Our Favorite Scones

by | Apr 9, 2005 | Journaler | 0 comments

Today we are taking a break from the allergy-free dishes, and the kids asked for one of their favorites: scones. My recipe comes from Cook’s Illustrated’s/America’s Test Kitchen’s The Best Recipe, and I’m paraphrasing the instructions here for copyright reasons:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Whisk together first five ingredients in a bowl. Cut in butter using fingertips or pastry cutter. Pour in milk and mix lightly with a fork. Turn onto floured board or counter, knead VERY VERY lightly, just until dough comes together, about 4 turns. Cut into wedges using a bench knife or other straight-edged knife, quickly pressing edge down into dough to minimize breakage, and transfer wedges onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until golden.

Cook’s tips:

  • The original recipe suggests that FINGERTIPS be used to cut the butter into the flour. I don’t find this at all necessary as long as you remember that quick breads like this need a light touch. If you mix the dough just until it comes together, you’ll be fine. Don’t try to mix every lump of butter in, not every particle of flour has to be incorporated, and so on. I think the biscuit instructions in the book Baking with Julia says it best (paraphrasing here): when you think it needs one more fold, or knead, or turn: STOP.
  • I used 1% milk to cut down on the fat. Whole milk obviously makes a richer dough, but for our purposes 1% works well.
  • As mentioned in The Best Recipe, British scones are usually served with jam on the side, which my children are not particularly fond of, or at least not on a regular basis, so I add the suggest 2 more tablespoons of sugar to make 1/4 cup, making for a sweeter scone which Americans generally prefer, as they usually (according to the book) like their scones with just a touch of butter and not much else.
  • Organic ingredients preferred, for reasons stated in Why Organic?
  • The original recipe also suggests brushing the wedges with milk, or water, but this procedure is optional.

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