Sweetness Is.....: Buttermilk Scones with Caramel Apple Jam

***Before I start, I may ramble in this, it was done over 2 days :) ***

Over the weekend I decided I would muck around with scone recipes. Not really. Well, yeah, really, but I actually had a light bulb moment. Laying in bed on Saturday night it just came to me. I wanted to make apple pie, but have had issues with shortcrust pastry, so that got me thinking about different sorts of pastries, which then led me to scones, then I thought I could make scones with some sort of apple jam. A caramel apple jam!! Ta-da! An idea was born. I struggled to sleep with ideas of how I could pull this all together floated in my head.

Anyway, I must've slept, since I woke up Sunday morning. My morning was taken up by going to the Launch of I AM Norma. It is a beautiful little caravan, and I entered a raffle to win an afternoon tea with 5 friends in Norma. Fingers crossed!

Back at home I got to work, I'd sussed out various scone recipes and then just decided I would make my own. There seems to be a lot of variances in scone recipes, so, go with what works for you. This one that I made up produced scones that were lovely and fluffy (but not cake fluffy) on the inside. They were light, and rose well, although I forgot my oven is temperamental, so only one side of them browned. But they were still good. Fresh out of the oven I broke one apart. The smell was wonderful and I got a big thumbs up from the 3 people in my house at the time.

Then came the caramel apple jam. Again, my own invention, so it was anyone's guess just how well it would turn out. I started with a basic caramel, then stewed some apples. Then blended them all together. Pretty simple, pretty awesome. There is a freshness of the apple in the first bite then the caramel sweetness comes through. Its still sweet though, but in a subtle way.

If you go ahead and make both of these for an occasion, I would suggest making the caramel apple jam the day before, as it needs to chill to set.

BUTTERMILK SCONES (made 18 x 4cm diameter scones)
3 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 - 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, depending on how much you like cinnamon
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
70g cold butter, cubed
Extra buttermilk for brushing
brown sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. line a tray with baking paper.
Sift flour, sugar and cinnamon together at least three times. Place into a bowl.

Add the butter cubes and using your fingers work the flour and butter together until you have a fine bread crumb consistency. Dont worry if it doesn't look like bread crumbs to you, just make sure that all the butter has blended with the flour.

Make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk. Using a butter knife or your fingers gently mix together until a dough forms. Turn out on to a clean bench dusted with flour. Press in to a round, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rest for 5 - 10 minutes.

Once the dough has rested, roll out to about 2cm thickness. Using a round cutter or a knife, cut into the shapes you want and place on to the prepared tray. Place them close together so they rise up not out, however, probably not as close as what I did. (I wanted to get as many on the tray as I could)
Brush the tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with brown sugar.

Place in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until tops have brown and they don't feel doughy any more.

CARAMEL APPLE JAM (makes 2ish cups)
200g caster sugar
50g water
300ml cream
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
3 apples (2 to stew, 1 to grate)
150g butter (100g for caramel, 50g for apples)
Cinnamon & brown sugar to taste

Place the sugar and water in one pot and the cream and vanilla in another. Place both on a high heat.
Let the sugar go, it will not be ready before the cream is. Heat up the cream, stirring constantly, being careful not to bring it to the boil. Turn off the heat.

Back to the sugar. By now it should be bubbling. Watch for the colour change. Once the sugar has reached a nice golden colour, remove for the heat and working quickly but carefully, pour the cream into the sugar and place back on to a low heat. Start whisking when it is put back on the heat. It will bubble, so be careful, if you whisk too hard or pour the cream in too fast it will bubble over. Put the 100g of butter in and whisk through the caramel. Turn off the heat when the butter has half melted, and keep whisking until butter has completely melted. Pour into a heat safe container and place in the fridge to cool.

Skin and dice 2 apples. Place into the pot that had the caramel in it. Add the 50g of butter and cinnamon and brown sugar to taste (no more than 1/4 cup brown sugar) Put on a high heat and stir, once it comes to a soft boil turn down and let simmer until apples are soft. Take off the heat.

By this stage the caramel should have cooled. If you have a stick mixer, fantastic, you can start to combine ingredients in the pot. I however, dont, so, I poured my apples into a blender, and added caramel a little at a time, mixing to a smooth consistency between each addition. At this point you should be tasting between each addition of caramel. If it is too caramelly add some grated apple (no skin) and keep adjusting as necessary. You may not use all the caramel, I didn't, but that cool, put it back in the fridge and use it on ice cream or other cakes! :)

Once the caramel apple jam is smooth in consistency and you are happy with the flavour, put into a container and into the fridge to chill for about an hour or so.

After its chilled it is ready to use, or if, like me, you like it a bit fluffy, you can whisk it a little before using. It does lighten the caramel, but that's about it. Doesn't change the flavour.