Ginger Scones

If you're still looking for something special to make for your mom tomorrow, look no further. These are some seriously fantastic scones.

The recipe comes from Pastries from the La Brea Bakery, by Nancy Silverton. In the book, Nancy calls these the best selling scones in the bakery, and after making them I can see why.

Before I tell you any more, a disclaimer: my scones shouldn't have been as thin as they were. I contemplated not posting them until I could make them again, but they are too good to hold back for however long it will take me to get around to doing that. The reason they were so thin is that I made them on an incredibly hot day, and even though my butter started out frozen, within only 5 minutes out of the freezer it was melty. I should have refrigerated my biscuits after I cut them, but I was impatient - on the day I made them I also made 2 tarts, 2 kinds of cookies and ice cream, all in a 5 hour time span - so I popped them in the oven. Ah well...

These are cream scones, and as such are incredibly light and fluffy, studded with chewy bits of crystallized ginger, and flavored with lemon zest. The tops are dusted with sugar before baking, creating a crunchy sugar crust; a beautiful contrast to the soft interior. Can you imagine anything better? They are the most wonderful scones I've ever had; they are lovely in every way.

Ginger Scones

adapted from Pastries from the La Brea Bakery by Nancy Silverton

2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar + more for dusting

1 tablespoon baking powder

finely grated zest from one lemon

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into chunks and frozen

4 1/2 ounces crystallized ginger, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

1/2 - 3/4 cup heavy cream + more for finishing

Preheat oven to 400. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and baking powder. Add butter, and using a pastry blender, cut it in until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add zest and toss in with your fingers. Add 1/2 cup cream, stirring with a wooden spoon or tossing with your hands until it is incorporated. Do not overwork dough. If it seems too dry, add remaining 1/4 cup of cream. Turn dough out on a lightly floured board, knead a few times to form a cohesive ball, and pat into a disk about 3/4 inch thick. If dough seems soft, refrigerate for about 5 minutes. Cut dough into circles using a 3" biscuit cutter, and place them 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cut as closely together as you can, then re-form the scraps into a 3/4 inch disk, cut as many circles as you can, etc... until you have cut all of the dough. Again, if the dough seems soft, refrigerate for 5-10 minutes before baking. When ready to bake, brush tops of scones with cream, then dust with sugar. Bake for 12-16 minutes, until they crack and are a light golden brown.

Pistachio + Date Scones

I've been chasing simplicity for quite some time, but can never seem to achieve it. In my mind, all I want is a quiet life in the town I grew up in; baking and being with my kids, friends, family. There is something very comforting about a place where you know everyone you see, and they have all known you since toddlerhood. In reality, I am nowhere near that (and may never be). The last few years have been very stressful for me. In no particular order; I've had two kids, gotten married, sold a house, built a house, moved 5 times, and opened a retail store. It hasn't all been easy - and it certainly hasn't been simple - but it's life. My life. Now another chapter is beginning in my life; that of being a single mom. It will certainly be an adjustment, but everyone will be a lot happier. Now that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Scones are simplicity itself - even when as gussied up as these are. So, even if I can't live my bucolic dreams, I can eat them.

These scones are eggless, and made with cream. I love breakfast treats made with cream - it gives them such a soft, light crumb that almost melts in your mouth. Pistachios have a very distinct flavor - buttery, smoky, savory - and are not commonly found in scones, so these are an unexpected and delightful addition. They are also a wonderful foil for the sweet dates. I love dates. I love them plain, I love them rolled in coconut, I love them in baked goods. I've never met a date I didn't like. When baked, they become unbelievably tender - date paste, almost - and if you're lucky enough to get one that is slightly exposed in the dough you're in for a real treat. The edges become slightly crispy and chewy and caramelized, and they are delicious.

These are sure to be a regular treat around these parts. Next time, however, I will add more dates - I think 1 1/2 cups instead of 1 cup. I thought the date to pistachio balance was a little off. Also, they took a bit longer to bake than the recipe specified. I had to turn the oven down and cover them with foil to prevent them from burning. I would recommend baking them at 400 instead of 425, as the original recipe calls for. I'm writing the recipe below as I made them, with changes I would make in parentheses.

