Cream Scones
The British are made famous for many things: Winston Churchill, fish and chips, those funny red telephone booths, the Beatles. Perhaps the most overlooked of British contributions to the world’s culinary repertoire is afternoon tea. Tiny sandwiches that adorably fit on little tea saucers and the best part of all: scones.
While I of course had heard of scones growing up, I did not have the pleasure of trying them until I made them myself a few years ago. [What’s up with that mom? Scones are delightful!] What a discovery! They are light and fluffy and can be filled with other delicious things: whipped cream, jams, jellies, lemon curd. The possibilities are endlessly delicious.
Scones may be less popular in North America, because they are not the quickest to make. This recipe, while not difficult, does involve a few extra steps than say a biscuit. I implore you though to make them once as directed. The light yet rich result may convince you to add them to your regular repertoire.
As opposed to most cream scone recipes, this recipe has you actually whip the cream before incorporating it into the batter, resulting in a much fluffier scone. It also requires you to incorporate the butter by hand, as opposed to a pastry cutter or processor. Again, this is a little time consuming but I do believe the end result benefits from it.
The recipe below is for plain scones. You can make a variety of flavours by adding in ingredients to the dry ingredients, before incorporating the cream and honey. The scones photographed here are lemon poppy seed. See the list of possible add-ins at the end of the recipe.
Cream Scones
Fine Cooking
1 cup plus 2 tsp chilled heavy cream,
2 1/3 cups (10-5/8 oz) all-purpose flour, more if needed
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder (preferably aluminum free)
1/2 tsp table salt
10 Tbsp (5 oz) chilled unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp honey
1 Tbsp turbinado sugar or granulated sugar
Chill a medium metal mixing bowl and the beaters of an electric hand mixer (or the bowl and whisk attachment of a stand mixer) in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. Beat 1 cup of the cream in a chilled bowl on medium-high speed just until soft peaks form, 1½- 2½ minutes. Keep chilled while you mix the other ingrediants.
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat the oven to 400 F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and toss with your fingers to coat. Press the butter between your fingers to form very thin flakes, tossing them back in the flour mixture between passes until all of the butter is pressed into dime-size flakes.
Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the whipped cream and honey. Use a silicone spatula to fold the ingredients together until incorporated.
Lightly knead the dough in the bowl until it just holds together. Turn it out onto a lightly floured counter. Gently knead it a few more times, then transfer it to a 9 inch cake pan lined with plastic wrap and pat it into a flat disk (or shape it by hand on a cutting board into a 9 x 3/4 inch disk). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Invert the dough onto a cutting board and remove the plastic. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 even wedges. Arrange the wedges 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. brush the scones with the remaining 2 tsp cream and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar. Bake the scones until lightly browned on top, 15-20 minutes.
Spread on a lint-free towel on a large wire rack and put the baked scones on top. Fold the towel over loosly and allow the scones to coll until warm or at room temperature before serving.
Note: The uncooked scones can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days before cooking. Cooked scones can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for 2 days, or frozen for 3 months. Reheat frozen scones in a 300F oven for 20 minutes or until warm in the center and crunchy on the outside.
Flavouring ideas: Mix any of the following flavour additions to the dry ingredients:
- Currant Scones: Add ½ cup dried currents
- Lemon-Poppy Seed Scones: Add 1½ Tbsp of poppy seeds and 1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
- Cranberry Orange Scones: Add 3/4 cup dried cranberries and 1 Tbsp finely grated orange zest
- Ginger Scones: add 1 tsp powdered ginger, 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest, and 2/3 cup candied ginger cut into 1/8-1/4 pieces.