Articles

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
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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. 

Continue Reading…

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 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
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!