Liam Charles' falafel scones recipe

Bake Off star Liam Charles recipe for falafel scones is a fabulous hybrid of two tasty treats!

This falafel scones recipe is great if you’re after a scone recipe with a twist and would make a delicious addition to your traditional party food spread or even your family’s lunch boxes. We think they would taste delicious with a lashing of butter straight from the oven or perhaps some hummus... Explaining his thinking behind the mash-up Liam revealed: ‘Okay, ask any of my pals, whenever we go out – morning, noon or night – there isn’t a time when I don’t fancy a falafel wrap. With the whole savoury scone craze, I’ve wondered for a while what a falafel-inspired scone would taste like. Hmmmmm . . . ?’

Ingredients

For the chickpea crumb:

• 1 × 400g tin chickpeas, drained
• 1 tsp rapeseed oil
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs

For the scones:

• 720g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 3 tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 200g unsalted butter, cold, cubed
• a small bunch of chives, snipped
• a small bunch of parsley, leaves picked and chopped
• 300g feta, diced
• 15 halves of sun-dried tomatoes, diced
• 4 large eggs
• 160ml whole milk

You will also need:

• 6cm cutter

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180.C/Fan 160.C/Gas 4.  
2. For the chickpea crumb: Chuck the chickpeas into a large bowl with all the other ingredients and mix until the chickpeas are well coated. Tip on to a baking tray and bake for 16 minutes. Rotate the tray and bake for a further 16 minutes. Leave on one side to cool. Drop the temperature to 170.C/Fan 150.C/Gas 3 and line a baking tray with baking paper.  
3. For the scones: Sift your flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add your butter and, using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until there are no clumps left. Stir in the fresh herbs and mix until evenly distributed. Finally, add the feta and sun-dried tomatoes and stir again. Crack 3 of the eggs into a jug with the milk and beat lightly. Pour this into the bowl, stirring as you go. Bring the mixture together to form a rough dough. Dust your worktop and rolling pin with flour then roll your dough into a 25 × 25cm square about 3–4cm thick. Dip a 6cm cutter into flour then cut out about 18 scones. You want to use one swift motion when cutting, they say it helps the scones to rise. Re-roll the offcuts of dough and cut out more scones until you have a dozen. Place them on the baking tray.  
4. Glaze × Crumb Beat the remaining egg and, using a pastry brush, slather the top of your scones with the egg wash. Finally, blitz the cooled chickpeas in a food-processor to a fine crumb and sprinkle this over the scones. Bake for 20–25 minutes until well risen. The base should be a deep, golden brown and they should sound hollow when tapped. Recipes extracted from Cheeky Treats by Liam Charles, published by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £20.00