Articles

Jul 27 2014

Review: The T Room

Author: Jenna

It all started when some friends and myself needed food after a round of mini golf and found ourselves driving past a tearoom that wasn’t on my To Review list. So when my best friend and fellow tea aficionado came back from a trip to England, what better way to catch up than over afternoon tea at this little find?

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First Impressions and Service

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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.