whine & dine

I love scones. I mean, who doesn’t right? (Okay, I can think of one person who doesn’t. But nevermind.) I stumbled upon some (Australian style) clotted cream in the supermarket a couple of days ago, and while I’ve since been told that it’s easily available at Cold Storage Jelita, I got super excited, bought a tub and set off for home to make scones. Now, while I also understand that “Australian style” clotted cream isn’t the same as the authentic stuff from Devon, I will take what I can get. And, believe me, it’s miiiiles better than say, Starbucks where I once was stupid enough to order a cranberry scone, onto have it served with a pile of synthetic whipped cream on the side of the plate. That’s right – the stuff they aerosol out of a can with a star-shaped nozzle. Ugh.

I like my scones buttery, with flaky insides and a crisp, firm crust that encases layers of its tender crumb. I actually like them best plain – as in, no raisins, no currants, no chocolate, nothing. Just a plain scone, with a dollop of clotted cream smothering a dab of strawberry preserve. And this recipe, based on one I found in Baking Illustrated, gave me just that.

By the way, I’m off to Sydney for a week with the bunny. There was a bit of stress with the hotel situation since the APEC Summit is happening around this time, so we didn’t get our room in the Park Hyatt :( but all’s well with the Shangri-La, and I’m also really excited ‘cos I get to see Pei, and we’ll be gorging on all the seafood we can get our grubby paws on. I would let you guys in on the line-up, restaurant wise, but I think it’s more fun to keep you waaaiting and anticipaaaating. Look out for food photos from the road, and I’ll be back next weekend.

Till then, do try this recipe – it’s dead simple, and ridiculously tasty. And hopefully it’ll stave off the hunger pangs when you next check back and browse through all the food photos on my flickr.

Cream Scones
(based on Cream Scones with Currants from Baking Illustrated)

10 oz unbleached unbleached all-purpose flour (I use Gold Medal)
1 tbsp baking powder
3 heaped tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
90g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup heavy cream, plus extra 2 tbsp
2 tbsp caster sugar to sprinkle

Preheat the oven to 220C. Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in the workbowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, or in a large shallow pan. If using the food processor, process with six 1-second pulses, otherwise whisk lightly with a fork.

If making by hand, use two pastry cutters, two knives, or a pastry blender and quickly cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps. (This is my favourite part of making scones.) If using a food processor, distribute the butter evenly over the dry ingredients and process with 10-15 1-second pulses. Transfer the dough to a large bowl; it should look quite dry at this point.

Stir 1 cup heavy cream with a fork until the dough begins to form, about 30 seconds. Transfer the dough and all the dry flour to a countertop and knead by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball; 5-10 seconds.

For wedges, pat the dough into an 8 or 9 inch cake pan, invert onto a lightly floured surface, and cut into 8 wedges. Otherwise, pat the dough out on a lightly floured surface so that it is roughly 1 inch thick, and use a 2-3 inch pastry cutter to cut out rounds. Pat the remaining dough together and flatten into a 1 inch thick disc again, then cut out rounds again. Repeat one last time, then discard the scraps. (I couldn’t bring myself to throw away one last potential scone so I just made it into an ugly, misshapen one.)

Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet. (The baking sheet can be wrapped in clingfilm and refrigerated for up to 2 hours at this point.) When ready to bake, brush the tops of the scones with the extra cream and sprinkle lightly with caster sugar. Bake the scones until golden brown, 12-15 minutes, rotating the pan once during the baking. When ready, cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, then serve warm or at room temperature with plenty of strawberry preserve and clotted cream.

Yield 8 wedges, or 10-15 round scones (as pictured), depending on the size of your cutter.