Recipes

Jul 21 2013

Recipe: Mulberry and Elderflower Scones

Author: Jenna

Sunday is our local Farmer’s Market. It is my favorite part of Sundays, strolling through the loop of fruits and vegetables, stopping by the McLarens stand to buy jam at, debating over the fresh baked breads, visiting a few of my regular fruit suppliers and discussing how their wares are today. Are the raspberries tart? How about the blackberries? Do they have Gaviota strawberries this week?

One of the coolest parts about interacting with the growers is discovering new produce and bouncing off ideas about how to use it in the kitchen (or in my case the oven!). Take a few weeks ago: Mom and I have a “Berry Lady”. The same woman sells us blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries every week. She knows that I am the only one who eats the reds and that we prefer the blues small if we are planning on cooking with them, large if we are not. She knows that none of us like tart fruit, so warn us ahead of time. Somehow she also knew that I would like mulberries.

I’ve heard of but never seen mulberries before, but there was a very small amount available so based on the Berry Lady’s recommendation, I bought a little basket. And she was right, I loved them. Mulberries are a more subtle, understated berry; their flavor is a blend of sweetness and earthiness. Mom described them as tasting organic, though I didn’t know that organic was a tasting note as well as a farming method 😉

The challenge came with figuring out what to do with a whole basket of mulberries. My flavor book had no mention of mulberries and I had obviously never cooked with them before, so I was pretty much at a loss. I knew that apart from eating raw, I wanted to make them into scones (face it, I want to make everything into scones), but making a simple cream scone and adding mulberries was too simple. I wanted interesting! I wanted unique! I wanted…a drink.

Kidding. Yet I did have a suspicion that elderflower might blend well with the “organic” taste of mulberries, and the only elderflower product I have ever seen in my town is St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur. Guess we really are liquoring up for these scones!

Trust me on these!

Trust me on these!

These were an incredible success. Sophisticated, elegant, and totally unique, mulberry-elderflower scones are the perfect use for a berry that you have never seen in real life. They spread more than they rise, but they are so moist and delicately flavored that breaking them in half and covering with cream would basically be a crime. Some scones are perfect plain, and these are one of those few.

So if you have a Berry Lady, and next time you see her she happens to have mulberries, take your tastebuds on an adventure and try these scones. Your horizons will be widened forever.

Mulberry and Elderflower Scones

Mulberry and Elderflower Scones

Mulberry and Elderflower Scones

Ingredients

  • 200 g all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 50 g ultrafine sugar
  • 1 cup chopped mulberries
  • 1/4 cup St. Germain liqueur
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add mulberries and toss.
In a small bowl, combine the liqueur and heavy whipping cream, mixing well. Slowly add liquid to the flour mixture, beginning to knead to form a dough. Be careful not to crush the mulberries. Dough will be very moist.
Turn out onto a heavily floured work surface and knead a few more times to incorporate a little more flour. Pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Using a floured (5 cm) scone cutter, cut out scones and place them on the baking sheet. Knead remaining dough together again and repeat cutting out process.
Bake for 8 minutes until the tops are beginning to brown. Remove from oven to a wire rack to cool.
*Forgive the terrible and almost creepy pictures. The lighting was terrible and this was my fifth shoot of the day. My styling ideas were not on point by that time!*
Jul 19 2013

Recipe: Cucumber Scone Finger Sandwiches

Author: Jenna

Afternoon tea is steeped in tradition; one of those traditions seems to be offering cucumber sandwiches as a savory option. The quality of a tearoom sometimes hinges on this one little morsel.

And I love cucumber sandwiches. They are by far one of the things I look most forward to when sitting down to tea. Sometimes they are completely nondescript Wonder Bread and cream cheese, but sometimes you have a revelation of pickled cucumbers or dill cream cheese that is nearly transcendent.

Lemon Thyme Basil Cucumber Sandwiches

Lemon Thyme Basil Cucumber Sandwiches

So when a few weeks ago I finally perfected the recipe for Lemon Thyme Basil Scones (weren’t those sooooo good?) I had a lightbulb moment: could I make these into cucumber sandwiches? How great a twist on a classic would that be, the savory herbs blending with the sweet, crisp cucumber. I could almost taste it, mouth suddenly parched from desire of wanting that ultimate refreshment.

