Jul 28 2013

Recipe: Vanilla Dream Scones

Author: Jenna

When I first made these scones and posted the recipe on my previous blog, I was briefly considering opening up a bakery after my college graduation. This was to be my vanilla scone recipe, but they needed a cute name. After all, the bakery was going to called The Cream Tea Bakery or something cutesy and British, therefore scones needed cutesy names as well. I had already made Almond Bliss scones and Butter-Me-Up scones, Peanut Butter Coma Cupcakes (which I promise to eventually make/photograph/post), and Wistful Pom cupcakes (also an eventual post) must-dos on my future menu and they had appropriate names.

IMG_3733So I reached out to my Facebook friends and former dance partner/fellow baker for name ideas. I loved the idea of calling them Antique Scones because of the old-fashioned style of my photos, but after being told that no one would want to eat scones whose name suggested they might be stale, we decided on Vanilla Dream scones to complement Almond Bliss.

IMG_3726Alas the bakery idea was short lived, but these scones and their Vanilla Dreams will live on in home bakers’ ovens everywhere. They are wonderfully creamy and melt in your mouth like sugar on your tongue, yet they are not overly sweet. The vanilla bean makes these perfect for a special occasion, or maybe just a day that needs a little extra dreaming.

Vanilla Dream Scones

Vanilla Dream Scones

Vanilla Dream Scones

Ingredients

  • 200 g all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 50 g ultrafine sugar or vanilla sugar if you happen to have some on hand
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste or 1 scraped vanilla bean
  • 200 g mascarpone cheese
  • 1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 220°C (450°F). Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, vanilla and mascarpone. Rub the mascarpone into the dry ingredients until evenly clumped. Add the water a little bit at a time and then knead into the dough.
Place dough on a very floured surface and knead a few more times. Pat out to 1 cm thick. Cut 5 cm rounds from the dough with biscuit cutter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Reform and continue until there is no more dough. Dough may disappear from being eaten by baker and/or baker’s mother. Bake for 6-8 minutes (8) until lightly browned and cooked through.
Serve with whipped cream and strawberries or clotted cream and strawberry jam.
These scones are very delicate, so you may want to make them thicker and bigger so they can better hold up their toppings. I just always make my scones the same height and width for consistency in baking times as well as comparisons between recipes. Feel free to change either and adjust the baking time as needed. IMG_3728
Tagged with: , , ,
Posted in: Recipes

10 comments on “Recipe: Vanilla Dream Scones”

  1. eliz

    my mother is coming to visit me in Los Angeles on Friday and I was trying to figure out which is the steam rooms is the best place to take her please keep in mind that we love very moist scones.

    Here are the choices:

    Huntington gardens rose tea room

    The living room at the peninsula hotel

    Tres at Jose Andres

    Rose tree cottage in pasadena (this is run by a brittish couple)

    Please let me know which is the best! We are used to an amazing tea room with true clotted cream and moist soft scones back home that closed down maybe due to the owner dying.

    Thank you,

    Elizabeth

    1. Jenna (Post author)

      Hi Elizabeth! Sorry it’s taken me so long to check my posts, I was out of town this weekend. I haven’t been to The Living Room yet due to price, but I have heard that it’s one of the best. The Huntington Gardens is definitely not the place to go: their tea is a rushed buffet style and anyone who appreciates a true afternoon tea won’t like it.

      My recommendation would actually be The Langham Huntington if you are looking around Pasadena. So far they are the best for overall experience including great scones and authentic tasting clotted cream. And it has a wonderful view from the tearoom so your mother can get the best taste of California scenery!

      Let me know how it goes! Have a great time :)

      1. eliz

        Hi,

        I am in los Angeles but willing to go to Pasadena. Have you been to the other places mentioned like rose tree cottage? It took me ages to get a reservation because they are always booked. I got one, but can cancel and do the langham if you think best.

        1. Jenna (Post author)

          I also haven’t been able to get reservations for Rose Tree Cottage during the times I am available to go to tearooms for reviews. But that might say something about it’s popularity or quality. Rose Tree Cottage is definitely one I’ve been wanting to try.

          Tres is more of a twist on afternoon tea; if you are looking for something traditional it probably isn’t your best bet.

