A Scone Scorned, A Muffin Maketh?

I’m really wishing my body clock will come home soon! Well, it was another night of weird sleeping patterns, and mad middle-of-the-night baking frenzies. Fell asleep before 8.30pm, and woke just before 1.00am. And despite my darnest efforts, no further sleep would come. I was bored, I was restless. I opened the fridge door a dozen times, wanting to eat, not wanting to eat. Then I saw it. The expiry date on the buttermilk carton – the same carton of buttermilk that has been sitting in my fridge since before the trip. Okay, it had given me fair warning. It was about to cross over into buttermilk heaven pretty soon. Time to swing into action. 4.45am. Perfect time for a little baking, no?

Looney Spoons and Crazy Plates (those are cookbooks by the way, in case you missed the previous post – and not wacky cutlery and quirky flatware – not that I don’t have some of those as well ) were still lying on the kitchen table from last night’s kitchen escapades. A quick flip through the back index pages… um… let’s see… under “buttermilk”… aha! Cranberry and orange scones. That sounded mighty delicious!

Only problem… I didn’t have any cranberries on hand. Oh, but I did have raisins. I know, not quite the same as the refreshing tartness of cranberries. But hey, raisins would be nice too. Hmmm… raisins and orange? That didn’t sound right. Raisins and cinnamon? Bingo. So, I ended up substituting the two key flavors which defined the recipe! Hmmm… that was a good start.

While I was gathering the rest of the ingredients together, I started to have cravings for traditional English scones. This recipe was for American-style scones – which are usually made using what I call the “muffin method” of combining all the dry ingredients together, combining all the wet ingredients together, and then combining the wet and the dry with each other. But instead of using muffin pans, the dough is shaped into a large round disk and cut into wedges before being baked. English scones on the other hand are more like enriched American biscuits – made richer with eggs and lots more butter or shortening. The “rub-in” method, where the butter or fat is rubbed into the flour to resemble coarse breadcrumbs before the liquids are added, is usually used for English scones.

Since I did not have any buttermilk-using English scones recipes on hand, American scones it would be.

Buttermilk Raisin Cinnamon Scones

2 cups flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1/3 cup raisins
2 tablespoons butter, melted
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 tablespoon water

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Combine well with the sugar, and set aside.

Whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, vanilla and raisins.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until a soft dough is formed.

From past experiences with this cookbook, I have found its recipes for scones and biscuits tend to produce rather wet and tacky dough – a dough that will not be shaped or rolled without being fairly generously floured and lightly kneaded. And this always overworks the dough, producing insipid creations.

So, instead of trying to shape the dough into two round flat circles and cutting them into wedges, as instructed by the recipe, alternatively drop the dough by the heaping tablespoonfuls onto the greased baking sheet, to create individual scones. Then, using dampened fingertips, gently shape each scone into ¾” thick rounds.

Lightly beat the egg together with the 1 tablespoon of water, and glaze the tops of each scone using a pastry brush.

Bake at 205C or 400F, for about 15-17 minutes, until the scones are puffed up and golden.

Serve warm.

Makes 12.

Note:
An alternative to baking the dough on a baking sheet would be to use a muffin pan. This would also help give the scones better height and more uniformity of shape, compared to the free-form shapes obtained from a baking sheet.

The scones did spread ever so slightly during the baking, but still had fairly good height…

Sorry, I couldn’t resist posting this picture. I thought it resembled “something” and looked rather “naughty” . Ahem… don’t mind me, I’m just feeling a little silly from lack of sleep.

The scones’ texture and crumb were sort of a cross between an American scone and an American muffin, with a touch of the English muffin. It was tender and fluffy, and yet moist and slightly dense at the same time.

The family seemed to like it. I went back to bed at 6.30am, having left the scones to cool on wire racks. I woke up again at 11.00am to find that the family had devoured three quarters of all the scones for breakfast! They figured they should at least save three for me, since I had made them. How thoughtful! And I have to say, they were pretty good, especially for something so low fat. They may not have looked terribly attractive. I admit, they were not the most elegant and refined-looking scones you’d have ever seen. But they tasted good. I had all the remaining three for brunch… one on its own, with no embellishments. Nice.

I had one the traditional English scone-eating way… albeit slightly adapted…

I didn’t have clotted cream, nor did I have any whipping cream to whip. (Heh! Boy! My English is in top form today, isn’t it?) So, I made do with ready-whipped light cream – those that come in those aerosol canisters, the type for making café mochas and iced lattes. Yes, that type. Don’t scrunch your nose. It worked. Rather well at that. Added a nice dollop of strawberry preserves with chunks of real fruit. Fabulicious!

And of course, I had to have the third with my (still) current favorite flavor of the month… Hainanese kaya…

Very, very delicious!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
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