COLUMN: Beyond the breakfast scone
For most of my life, when I’ve heard someone mention the word scone, I’ve automatically assumed they were talking about fried bread dough served with honey-butter. When I learned about the other kind of scones — sometimes called English or tea scones — I thought they seemed dry, boring and meant for stuffy tea parties. Despite that, I decided to give them a chance, and I was shocked about how wrong I was.
Scones are actually moist, delicious breakfast or brunch treats with an endless amount of possibility. They’re like biscuits but sweeter. They’re similar to muffins because of the variety of fruits, nuts and other things you can use to flavor them. This is a basic recipe for a plain scone with two variations: raspberry vanilla and chocolate orange.
Be sure to read the directions for each kind before you get started so you know when to add the extra ingredients. If you’re feeling creative, you can try your own ideas for additions. Almost anything will work as long as it doesn’t throw off the ratio of wet and dry ingredients. Good options include chopped or dried fruit, nuts, poppy seeds, chocolate chips and flavored extracts, as well as glazes or sugar to sprinkle on top. Have fun creating your own customized scones.
SCONES
2 cups flour
6 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (scant)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 whole stick) butter, frozen solid
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, 6 tablespoons of sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda and orange zest, and whisk together.
With the large holes of a box grater, grate the frozen stick of butter.
Add 1/3 of the grated butter to the flour mixture and toss until well coated. Repeat two more times until all of the butter has been added and is well coated with the flour mixture.
Use your fingertips to work the butter into the flour until a crumbly mixture forms, then stir in the chocolate chips.
In another bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the sour cream and egg with a fork until smooth.
Stir into the dry ingredient mixture with a fork until large dough clumps form.
Use your hands to press the dough (while in the bowl) into a ball. The dough will seem pretty dry but, as you press it, will come together. If you need to, flick a few drops of water into the bottom of the bowl to get the combination to adhere.
Turn the doughball out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently pat into a round about 7 1/2 inches across and 3/4 inch thick.
Use a sharp knife to cut the round into eight equally sized wedges. On the parchment-covered baking sheet, place the wedges about 1 inch apart.
Note: You can also make one batch of dough into two rounds to make smaller scones.
Bake until golden brown, about 15-17 minutes for full size, or 10-13 for the smaller size.
Orange Chocolate (variation):
Add 1 teaspoon of freshly grated orange zest to the dry ingredients before whisking.
Stir 1/2 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips into the dough after you’ve incorporated the butter.
Serve drizzled with a glaze made with powdered sugar and freshly squeezed orange juice.
Raspberry Vanilla (variation):
Add the pulp from 1 vanilla bean to the dry ingredients. You may need to use your fingers to work it in and separate the vanilla beans evenly.
Add 1/4 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen) to the dough after you’ve incorporated the butter. Be careful not to stir too much or the scones will turn pink instead of having a pretty marbled look.
Sprinkle with coarse vanilla sugar (or any sugar) before cutting and baking.
– jenn.nelle@gmail.com