Scones

[tokyogurumegal]

I grew up in Australia, and the scones I had there was completely different to what I've had here in Canada. There, scones were lighter, fluffier... like pillows of love! With devonshire cream and strawberry jam it was the perfect thing to have for afternoon tea after a long day of shopping (mind you I was very young and tagged along with my mother's shopping). Any kind of scone I've had here has been hard as a rock and crumbly.

I heard the flour sold here is quite different from what is available in Australia and the UK, but surely there must be a place that serves fluffy scones! Any suggestions?

[helenjp]

Scones...my grandmother and mother both made good scones, but quite different.

My grandmother used the traditional technique -- rub or cut the butter into the dry ingredients, add milk, and mix lightly with the fingers, then knead with 3-5 strokes -- she maintained it needed that tiny amount of needing to develop the gluten a little. Her scones were light and dry.

My mother's scones were fluffy and moist - she used a melt'n'mix method -- melted the butter into the milk, and mixed with a few turns of the spoon into the dry ingredients. You have to have the oven preheated before you start to mix these, or the warm milk will have the baking powder activated long before the oven is ready.

Both used around 3 tsp baking powder per imperial cup of flour. They used NZ plain flour, which would likely have less gluten than the harder wheat of Australia or Canada.

In Japan I normally use medium or strong flour. If you think it is the flour and not the mixing method that produces dry scones, you might like to try one batch with strong bread flour and one with cake flour and see which you prefer.

Both my mother and grandmother insisted that scones must be baked at the top of a very hot oven so that they do not dry out with long baking, and they must be kept close together on the oven tray, also to avoid drying.

[tokyogurumegal]

Helenjp, thanks for your baking tip. To be honest I don't bake at home much and when I've tried the home baked scones, it didn't work the way it did with Australian self-raising flour. Japanese "hakuriki-ko" is much lighter in gluten so it does indeed work well but not the stuff we get here. I even took scones to school when I was in chugakko!

I'm still in search of a cute tea shop or somewhere that does fluffy light scones, not the kind where you can taste the baking soda that makes the inside of your mouth feel gross. It's funny... most scones I've had here look and feel like hockey pucks!

[Redhead]

I think you'll have better luck replicating your scones at home than finding a worthy scone sold commercially. That said, I know of a NYC-based scone addict who thinks the Savory Island Pie Co.'s scones are pretty good (on Marine Drive in Ambleside, West Vancouver). And, many years ago, two spinster sisters on Vancouver Island (opposite Pearson College on the old Island Hwy, I think) ran a little afternoon tea operation with Devonshire cream from their own goats milk and homemade preserves on feather-light scones hot out of the Aga. Bliss... they've long since passed away, sadly. Good luck on your search.....

[Katherine]

The scones I had in Australia were very much like southern biscuits. Have you looked for American-style self-rising flour?

Try White Lily, it's the best.

Edited December 29, 2003 by Katherine (log)

[Sam Salmon]

I once had a Scone of the type you describe and long for-it came from Meinhardts.

Sadly they shortly thereafter changed the recipe-or more likely the contractor who baked for them-and I've never seen/tasted the like since.....

The Cranberry Scones from Urban Fare are decent when fresh from the oven.