In a large skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the chopped apples, light brown sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon, and stir to combine.

Cover with a lid and cook covered over medium-high heat for about 4 minutes or until the apples are tender (so that a fork easily passes through them).

Uncover the pan and cook uncovered for about 30-60 seconds, until some of the moisture has evaporated but there is still a fair amount of juice on the bottom of the pan.

Remove the apples from the heat. In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch (US)/cornflour (UK) and water to create a cornstarch slurry.

Add the cornstarch slurry to the apples and stir well to combine. Return to the heat and cook for about 30-60 seconds more, with constant stirring, until the apple juices have thickened.

Pour the apples into a bowl or deep plate, and set aside to cool. They need to be cooled completely to room temperature before you add them to the scone dough.

Once cooled completely, spoon out the apple chunks into a separate bowl, making sure that you transfer over as little of the apple juices as possible. Ideally, you should be left with about 2 tablespoons of the thickened apple juices – set them aside for later, you'll add them to the icing.

Note: It's very important that the scone dough stays cold at all times if you want to get the perfect scone texture and appearance. So, make sure that your butter and cream are cold (straight from the fridge) and work quite quickly – don’t overwork or over-handle the dough, as that can make the butter start to melt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, light brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, xanthan gum and salt.

Add the cold cubed butter and work it into the dry ingredients until you get a mixture resembling breadcrumbs, with a few pea-sized pieces here and there.

Add the cold heavy/double cream and vanilla, and stir everything together until the dough starts clumping together in places. At this point, it will still be fairly dry.

Add the apple chucks and mix well until they're evenly distributed throughout the dough and all the flour has been hydrated. The dough will be slightly sticky, but don't add any more flour, as that would make the final, baked scones too dry.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and dust the top of the dough with some flour as well. Press it together into a rough ball and then shape it into an 8-inch (18cm) disc.

Be careful not to overwork it, it needs to stay as cold as possible, otherwise the butter could start to melt. You don’t need to knead it – the aim is to press it together so it won’t fall apart when you cut it into the individual scones, but it doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth.

Cut it into 8 wedges, either with a sharp knife or with a straight-edged metal pastry cutter (bench scraper).

Transfer the scones onto a lined baking sheet, cover with a sheet of plastic wrap/cling film (to prevent them from drying out) and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes or until they're firm to the touch.

While the scones are chilling, start pre-heating the oven.

Tip: This chilling step sets the butter in the dough and it prevents the scones from spreading too much during baking. This way, they'll puff up in the oven but still retain their pretty wedge shape.

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC) and line a large baking sheet with parchment/baking paper.

Tip: I like to transfer the chilled scones onto a new, room temperature baking sheet (not the one they've been chilled on). That ensures that their bottoms start baking straight away and further prevents spreading.

Place the chilled scones onto the lined baking sheet, spaced as far apart as possible, as they will puff up during baking. Brush their tops with a bit of extra heavy/double cream.

Bake them at 400ºF (200ºC) for 22-25 minutes until golden brown on top and slightly darker around the edges.

Tip: If your scones have spread out a bit too much during baking, you can nudge them into a more perfectly triangular shape while they’re still hot and malleable, straight from the oven. Use a butter knife or a small offset spatula and press it gently along the sides of the scones to correct any points where they've spread too much. But don’t stress about it – these are meant to be rustic!

Once baked, cool them on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely to room temperature. Because of the high apple content, they'll be very delicate while they're still hot or warm. So, it's essential that you cool them *completely* before icing and serving them.

In a bowl, whisk together the powdered/icing sugar, milk, vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons of the reserved thickened apple juices (depending on how cinnamon-y you want the icing to be).

You can adjust the icing consistency as needed, by adding more powdered/icing sugar (to make it thicker) or more milk (to make it runnier).

Drizzle the icing over the cooled scones. Allow it to set and dry out at room temperature for about 15-20 minutes before serving.