Scones

By Cat, Oct 2007 (Photo, right, from Wikimedia Commons)

Traditionally, scones are only slightly sweet, more like baking powder biscuits, and are so tender they melt in your mouth. What adds a hint of sweetness is the chopped or dried fruits in the batter, or a bit of fruity spread on top.

While the current trend is for scones to be a giant cookie, I much prefer traditional recipes. If I want more sweetness, I spread honey, apple butter, or a good marmalade or apricot jam on them, with lots of butter to slow down the absorption of sugar.

This recipe differs from my Cream Scones recipe as follows: This recipe: the butter is cut into the dry ingredients before adding the buttermilk; Cream Scones recipe mixes buttermilk with dry ingredients, then mixes in melted butter.

• Includes: 1. Considerations: Mixing, Shapes, Flour and Serving Suggestions; 2. Original recipe using Whole Grain or Whole Grain/White Flour mix; 3. Sprouted Grain recipe using Sprouted Grain flour or Sprouted Grain/White Flour mix; 4. Serving Suggestions; 5. References
• See also: 1. Breads, Rolls & Biscuits Menu; 2. Cream Scones with dried fruit, nuts; 3. Shortcake Menu; 4. Spelt vs Wheat in Baked Goods; 4. Sprouted Grain & Sprouted Grain Flour (About); Other Sites: 1. Sour Cherry & Walnut Scones (2)

Considerations

Mixing Methods

There are two different methods for making the dough:

1. Cutting cold butter into the flour, then adding wet ingredients and dredge fruit and nuts, as in this Cherry-Almond Scones recipe. This is also the recommended method if using a presoak of the flour.
2. Stirring in melted butter after combining all the other ingredients; see my Cream Scones recipe for an example of this method.

Additionally, either method can include a presoak of the flour. See Cream Scones, Presoak Method for an example of the presoak method.

Regarding using sprouted grain flour, which is more coarse that refined flours: I have tested the Cherry-Almond Scones version and Cream Scones version (see below). The cream scones test didn’t rise as well as the Cherry-Almond version, but that could be due to adding more cream of tartar to the Cherry-Almond recipe. However, it was much harder to cut in the cold butter for the Cherry-Almond recipe, than adding melted butter at the end of the mix for the Cream Scones version. For that reason, I prefer the Cream Scones version, and will test increasing the amount of cream of tartar from a pinch to ¼ tsp for the Cherry Almond version.

Shapes

Scones

Scones come in many shapes, as shown in the photo above.  The scones I make are usually a thick wedge, as in the photo, left (from Wikimedia Commons).

• To make the traditional round shape, flatten the dough with your hand to a rough circle, then use a round biscuit cutter to cut the rounds.  This method wastes dough (unless you gather up all the trimmings and shape them into another scone), so I prefer wedges:
• To make the wedge shape, shape dough into a ball, and place on baking sheet; then flatten with the palm of your hand into a circle about 8 – 10 inches in diameter.  Using a sharp knife, cut the round in wedges (the cuts are like wheel spokes).  As the rise during baking, the wedges may re-adhere to each other but it is easy to separate them.

Flour

I provide recipes for each of the following options::

1. whole grain flour or a mix of whole grain and unbleached white flour;
2. sprouted whole grain flour or a mix of sprouted flour and unbleached white flour

You could also use all unbleached white flour, but that is far less healthful. I don’t provide a detailed recipe for that; you may need to alter the amount of flour.

Serving Suggestions for Scones

This applies not matter which method you choose to use to make the scones: Serve:

• • Warm, fresh from oven. If no longer fresh, cut in half crosswise, butter well, and warm a few minutes in a toaster oven;
  • With a good coffee or tea;
  • With plenty of butter and optional fruit spread or raw local honey.

Cherry-Almond Scones: various versions

This recipe is adapted from a box of Tillamook® unsalted butter. The original recipe uses whole milk, and baking powder; I prefer to use cultured milk with baking powder and baking soda.  I also like the addition of the egg or yolk as in the Cream Scones recipe, so I add that as an optional ingredient.

In this recipe, the chilled butter is cut into the flour mixture as for a pie crust, then the wet ingredients are stirred in (the same method I use for Cream Scones with pre-soaked flour.  You could, of course, use the regular Cream Scones method (it’s quicker) – you’ll need to increase the butter to  ½ cup, and melt it if you choose that method.

