Scones

[CanadianBakin']

I've had people lined up, waiting to buy these scones as soon as they came out of the oven.

Cook's Illustrated Blueberry scones.  They use a neat technique of folding the dough so it has lots of layers.  They were seriously excellent scones.  You could vary the fruit.

←

I agree, these are fabulous! My family likes them best with frozen raspberries.

[andiesenji]

I did a test batch of King Arthur Banana Walnut scones this morning.

calls for

1 stick of butter cut into pats.

Blended by hand with my favorite pastry blender.

Packed into "fitted" scone pan.

Baked for 16 minutes at 400 degrees F.

The pan actually is non-stick. The scones come out clean with no effort.

This scone is one of the "cake-like" type. Denser than a muffin but essentially the same flavor.

Much too sweet for my taste.

(I used the scone pan because Gloria plans on including one in the baskets she prepares so wants to know how well the scones bake up in it.)

Edited May 14, 2009 by andiesenji (log)

[Beth Wilson]

Did you like how the scones cooked in the pan? I have never seen such a pan but like the idea!

The reason I was making scones in the first place was for a breakfast item to eat on my way to work. I gotta walk a couple of blocks to work and thought grabbing a scone would be nice. I usually cook up muffins but wanted to switch things up.

I love the idea of the pan so tell us, did you like it? Where can you get such a pan?

b

[Cadbury]

My goodness many of these recipes seem to use enormous amounts of butter/crisco/shortening/flora/marg/whatever.

My recipe uses 2 teaspoons of butter into about 2 cups of Self Raising/rising flour (Australian 250ml cups). Sometimes I add an egg, sometimes sugar if adding dried fruit (dates or sultanas etc) and then enough milk to make it very sticky, almost too hard to handle. I then tip it onto a well floured surface, add more flour on top and form into a neat shape. I flour my round cutter as well. The scones are sat together on a round cake tin (to encourage height) and cooked at about 200-210 C for about 12 minutes.

I dont usually measure anything for scones so I can't be more precise - I might have to take notes next time I make these. Also, I don't add sugar for plain scones as they are eaten with jam.

The cream and lemonade scones mentioned upthread work very well although they do not stay fresh for long.

[andiesenji]

Did you like how the scones cooked in the pan?  I have never seen such a pan but like the idea!

The reason I was making scones in the first place was for a breakfast item to eat on my way to work.  I gotta walk a couple of blocks to work and thought grabbing a scone would be nice.  I usually cook up muffins but wanted to switch things up.

I love the idea of the pan so tell us, did you like it?  Where can you get such a pan?

b

←

The scones cook up nicely in the pan and I think that since there is less handling and working of the dough there is less chance for the scones to become tough.

When I pat the dough out and cut into rounds, the scraps have to be combined and again patted out, etc., etc., etc. This method omits all that handling.

The scone pan was purchased locally at a kitchen outlet store but it is available online - Gloria bought a couple at Macy's for several dollars less than at Amazon. ($32.00)

I only sampled small pieces of the scones I have prepared from the mixes because I am diabetic and can't have all that sugar, however the flavor is very good and the scones are not as heavy as one would expect but not as loose and crumbly as a muffin - they hold together well when split and buttered.

I have several more to try as Gloria had twenty different "flavors" sent to me and I still have ten from King Arthur. So far she likes a couple of the Sticky Fingers mixes but likes all of the King Arthur except for the savory ones which are all too salty.

[rickster]

Cook's Illustrated Blueberry scones. They use a neat technique of folding the dough so it has lots of layers. They were seriously excellent scones. You could vary the fruit.

This sounds similar to an excellent Rose Levy Beranbaum scone recipe in the Pie and Pastry Bible. General concept is you take the chunks of butter and flatten itno flakes and combine with flour sugar leavening and cream. You then roll and fold the dough through a couple of turns. It's a bit similar to doing a rough puff pastry dough and makes a very flaky scone.

[Kajikit]

Here's my mother's scone recipe. Scones should be very LIGHTLY sweetened if they are at all, unless you're making a fruit-based (date/pumpkin etc) scone. They're really a vehicle for lots of melted butter, delicious preserves, and fresh cream.

NOTE - being Australian, mama's recipe used the traditional Flora margarine and it made excellent scones. Since I'm in America I use butter and it works just fine. Scones are done when they're browned on the bottom and golden on top.

3 cups flour

2½ tablespoons sugar (optional)

4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 oz. margarine

1 egg

½ cup milk

METHOD

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening, then rub in with finger tips.

Beat egg, add milk, add to dry ingredients.

Bake in a hot oven.

Edited May 15, 2009 by Kajikit (log)

[aiar]

Your scones don't rise because they're sad about being cut into those terrible triangular shapes!

Scones ("skon") are round. There is simply no other way! But besides my being a rigid traditionalist, the roundness encourages even rising all round (corners stick). Also, I'll repeat what has been said: you have to use a sharp cutter with a thin edge. Dull or thick edges "seal" the layers and don't allow for as much rising.

I was raised with baking powder and butter scones. Butter to be cut in, then rubbed in. Wet and dry mixed 'til just incorporated. No buttermilk or sour cream, although there might have been a little lemon juice (it's been 8 years). The texture should be such that they can be split apart by hand. Not as dense as cake, not as flaky as a N. American biscuit (thinking Red Lobster).

Now go out there and make hundreds of happy round scones!

::climbs off soap box::

[Adam Balic]

I've had very good luck with these.

            KENSINGTON PALACE SCONES

This scone recipe is said to have graced Queen Victoria’s tea table.

  Preheat oven to 415 degrees F.

2 cups all purpose flour

2 TBSP. sugar (may add more or less if you prefer)

3/4 teasp. salt

1 TBSP. baking powder

1/3 cup Crisco                         

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup milk                       

1 beaten egg

Sift dry ingredients together, mix with shortening using pastry cutter

or food processor.

Add milk and egg, mix lightly with fork until just barely mixed.

Turn on to floured board, knead 8-10times, flattening and folding over entirely onto itself at final kneading.

(Very important)Pat out gently to about 1/2 inch height and cut with

a biscuit cutter, going straight down and straight up. If you twist, scones will be lopsided when baked. 

  Bake at 415 for about 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

These may be coated with an egg wash of one egg beaten with a

couple TBSP. water before baking if you wish.

Notes:

Handle dough as little as possible.  You will have to fold it together after the initial cutting to cut the rest, but be gentle.

These can also be cut with a 1 1/4" cutter for smaller scones, which are nice for children or if you are having many people to tea.

  These can be made ahead, cut and frozen, then thawed and  baked

  if you prefer. They are best done with freshly made dough though.

  The last folding is what gives them the place in the middle to

tear them apart after baking.

  These are a flaky scone, not a cake-like one.

←

Queen Victoria had Crisco? Who knew.

This the oldest English recipe for a chemical raising agent scone type recipe that I have come across, if the raising agent is replaced with modern baking powder it still produces a very good scone.

The New London Cook by Duncan MacDonald (1808).

American Potash Cakes

Mix a pound of flour, and a quarter of a pound of butter; dissolve and stir a quarter of a pound of sugar in half a pint of milk; and make a solution of about a tea-spoonful of salt of tartar, crystal of soda, or any purified potash, in half a tea-cupful of cold water; pour them, also among the flour, work the paste up to a good consistence, roll it out, and form into cakes or biscuits. The lightness of these cakes depends greatly on the briskness of the oven.

[HungryC]

I made a batch of scones this weekend and discovered that the food processor makes the whole process incredibly easy. It's a perfect instrument for cutting in the fat; four or five pulses did the trick. It took longer to measure the ingredients than to mix the dough.