Scones and Daily Life

You know what never makes any sense to me? Biscuits like hockey pucks.


We had a guest in the house from Friday morning to Sunday morning and when my son and his friend woke up on Saturday, I had the sudden realization that I had nothing really to feed them for breakfast. Teens and no breakfast cereal, not a good move. Since I really didn't want to give them more money to walk to our local deli for food, I decided to make some biscuits. I'm thinking, buttery, flaky, slightly sweet, etc. Who wouldn't want to eat those for breakfast right? WRONG. Hockey pucks. Yes, I confess, I did use biscuit mix. (And no, not the name brand one, but the slightly off name brand one). But that shouldn't matter. I used biscuit mix. To make, oh yes, biscuits. And they were hockey pucks. (word to the wise, teens eat them anyway). But I was disappointed and not about to let this go.


This opened up a two day hunt for biscuit recipes, which it turns out, wasn't what I really wanted, I wanted scones. True British biscuits, lovely flaky texture, and ....flavor. What flavor? I Googled scones and many hundred thousand web pages opened up to me. I decided to go to just one area and make a full search to see if I could find what I wanted.


I decided, since the search seemed endless, to stay for some time on Recipezaar. If you haven't been there yet, do so. It is not necessarily "the" website for professional chefs to find the newest, and best thing for the restaurant. But it is a great place for the home cook. These are the recipes people share with their friends, give out at pot luck suppers and give as gifts. Some require some tweaking as what one man deems "wonderful", another will say "tolerable", and if you are a professional, you probably can see where the flaws in the recipes are. I could. I also was amazed at the choices and things you could find. Also, just because a recipe "looks" weird, don't dismiss it completely. Remember some of the things grandma used to make? You'll probably find that recipe here.


I entered scones in their easy to use search feature and came up with 871 recipes. And I did at least read all of the titles. I could have narrowed the search down, but I wanted to look at some of the ideas for scone flavors. I was surprised first, at what some people consider scones to be. Some were really just cookies, and others were really biscuits. But I got many ideas and even tried a few.


I did for their second morning, make the kids Gingerbread scones. Not a bad idea in theory but I had a few execution problems. I used Organic Pastry flour (my brand turns out to be a very fine grind whole wheat flour) but without correcting and adding some white flour with it, or adjusting the liquids, they came out a little heavy. I liked them, but it was not the texture that I was after. I also found many recipes for a gingerbread type item and the spices were all over the place. I used proportions that at the time seemed ok, but in actuality, with the whole wheat flour, were a bit spicy. Luckily, as I said, teen boys will eat anything anyway.


The recipe below, copied directly from Recipezaar, was my favorite (and I will explain at the end what I did differently - I cannot leave anything alone).
http://www.recipezaar.com/Glazed-Lemon-Scones-202220


Glazed Lemon Scones
Recipe #202220 45 min 30 min prep
8 to 12 scones
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or shortening
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
yellow food coloring (optional)
grated lemon zest
slivered almond
Directions
1Preheat oven to 400°.
2In a big bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; cut in the butter using a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; stir in lemon zest and blend.
3In another bowl, whisk egg, milk, and lemon juice; pour into flour mixture; mix until blended and moistened and a soft dough is formed.
4Place dough on a floured work surface; knead 15-20 times and roll into a circle ¾-inch thick.
5Place on baking sheet; score into 8-12 wedges with the point of a sharp knife.
6Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown; cool slightly on wire rack; cut into wedges as marked and serve warm.
7The glaze: in a small bowl, mix together powdered sugar and lemon juice; add in desired amount of food coloring (if using); drizzle over warm scones; sprinkle with lemon zest and almonds.



Personally, I skipped the almonds and the food coloring. I added a teaspoon of vanilla as I really like the vanilla undertones with lemon. I gently formed the mixture into a rectangle which I cut into six squares and then cut them diagonally into triangles. I baked them off as triangles and not one single round to be cut after baking. The recipe made twelve. I used the glaze, and did glaze them when slightly warm.

These scones had a nice soft texture and lemony flavor. I do think the lemon flavor could be boosted a bit so next time I plan on adding a tablespoon of lemon vodka. it is unbelieveable how much of a flavor boost that will give this recipe.



ENJOY.



I haven't forgotten... I'm still researching ras el hanout. I am close to developing my own recipe so I will share it as soon as I can road test it.