The way scones were meant to be
Can we just take a moment and contemplate the purpose of a scone. I doubt the creator meant for them to have the texture of sawdust, or to only be consumed with a pound of butter and a jar of jam.
There is a technique to make a scone you want to eat. It requires a bit more time, but the results are clearly worth the effort. Let your food processor sit this one out.
Ingredients:
16.25 oz flour
5 oz sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
8 oz butter
8 oz buttermilk
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
Extract.... 2 tsp ( vanilla, almond, anise, bergamot, maple) .... fiori di sicilia extract is very strong... just a few drops is all you will need. If you use too much it will taste like perfume
Sparkling sugar
I’m giving the basic procedure for any number of combination below, whichever you chose, it should be added after you smear the butter
As always weigh for accuracy
All ingredients should be cold. Weigh all dry ingredients into your work bowl stick it the fridge
Cut the butter into tablespoons size pieces and chill it
weigh out your wet ingredients combine and chill
the critical piece of this “da vinci code” is to not develop the gluten , same as a pie crust
when all ingredients are weighed, you will mix the butter with the dry ingredients, toss around until the butter is coated by the flour, then begin smearing the butter between you thumb and index finger, all the while turning it over. they should be thumb nail size pieces.
7. put the bowl back in the fridge if it gets warm
8. slowly pour the wet ingredients moving in a circler fashion around your bowl.
**If you don’t have a danish whisk a good substitute would be a spatula. Pull together the wet and dry ingredients with the goal of not overworking the mix.
9. Pull all ingredients into a cohesive round in you bowl. Remove the round to your bench. Then divide into 2 rounds. They should be about 6 inches in diameter. With a bench scraper or a knife divide into 8 equal triangles. Egg wash, and sprinkle with a touch of sugar.
10. Bake in a 425 oven for 18min
Here are some really good combinations:
1 Dried blueberries with fioria (sold at King Arthur) or vanilla with orange zest
2 Cherry with white chocolate with Almond extract
3 Fig and walnut with fennel seed and vanilla extract
4 Cheddar and chive
5 Apricot and walnut with saffron and orange flower water
6 For short cakes just vanilla... roll the mixture out ,cut them into rounds place one on top of the other
7 Rosemary and dried apricot and lemon
8 what ever your imagination can come up with😊
save the butter and jam for the next time you get a hockey puck at a bakery!!
