Baking Recipes,  Biscuits & scones,  The Breakfast Bin,  Timeless Treats

{The Breakfast Bin} Truly Dreamy Cream Scones

I am not done with the breakfast posts apparently.

I guess you can call me “Breakfast Girl”. I could miss meals for the rest of the day, just do not make me miss breakfast. I can get really cranky or less energetic the rest of the day, especially if I don’t get my coffee fix in the morning. Breakfast here at home is usually composed of sandwiches, rice meals and oatmeal- a different thing for different people- but occasionally we will add something else to that combination. Whenever I can haul myself off the bed really early to whip something up, that is. It’s harder to do with cold weather though! (Good thing summer is fast-approaching over here.)


I like making scones a lot because I can prepare the dough in advance, then leave them in the freezer until I’m ready to bake them. All I would need to do then is wake up slightly earlier than usual and get the scones in the oven; right before my brothers clamour down the stairs for breakfast. I’ve done it several times already but this is probably the first time I overbaked my scones, not to mention even slightly burnt their bottoms! But because these are the Dreamy Cream Scones, they were still absolutely positively phenomenal-tasting. Ha! Take that oven!

Okay, clearly it was not the oven’s fault. (I love my overworked oven!) I didn’t hear my oven’s alarm go off because I might have drifted off to sleep was meditating. Yes, yes, let’s go with that.

So as you can see, my scones are a bit more golden than usual, almost brown actually. You’re supposed to bake them only until they are slightly brown at the edges to avoid burning the bottoms, but my browning them actually led me to a pleasant discovery.

If anything, the scones are only slightly firmer and even a little crunchy from being overbaked. One of the best scones I’ve ever made in fact! The texture has a graininess reminiscent of cornmeal pastries (and you know how much I love my cornmeal!); the sweetness is just right; and it remained soft inside despite my overcooking it. The interior looked amazing, with that lovely crumb and those bright red jewels of cranberry… Dreamy indeed!

The only tough thing to do here is handling the dough should you decide to cut them with a biscuit cutter. The dough is fairly sticky, damp and soft. But really that’s a minor thing that anyone can think up a solution to.

Dreamy Cream Scones

These scones are absolutely divine! The only tough thing to do here is handling the dough as it is fairly sticky, damp and soft. But really that’s a minor thing when you can get to eat scones as amazing as these!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour*
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
  • 1/3 cup currants, such as dried cranberries
  • 1 cup heavy cream

Instructions

  • 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F (220°C).
  • 2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl a large bowl and whisk together.
  • 3. Using two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips, quickly cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in the currants.
  • 4. Stir in heavy cream with a fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
  • 5. Transfer the dough and all remaining dry bits to countertop and knead dough by hand, trying not to work too much flour into the dough, just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. The dough will be sticky.
  • 6. Form scones by either pressing the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and cutting the dough into 8 wedges; or you can pat the dough into a 3/4-inch thick circle then cut with a biscuit cutter. Press the remaining scraps back into another round then cut until no more scraps remain.**
  • 7. Place rounds or wedges on ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

* I replaced 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, though you can use any regular whole wheat flour or none at all.
** The first time I made these, after shaping my scones, I froze them on a lined baking sheet covered with plastic wrap. The next day, before I baked the scones, I preheated my oven for about 10 minutes, taking out the scones from the freezer in the duration of the preheating to defrost a little bit. You may want to add a few minutes to the baking time as well in this case.
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen blog
I made these scones again without freezing them so I can see if there might be a difference. I did not overbake this time and it was perfect! A little less crunchy on the outside of course, but pillowy soft on the inside. It was divine eaten warm.

I must admit though, I kind of missed the firmness of the scones when I over-browned them on my first try. Maybe I should bake them a little longer next time, rotating the pans occasionally to prevent burnt bottoms. I also think my scones are a little too thin (I patted it into a 1/2-inch round, I guess), because instead of cutting into 8 to make lovely think scones, I cut into 12 flatter ones. Delicious nonetheless!

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.