          Rose Tree Cottage has pretty high reviews from other sources and from my understanding is more of a traditional tearoom while The Langham is afternoon tea in a hotel setting. It all depends on your preference! I think either would be a great option :)

          1. eliz

            Ok, thanks. I can send you my review if you want :) Glad to know to skip Huntington gardens. Although I wonder if the setting is worth a look but not to eat there. Could do rose tree cottage and then visit Huntington to see the gardens. I will let ha know about the cottage

          2. Jenna (Post author)

            I would love that!

            The Gardens are stunning and extensive so I always find them worth a visit, but just keep in mind that you do have to pay admission and I think it’s around $20 or more per person.

          3. Elizabeth

            Hi, mom and I went to the rose tree cottage because we finally got a reservation. It was fabulous. Afterward, we visitestrawberry anHuntington library botanical gardens.

            Here is info about the tea:

            1. They bring out a small glass of imported sparkling elderflower water with a rasberry floating in it. Very nice.

            2. Only one tea is served, and it was a tea the owners brought from india where they hand picked the leaves. So if you like flavored tea and more choices, know you don’t get that here.

            2. The sandwiches come out first. Mom is not a vegetarian so they brought out:

            A) meat Yorkshire pudding
            B) marinated cucumber sandwiches with butter
            C) egg salad with asparagus
            D) salmon and something sandwich

            And mine was the same except my Yorkshire pudding had cheese, mushrooms, and tomatoes picked from their garden. My salmon was switched to cheese and tomatoe. Very strong English cheeses.

            The butter on cucumber was nice but the cucumbers were almost too strongly marinated to enjoy. I would ask for something else. The Yorkshire puddings were great, and I was impressed that we had something so different from most teas but so very English. The other sandwiches were ok to goodbut the stellar stand out was the EGG SALAD WITH ASPARAGUS! Holy cow this was heaven on earth and the best egg salad of my entire life. I begged then to tell me what was in it and they wouldn’t. I told them I had a friend who won’t eat mayonnaise (you) so could they atleast confirm that much. They said the base of the sauce does have some mayo in it but the other ingredients are a secret recipe. I really think you won’t notice the mayo but will die and go to heaven over this sandwich!

            3. The scones came next. I can’t remember the flavor but you only get one kind. They were slightly soft and freshly made. The clotted cream looked different than usual but was clotted cream and delicious. We were fighting over the last bit of it. Mom loved the summer pudding jam so much she bought some in the store of the cottage afterward. They sell scones and clotted cream there as well.

            4. The desserts were next. They brought 2 shortbread cookies with a fresh strawberry slice on them, two petit fores of strawberry and rasberry flavors, and miniature sticky toffee puddings. The petit fores had jam and almond paste layers and icing. They were some of the best imo. The shortbread was ok. The toffee pudding was very, and I was happily surprised to see it.

            5. Last was two very miniature Turkish delights!!! This out them over the top for me! I have been a fan of Turkish delights ever since seeing the lion the witch and the wardrobe tv version and tasting them at Harrods in London. So cool to get this at the end of the meal.

            6. The bill was 75 bucks for two and 90 bucks with tip. So expensive! But amazing!!! I loved that the waitresses had uniforms and were hand picking tomatoes from the garden. They looked very professional and it felt like downton abbey for a moment. They said no photos, btw.

            7. We bought doctor who candy and jammy dodgers as s well as a clotted cream bar, rose and lemon Turkish delights from turkey, summer pudding jam, dairy toffees, and more. They had a candy room in the back and scones, tea, jam, and more in the front for sale.

            We loved this and were thankful we disn’t do the Huntington library tea since we popped in to see how it matches up to the rose tree cottage. It didn’t! So if you have the extra cash at hands, I would let go to the rose tree cottage. Any dietary concerns should let them know well in advance so they can prepare a special menu for you like they did for me. When I sat down, they said “who’s the vegetarian?” And I really appreciated being accomodated. I had told them a week prior that I eat dairy and eggs but not any animals including seafood. The fact that they even made a vegetarian Yorkshire pudding was unexpected but very appreciated! And that egg salad will be in my dreams! If only I could figure out the other ingredients!!!

            4.

          4. Elizabeth

            Sorry for the typos, but I typed from my phone. It jumps from sentence to previous paragraph so weird words seem to pop out of no where like straberry. Please excuse cell phone mistakes.

          5. Jenna (Post author)

            Totally understandable! My replies may have errors because our new kitten is playing with my keyboard.

  2. Pingback: Recipe: Peanut Butter and Jelly Scones |