When you're not eating sugar for four weeks, you don't only miss eating delicious things but you miss baking. So, I found a recipe that was fun to make but only has 3 tablespoons sugar (that doesn't count). I've never made scones before or really thought about them, actually. But I had breakfast with Hope at the Cannon center the other day and they had the most delicious blueberry scones. So I went to my favorite recipe source, the American Test Kitchen cookbook, and tried out their recipe. It has all the qualities the scone critiques hunt for in good scones--light and fluffy, perfect amount of sweetness, barely crispy exterior.
Cream Scones
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, I used bread flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup currants (I used dried cranberries, and chopped them into smaller bits)
1 cup heavy cream
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.
2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.
3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in currants. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Add currants and pulse one more time. Transfer dough to large bowl.
4. Stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
5. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form scones by either a) pressing the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cutting the dough into 8 wedges with either a knife or bench scraper (the book’s suggestion) or b) patting the dough onto a lightly floured work surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle, cutting pieces with a biscuit cutter, and pressing remaining scraps back into another piece (what I did, because little circles just seemed cuter than wedges) and cutting until dough has been used up.
6. Place rounds or wedges on ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light brown, about 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Best eaten warm, but good at room temp, too.
Cream Scones
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, I used bread flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup currants (I used dried cranberries, and chopped them into smaller bits)
1 cup heavy cream
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.
2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.
3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in currants. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Add currants and pulse one more time. Transfer dough to large bowl.
4. Stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
5. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form scones by either a) pressing the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cutting the dough into 8 wedges with either a knife or bench scraper (the book’s suggestion) or b) patting the dough onto a lightly floured work surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle, cutting pieces with a biscuit cutter, and pressing remaining scraps back into another piece (what I did, because little circles just seemed cuter than wedges) and cutting until dough has been used up.
6. Place rounds or wedges on ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light brown, about 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Best eaten warm, but good at room temp, too.
Yes, this is what I do on Friday nights--take pictures of things I bake. I'm trying to get better at food photography.
The little kitchen all these recipes come from, and the beautiful girls who help me (Jamie, Emily, and Brooke).
No comments:
Post a Comment