when the weather behaves as badly as it did on monday, the only place i desire to be (besides wandering the streets of paris with my boy) is in the kitchen. the only problem yesterday was that i did not want to leave the house so i had to find a recipe which i had all the ingredients for. after perusing my fave blogs for a while, i decided on scones. exciting? no, not really but i love them, have not made in a while and happened to have all required items. the odd thing is i didn't even make the recipe posted on this great blog, www.flotation9.net/sweetfineday/ - they made bran scones which were somewhat tempting but i knew then for sure that my bf wouldn't eat them!
the recipe i found satisfied my craving...it's incredibly simple and a great base for any type of scone, i added a handful of mini chocolate chips and frozen berries but pretty much anything goes - they could even host cheese and chives for a savoury treat. *the important note - do not overwork or knead the dough, as much as you have the urge to, DON'T DO IT! by doing this, you are going to create a dense, tough pastry.
the best part of making biscuits and the like is that they don't require any fancy kitchen tools, just the basics and in 30 minutes or so, you have delicious, warm-out-of-the-oven snacks!
recipe:
adapted from www.marthastewart.com
makes 8 large scones
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup wholewheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups berries
1 tsp lemon zest (i used blood orange)
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
2 eggs
1/3 cup whipping cream (or half n half)
coarse sugar for sprinkling
* whisk dry ingredients together
* by hand, cut the butter pieces into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, use a pastry cutter or 2 knives
* fold in the berries and zest...make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients
* mix the cream and eggs, beat to break up eggs and add to flour mixture - mix only until just incorporated
* tumble the mess of berries, butter, cream and flour onto a work surface and gently press together
* shape into a square, cut into 4 squares and then cut each square diagonally to create 8 triangles
* brush the tops with cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if you like and bake at 400 degrees C for 22-24 minutes
