Tender Scuffins & King Arthur Flour Self Rising Flour
If you're reading this, you most likely like to dabble in the art (or science) of baking. And if you're into baking, I hope you know all about King Arthur Flour and why they're the best flour for consistant results, in my opinion. The big news in baking right now? King Arthur Flour has created an Unbleached Self Rising Flour!
Being from the South, self rising flour is something I'm pretty at home with. Biscuits, cobblers, and cakes, if we're Southern, we make these things with self rising flour.
P.J. over at King Arthur Flour does a fabulous job of showing you the differences that you get when baking with self rising flour versus all purpose, or even with partial whole wheat, so if you're curious, check out her blog post all about it.
I've had the chance to play with KAF's self rising flour for a while now. They sent me some test samples, and I was really pleased with the results. I've made scones, and most recently, something I'd like to call "Scuffins".
You see, I forgot that self rising flour has a lower protein content than all purpose flour (which is why baked goods made with it are more tender), so when I decided to make banana walnut scones, I didn't adjust my flour accordingly to compensate for the moisture in the bananas.
Once I'd mixed the dough the way I would for a scone (including frozen, grated butter), I realized the mixture was way too wet to become a proper scone.
Rather than try to wing it and come up with an inconsistent measurement that would result from adding more flour after the fact, I baked the dough in a muffin pan.
These babies really are somewhere between a muffin and a scone - moist and tender, but slightly more stout than my traditional pancake mix muffin recipes.
While I was pulling out baking ingredients, I found my caramel bits and coconut milk powder in amongst the chocolate chips. (Yup, my pantry needs a revamp like whoa!) I decided to toss the caramel bits in along with some crunchy chopped walnuts, and used the coconut milk powder for a delicious tropical glaze. Both of these things are optional, but really amp up the flavor if you have them on hand.
I hope you'll try the new King Arthur Self Rising Flour for yourself and see what I'm talking about when it comes to your favorite biscuit, scone, or for that matter - scuffin, recipe!
Caramel Coconut Banana Walnut Scuffins
adapted from HowTo: Simplify's Pumpkin Cream Cheese Scones
makes approximate 24 Scuffins
Ingredients
2 cups King Arthur Self Rising Flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 bananas, mashed
½ cup frozen butter, grated
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
½ cup caramel bits (optional)
For the Glaze
¼ cup Coconut Milk Powder
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons half and half or heavy cream
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and granulated sugar. Whisk them together well, and set aside.
In a medium bowl, crack two large eggs. Mix them on low speed with a hand mixer for a few seconds, until well broken. Add in chunks of the softened cream cheese and mix again. Mash the bananas in a separate small bowl with a fork, then add them to the egg and cream cheese mixture and mix again until well combined. Set aside.
Use a box grater to grate frozen butter directly into the flour mixture and then mix it through the flour with a fork.
Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the walnuts and caramel bits and mix them through.
Line a muffin tin with paper liners and spray the pan and the liners lightly with cooking spray. This prevents them from sticking too much to the baked goods once cooled.
Using a large cookie scoop or spoon, scoop dough into each muffin well until about ¾ of the way full.
Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then remove and allow the scuffins to continue cooling to room temperature.
To Make the Glaze:
Combine powdered sugar and coconut milk powder in a small bowl and whisk to evenly mix. Add half and half or heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, and stir, until you reach your desired consistency.
When the scuffins are cool, spoon or brush glaze onto each one. Allow to sit overnight, or place in the refrigerator to allow the glaze to harden.
Disclaimer: I was asked to product test King Arthur self rising flour before it was available to purchase and provided a bag of the purchasable product for photographing purposes by the company. All opinions are my own, based on my use of the product. [wpurp-searchable-recipe]Tender Scuffins & King Arthur Flour Self Rising Flour - - - [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]
Hi there, my name is Anne Scuffins Hartnett and I live in a small village in Co. Cork Ireland.
There are not too many of us left but we are all over the world. My grandfather fought in the Bore War and his name was George Arthur Scuffins.
"I will try out your scones or should I call them Muffins" and let you know how I got on.
