Articles

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.

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!

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

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

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

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

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 16 2013

Review: Teaism in Washington, DC

Author: Jenna

I was on vacation! As many tearooms as I have found and intend on visiting all around Los Angeles, it was exciting to have the chance to expand to another coast. And surely with Washington DC being closer to England than is LA, afternoon tea would be a common find.

Teaism Penn Quarter

Not so much.

But I was able to find an Asian tearoom just north of the Mall for a quickie review. Teaism was conveniently located, yet there was the one hiccup of my dad and brother being along for the trip and they were adamant that I was not dragging them along to an afternoon tea. I told them it was for a good cause—you—but they continued to refuse. So due to time constraints, I was only able to pop in for a glass of tea and a scone taste; even from this seemingly meager sampling, though, I think I got the measure of the place.

First Impressions and Service

I had to relook at my map because this store didn’t seem like a tearoom that serves afternoon tea. I mean, there was a takeaway counter and the menu printed above the cashier. Eventually I saw the stairs leading down, so although I doubt there is a formal dining room a la Langham Pasadena, there is probably enough seating there to serve the proper number of courses.

I can see it being a popular lunch spot.

Nothing was what I expected at all. You have to order at a counter and they call out your number when your food is ready. I don’t know if that is how they serve afternoon tea as well, but for a make-our-own cream tea the kitchen rang a bell when our scones were plated. Service is pretty nondescript. I asked a few question; the cashier made adequate answers. There was no warmth to the place at all.

Décor

There is a second floor below; maybe it’s more formal?

Everything is painted in nice, cheerful colors of yellows and oranges, pleasant but not too much as to burn your retinas. Bright woods and gray stone complement the design. The main room is laid out just like you would expect in a lunch café: basic tables and chairs spread out with no real rhyme or reason. The menu is in removable slats above the cashier and doesn’t have any descriptions of what you are eating; they have printed menus that are more detailed. Despite being an Asian tearoom, nothing is over-the-top Asian decoration. It just looks like a nice escape from the humidity of DC.

Tea Selection

They have a fair number of teas (and also beer and wine if your interested) in all the major categories. They put more of an emphasis on straight, nonflavored teas but there are some options if you prefer a taste of something other than straight Silver Needle. Everyday they offer unlimited refills of a house chosen black tea, green tea, and tisane. Washington DC was ridiculously humid so Mom and I both went with the Berry Tisane.

Daily Special: Unlimited Berry Tisane

Lightly sweetened and mildly tart, the berry drink was so refreshing it was perfect. Of course, at that point anything iced might have made our taste buds do a happy dance. We attempted to be objective and both agreed that the dash of lime was very brightening and enjoyable.

Food

They offer an extensive meal menu, very PanAsian cuisine. For afternoon teas served only between 2:30-5:30, there is an Asian menu and a traditional menu. Again due to time constraints we couldn’t partake in a full service, so we stuck with tasting their only two scone flavors: ginger and carrot cake.

That’s right, no plain or cranberry scones here. No clotted cream either, you are served with butter and orange marmalade and honey. The ginger scone was rather bitter, not like the ginger scone from The Scarlet Tea Room, and texturally tasted like the scones had been baked the day before. Stale and crumbly, this scone was left abandoned on our plate after only a few bites. We just discovered that we like ginger scones, so it was quite a disappointment.

Ginger Scone; Carrot Cake Scone

The carrot cake scone at least tasted fresh and moist. And it did taste like a cross between a carrot cake and a scone. I know, you say duh isn’t that the point? But so many baked goods or candies that are supposed to taste like a different type of baked good or sweet just don’t come close. These did. They weren’t overly sweet, had just enough spice to evoke carrot cake, and there were actual shreds of carrots in them. I think that carrot cake requires cream cheese frosting, so this might have actually gone well with clotted cream (or just give me cream cheese frosting in an IV and I’ll take care of the rest).

It may seem like saying we are glad we didn’t come for a full afternoon tea is a hasty answer, but between the unwelcoming staff, fast-food fast-meal atmosphere, and only one good scone, we doubt that an afternoon tea here would’ve been anything special. But some of their lunch offerings sounded tasty so I’d be willing to try the full service just for the experience.

Visit Teasim at 400 8^th St. NW, Washington DC, 20004 (202) 638-6010.

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.

But 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

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.

Jul 07 2013

Recipe: Honey, Blueberry, White Cheddar Scones

Author: Jenna

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.

This 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, 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.

You 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.

A 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?

Um, 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

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.

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

Jun 28 2013

Which Comes First? The Jam or the Cream?

Author: Jenna

It’s a variation on the age old question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? But of course, since it concerns scones and clotted cream and jam, it is a way more important question than that concerning poultry.

When topping a scone, do you layer cream and then jam, or jam and then cream? Does it truly matter? Which way is the traditional or correct way to top a scone?

Well, there is actual an old rivalry that is still raging today over the proper way to top a scone with clotted cream and jam (though everyone does agree that the jam should be a homemade strawberry for the most authentic delight). And the two epicenters are the same places that battle over their superiority in clotted cream.

The Cornish Way.
Photo credit www.hungryhinny.wordpress.com

In Cornwall, they believe that the scone should be topped with the jam first followed by the clotted cream. Some cheeky reasons from the Cornish? “Because we are proud of it, Devonians are slightly ashamed of theirs so they cover it up with jam” says one grandfather. Whether or not that’s true, the Cornish all agree that the jam goes on first and is then topped with a dollop of Rodda’s Cornish cream. If it isn’t Rodda’s, it’s not Cornish.

The Devonshire Way
Photo credit www.newcastleeats.co.uk

Devon, on the other hand, tells the Cornish to stick with their pasties because the jam definitely goes on top of the cream. Otherwise, they insist, clotted cream will end up on your nose and they also compare it to bread. In their logic no one puts jam on top of bread and then butter on top of the jam, so why would one do that with cream and scones? Both sides make a fair point, but neither side is going to budge their position any time soon.

I personally follow the Devonshire way of cream and then jam, but I don’t pretend that this is some statement on authenticity or tradition. It’s more of habit and I think it looks prettier than anything else. What about you? Are you a Devonian or a Cornish person?

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

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

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!

The Art of Afternoon Tea from Los Angeles and Beyond