scones glorious scones...

[lagilman]

One of the things I'm doing this month is testing ALL the scone recipes I have in my file, until I come up with the hands-down most perfect one ever.

So far, no perfection. This morning's attempt had great potential, I thought, and the taste was amazing - light, flaky, but with a solid, toasty flavor - but the dough was too wet to roll-and-cut, and came out too flaky for the scone pan (the scones fell apart when you bit into the larger pieces). And they took forever to brown, on top.

Will see how they 'dry out' for later use, and then possibly retry this recipe with a few tweaks (more flour, less shortening?). Because I'm sitting here licking my whiskers at the memory of the taste...

EtA: several hours later I ate another one as part of a food science survey (and mid-afternoon tea), and determined that the crumb held much better now, the taste was still excellent, and adding a quarter-cup more flour during the blend would probably do the trick....

Comments

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

In my experience the wet sticky dough makes the scones tender. Should have just enough flour top and bottom to allow you to shape in a circle, cut into quarters and flop very quickly onto a greased cookie sheet for baking.

The idea of rolling out the dough and using a round cookie cutter to me is counter-intuitive.

[lagilman]

It was too sticky to even handle, without it ending up all over my fingers instead of dropping to the counter. When I say "roll" I mean "make flat enough to use a biscuit cutter on" which is my preferred method for getting small, even shapes rather than cutting quarters (which is what I have the scone pan for, and makes equally tasty, if different, results).

In other words, no it's not counter-intuitive (to me), it's a different method.

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

Ah,

Then start with minimum milk and add more by the teaspoonful until it is sticky enough to be handled by floured hands.

[lagilman]

Yes. As I said, may play with recipe to see if it can be bettered without toughening the batter. Not first scone-rodeo. :-)

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I use a recipe from the BBC and I think they suggest too much milk, as same problem, but it does make a drier scone.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I hope you post the recipe when it's perfected.

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

Buttermilk scons or regular milk?

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

The Irish guy who runs a "café" near the law school where I proctor makes fresh scones every day. The other day he added fresh blackberries. Oh YUM.