8
in other words
july6
2017
An Unusual Culinary Column: What’s For Breakfast? Scones!
By Karen Kain
I love having guests stay at
my home. The only problem is trying
to decide what to serve for breakfast. I
struggle with coming up with new recipe
ideas because I am just not a fan of early
morning meals. When I am on the road,
my favorite thing to eat in the morning is
coffee and a scone. At home I normally
drink tea, but when I travel I drink cof-
fee. I like my coffee hot, and nothing
goes better with a cup of coffee than a
crunchy and crumbly scone.
Scones are one of those baked
items that everyone talks about being
super easy to make. As you may already
know, baking is not my favorite thing to
do. Although I have made scones a few
times before, I always feel as though I
am missing something. Could they pos-
sibly be just so easy that I am making
a big deal out of nothing? This week I
decided to have a scone bake off.
You might think that scones
originated in England, but they actu-
ally got their start in Scotland around
the early 1500s. The Scots Gaelic term
“sgonn” means a shapeless mass or a
large mouthful. The original scone was
round and flat, about the size of a din-
ner plate. It was made with unleavened
oats and baked on a griddle, then cut
into triangles. Once baking powder be-
came available scones moved to an oven
baked treat.
It wasn’t until the 1840s that
Anna Russell, the 7th Duchess of Bed-
ford, made scones famous. Anna was a
lifelong friend of Queen Victoria. Rumor
has it, that she is responsible for start-
ing the tradition of serving tea with a
light snack in the afternoon. Anna found
herself feeling a bit peckish in between
lunch and dinner. Her servants brought
her tea and some scones. She enjoyed
them so much that she requested them
to be served to her every day at 4:00 pm.
Of course, being British, scones were
served with the traditional clotted cream
as a topping. One thing led to another
and Anna started inviting friends over to
join her in her private room. The ladies
would enjoy their tea and catch up on the
latest events. History suggests that Anna
is the woman responsible for making
“Afternoon Tea Time” an English tradi-
tion.
Scones have been served all over
the world for a very long time. In Aus-
tralia you might find pumpkin scones.
In Hungary you would most likely find
Marie Krahn
savory scones served with different
seasonings and toppings like dill and
cheese. In the Americas it is traditional
to serve them hot and smothered in but-
ter the same way we eat our biscuits.
Most generally, in America, scones are
sweet and eaten with coffee.
Today, scones are big business,
they are made sweet and savory in vari-
ous shapes; round, square and triangles.
They often include dried fruits and other
ingredients like raisins, currents, choco-
late, dates and even cheese.
After researching the history of
scones I felt a little less intimidated and
made up a sloppy batch of these coveted
breads. Of course I served them warm
right out of the oven smothered in butter.
I first tried this Basic Scone
Recipe. There was a plethora of recipes
to pull from, but I wanted to start easy
and work upwards. I actually found that
this recipe was my favorite of the three. I
loved the texture; the scone was crumbly
and crunchy on the outside but moist in
the middle. I think the sour cream and
only using one egg is the reason for their
lovely turn out. In the future, I will use
this basic recipe as my base and add ad-
ditions to make up different versions.
Next I tried the Huckleberry
Scones recipe. The lemon zest adds a
nice flavor. You can use either huckle-
berries or blueberries for this one.
I wanted to make a gluten free
scone recipe. Often the problem with
gluten free bread is that it tends to be
dense, so I thought that this would be a
perfect fit. I made up a batch of gluten
free chocolate chip scones that came out
pretty good.
I was really happy to learn that
you can freeze the scone dough before
it is cooked. I now have a few different
batches stored in my freezer ready to
bake up. This makes life in the morning
a little gentler when I have guests.
I definitely think that scones
right out of the oven are one of the best
ways to start your day. I am curious
to what your breakfast favorites are, I
would love to hear about them.
Basic Scone Recipe
Ingredients:
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 / 3 Cup sugar
1 Teaspoon baking powder
¼ Teaspoon baking soda
½ Teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into
small pieces and put into the freezer for
30 minutes
½ Cup dried fruit, I used
cherries
½ Cup sour cream
1 Large egg
1 Teaspoon sugar
Directions:
Put your oven rack to the
lower middle position and
preheat to 400˚ F. Mix to-
gether the flour, sugar, bak-
ing powder, baking soda
and salt. Using a pastry
blender add the butter in
and mix together making
a coarse corn meal texture.
Add in the dried fruit. In a
separate small bowl, whisk together the
sour cream and egg. Using a fork add the
sour cream mixture to the flour and mix
together until the dough starts to stick to-
gether. Use your hands to press the dough
into a ball. Don’t worry if the dough is
sticky, it should press together. Put the
dough onto a floured surface making an
8-inch circle about ¾ inch thick. Sprin-
kle a teaspoon of sugar over top. Cut into
8 triangles with a sharp knife. Place onto
a baking sheet lined with parchment pa-
per about 1 inch apart. For softer scones
you can leave them together. Bake for 17
minutes until golden brown. Serve warm
or at room temperature.
Huckleberry Scones
Ingredients:
2¼ Cups all purpose flour
1 / 3 Cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 Tablespoon baking powder
¾ Teaspoon salt
1 Stick of cold unsalted butter, cut into
pea-sized pieces
1¼ Cup huckleberries or blueberries,
rinsed
1 Teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 / 3 Cup heavy cream
2 Large eggs, lightly beaten
½ Teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
Put your oven rack to the lower middle
position and preheat the oven to 400˚
F. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking
powder and salt. Using a mixer add the
butter pieces to the flour and mix until
you get a coarse corn meal texture. In
a separate bowl, mix together the lem-
on zest and huckleberries together then
gently add to the flour mixture. Whisk
the cream, eggs and vanilla together.
Pour the cream mixture into flour and
mix just until the dough comes together.
Turn onto a floured surface and knead a
few times. The dough may be sticky. I
separated the dough into two pieces and
made two 6-inch circles. Sprinkle with
sugar. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough
into rectangle shapes, bake on a baking
sheet lined with parchment paper 1 inch
apart. For softer scones just score the
dough and cook as one disk. Bake for 17
minutes or until the scone is just done.
Gluten Free Scones
Ingredients:
1¾ Cup gluten-free all purpose baking
flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
1 / 3 Cup sugar
2 Teaspoons baking powder
½ Teaspoon xanthan gum
½ Teaspoon salt
1 Stick of cold butter, cut into pea sized
pieces and put into the freezer for 15
minutes
¾ Cup additions (dried fruit, crystallized
ginger, chocolate chips, etc.)
2 Large eggs
1 / 3 Cup cold milk
1 Teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
Directions:
Put your oven rack to the lower middle
position and preheat the oven to 400˚ F.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking
powder, salt and xanthan gum. I used a
Kitchen Aid mixer to blend the butter
in until the flour is the texture of course
cornmeal. Gently add the additions, I
used chocolate chips. In a separate bowl,
whisk together the eggs, milk and va-
nilla. Add to the flour until well blend-
ed. The dough will be sticky. Place on
a baking sheet covered with parchment
paper. Sprinkle with sugar then cut into
triangles and bake 1 inch apart for 15-20
minutes.
Karen Kain can be reached at Karen8@
icloud.com.
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