Cherry blossoms might be long gone by now this year, but if you joined me in preserving some of the young buds with the recipe in this Japanese Salt-Pickled Cherry Blossoms post then this recipe is for you! If you didn’t preserve any blossom buds this year, don’t worry you can actually buy them online if you search for “salted cherry blossoms”, (I believe both the Japan Centre and Sous Chef sell them online) or you can always make a note of this recipe to come back to next year.
I’ve mentioned my maternal grandmother, Sylvia, a couple of times before as visiting her country cottage as a child has been a huge inspiration and influence on me and the birth of Plot & Lane. My paternal grandmother Joyce, however, passed away when I was still very young, and so I don’t have many memories of her. My parents talk very fondly of her though, and so I love that my family have kept this handwritten recipe for mini “Teatime Scones”. We actually don’t have a lot of family recipes, so this one is particularly special – and hey there’s no time like the present to start collecting some! The recipe is of course in ounces and uses “marge” which I have taken the liberty of swapping with butter in my version below (and you can swap it for a plant-based alternative if you like), and of course I’ve made this version with my preserved cherry blossoms!
If you’re trying this recipe in the spring and the blossoms are still flourishing and doing their flutteringly beautiful thing, then you might be tempted to use the buds raw and avoid the process of salting and pickling them. I would still encourage you to go through the full process as the raw buds can be quite bitter, so salting and pickling helps to temper that a bit.
I love how these turned out – they are delicious warm with a slathering of freshly whipped butter, and the slight saltiness is surprisingly delicious as a twist on a cream tea with clotted cream and strawberry jam or fresh strawberries. Our first homegrown strawberries of the year have just ripened enough to pick which makes this treat taste all the better!
Salted Cherry Blossom Scones Recipe
Makes 15 small scones
Ingredients
- 20-30g preserved cherry blossoms (see Japanese Salt-Pickled Cherry Blossoms Recipe)
- 225g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 55g unsalted butter (or equivalent amount of plant-based alternative)
- 30g caster sugar
- 5 tbsp water
- 1 egg (or 3 tbsp aquafaba)
- Milk to glaze (or plant-based alternative)
Method
- Separate out about 15-16 of the best cherry blossoms – these will be your decorations. Soak these and the rest of the blossoms in separate bowls in room temperature water for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/390°F and grease a baking tray.
- Drain and carefully dry your cherry blossoms with a paper towel, still keeping them separate. Leave the blossoms for decorations to one side and finely chop the rest of the blossoms.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter, sugar, water, and egg, and chopped cherry blossoms and mix to form a soft dough.
- Turn the mixture on to a lightly floured board and gently knead with fingertips until smooth. Roll out to 2cm thick and cut into rounds using a 5cm cutter. Brush with milk and press a cherry blossom in each scone to decorate. Transfer to your greased baking tray and bake for 12 minutes until lightly golden.
I’d love to know whether you try these and what you enjoy them with! Let me know in the comments or over on Instagram at @plotandlane.
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