It also illustrates a different way to bake the scones.  Here the wedges are separated, like cookies, (rather than kept together in the round), then baked at a hotter temperature than the Cream Scones recipe. However, I think they get too dry with this method, so I prefer to keep the wedges together during baking, as in the Cream Scones method.

I recommend using sprouted or at least presoaked then dried almonds. See Soaking, Sprouting Nuts & Seeds for details.

Here in the Flathead, we grow wonderful cherries, which become ripe in July.  They can be pitted and dried, then used during the bleak winter to make these flavorful scones. You can also chop up fresh cherries for this recipe.

Original recipe using regular whole grain or whole grain/white flour mix

The original recipe calls for ¼ cup sugar; I provide also a stevia option (1/8 tsp stevia plus 1 Tbsp sugar).

Makes 8 wedges.

Ingredients & Equipment:

• Wet ingredients:
• 1 egg yolk, or ½ whole egg
• ¾ cup homemade buttermilk or plain, unsweetened yogurt; alternately use whole milk and add 1 tsp orange juice (or lemon juice or apple cider vinegar) and let it rest until it clabbers (thickens) Note: if using spelt instead of wheat, you may need less buttermilk (about 1 – 2 tsp) or more flour (1 Tbsp or so) than given for a wheat recipe –  (see Spelt vs Wheat in Baked Goods for more)
• ¼ tsp almond extract
• Dry ingredients:
• 1 ½ – 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, or hard white whole wheat flour (such as Wheat Montana Prairie Gold (2)), or whole spelt flour (see also Spelt vs Wheat in Baked Goods)
• 1 tsp baking powder, aluminum-free
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp unrefined sea salt
• ¼ cup Rapadura or white sugar cane sugar (or 1 Tbsp sugar plus ⅛ tsp stevia)
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg (optional)
• Dredge:
• 1 Tbsp fresh orange zest
• ¼ cup dried cherries, chopped
• ¼ cup almonds (preferably sprouted or soaked and dried), coarsely chopped
• Fat:
• ½ cup butter (1 stick), chilled and cut into ½ inch pieces
• Equipment:
• small, medium and large bowls
• sifter
• greased cookie sheet or jelly roll pan

Method

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.  Grease baking sheet.
2. Beat egg and sugar in medium bowl, then beat in the buttermilk or yogurt.
3. Reserve ½ cup flour (for kneading); measure remaining dry ingredients into a sifter and sift into a large bowl.
4. Grate zest from an orange (save orange pulp & juice for another use).
5. Dredge fruit, nuts and zest with ¼ cup of the flour mixture in small bowl.
6. Cut butter into 1¼ cup of the flour mixture until mixture resembles very coarse meal.  Stir in dredged fruit-nut mixture.
7. Make a well in the center, add buttermilk mixture and stir just to combine.
8. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a few times, working in as much of the reserved ½ cup flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking.  Work into a soft round shape; flatten slightly, to about 7 or 8 inches in diameter, and place on prepared sheet.
9. Cut top to mark 6 – 8 wedges:.
   • Option 1: Cut apart and separate wedges about 2″ apart.  Bake 12 – 14 minutes in preheated 450°F oven, until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted near the tip of one of the wedges comes out clean.
   • Option 2: Shape as described for option 1, except cut only part-way through top of the dough into 6 or 8 wedges, and do not separate the wedges until after baking. Bake 15-25 minutes in preheated 400°F oven (use the toothpick test to determine doneness).
10. Cool on a rack. I prefer to serve them still slightly warm.  They will not keep more than 2 days.

Sprouted grain flour version, adapted from original recipe 

I recently tested my Cream Scones recipe using sprouted wheat pastry flour; now I’d like to  test this recipe using sprouted spelt flour. I’ve adapted my original Cherry & Almond Scones recipe above to use sprouted flour with the same mixing method as the above recipe. However, sprouted grain flour behaves differently from whole grain or white flour, so the amount of ingredients for this recipe may be different than for the whole grain recipe above.

See Testing, below.

