Apr 17 2014

Recipe: Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

Author: Jenna

Scones–and pictures of scones–tend to evoke a happy, airy, lighthearted feeling in your day. Delicate with a touch of decadence, scones and afternoon tea are for days of sunshine and butterflies and a spring breeze and smiles.

But let’s get honest here for a minute, blog honest. Life isn’t always joyful. Days aren’t always full of sun. Lace tablecloths, embroidered napkins, and sweet cream won’t always cut it. Sometimes life is dark.

: Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

So let’s bring on the dark chocolate and the deep pomegranate for those days. Because there is a scone for every occasion and every mood. And scones help. They always help. Chocolate covered pomegranate scones most of all.

If I wasn’t an avid disliker of all things vampire (I’m looking at you Twilight), I’d make a crack about these being vampire scones, with their deep black chocolate morsels covering blood red pomegranate jelly. The photos certainly fit that style! But like I said…anti vampire…so…

Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

Making these scones is a cinch. Basically just add chocolate covered pomegranates to my simple cream scones; eventually I’ll make a recipe with fresh pomegranate arils and various add-ins probably revolving around chocolate, but when you aren’t having the best day, you want quick and easy. Take the shortcut. I did. I don’t judge. The chocolate covered pomegranates are bigger than you’d think, so you may want to chop them up a bit before mixing them in. I chose not to and ended up with some bites of plain scone and some bites of chocolate/pomegranate chewy goodness. Either option is going to be delicious.

So when your day is a little darker than you want it to be, do something to take care of yourself and pop a tray of these in the oven.

chocolate covered pomegranate scones

Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

ingredients

200 g self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
50 g ultrafine baking sugar
150-200 mL heavy whipping cream (always start with the lower amount)
1/2 cup chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, chopped or whole depending on preference

Preheat oven to 220°C (450°F). Place rack as high as possible in oven. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.

Sift flour and salt together in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the sugar and chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, mixing until well distributed.

Add 150 mL cream then work in by hand by rubbing in the cream trying to incorporate as much air as possible until fully mixed. DO NOT OVERMIX. If the mix is too dry, now add the extra cream until the dough is wet enough to hold together.

Place dough on a heavily floured surface and knead a couple of times until relatively smooth. Pat down to desired height (we did 1 cm as usual). Cut out 5 cm circles with a crimped scone cutter and place on the baking tray. HINT: dip the cutter in flour before cutting out each scone. Knead the extras back together and repeat until most of the dough is used up.

Bake for 8-10 minutes (we did 8) until they have risen and are slightly browned around the edges and on top.

Apr 02 2014

Recipes: Golden Raspberry Coconut Scones

Author: Jenna

Did you miss me? Of course you did, because everyone loves scones. So maybe it isn’t me you missed, and it’s just the scones you were pining after? Should I be concerned? Are my friends only friends with me because I bring them baked goods?!

Golden Raspberry Coconut Scones

Well, yeah I think they are, but the dictionary defines friends as “recipe taste testers”, right? Or at least that’s what all my friends tell me. I can go weeks, months, YEARS without talking to my friends, so long as when I come back I bring them yummy baked goods. Again, so they tell me through mouthfuls of scones, cookies, and cupcakes. And banana bread. Peanut butter chocolate swirled banana bread to be exact. But that’s another story and another recipe.

Why the long absence and subsequent promise to beging of forgiveness and subsequent promise to be a better friend through more frequent recipe updates? Well I made a massive career change (from science-y graduate school to artsy acting), made even more massive life changes, made some location moves (to my parents’ house sans kitchen for a few miserable months–because of the no kitchen; my parents are lovely–and then to my own apartment), and basically just took my life and shook it upside down like a bully in elementary school looking for lunch money. Unfortunately, ~~money~~ scones didn’t fall out.

Golden Raspberry Coconut Scones

But I missed baking and sharing my recipes with you! So I decided to try to come back. And since berry season will be upon us before we know it, what better way to kick it off than with a hunt for golden raspberries?