I practically ran to my refrigerator and found a glorious cucumber…and a lack of cream cheese. *Head smack* But I wouldn’t give up, hopping in my car to drive to the grocery store and buy the smallest container of cream cheese I could find. The checkout lady gave me a weird look and say,”Don’t you want a bagel with that?” “No,” I responded. “I have scones.” Let her contemplate that one with confusion all day!

Lemon Thyme Basil Cucumber Sandwiches

Lemon Thyme Basil Cucumber Sandwiches

Ingredients assembled, I took a bite into my first open-faced sandwich. Yeah, it worked beautifully. No bagel or Wonder Bread required.

These bite sized open faced sandwiches are the perfect choice for afternoon tea. Not only are they unique yet classical, but they also show off your scone-making skills in a whole new light. A scone turned into a sandwich? What could be better than that other than more scones?

Lemon Thyme and Basil Cucumber Scone Sandwiches

 

 

 

Lemon Thyme Basil Cucumber Sandwiches

Lemon Thyme Basil Cucumber Sandwiches

Ingredients

  • 2 cups self rising flour
  • 3 1/2 tbsp fresh chopped lemon thyme
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • full fat cream cheese (do not use herbed cream cheese as that would overwhelm the scones)
  • thick slices of fresh cucumber

Preheat oven 450°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, sift together flour and salt. Mix in fresh herbs.
Break up butter by running it through a cheese grater. Rub into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk and knead until all ingredients are incorporated and the dough is smooth.
Turn out onto floured surface (this can be lightly floured as the dough is pretty self-contained) and pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Cut out into scones (5 cm) and place on baking sheet. Recombine scraps and continue cutting out additional scones. Bake for 8 minutes until beginning to toast on the edges. Turn out to cool on a wire rack immediately.

Once cooled, cut each scone in half. Top each half with a smear of cream cheese and a slice of cucumber. Serve these super light and refreshing savories to all enjoyment.

Jul 14 2013

Recipe: Cream Scones

Author: Jenna

Let’s take a one week break from creative combinations and untraditional flavors. Eventually (meaning once I’ve had my fill of experimenting) I am planning on doing a whole series of plain or sultana/currant scone recipes. Every book about tea or scones has its own version of the basic scone. So I have a lot of recipes to try out to find the perfect and most authentic plain British scone!

And for consistency’s sake, I also have authentic British scones in my freezer to compare during this eventual series, courtesy of Ye Olde King’s Head.

IMG_3654But for now, let’s take this week easy and laid back. These cream scones are one of my current go-to recipes for trying new mix-in as they lend well to sweets with their slightly salty taste. They are also hands-down my plain scone recipe known to convert non-scone lovers to willing-scone eaters. When giving these scones to tasters used to American scones, though, be sure to express the caveat that these are more like British scones, less sweet and more vehicles for clotted cream and jam.

Of course if you serve these with authentic clotted cream and jam, even the pickiest scone eater won’t be able to resist.

Sometimes we just need an easy scone, a simple scone, and in those moments reach for this four ingredient recipe and relax in the perfect blend of flour, sugar, and cream.

Cream Scones

Cream Scones

Cream Scones

Ingredients

  • 200 g self rising flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 50 g ultrafine baking sugar
  • 150 mL heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 220°C (450°F). Place rack as high as possible in oven. Sift flour and salt together in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the sugar and 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 one tablespoon at a time of 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. Dust top with more flour and pat down to desired height (we did 1 cm). Cut out 5 cm circles with a crimped circle cutter and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 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 6-8 minutes (we did 8) until they have risen and are slightly browned around the edges and on top. Serve with clotted cream if you are lucky enough to be in England or have made it out to Santa Monica, but with red fruit jam no matter where you are.IMG_3650
Jul 07 2013

Recipe: Honey, Blueberry, White Cheddar Scones

Author: Jenna
Honey, Blueberry, White Cheddar Scones

Two weeks of savory scones, is it time to return to our sweet friends? If so, this is the perfect scone to make that transition. A combination of sweet and a touch of savory to not shock the system after two weeks of salt and umami, Honey, Blueberry, White Cheddar Scones may sound like a risky bake, but they are a risk well worth taking.

Part of the fun of developing my own scone recipes is coming up with combinations that I’ve never seen before. As I’ve said, my inspiration really comes from just about anywhere (hence always carrying a little notebook around with me) but I don’t always know how to add that little extra twist to create a truly unique scone. Enter The Flavor Bible. I simply choose an ingredient, turn to its entry, and am presented with other foods and tastes that the world’s master chefs have determined are complementary. I am fascinated by the pairings they come up with; I would easily spend hours pouring over its pages in wonderment. What goes well with plums? Bay leaves apparently.