Ingredients & Equipment:

• Wet ingredients:
• 1 egg yolk, or ½ whole egg
• ¾ cup homemade buttermilk or plain, unsweetened yogurt; alternately use whole milk and add 1 tsp orange juice (or lemon juice or apple cider vinegar) and let it rest until it clabbers (thickens). Note: if using spelt instead of wheat, you may need less buttermilk (about 1 – 2 tsp) or more flour (1 Tbsp or so) than given for a wheat recipe –  (see Spelt vs Wheat in Baked Goods for more).
• ¼ tsp almond extract
• Dry ingredients:
• 1 – 1 ½  cups spouted whole grain wheat pastry flour, or spouted whole grain spelt flour (see also Spelt vs Wheat in Baked Goods).
• 1 tsp fresh baking powder, aluminum-free
• ½ tsp baking soda
• pinch of cream of tartar, or ¼ tsp (or more) if your baking powder is old* (optional)
• ¾ tsp unrefined sea salt
• ¼ cup Rapadura or white sugar cane sugar (or 1 Tbsp sugar plus ⅛ tsp stevia)
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg (optional)
• Dredge:
• 1 Tbsp fresh orange zest
• ¼ cup dried cherries or other dried fruit, chopped
• ¼ cup almonds or other nuts (preferably sprouted or soaked and dried), coarsely chopped
• Fat:
• ½ cup butter (1 stick), chilled and cut into ½ inch pieces
• For kneading:
• ½ cup sprouted or unbleached white flour, or mix of the two
• Equipment:
• small, medium and large bowls
• sifter
• greased cookie sheet or jelly roll pan

‘* see Baking Soda vs Baking Powder, Part 1 (for the basics, & making your own baking powder from baking soda and cream of tartar) and Baking Soda vs Baking Powder, Part 2 (for soda equivalence, to know how much cream of tartar to add based on amount of flour and/or amount of acidic ingredients such as buttermilk in the recipe, if you want to adjust the recipe).

Method

1. Preheat oven:
   • If you want to separate the wedges before baking, preheat oven to 450°F.
   • If you want to keep the wedges together while baking, preheat only to 400°F.
2. Grease baking sheet.
3. Liquid ingredients: Beat egg and sugar in medium bowl, then beat in the buttermilk or yogurt. Set aside.
4. Dredge dry ingredients: measure all (except the flour set aside for kneading) into a sifter and sift into a large bowl.
   1. Grate zest from an orange (save orange pulp & juice for another use).
   2. Mix fruit, nuts and zest with ¼ cup of the flour mixture in small bowl; set aside to dredge.
5. Dough: Cut butter into the flour mixture until mixture resembles very coarse meal.
   1. Stir in dredged fruit-nut mixture.
   2. Make a well in the center, add liquid mixture and stir just to combine.  Do not over-mix.
   3. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a few times, working in as much of the reserved ½ cup flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking.  Work into a soft round shape; flatten slightly, to about 7 or 8 inches in diameter, and place on prepared sheet.
6. Cut top to mark 6 or 8 wedges:
   • Option 1: Cut apart and separate wedges by about 2″.  Bake 12 – 14 minutes in preheated 450°F oven, until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted near the tip of one of the wedges comes out clean.
   • Option 2: Shape as described for option 1, except cut only part-way through the dough into 6 or 8 wedges, and do not separate the wedges until after baking. Bake 15-25 minutes in preheated 400°F oven (use the toothpick test to determine doneness).
7. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. I prefer to serve them still slightly warm.  They will not keep more than 2 days.

Testing Sprouted Grain version

6/30/19: Followed recipe as written but used cut-up dried figs instead of cherries, and sliced almonds instead of ground almonds. Also used 1 Tbsp rapadura, rather than ¼ cup or 4 Tbsp in original recipe. However, because of the coarse texture of sprouted grain flour, it was very hard to cut in the cold butter, so I used my fingers to mix chopped butter into the flour mix. Also, I think I used too much buttermilk (my pyrex measuring cup has lost its volume marks), because I had to add a full ½ cup flour during kneading. Shaped it into a slightly flattened round, placed in buttered 8″ pyrex pie pan, and marked top into 6 sections. Tested for doneness after 20 min in oven; needed more time so tested again after 25 min in oven; not quite done so gave it another 2 min  (total 27 min in oven), before removing pan to rack to cool. Result: it rose more than the cream scones, so isn’t as dense. Taste: Very good, just the level of sweetness I like (light) because the dried fruit is quite sweet. Much lighter than previous batch using Cream Scones recipe. I think its lighter, not because of the method I used but rather because I put more cream of tartar into the dry ingredients mix with this batch (about ¼ tsp instead of a pinch which is roughly 1/16 tsp), since I suspect my baking powder is old and has lost much of its punch so the cream of tartar helps to activate it.

References

1. Tillamook County Creamery Association, Tillamook, OR recipe (tillamook.com/community/blog/would-you-like-breakfast-in-bed)
2. Fine Cooking Sour Cherry & Walnut Scones recipe (finecooking.com/recipes/sour-cherrry-walnut-scones.aspx)