Scones failure: the aftermath

When I first started this, and decided that scones would be my first attempt at creating my own lower calorie, lower fat, better for me recipe I wrote "baking is a science." Well one thing about science it involves experiments and experiments involve reports. So, I'm going to dig through my memories to HS chemistry and do a science report on my experiment. Maybe I'll learn.


Objective: Okay if you don't know this by now please go back and read my earlier posts. It will make this so much easier on both of us.

Method: Swap the following items for healthier ingredients:

1) Butter - replace with applesauce
2) Milk - replace with buttermilk


Also, add cornstarch to attempt to control gluten.

Result: Well it wasn't scones.
Texture: chewy and moist.
Taste: Bland

Any mistakes?: Funny you should ask. The original called for one egg, separated. I forgot to separate my egg. I was supposed to only add one yolk to the dough and save the egg white for an egg wash at the end. I think this may be a contributing factor to the very un-dough like result.

Conclusion: It became clear as soon as I mixed the dry and wet ingredients that there was way too much liquid involved. Upon further research I learned that a good dry to wet ratio for scones is 3:1. Maybe I should have done that research a little sooner? (Look this is science it's about learning and improving from past mistakes)

So, I don't have scones, but I do have a good start for some healthy cookies or muffins. So, this was not an utter failure. Still, I'm not giving up on my scones. I've got some ideas on what I can do to make this work. The obvious correction is to decrease the amount of wet ingredients. But, I've got another idea of something that may work. Oh I'm not saying what, yet. But, if it works I'm a genius. And if not well....