Confession time. I'm not British. In someways, I wish I was, but I'm not. I was born and raised here in the colonies. Not that I wish to discard the US of A, but I've just become a lot more aware of the world around me. And, there are quite a few things about the Brits that I dearly love. It was through this that I learned, I'd grown up being completely wrong about scones. When I was young, I'd see things labeled, "Scones" at coffee shops in big glass jars. I tried one. I about broke my teeth. It was exceedingly hard. Biting into a brick would have been easier.
As it turns out, these weren't scones at all. Scones are indeed much softer. And, highly versatile. Its' no wonder scones have so much history throughout the UK and Europe. They are easy to make and you can put nearly anything in them. Its a jack-of-all-trades quickbread. It can be savory or sweet. It can have fruit, nuts, or chocolate, icing, etc, etc. Whatever you've got available, will likely work just fine.
A British scone seems to have a fair bit in common with the "Biscuit" from the southern US. However, this is not to be confused with the British "Biscuit." A Biscuit(UK) is more like a small, dense cookie here in the states. And, to continue the confusion, a small, narrow, brutally hard bread that we might call a "scone" here, is known as a "shortbread" across the pond. Roughly speaking, of course... Many of these terms are subject to regional interpretations within various countries.
There is a bit of confusion about if scones should be round or triangle shaped. From what I found, the earliest versions of this bread item were indeed pie shaped. The initial "loaf" was formed into a flat, round disc, approx 8-9" in diameter, and then cut into 6 or 8 wedges after baking. The loaf was called a Bannock and then wedge pieces were called "scones." Today, I'm told that in Scotland, where the Bannock has its origins, both the wedges and the loaf are interchangeably known as scones. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bannock_(food))
At some point, someone started cutting out round scones. I haven't been able to chase down how and why that occurred, but no matter. Whether you like them round or not, they are still the same bread. That is one of the beautiful things about a quickbread like this. There aren't many hard an fast rules.
In making my scones, I started with a recipe from http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/542/traditional-buttermilk-scones.aspx
Things to have in the kitchen:
- large bowl (for mixing the dough)
- kitchen scale (very nice for weighing out flour, but not necessary)
- cookie cutter 2-3", (if making round scones)
- large knife (at least 8" in length) for making wedge scones (like I did)
- large spoon (wooden or plastic)
- baking sheet (preferably 17" x 13" but anything close will work fine)
- silicone baking mat or sheet of parchment paper
- whisk (not needed, but handy)
Ingredients:
- 400g (14 oz) plain flour
- 100g (3 3/4 oz) caster sugar (granulated sugar)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda (baking soda)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 175g (6 oz) soft butter
- 250ml (8 fl oz) buttermilk
(Note: if you don't have a kitchen scale, go with 3 cups of flour, just be careful not to "pack" the flour into the measuring cup went measuring it out. This is why measuring flour with a scale is the preferred, since you can pack different amounts of flour into a given volume.)
Preheat your oven to 220C, 425F, 495K, or 890R. Whichever you like.
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (minus the raisins). Having a whisk to combine everything is nice, but a large spoon will do the job as well.
Cut up all the butter into small chunks, roughly 1/2" cubes, but the shape doesn't really matter. Many people swear by using cold butter here. They say it makes the end product more flaky. But, even if you use soft butter, it's not going to be a disaster.
"Cut in" the butter either by hand or with a fork. I went with the "by hand" approach. Just reach in and start squeezing the butter chunks, breaking them up, and getting the butter dispersed into the dry ingredients. You're just looking to get it distributed so that the mixture looks like slightly wet sand. Shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. Then go ahead and toss in the raisins and/or whatever else you'd like. 1/2-3/4 of a cup total should do fine.
Once that's done (rinse off that hand) and pour in the buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk, regular milk will do, but I do recommend buttermilk. Its a little thicker and offer some additional flavor. Some people even use cream or half and half. You can use your hand here to mix it all up, but I prefer a large spoon of some kind here. Once the dough comes together, don't continue mixing. Just bring it together, but continuing to mix it after that will only toughen the final product.
When the dough comes together, go ahead and "turn it out" onto a lightly floured surface. Shape it into a round flat shape, approximately 8" across and about an inch thick. Again, these are rough measurements. Exactness matters not.
If you like, go ahead and grab a 2" to 3" round cookie cutter and cut out your scones. combine all the scrap dough, and press it out again, and repeat. To make a "traditional" scone (for which Nik will likely yell at me) just grab your largest knife and cut the inital loaf into about 6 equal wedges. Much like a pizza.
Whatever shape you go with (you might need to scoop them up off the surface with a knife or spatula), place them on a baking sheet with either a silicon baking mat (recommended) or you could put a sheet of parchment paper down on your baking sheet. (don't use wax paper) leave around an inch of space between them. They'll grow a little, but they shouldn't take over your oven or anything.
Bake them for around 12 minutes, and then check them. The outsides will start to brown, you should see some layering splits in the sides. The only way to tell if they are really done is to stick either a toothpick or butter knife (toothpicks are standard) into the middle of a scone and pull it out. If the inside is still gooey, it will stick to whatever you put in there. If there is a little moisture on it when you pull it out, that's fine. You just don't want it coming out with wet dough on it. This is what they mean by "comes out clean." If you keep baking them until the toothpick or whatever comes out TRULY clean, you will have hockey pucks for scones.
If they need more time, go another 5 mins and recheck. Everyone's oven is a little different, and the baking time will vary slightly from winter to summer as well. This is why you go 12 mins, and then check.
Once they're done, pull them out, and let them cool for around 5 mins. Then, dive in. You can just eat them as is, you can split them in half, put jelly/jam, butter, cream cheese, whatever you like on there. The Brits I know highly recommended clotted cream, however, its not available here in the states, so I ended up making some myself. I'll cover that another time.
Oh yeah, don't forget to turn off the oven! :-)
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