm.
Notes
Not vegan?
You don’t have to be a plant based warrior to enjoy these scones. Simply use regular butter and milk and they will be just as delicious.