Tuesday, October 2, 2012

SCONES...SCONES...SCONES

CoM's birthday is Saturday and she wants a princess tea party. We were discussing a "proper" English tea, and she decided that instead of CAKE she wants SCONES. So now I have several recipes to try, but am working on this one tonight, I think. I'll post pictures along the way to show how they turn out.

One variation, also borrowed/learned, is to freeze the dough for roughly 30 minutes before baking. I may try to wait until Friday to bake, but there's no reason not to mix it up now. Suggestions? The clotted cream will take the longest, I think, if I'm brave enough to try it! I may "cheat" and just whip my heavy cream into a nice tart topping.
Question: will frozen berries work, especially if I let them thaw before hand?

Trying this out, borrowed from a fellow blogger...http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2006/11/dream-a-little-dream-of-scone/


2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, preferably a low-protein brand such as Gold Medal or Pillsbury
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup currants (I used dried cranberries, and chopped them into smaller bits)
1 cup heavy cream
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.
2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.
3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in currants. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Add currants and pulse one more time. Transfer dough to large bowl.
4. Stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
5. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form scones by either a) pressing the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cutting the dough into 8 wedges with either a knife or bench scraper (the book’s suggestion) or b) patting the dough onto a lightly floured work surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle, cutting pieces with a biscuit cutter, and pressing remaining scraps back into another piece (what I did) and cutting until dough has been used up. (Be warned if you use this latter method, the scones that are made from the remaining scraps will be much lumpier and less pretty, but taste fine. As in, I understand why they suggested the first method.)
6. Place rounds or wedges on ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

1 comment:

  1. It turned out great!
    We took them to church the next day (homecoming potluck) & they flew off the table :) YUMMY!

    ReplyDelete

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