We were never called Muffins before but I can see the funny side of it as you so aptly described the mixture LOL
Kind regards Anne
Oh Anne, your comment made my day. I'm glad you could see the funny side of this recipe's name. Let me know if you need any help converting to metric.
For what it's worth, I love unusual names. My maiden name was Brown, but now my surname is Bracegirdle - I married a gingerhaired boy from Blackpool, England, nearly 7 years ago now. People usually do a double take when they see it!
Yum! I have never bought or used self rising flour - but I think Scuffins (love the name!!) have convinced me that is necessary to try.
Thanks, Allison! Girl, you're in the southwest, time to put on your Southerner panties and use some self rising flour 🙂
Oh these look amazing, funny i always use KAF, they are great!
Me too! Thanks for stopping by, Ewa.
Hehe, I love the idea of "scuffins!" And can you believe that I've never used self-rising flour before? Guess I need to get on that!
Tracy, that's cus yer a Yankee! 😉 I am seriously on a campaign to make you a Southerner, so time to get some KAF self rising flour.
Amber, good to know about the guaranteeing issue. Maybe I'll try it one day when I run out of White Lily.
Dumb question for you: If I buy self-rising flour just to use for baking but my recipes call for regular flour, I'd then have to make sure that I don't add any of the baking powder that the recipe calls for, right? 1 Cup Flour to 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder is the self-rising formula, correct?
Thanks for the advice.
Elizabeth,
The ratio is 1/2 teaspoon baking powder to 1 cup all purpose flour. The general rule is that if the recipe calls for baking powder, you can use self rising flour and just leave the baking powder out.
Hope that helps!
- Amber
I've never used King Arthur flour. I'm surprised a little that you suggest this, as a Southerner. I'd have expected Southerners to use and prefer White Lily (which I love for a low-protein, light flour).
Elizabeth,
I've used White Lily in the past, but I switched to King Arthur a long time ago for one reason alone: they're the only flour company in the US that guarantees the protein content in their flour, bag to bag, will not differ more than something crazy like .5%. I can't remember the exact decimal, but it's less than 1%. What that means is my recipes are going to give me consistent results, again and again. When you bake and recipe develop as much as I do, taking that unknown variable out of the equation is invaluable. Other brands vary as much as 10% in either direction from bag to bag.
Hate to say it, but I have to give credit where credit is due. The Yankees have us beat on this one.
Thanks for stopping by!
- Amber
Luckily, I have my trusty reporter's notebook handy from our trip to King Arthur Flour - the protein content in KAF flour won't vary more than 1/10th of 1 percent. That's a crazy small amount!
I'm kind of in love with the fact that you dubbed these Scuffins - too cute! Whatever you call them, they look and sound delish!
Thank you, my friend!
These look fabulous! I actually just saw the blog post announcement about the new self-rising flour earlier this week, and I have to get my hands on some of it. I am craving some biscuits... And, of course a few (dozen) of these scuffins.
Wow, those look great. We are making muffins right now at Kendall Culinary College and I love that we are using healthier ingredients like real cinnamon and whole wheat flours. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Thanks for stopping by, Sarah! Would love to hear more about the muffins you're making at school.
Love your photos here, just make me want to dive in and grab a muffin!
Thanks, Kathryn! I'm especially partial to the ones of the flour. I love it when it's nice enough to take photos outside.
These sound lovely! Great idea!
Thanks, Katrina!
Wow, this post is awesome--thanks for linking to the KAF tutorial, too. I feel like I'm so much more knowledgeable about flour now!
Tara, you and your sis need to plan a trip out to KAF's baking education center. You know they offer classes, right? They are SO fun.
Oooh, that's totally a sister bonding event I would support! It'd be a great road trip for sure. 🙂
These sound delicious! I'm so glad KAF is making our favorite flour unbleached!! Hooray!
Isn't it awesome? I really loved the glaze on them. Normally, I eat one or two muffins and send them to work with James, but these he had to pry from my hands. And pry he did, because my thighs do not need 24 scuffins!