Making Wholemeal Scones with Local Flour

Why British Wheat Belongs in Your Scone Tin

Britain grows excellent wheat. What it struggled to do for much of the twentieth century was grow the very strong, high-protein grain that industrial bread baking demanded, so mills leaned on imports and many older British varieties were quietly set aside. That inheritance is being recovered. Tall, straw-stiff wheats such as Maris Widgeon, Red Lammas and Hen Gymro are grown again on mixed farms, often in long rotations where they follow a clover ley that fixes nitrogen and break a run of hungry, disease-prone cereal crops.

This matters for home bakers for two reasons. First, flavour: heritage and older British wheats tend to carry a sweet, nutty, faintly grassy note that bland commodity flour simply does not. Second, soil: diverse rotations, undersown crops and reduced chemical inputs build organic matter, hold water and support farmland birds and pollinators. Buying a bag of stoneground wholemeal from a nearby mill or farm shop keeps that grain local, keeps the money in the countryside, and puts the whole kernel — bran, germ and all — into your scones.

Choosing Wholemeal Flour That Tastes of Something

Wholemeal is not one thing. A stoneground flour, milled slowly between stones, keeps the wheatgerm oil and much of the bran intact and usually tastes rounder and sweeter than roller-milled wholemeal. Look for a milling date on the bag rather than a best-before date, and buy in quantities you will use within three or four months.

• Stoneground wholemeal, ideally from a heritage or population wheat, for flavour
• A white flour — plain or self-raising — to lighten the crumb and let the scones rise
• Freshness test: it should smell sweet and bready, never dusty or faintly rancid
• Storage: an airtight tin in a cool, dark cupboard, away from the oven

The Ingredients

• 250g stoneground wholemeal flour
• 150g plain white flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1–2 tbsp caster sugar (optional, but it helps the crust brown)
• 80g cold unsalted butter
• About 225ml buttermilk, plus a little extra for glazing

If you cannot find buttermilk, stir a tablespoon of lemon juice into 225ml of whole milk and leave it for ten minutes until it thickens and smells slightly sour.

Cold Butter, Buttermilk and a Hot Oven

These three things do most of the work, and each has a job. Cold butter, rubbed in quickly and left in visible flakes, melts in the oven and releases steam, pushing the dough apart into layers. Warm butter smears into the flour and gives you something closer to shortbread. If your hands are warm, freeze the butter for twenty minutes and grate it coarsely into the flour instead of rubbing it in.

Buttermilk is acidic, and that acid reacts with the bicarbonate of soda to give an extra, fast lift. It also tenderises the bran, which is the real challenge with wholemeal baking: bran particles are sharp and cut through gluten networks, so wholemeal dough needs both more liquid and a gentler hand than white.

A hot oven — 220°C, 200°C fan, gas mark 7 — sets the structure before the fat has a chance to run. Put a heavy baking tray in to heat while the oven comes up to temperature.

Shaping and Baking

Rub the butter into the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt until it looks like rough breadcrumbs, with a few pea-sized lumps left in. Stir in the sugar. Pour in most of the buttermilk and bring it together with a knife, adding the rest only if there are dry patches — the dough should be soft but not sticky.

Tip onto a lightly floured surface and fold it over itself two or three times, no more. Pat to about 3cm thick. Cut with a 6cm cutter dipped in flour, pressing straight down and lifting without twisting; a twist seals the edges and stops the rise. Reroll the trimmings once, gently.

Space the rounds on the hot tray, brush the tops with buttermilk — not the sides, or they will struggle to climb — and bake for 12–15 minutes until well risen and deep golden. They are done when the base sounds hollow when tapped.

Serving, Variations and Keeping

Cool them on a wire rack under a clean tea towel, which softens the crust. Split, not sliced, and eat warm with salted butter, strawberry jam and a spoonful of clotted cream. They are best the day they are made.

• Savoury: leave out the sugar, add 75g grated mature Cheddar and a handful of chopped chives
• Fruity: fold in 100g sultanas soaked for ten minutes in hot tea, then drained
• Oaty: swap 50g of the wholemeal for fine oatmeal for a rougher, nuttier crumb
• Keeping: freeze on the day of baking; reheat from frozen, wrapped in foil, at 180°C for 10 minutes

Bake them often. Every bag of local wholemeal you buy is a small vote for shorter supply chains, mixed farms and wheat that tastes of the place it grew.