IMG_4307This scone started by delving into flavor compatibility for honey. I’m excited for the other flavors to come that involve honey, but this affinity combination caught my eye: honey + blueberries + cheddar cheese. And hmmm…I got blueberries at the Farmer’s Market on Sunday and I have that English Coastal Cheddar I used for my Beer and Cheddar Scones…idea perhaps?

Success for sure. I found a recipe for a fig and honey scone and then modified the heck out of it to incorporate the blueberries and the cheese. The end result was a first-pitch home run! The texture was perfect, the scones risen yet sturdy, the flavors melding together in a way I never expected. Each bite starts out sweet and almost florally from the honey before a subtle shock of the earthy cheddar. Well, now that I consider it, the cheddar is less earthy and more…oceany? It has a sense of belonging to a briny and salty coastline (and not just because its name is Coastal!) that I never anticipated harmonizing with the sweet blueberries and the floral honey. But it does. And it does so unassumingly and unusually, but undeniably.

Honey, Blueberry, White Cheddar Scones

Honey, Blueberry, White Cheddar Scones

Honey, Blueberry, and White Cheddar Scones

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups bread flour
  • 3 tbsp ultrafine sugar
  • 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • 3/4 cup English white cheddar (we used Coastal Cheddar from Costco)
  • 2 1/2 tbsp honey
  • 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, divided

Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet (maybe two) with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together bread flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Toss in cheese and blueberries and mix until well distributed. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine honey with 2 tablespoons cream, stirring well. Add honey mixture to flour mixture and begin to knead together. One tablespoon at a time, add the remaining cream until a dough has formed that can hold together. We used a total of 3/4 cup of cream.
On a floured surface, turn out kneaded dough and pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Use a flour dipped scone cutter (5 cm) to cut and place scones on baking sheets. Knead together excess dough and repeat. Bake for 8 minutes or until the tops are beginning to brown. Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool.
IMG_4316You could probably top this with honey or maybe a honey butter (I do not recommend cream or jam with a scone that has more than two flavors and this has three) but that might throw off the balance of the three flavors. Feel free to try and report back! I love hearing about other people’s experiences and experiments.
Jun 30 2013

Recipe: Lemon Thyme and Basil Scones

Author: Jenna

Keeping in the trend of last week’s savory scones inspired by what was available in the house’s refrigerator, I offer you this week’s selection: Lemon Thyme and Basil Scones.

By some stroke of good fortune, my mom has kept the herbs her brother gave her alive for more than a few months (my mom will be the first to admit that she has a black thumb so this isn’t me insulting her I promise). Yet even with an avid baker and sometimes avid cook in the house, none of the herbs have been put to much use. She decided to change that and requested that I create a scone using her most abundant herb.

Lemon thyme.

IMG_4219A variant of–obviously–English thyme, lemon thyme fools you into thinking that it is just another thyme leaf, until you start cutting it and releasing the oils inside its leaves. Then you unlock its citrusy aroma, its lemon scent that suddenly wafts through your entire kitchen. And you wonder, what can I do with such a hidden delicacy?

IMG_4192Um, duh, I make scones. And since according to a flavor pairing book my brother bought me for Christmas, basil and lemon thyme have a natural affinity for each other, I killed two birds with one scone and cut off some of Mom’s basil leaves to toss in as well.

And thus the history of the second savory scone success. The flavor of these scones is significantly more subtle than the Beer and Cheddar scones, but no less enjoyable. They have a delicate balance of herbal notes that would probably be broken down if heated for too long, so I highly recommend keeping these scones small to decrease the baking time to the 8 minute mark. It is definitely worth it. Especially for the smell when you open your oven and the lemon thyme and basil take over your senses. The scent along, completely disregarding the flavor, is reason along to start growing lemon thyme.

Lemon Thyme and Basil Scones

Lemon Thyme and Basil Scones

Lemon Thyme and Basil Scones

Ingredients

  • 2 cups self rising flour
  • 3 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh lemon thyme
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter, grated
  • 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven 450°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, sift together flour and salt. Mix in fresh herbs.
Break up butter by running it through a cheese grater. Rub into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk and knead until all ingredients are incorporated and the dough is smooth.
Turn out onto floured surface (this can be lightly floured as the dough is pretty self-contained) and pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Cut out into scones (5 cm) and place on baking sheet. Recombine scraps and continue cutting out additional scones. Bake for 8 minutes until beginning to toast on the edges. Turn out to cool on a wire rack immediately.

