Halloween Ghost Scones Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 8 minutes for the scones, plus time to make homemade buttermilk if using, cool, decorate and let the icing set
Cooking time: 13 minutes
Serves: 12
Ingredients Needed
- 300g/10.6oz flour (plain all purpose or cake flour)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- Pinch salt
- 120g/4oz salted butter, cold & cubed
- 160ml/5.4oz buttermilk (or 1 tablespoon lemon juice topped up with milk to make 160ml/5.4oz, see above)
To decorate
- 200g/7oz pure icing sugar
- 4-8 tablespoons milk or cream
- White white food colouring
- Black food colouring
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 PREPARE - Line 2 baking trays with parchment and preheat oven to 200C/400F fan forced or 220C/440F conventional.
Step 2 MIX - Place the flour (300g/10.6oz), baking powder (4 teaspoons), cream of tartar (1/2 teaspoon) and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Thermomix: 2 second turbo, twice. Add the butter (120g/4oz) and pulse until fine. Thermomix: 2 second turbo, twice.
By hand: Whisk the flour (300g/10.6oz), baking powder (4 teaspoons), cream of tartar (1/2 teaspoon) and salt in a bowl. Add the cold cubed butter (120g/4oz) and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Step 3 SHAPE - Empty this out onto a lightly floured surface and gently mix in the buttermilk (160ml) by hand until the dough just comes together (hold back 2 tablespoons of buttermilk and only add gradually if it is dry and crumbly).
Step 4 ROLL - Roll out until 1cm/0.4inch thick and dip a ghost cookie cutter in flour and cut out and place on the tray (6 per tray). Repeat with remaining dough. To re-roll scraps, gather and then gently press them together until there are no cracks and pat them down to 1cm/0.4inch thick. Bake for 13 minutes. Cool on the tray.
Step 5 DECORATE - Sift the icing sugar (200g/7oz) in a bowl and gradually add milk or cream (4-8 tablespoons) 1 tablespoon at a time (you'll need more cream than milk). Add some white white food colouring and mix in well. You want the texture of cream. Dip a scone in face down and smooth over with an angled spatula. Place back on tray and allow to set. When completely set draw a face with the black food colouring and a fine brush.
Personal Note
I'm excited because this year Halloween is on a Saturday night and there are lots of things to do. I love Halloween because it is fun and I think that we need more fun especially nowadays! Because I think that life is just getting more stressful with time and that we are in a heightened state of fear. In one day I warned Mr NQN about four things.
1 Don't leave with your hair wet. It was a very cold spring day and he had just had a shower and was headed out the door to a meeting. "Your hair is wet!" I said, encouraging him to come back to dry it (he didn't).
2 Beware the bats. Apparently there are a lot of people that are getting bitten by bats and they carry a deadly virus.
3 Don't kill the Bogong moths! They're just doing their annual migration.
4 Watch out for the fire ants. There was a new type of fire ants found in the inner west of Sydney that came in an overseas shipping container!
Then he told me another thing: according to a Stockholm University study, it's not safe to drink rainwater anymore because rainwater contains PFAS (forever plastics), even in Antarctica!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever think that it's getting very stressful with so many things to worry about? And how do you feel about Halloween?