Golden raspberries are like red raspberries’ shy cousin. They are less in-your-face tart and a little more delicate, but have generally the same flavor profile. And they go just as well with coconut as any summery berry! My “Berry Lady” at our local farmer’s market recommended I try them out in place of red raspberries for scones because they can be a little sturdier and hold up better to baking. She had me at “berry” though so it wasn’t a hard sell! And look how pretty and bright they came out!

Golden Raspberry Coconut Scones

You can easily sub red or black raspberries if you can’t find golden.

golden raspberry coconut scones

ingredients

250g all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 salt
50 g ultrafine baking sugar
1 cup golden raspberries
2/3 cup shredded coconut, sweetened
150 mL whipping cream

Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Toss in berries and coconut.

Slowly add in whipping cream until the dough is moistened and coming together. Turn out onto a floured surface.

Pat down to desired thickness and cut out scones in desired size rounds (1 cm and 5 cm, respectively). Place on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Golden Raspberry Coconut Scones

Sep 29 2013

Recipe: White Chocolate Blueberry Scones

Author: Jenna

Yes, I realize that your favorite source for recipes, facts about afternoon tea, and tea room reviews seemingly went missing for a few weeks. I mean, not even a scone recipe? That’s like borderline as severe as the apocalypse. But as much as I apologize, I also promise that I had a good reason.

white chocolate blueberry scones

See, in addition to my job as the household’s resident Anglophile and baker, I am also an actress. Well, aspiring actress who every time she says aspiring before actress is corrected by people around her because vocabulary and commitment is very important in the industry. So I’m an actress. And pursuing acting as a career can get very time consuming, particularly when you have to commute into Hollywood for 16 straight days. Yeah that happened. It also makes one not really feel like turning on an oven. Or blogging. Or doing anything but sleeping when at home.

But I was thinking about you the whole time and feeling insanely guilty for not posting. So to make it up to you, I am posting my favorite scone recipe thusfar.

Sep 08 2013

Recipe: Triple Berry Scones

Author: Jenna

If two is better than one, than three is better than two, right? Well that answer is a resounding yes when berries are involved, that much I know! Scones with one berry (with me it’s usually strawberry)? Awesome. Scones with two berries? Amazing. But scones with three berries? Transcendent!

I’ll be honest, I really struggled with the desire to turn these into Quadruple Berry Scones. But that just seemed like a slippery slope to Bazillion Berry Scones or Scone Berries where the dough became more berry than scone. Though would that really have been a bad thing? It’d certainly make getting one of your five a day easier if all you had to do was eat a scone. Eat five scones (so not hard to do) and you’re all set for twenty four hours.

Triple Berry Scones

Sep 01 2013

Recipe: Strawberry Cream Cheese Scones

Author: Jenna

So just in case you couldn’t tell from these, and these, I love strawberries. I really love all berries, but strawberries are my favorite. And as strawberry season begins to come to a close and I start to tear up at the prospect of months and months without this delicious berry, I decided to make another few recipes to get our final strawberry fix. Best part, scones can freeze so if you hurry up and make the scones now, you can enjoy them in the fall when everyone else is eating apples. You’ll be eating strawberry scones and gloating to yourself (not out loud since that’s not nice after all, but inside is totally okay!).

Strawberry Cream Cheese Scones

When I went to my first afternoon tea as a little girl, one of the finger sandwiches served was a strawberry cream cheese sandwich, and since it was pink and I adored pink I had to love it. Ever since, strawberry cream cheese has become one of those things I buy at the store with excitement but then rarely get around to using because I forget to buy bagels. Now, I’ll never have wasted strawberry cream cheese again because I can always make these scones! They are sooooo creamy and moist that I can’t put enough “ooooo” at the end of the “so” to get my point across. Think similar to the scones that use mascarpone cheese like Vanilla Dream scones or the Strawberry Vanilla scones that were my last strawberry creation.Yeah, they rival that level of creamy, mouth-meltingness.

The cream cheese doesn’t overwhelm the strawberries, but instead just adds a delightfully subtle tang and lots of cream. Did I mention they were creamy? Okay good.

