Cream
Scones are lovely warm from the oven, served with jam and clotted or
whipped cream. The perfect Cream Scone has a crisp exterior with an interior
that is light and fluffy with a rich buttery flavor. If you find
making scones a challenge, I have turned to a few experts to see
what advise they can give us.
First, from the U.K., Tamasin
Day-Lewis in her excellent book "Tamasin's Kitchen Bible" gives us a
few tips. She tells us it is best if all the ingredients are cold,
to add the liquid to the dry ingredients all at once, and then to
mix everything together quickly and lightly. Next, Australian
Stephanie Alexander in "The Cook's Companion" gives us good advise
when cutting the scones. She says if we twist the cutter through the
scone dough, rather than cutting straight down, the scones will rise
higher during baking. So with this information in mind, let's get
baking.
As I said above, Cream Scones are lovely with clotted cream and
jam. But there are other ways to serve these scones. For example, if you
don't have clotted cream, these scones are
delicious with softly whipped cream and jam, or even with butter and jam.
Other times you may want to spread them with
a tangy lemon curd. They
can also be used to make Strawberry Shortcake. Just split the scones in half and fill with lightly sweetened strawberries and
whipped cream.
If you are
unfamiliar with Devonshire (or Devon) Cream, it is a thick,
rich, yellowish cream with a lovely sweet flavor that contains about
60% butterfat. This clotted cream is produced commercially in Devon,
Cornwall, and Somerset England. At one time it was quite difficult
to find in North America but that is not the case today. You
can find it not only in specialty food stores but also in a lot of
regular grocery stores (in the deli section). But even if you cannot find it or it is too
expensive, an excellent alternative is make the 'mock'
Devonshire Cream recipe on the
site or just whip some heavy cream with a little sugar and vanilla
extract.
Cream Scones:
Preheat
oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place the rack in the middle of
the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large
bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter
into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender, two
knives, or with your fingertips. (The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.) In a small measuring cup
whisk together the milk or cream, beaten egg and vanilla. Add this mixture to the
flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Do not over mix.
Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead
the
dough gently four or five times and then pat into a 7 inch (18 cm) round.
Then, using a lightly floured 2 1/2 inch (6.5 cm) round cookie cutter, cut the dough into
rounds. Place the rounds on the prepared cookie sheet, spacing a few inches
apart. Brush the tops of the scones with a little cream.
(This helps to brown the tops of the scones during baking.)
Bake
for about 15 - 18 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center
of a scone comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Serve with Devon cream or softly whipped cream and
your favorite jam. These scones
are best the day they are made but can be covered and stored for a few days.
They also freeze very well.
Makes about 10 - 2 1/2 inch (6.5 cm) round scones.
Use of materials on
all pages on the domains Joyofbaking.com,
the Joyofbaking.com Facebook
Page, the
Joyofbaking1 YouTube
Channel and any emails sent from @joyofbaking.com
are
entirely at the risk of the user and their owner, iFood Media LLC
will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly resulting
from the use.
References
cited may include a link to purchase the referenced book or item on Amazon.com.
Joyofbaking.com receives a commission on any purchases resulting from these
links.
This
website and the contents are not endorsed or sponsored by the owner of the
"Joy of Cooking" series of books or its publisher Simon & Schuster, Inc.
and is not related to the "Joy the Baker" books and website.
Video icons by Asher.
Content in any form may
not be copied or used without written permission of Stephanie Jaworski,
Joyofbaking.com. Students and non profit educators may use content without
permission with proper credit.