IMG_4197 These scones became the base for another recipe that I am really excited to share with you…just wait and see!

Jun 23 2013

Recipe: Beer and Cheddar Scones

Author: Jenna

Let’s talk savories for a second.

Who said scones had to be sweet? Yes it’s more common to find a blueberry scone or a cherry scone than a beer scone or a cheddar scone, but it certainly isn’t unheard of. The very first scones might actually have been savory, made with a simple dough of wheat flour, baking powder or baking soda, butter, milk, and eggs. How the sweet scone became more common or more popular than the savory scone is a question for the historians, but we here at Once Upon an Afternoon Tea refuse to follow the hoards!

So we made some savory scones for you :)

Beer and cheddar scones to be exact. The perfect “Man Scone” for convincing the menfolk that scones are not only for girls and afternoon tea. Made with a strong English white cheddar and an Irish ale, these scones are very…moreish…and sure to be a hit amongst the sporting men in our lives.

Smithwick Irish Ale and English Coastal Cheddar

Smithwick Irish Ale and English Coastal Cheddar

Just don’t call them scones until after they’ve demolished the batch.

The beer lends the scones a surprisingly tasty yeast flavor (after all beer is made using yeast), and the hints of beer blend perfectly with the hints of the strong white cheddar. Beer and cheese are a common combination at Super Bowl parties–think of the guys on the couch drinking a brew with some deep fried cheese appetizer in front of them and the television–so it was only natural that they complement each other in scone form as well.

These savory scones are obviously not going to be topped with clotted cream, but eating them alone may be too salty for some. A few fun ideas for uses that we came up with: spicy hot links and make sausage sliders using the scones as buns, accompanying a red based soup like tomato, chili, or stew, butter, an ice cold beer. Oooo! Lightbulb! Gastropubs should serve these scones as a bar appetizer! They can be made bite sized and are the perfect munchies for sophisticated beer pairings. Cheese goes with wine, why not Beer and Cheddar scones with beer? Let’s make that happen.

Beer and Cheddar Scones

Beer and Cheddar Scones

Beer and Cheddar Scones

Ingredients

  • 200 g self rising flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 80 g white English cheddar (we used Coastal White Cheddar from Costco; in England look for something similar to Cern Abbas)
  • 120-140 mL beer (we used Smithwick Irish Ale)

Preheat oven to 220°C or 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Sift together the flour and salt. Grate the cheese with a small grater. Add to the flour mixture.
Add in enough beer to form a dough and knead until smooth.
Turn out onto a floured work surface and pat down to desired thickness (as usual, 1 cm). Cut out with a scone cutter (5 cm) and place on baking sheet. Knead the scraps back together and repeat until the majority of the dough has been turned into scones. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until cheese is oozing out and tops are beginning to brown.
I’m sure that any combination of beer and cheddar selections will work together well; we just happened to have Coastal cheddar around the house and chose a beer from the British Isles to keep in theme. Feel free to experiment.
These smell amazing and yeasty coming out of the oven. Serve these, and you’ll have men begging you to invite them for tea!
Jun 16 2013

Recipe: Strawberry White Chocolate Coconut Scones

Author: Jenna

They say that inspiration comes from everywhere around us, and I’d agree. I am constantly walking along, minding my business, when out of the orange colored sky, FLASH! I see something that inspires a new scone flavor. It literally happens anywhere.

This combination has a magical inspiration behind it. Disneyland, in fact. During the strawberry harvest, Disneyland’s candy makers cover the most gigantic sweet strawberries in the world with the most incredible dark, milk, and white chocolate coatings. They were probably the most delicious fresh made treats those candy makers could have offered us. And my favorite coating–which I haven’t found in years–was the white chocolate and coconut covered strawberry.

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

These scones were my attempt to recapture that incredible flavor of a childhood treat, and I have bad news for you: say good bye to your waistline and apologize to your friends now because not only will you not share these, but you will eat the whole batch in an unprecedentedly short time span. I brought some in for a few of my coworkers to taste test, and already their parents are requesting them (though how the parents snagged a bite I’ll never know). Rest assured coworkers, I’ll be bringing these to the staff meeting this week.