But the best part about these scones (besides the giant chunks of strawberries) is the color…BRIGHT PINK!!! Five-year-old Jenna is dancing around in her twirly dresses with joy. These are the perfect scones for a little girl’s afternoon tea party, baby girl baby shower, or just a day that needs a little pink thrown in.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Scones

strawberry cream cheese scones

ingredients

200 g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
50 g ultrafine baking sugar
1 cup chopped strawberries
200 g strawberry cream cheese
up to 6 tbsp water as needed

directions

Preheat oven to 220°C (450°F). Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, strawberries, and cream cheese. Rub together the ingredients until evenly clumped. Add the water a little bit at a time and then knead into the dough until smooth. Do not overwork, but you don’t need to be as overly concerned with being delicate as you do with cream scones.

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.Bake for 8-10 minutes (8) until lightly browned and cooked through.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Scones

Ooooo, so many fun ideas: cut into flowers or hearts, top with more strawberries, top with a vanilla or lemon glaze….so those might not be traditional (and by traditional I mean British) scone things to do, but when strawberries are involved tradition can go out the window.

Aug 25 2013

Recipe: Peanut Butter and Jelly Scones

Author: Jenna

I love peanut butter. Like LOVE IT. So much so that I could probably live off it. In fact if you saw my pantry, you’d probably think that I do. There’s crunchy peanut butter, creamy peanut butter, white chocolate peanut butter, cinnamon raisin peanut butter, almond butter (yes I know that doesn’t technically count but it’s still fantastic and obsessive), dark chocolate peanut butter, honey peanut butter, banana nut peanut butter, powdered peanut butter, and there may or may not be even more jars of the same varieties because I’m so afraid to run out of peanut butter that I buy extra jars unnecessarily.

And by may or may not, I totally mean there is. What? I eat it with practically everything! It’s delicious!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Scones

So it was a no-brainer that peanut butter scones, and possibly a whole host of peanut butter based scones, would eventually show up on this site. Hey, if I can make scones out of mascarpone cheese, why not peanut butter? Okay those have nothing to compare each other to and I just wanted to justify my peanut butter obsession.

Aug 18 2013

Recipe: Spiced Peach Scones

Author: Jenna

Well, my friends, today is the last peach recipe in my short series of peach scones. Are you sad too? I wish sometimes that all fruit was available ripe and perfect year round so that if I had a hankering for–let’s say–peaches in winter because my Spiced Peach scones would be the perfect holiday baked good, I could find peaches to make them as tasty in December as they would be in the height of peach season.

The agricultural world is so not fair.

Spiced Peach Scones

Then again, if we had the full spectrum of fruit available year round, maybe we wouldn’t appreciate the excitement and delight of each fruit coming into season. Would I cherish each carton of fresh strawberries if they were always as delicious as they are in the blush of spring? Maybe not. Maybe seasonal produce is nature’s way of giving us something to look forward too (though it definitely stinks that all my favorite fruits are spring and early summer fruits).

This recipe was a challenge for me because I had nothing to base it on. Even some recipes that I create are based in part on recipes in books, like the peach basil ones of last week were adapted from a strawberry lavender scone I found somewhere else. But none of the recipes I have bookmarked or saved used compote as its primary source of liquid. I really was flying blind here.

Spiced Peach Scones

I wanted to try cooking the fruit before incorporating it into the scone, so I decided to make a heated mixture of those fresh peaches we’ve been working with and some spices. The only problem is that I had no idea how to do it! I knew it wouldn’t be as simple as putting peaches in a saute pan and just letting them heat up. Yet I still had never made a compote before so was clueless as to how much sugar to add to the peaches, when to boil versus simmer, and how long it would take.

After some research and a little bit of math (real world application!) I attempted to make a spiced peach compote. It was so easy, I wondered why I haven’t been making fruit compotes my whole life. I feel like a whole new world of oatmeal toppings and desserts was just shown to me. Seriously, compotes are now a revelation for me: a thick, spiced syrup of gooey ripe peaches and melted sugar…are you drooling yet? You better be peeling those peaches at least!

