[ZedAus]

My mum gave me a recipe for scones:

3 cups Self Raising Flour
1 cup cream
1 cup ginger beer (or lemonade)

You basically just mix it all together, roll/pat it out (not too thin she said) and cut, then cook. That sounds like MY kind of recipe! 3 ingredients, what a dream.

She used to make them with lemonade, but now uses ginger beer and says they are even better.

My problem is that at the moment, they are NOT that healthy. I am not a cook by ANY means, and I don't know how I can 'tweek' them to make them healthier.

Can I use wholemeal/wholegrain flour? Could I use low-fat cream? Could I use diet ginger beer or lemonade?

I don't have any idea what foods can be substituted for what, but I would like to try something like this to take to a staff morning tea. I just want them to be a MUCH healthier version, but still very simple.

Thank you for any suggestions you can offer.

Zelma

[telemetrynurse]

Hi Zelma,

Although I've never tried scones, your recipe makes me want one!

I LOVE to cook and am constantly making recipes more healthy!

My suggestions:
1. I would try it with a diet lemonade but make sure it is sweetened with splenda, not nutrasweet. Nutrasweet is NOT for cooking. I've read that nutrasweet become very unhealthy when it is exposed to heat.

2. I would try a low-fat cream in place of full fat. You could maybe do 1/2 low-fat and half regular if the low-fat is not as tasty.

3. Self-raising flour is all-purpose flour plus 1½ teaspoon baking powder and ½ teaspoon of salt per cup of flour. What I've done to reduce the sodium is to make my own with regular flour, baking powder and salt substitute.
I've also substituted some whole wheat flour (for the regular) and it came out pretty good. I'm not sure if this would work for your recipe. I would probably make the other adjustments (lemonade and cream) first then try to tweak the flour.

4. If you want the ginger flavor and feel creative, you could always add a tsp of ginger to the recipe.

[ZedAus]

Thank you. I will try these this weekend I think. Mum said they could be frozen, so then I would have something ready for the next morning tea I have to help cater.

I am glad you mentioned the difference between splenda and nutrasweet. I wouldn't have thought of that. We have both diet lemonade (diet lemon soda) and diet ginger beer, so I will have to see what they both have in them as a sweetener.

Thank you again for these suggestions.

Zelma