Scones with custard apple cream

"Scones are so Australian and everyone loves a good fluffy scone. But it was not until my food assistant and chef at Noosa Beach house shared her mum Natasha Fahey’s recipe, did the perfect simplicity of this beautiful cake come to light. The custard apple has been a favourite of mine all my life and making a rich and delectable cream out of it was perfect combination to Natasha’s scones." Peter Kuruvita, Peter Kuruvita's Coastal Kitchen

• serves

  6

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  12 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

Scones

• 450 g (3 cups) self-raising flour
• 250 ml (1 cup) pouring cream
• 250 ml (1 cup) lemonade
• milk, for brushing

Custard apple cream

• 2 custard apples, cut into segments, seeds removed
• 1 squeeze lemon juice
• 190 ml pouring cream
• 100 g buffalo curd
• 1 tbsp honey

Mandarin, peppermint and amaranth salad

• 3 mandarins, rind finely grated and flesh segmented
• 1 small handful peppermint leaves  
• ¼ cup toasted puffed amaranth

Instructions

To make the scones, preheat the oven to 180˚C. Place the flour in a large bowl. Add the cream and lemonade and loosely mix with your fingertips. Turn out the mixture onto a lightly floured work surface and gently pat into a 5 cm – thick disc, then stand for 1 minute.

Using 5 cm round cutter, stamp out the scones, dipping the cutter in flour in between each. Using a flat bladed knife dipped in flour, transfer the scones to a baking tray lined with baking paper.  Brush the scones lightly with milk, then bake for 12 minutes or until light golden.

Meanwhile, to make the custard apple cream, place the custard apple and lemon juice in a blender and process until smooth, then transfer to a bowl.

Whisk the cream in a separate bowl just until firm peaks form. Gently fold the puree and buffalo curd into the cream. If the mixture is sour in any way, add honey to taste.

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the mandarin salad, then transfer to a large plate and serve with the scones and custard apple cream.

Notes

• Custard apples taste sweet and juicy and have an aromatic flavour, but do not actually taste like custard. The sweet rich flavour makes custard apple a perfect companion to fruit salads, pavlova, ice-cream and trifles. Alternatively, the flesh can be easily scooped out with a spoon and is a perfect treat on its own.

• To test if a custard apple is ripe, gently squeeze it. If it gives slightly under your hand it is ripe. An un-ripened custard apple will be hard to the touch. In Australia, the peak season for custard apple in from March- September, depending on the region in which it is grown.

Photography by Dan Freene. Food preparation by Peter Kuruvita/Cody Fahey.

Peter Kuruvita's Coastal Kitchen airs Thursdays at 8.30pm on SBS. Visit the program page for more details, recipes and guides.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.