Spiced Peach Scones

Probably because the main liquid here is a thick syrup, these scones are very dense unlike the majority of scones I make. The first time I made these I also overworked the dough, and I think it was because I didn’t add enough other liquid to incorporate the ingredients without kneading too much. Lesson to all scone makers: it is more important to lightly handle the dough than using less flour on your workspace or having less cleanup. Add more liquid to the dough so you have to knead it less. You won’t regret it.

The peaches are wonderfully soft and sweet with the spices mulling about them. Your kitchen will smell incredible, making these not only one of the best tasting scones you’ll ever make, but also one of the best air fresheners you ever used. More incentive to make multiple batches!

Spiced Peach Scones

Spiced Peach Scones

Ingredients for Compote

10 ounces chopped peeled peaches
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Ingredients for Scones

200 g all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
50 g ultrafine sugar
Compote
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Making the Compote

Put peaches in a small saucepan. Add sugar, stirring to coat completely. Turn stove to medium heat.

As the sugar dissolves, the peaches will release a lot of liquid. Bring this liquid to a boil. Add nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon. Stir well. Once mixture is boiling, leave over heat for 4 minutes to reduce liquid, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Pour into a glass bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Bask in its incredible smell. Resist urge to grab a spoon and dig into the compote. Do not pour over vanilla ice cream. Do not spoon over oatmeal. Do not do anything with it but let it cool.

Making the Scones

Preheat oven to 450°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Make sure everything is well mixed.

Add the COOLED compote (I didn’t let mine cool enough and my hands were definitely heating up when incorporating it to the dry ingredients). Once fully incorporated, add whipping cream one tablespoon at a time until dough has formed and is very moist. DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH. The compote already adds a heavier element to the dough so it will be denser than most scones, but overworking it will result is very tough scones. And that would be no bueno.

Turn out onto a floured surface and pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Cut out (5 cm) rounds and place on baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes or until they are puffy and beginning to turn golden. Remove to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

Spiced Peach Scones

Yes these are good with clotted cream

Aug 11 2013

Recipe: Peach Basil Scones

Author: Jenna

Unsurprisingly, the basil in my mom’s backyard is still growing like a weed. A ridiculously pleasant smelling, sweet tasting, very welcome weed, but a week nonetheless. She is almost desperate to find uses for it (okay not that desperate, caprese salads are a frequent occurrence at mealtimes) so I volunteered to add my mom’s basil to my dad’s peaches in my scones. See how scone making can become a family affair?

Peach Basil Scones

Peach and basil have an affinity for each other; in fact, basil is like vanilla in that it has an affinity with almost all fruit. I would say basil is like the social butterfly of herbs. It really is friends with everyone and is very inclusive. Our kindergarteners would do well to learn from basil.

The best way to check if you used enough basil in a recipe is the good old-fashioned smell test. Once the basil is all stirred in, sniff the flour (be careful not to snort up the flour as I’m sure that would be unpleasant and nasty) and use your judgment. Can you smell the basil, or do you have to struggle to get a whiff? If it isn’t a clear smell, add a little bit more. Don’t worry, it mellows as it is heated so it won’t overwhelm your little peaches.

Peach Basil Scones

In fact, the basil is almost an aftertaste. Think about how in wines, you describe the end of the taste as the “finish”…these scones have a basil finish. Unless of course you happen upon a large piece of basil in a single bite and then that bit is going to be basil forward. These also work well with clotted cream, like most scones with two or less flavors, but the heavy cream runs a risk of taking over the light and airy texture of the scone.

These puff up nice and high, and their flavor follows in its perkiness. Peach basil scones truly are the summery butterflies of scones!

Peach Basil Scones

Peach Basil Scones

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp ultra fine sugar
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped fresh peaches
1 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh basil, or to scent
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 450°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add the peaches and the basil (you may need to add more basil depending on how strong your leaves are). Toss to combine.

Add whipping cream and begin to knead together until dough forms. If mixture is too dry, add one tablespoon of cream at a time. Turn out onto a floured work surface.

