Fancy A Scone?
And yes, I went (back) there....
The Joys of Baking Season
It’s Christmastide! I’m in the thick of baking season. Pies and cakes for special nights. Sourdough at dinner time. Cookies for Sunday snacks (and perhaps a few weekdays… I‘ll admit). Cornbread and maple sausage for lunch (why not?), and scones and eggs for breakfast. Everything with that tasty Irish butter that I stocked up upon when it was on sale (it freezes beautifully). After 40 days of St. Martin’s Lent right before Christmas, I’m thoroughly and thankfully enjoying this more plentiful season of carnival (within reason, of course!). I can’t believe we’re nearly to Candlemas (Feb. 2nd), which ends this traditional 40 days of celebration. But before we get there, let me share my love of scones with you… and my recipe!
I don’t remember my first scone… possibly at a coffee shop somewhere. I’m not sure I was much impressed. Pie is my ultimate delicacy… anything involving buttery carbs mixed with fruit is still pretty good in my book. But until an Anglophile roommate and I started trying to make scones ourselves, I hadn’t really remarked that particular pastry. Ours were pretty good- quite fluffy (“Fluffier than Most” was our tagline for them), but really too eggy for an authentic scone recipe. It called for three eggs! That’s a little much. I eventually stumbled on a recipe from the Joy of Baking, for cream scones. It only involved one egg. And only 1/3 cup butter, and 1/4 cup sugar per batch. That didn’t sound too unhealthy to me… which justified making them more often! I’ve tinkered with the recipe a bit over the years until coming to my ideal (or rather my husband’s) texture. You can make them plain vanilla, add in spices of your choice, fruit of your choice (either dried or fresh) or even substitute a quarter cup of yogurt for pumpkin purée and make pumpkin scones!
Mama’s Vanilla Scones
Printable Version- scroll down to the Downloads section!
Adapted from a few recipes! Feel free to add in 1/2 c fresh, frozen, or dried fruit after the wet ingredients are mixed in a little, at the end.
Ingredients:
2c Flour (240 g)
2tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 c Sugar
1 Egg- lightly beaten
1.5 tsp Vanilla
1/4 cup Plain whole yogurt (62 g)
1/4 cup Whole milk (60 g)
5 1/3 tbs Cold Butter (76 g)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 F
Line a baking sheet with parchment
In a big bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together! Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine
1 Egg- lightly beaten & vanilla
Set aside.
In a liquid measuring cup, mix
1/2 cup yogurt + milk
In the large flour bowl, grate in:
the Cold Butter and stir with your whisk or a fork until it’s evenly distributed.
Make a well in the flour mix. Pour in egg mixture and most of the dairy mix. Stir with a fork until just combined. If you can pinch the mix and it holds without being too crumbly or dry, then stop adding dairy. If not, mix in the rest of the dairy.* Using your hands (gloves help!), pat into a disc shape and fold in half. Keep folding in half until the mix is evenly moist. Pat into a round disc about 2-3” thick. Place on a cutting board and using a sharp knife, chop in eighths, like a wheel. Place board/dough into the freezer for 5-10 minutes to rest. Then place unbaked scones on the baking sheet about 2” apart, brush tops with any leftover egg or dairy, and bake for 15-17 minutes until golden.
*if you start folding and it’s still really dry, add another tablespoon of milk or so.
Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Enjoy! Top with jam, clotted cream or lemon curd for that extra English experience. ;) And a cuppa tea, of course!
There you go! A lovely warm treat for these chilly days… And it is certainly chilly here!
Annnd… I’m back on Instagram! Wow- I don’t think I’m cool enough for it these days. I feel like an old lady trying to send an email for the first time. How does this new-fangled thing work???
I managed to stay away for five mostly peaceful years, but I’ll easily admit my reach dwindled in that time, and as a sole-proprietor artist, one must do some better marketing. Especially since my husband and I have a big project in the works. I’m super excited to share that… soonish! But anyhow, please come over and say ‘hi’ if you are there. And do all the following and liking things, if those are still things. I’m going to try to use it in as limited a manner as I can, so I will eventually say hi back!
More to come in the coming days! Thanks so much for reading, and even more to those who have subscribed.
-Adalee