Pistachio + Date Scones

adapted from eatmakeread

2 cups unbleached white flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 tablespoons palm sugar (or any other sugar; if you use unsalted pistachios, you could reduce this by 1 tablespoon)

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 cup dates, chopped (I think they need 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons pistachios, chopped, divided

1 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream, divided

Preheat oven to 425 (I think this should be more like 400). Line baking sheet with parchment. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add butter, and using a pastry blender cut it in until well-combined, but so that there are still some large-ish pieces of butter in the mixture. Add dates and 1/2 cup pistachios, tossing with your hands, and separating any large clumps of dates. Add 1 cup heavy cream, and stir with fork until a dough forms. Turn out onto a floured board, and pat into a disk about 1/2" thick. Cut into 8 wedges. Place wedges on baking sheet, giving them as much space as you can. Spoon a bit of the remaining cream on the top of each scone, spreading it with the back of the spoon to coat the surface of the scone. Sprinkle tops of scones with remaining chopped pistachios. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until scones are golden. If they seem to be browning too quickly, cover them loosely with a piece of aluminum foil. Let cool on rack for at least 10 minutes.

Buckwheat Scones with Pears & Chocolate

Scones have always been one of my favorite breakfast treats. When I was in high school, there was a local baker that brought them by every morning for us to but for breakfast, and just about every day, I bought one. The only flavor available was currant, but they were wonderful. Tender and creamy. I never did a lot of scone baking until recently, it was always biscuits in my house. I am so glad that that has changed, however, because scones are so fantastic. It is also the perfect thing to make in a large quantity then freeze, baking them as I need them.

I had some pears that needed to be used, and hadn't made scones for a while, so I started looking for a pear scone recipe and found this one at My Recession Kitchen. The thing that was most intriguing to me about these scones was the method for incorporating the add-ins - instead of incorporating them directly into the dough, the dough is rolled out, then sprinkled with the pears and chocolate, then rolled up a la cinnamon roll, then cut into slices. Genius! No fruit leaking juices into the dough creating extra moisture, no need to work fast to keep frozen fruit from thawing, no messy bleeding color from other fruits you could use, like strawberries, cranberries, blackberries, etc...

The technique worked perfectly, and these were fabulous scones. There is a lot of room to play around here, the filling possibilities are endless. I made some with chocolate and some without (for my son). I preferred the ones with chocolate. You wouldn't think that would be surprising, given my deep love for it, but I don't usually like it in breakfast treats. Of course, making them chocolate-free also makes them cane sugar-free (if you use palm sugar, as I did).

Buckwheat Scones with Pears & Chocolate

adapted from My Recession Kitchen

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

1/4 cup palm sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces and frozen

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 pear peeled and chopped into small chunks

2 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped into bigger-than-chip-size pieces

Preheat oven to 425. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flours, palm sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Drop butter pieces in, and working with a pastry blender, cut it in until the butter is well-distributed and there are pieces of varying sizes throughout the flour-mixture. Add buttermilk slowly, tossing mixture with pastry blender until all dry ingredients have been moistened. When a dough has formed, turn it out onto a well-floured board, and knead 8 times. Roll dough out into a 12" x 12" square. Fold into thirds, like a business letter, then fold into thirds again, forming a thick square. Wrap dough in plastic and place in freezer for 5 minutes. Remove dough from freezer and roll out into 12" x 12" square again. Sprinkle pear and chocolate chunks over surface of dough. Roll dough into a log. Cut log into 4 equal pieces, then cut each piece diagonally into a wedge. Place wedges on buttered baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. Or freeze wedges, and bake them without thawing first, adding a minute or two to the baking time.

* If you need extra instruction on forming the scones, there are great step-by-step photos in the My Recession Kitchen post that is linked above

SMS: Orange Scented Scones

I love scones, so I was really happy that these beauties were the SMS pick for this week.

Everyone I gave them to agreed that they are the best scones I've ever made, and I have to agree!

I love citrus zest, so I used the zest of a whole orange as opposed to 1 tsp as the recipe calls for. They were perfectly orangey. I also subbed agave for the cane sugar in the recipe, and I upped it to 2 tablespoons. The only criticism I have of these is that they could actually be a hint sweeter. Oh, also, the recipe calls for making these in a food processor, but I made them by hand. I really enjoy using my pastry cutter. And I just remembered that I used oat bran in place of the oat flour.

These scones have the perfect texture. They are wonderfully flaky and buttery and have a very light crumb. I can think of many possible variations of these, and I plan on trying them all!

Thanks to Robin of Lady Craddock's Bakery for picking this recipe which can be found on her blog.

On a different note, I'm having a GIVEAWAY for a wonderful 8x8 stone baking dish! Details are here. Be sure to enter!!!

As always, be sure to make the SMS rounds to see everyone else's scones.