Roll or pat out dough to desired thickness (1 cm) and then cut out scones with a scone cutter (5 cm). Place on baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until scones have puffed up and the edges are golden brown. Turn out immediately onto a wire rack to cool.

Peach Basil Scones

Aug 04 2013

Recipe: Peach and Butterscotch Scones

Author: Jenna

What happens when you get a bumper crop of peaches at your parents’ house? Why you make a bunch of scones with them! Wasn’t that an obvious answer?

My dad went through a phase where he put a bunch of fruit trees in our backyard. So now every summer we end up with two weeks of picking over a hundred peaches and they usually go bad before they can all be consumed. And they are teeny little things too. But teeny usually corresponds with cute, and cute things are great things.

Peach and Butterscotch Scones

Many of my scone recipes start with a single convenient ingredient–like the English cheddar or mulberries–and grow from there into combinations of flavors. With so many peaches sitting on the counter, my next convenient starting ingredient was chosen for me. Four day and a lot of scone batches later, I had three new peach scone recipes all ready for you.

Now you can always just take a basic cream scone recipe or a vanilla scone recipe (vanilla works with pretty much every single fruit) and just add chunks of fresh peaches and reduce the liquid by a few tablespoons. Doing this will yield a perfectly fine peach scone. However, I am having a blast lately creating fun pairings that others may not think of right away, so while Mom did make a batch of my cream scones and added peaches directly to it, when I got involved we went a little crazier.

Peach and Butterscotch Scones

Originally I wanted to make Peach and Caramel Scones, but I couldn’t find caramel bits so we adapted to Peach and Butterscotch Scones instead. The two flavors work just as well together as peach and caramel would have, but I still want to try the original idea (that may have to wait until next year’s peach crop). Until then, these are a delightfully sweet treat to hold you over. I know kids will love this scone because it is a very sugar one. Kids love butterscotch. Most adults love butterscotch too I discovered as the butterscotch scones at my job sell out before the lunch rush every time. Usually I think butterscotch is too sweet, but the peaches are a bit tart so they cut the sweetness a bit. Adding clotted cream also helps temper the jaw aching sweetness, oddly enough.

The best bites are definitely those with pieces of both peach and butterscotch, and like I said the clotted cream helps mellow the butterscotch. This is a very wet dough due to the fresh peaches, so use a heavily floured surface when patting it out. Also, probably because it is so wet, these won’t rise all that much meaning that your best indication of doneness is going to be the browning on the top.

Already on the hunt for caramel bits for next year!

Peach and Butterscotch Scones

Peach and Butterscotch Scones

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed or grated
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup chopped fresh peaches
1/2 cup butterscotch chips (if you aren’t as much of a sweets person, reduce to 1/4-1/3 cup)
2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to the usual 450°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs (alternatively you could use a pastry blender to cut in the butter, but I prefer to do all my scone mixing by hand).

Add cream cheese, peaches, and butterscotch chips, stirring until well combined. Add cream and vanilla and knead until just beginning to smooth out. If the dough isn’t coming together, add one tablespoon of cream at a time until ready.

Turn out onto a floured surface (because fresh peaches are rather wet, this is a very sticky and moist dough) and pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Cut out with scone cutter (5 cm) and place on baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the tops have hardened and begun turning brown.

Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Peach and Butterscotch Scones

Top with clotted cream and peach jam for some extra peachy keen fun!

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.

So 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.

Alas 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

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.

Once Upon an Afternoon Tea

The Art of Afternoon Tea from Los Angeles and Beyond

Recipes

Recipe: Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

chocolate covered pomegranate scones

ingredients

Recipes: Golden Raspberry Coconut Scones

golden raspberry coconut scones

ingredients

Recipe: White Chocolate Blueberry Scones

Recipe: Triple Berry Scones

Recipe: Strawberry Cream Cheese Scones

strawberry cream cheese scones

ingredients

directions

Recipe: Peanut Butter and Jelly Scones

Recipe: Spiced Peach Scones

Recipe: Peach Basil Scones

Recipe: Peach and Butterscotch Scones

Recipe: Vanilla Dream Scones