You’d think that based on the combination of sweet flavors from white chocolate, sweetened coconut flakes, and strawberries (again from Harry’s Berries) this scone would be cavity-inducing sweet, but since the base is my basic cream scone, there is a pleasant mildly salty element to counteract the sugar. Which makes them totally acceptable for mass consumption, right?

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

Strawberry White Chocolate Coconut Scones

Ingredients

  • 200 g self rising flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 50 g ultrafine baking sugar
  • 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
  • 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, divided
  • 150 mL heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 220°C or 450°F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Sift together flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add sugar. Toss in strawberries, white chocolate, and 1/4 cup coconut until well distributed.
Work in whipping cream until all ingredients are fully combined. This is a very wet dough! Don’t worry you didn’t do anything wrong.
Turn out onto a heavily floured workspace and knead a few times. Pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Dip scone cutter in more flour before cutting scones out (5 cm) and placing on baking sheet. THIS IS ESSENTIAL. Because the scone dough is so wet, you need a hefty additional amount of flour to make everything manageable when kneading and cutting. Knead offcuts back together and repeat process until most of the dough is used.
Brush tops of scones with water and sprinkle remaining coconut on tops.
Bake 8-10 minutes until starting to brown. These scones don’t rise, but they do spread out so make sure you have left some space in between the scones on the baking sheets.
Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool.
These scones not only don’t require a topping of cream or jam, but a topping would probably ruin them (way too many flavors in too small of a package) so forego any clotted cream, curds, or jams when serving these scones. Their deliciousness speaks for itself.
Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

And make about 4 batches at a time, just to be safe 😉

Jun 09 2013

Recipe: Zebra Scones

Author: Jenna
Zebra Scones

What’s black and white and red all over? A chocolate and cream scone topped with strawberry jam!

Did you laugh? I know you probably didn’t. I know I’m not that funny. Sad Face Moment.

If you did laugh at my joke, that means you get scones! Though since I’m not a cruel person, if you didn’t laugh you can have scones too. There is no reason in the world to deprive a person of enjoying a scone, particularly when chocolate is involved.

Zebra Scone atop a cream and a double chocolate scone. It's a Scone Tower!

Zebra Scone atop a cream and a double chocolate scone. It’s a Scone Tower!

This recipe came around when Mom and I made double chocolate scones and had some leftover double chocolate scone dough after rekneading and recutting the scraps. As it so happens, we also had some leftover cream scone dough for the same reason. It was my humble mother who doesn’t give herself enough credit who came up with the idea to combine the two scraps, and Zebra Scones were born.

These scones have the same great texture and rise as my go-to cream scone recipe but the flavor has an extra richness from the dark chocolate throughout. Anything with chocolate immediately lends itself well to something fruity and red, so these are a natural base for some strawberry or raspberry jam. Plus, since the cream portion is a tad savory and the chocolate half is a bitter dark chocolate, the sugar in the jam is a delicious treat.

And I dare you to come up with a better joke than mine 😉

Zebra Scones

Zebra Scones

Zebra Scones (Chocolate and Cream)

For cream scone dough:

Ingredients

  • 200 g self raising flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 50 g ultrafine sugar
  • 150 mL heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 220°C or 450°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Sift together flour and salt. Add sugar and mix. Incorporate the whipping cream and knead until ingredients form a dough. Continue kneading until dough has just become smooth. Cover with a dish towel and set aside.

For the double chocolate dough:

Ingredients

  • 100 mL heavy whipping cream
  • 60 g dark chocolate
  • 200 g all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 50 g ultrafine baking sugar
  • 80-100 mL water

Pour cream into a microwave safe bowl. Break chocolate into pieces and add to cream. Microwave on high for 1 minute, stirring afterwards until the chocolate melts into the cream and is smooth. Set aside and allow to come to room temperature.

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and mix.

Pour in the chocolate cream and mix until dough is beginning to moisten and cream is incorportated. Stir in just enough water to fully combine dough and knead until smooth.

Knead together the two doughs (cream scones and chocolate scones) until you get a swirled/striped/speckled/zebra effect. You do not want the doughs to fully blend with each other or else you won’t get the fun color contrast.

Roll out dough onto a floured surface. Pat down to desired thickness (1 cm) and use a floured scone cutter (5 cm) to cut scones and place on baking sheets. Bake scones for 6-8 minutes until risen and browning on top slightly. Remove immediately to cool on a wire rack.

Top with a sweet, red fruit jam and think of funny, possible punny, jokes. Leave said joke in comments under recipe because yours are just that much better than mine.

E.T. Scone Home!

Jun 02 2013

Recipe: Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Author: Jenna

My favorite fruit is strawberries, but this comes with a problem. When strawberries are bad, they are terrible, tart, and tasteless. Luckily, the strawberries sold at my local farmer’s market are the best strawberries you will ever taste. Gaviotas they are called by the farmers at Harry’s Berries, but they should be called Perfection. These are the most incredible strawberries I have ever tasted.

So naturally, I had to turn them into scones. Only logical progression, right?

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Gaviotas are incredibly sweet on their own and have a very strong flavor, so I felt that my usual scone recipe would have a too marked taste itself to meld with the strawberries. The two would be battling for supremacy, not enhancing each other’s deliciousness. Instead, I chose to mellow the scone’s flavor using a mascarpone cheese base and adding vanilla bean paste for supporting the Gaviotas.

Mascarpone is a mild Italian cream cheese reminiscent of butter or British clotted cream (that wonderful spread that improves almost any scone); using it as the binding agent and fat source in the dough made for a wonderfully creamy and delicate scone. The scone’s interior will literally melt in your mouth as the essence of the strawberries permeates every bite.

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Strawberries–or at least this variety–are an interesting fruit to bake with. Most berries seem to become almost more tart and brightened once heated, but these strawberries seemed to mellow. Maybe it was the mascarpone and vanilla’s influences, but these strawberry scones were not strawberry-candy-esque, but rather the summer British dessert of Strawberries and Cream turned into a scone.

These are perfect for a sophisticated, feminine occasion like a baby shower tea party. Do not top with anything other than the thinnest layer of clotted cream. The scones are moist enough to not need a topping, and an additional flavor will overwhelm the soft strawberries.

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Ingredients

  • 200 g all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 50 g ultrafine baking sugar
  • 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla paste or 1 scraped vanilla bean
  • 200 g mascarpone
  • 1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 220°C or 450°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add sugar and mix until well blended. Toss in strawberries until they are well dispersed.
Work in the vanilla paste and mascarpone until the dough has formed even sized clumps. Sprinkle water over dough and knead until clumps come together. This is an extremely wet dough.
Place on a heavily floured work surface and pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Cut out scones with a cutter (5 cm) dipped in more flour and place on baking sheet. Knead scraps back together and repeat until the majority of the dough has been used. In between kneading rounds, replenish the work surface’s flour coating.
Bake for 7-9 minutes until lightly browned on top. These will rise only a little bit.
Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Savor.
May 26 2013

Recipe: Butter-Me-Up Scones

Author: Jenna

Sometimes plain and simple is just what the doctor ordered. Though I doubt any doctor would encourage consuming massive quantities of these buttery goodness morsels, therapists definitely would. What could be a better mood elevator than one of these crunchy, fluffy, creamy, butter scones topped with a sweet red fruit preserve and thick clotted cream?

Answer: Nothing. Duh.

Most scones I make have heavy whipping cream as their liquid base, but these scones use butter and sour cream to give them that slightly salty tang that sets them apart. Their tops get a little brown and crunchy (which can be enhanced with an optional egg wash that I chose to forego) and just beg for a topping. They may be simple, but I prefer to call them classic. They rise quite a bit, like a solid scone should, and have a pretty amazingly light crumb interior.

These are great scones to taste test jams and curds on because their flavor is not overwhelming but rather complementary to anything you put on it. The slight amount of salt will really enhance any spread’s sweetness, all the more reason to try some lemon curd on these wonders!

Butter-Me-Up Scones

Butter-Me-Up Scones

Butter-Me-Up Crunchy Butter Scones

Ingredients

  • 200 g all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsps baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 70 g unsalted butter, softened and cubed
  • 50 g ultrafine baking sugar
  • 50 g sour cream
  • 70-90 mL whole milk

Preheat oven to 220°C (450°F). Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs in texture (this may take awhile). Add in sugar and sour cream, then the milk–enough to form a dough. Knead until almost smooth.
Place on a floured surface and pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Use a biscuit cutter to cut out scones of desired width (5 cm). Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Let rest for 10 minutes.
Bake for about 8 minutes, until browned on the edges.
Serve with strawberry jam or lemon curd. Or eat plain 😉