Cream Scones (Dorie is a Goddess)

I absolutely love Dorie Greenspan, her recipes work, her writing is wonderful and most of all she comes across as a really nice person.  I left a comment regarding a recipe I found on her blog, it wasn’t even her recipe but from Sarabeth’s in New York.  Well the next thing you know, she contacts Sarabeth who in turn calls me to troubleshoot the recipe!  WOW.  That’s what I’m saying..NICE.

Scones are Made for Sharing

A favorite Dorie recipe (aside from World Peace Cookies) is Cream Scones from her Baking From My Home to Yours.  They’re so easy to make, you can whip them up in a jiff.  Today I brought them to our mom’s Monday morning coffee.  I ran 30 minutes late due to my last minute decision to make them but no one complained. After all, I came bearing gifts, warm scones just out of the oven.

You can put just about anything you want in these scones.  I threw in lemon zest and dried wild blueberries in today’s batch.  Infinite possibilities exist, orange zest and cranberries, raisins, even dried corn and cherries would be a wonderful addition.

Game of Scones: The Rules

To make these I used my biscuit bowl (love it).  Of course, you can use any bowl but I need to justify having a biscuit bowl.  Have all your ingredients well chilled to start.  You could use a food processor but the dough does come together quickly using a pastry blender or your fingers to incorporate the butter into the flour.  Do not over-mix, you will see little lumps of butter in your dough and still have flour showing.

Pour the mass on the counter and knead a couple of times to bring the dough together.  Shape the dough into 2 5-inch circles and cut each into 6 wedges, (the baking time was closer to 15 minutes). Brush the scones with cream before popping them into the oven.

While they’re baking I make my coffee and 20 minutes later I’m kicking my feet up, enjoying a cup of coffee and warm scones.  How great is that?

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Dorie Greenspan's Cream Scones

Dorie's classic cream scones

Course Biscuits and scones

Cuisine American, British

Keyword Cream Scones

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 12 scones

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons granulated white sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter chilled & cut into small pieces

The Add Ins:

• 3/4 cup currants
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or sub 1/2 teaspoon almond exrtract optional
• clotted cream substitute creme fraiche or mascarpone
• peach jam or preserves
• Egg wash
• 2 tbsp heavy cream or egg wash
• turbinado or sparkling sugar

Instructions

• Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment
• Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.

By Hand

• Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly.
• Pour the egg, cream and currants over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, come together. Don't overdo it. Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand, or turn it with a rubber spatula 8 to 10 times.

Food Processor:

• You can also use a food processor. Place dry ingredients in bowl, pulse 1-2 twice to mix. Add butter and pulse 5-6 times until mixture looks like crumbs. Add egg/cream and pulse to dough just begins to clump. Do not overmix! Take mixture out of processor bowl, fold in peaches and shape dough into circles, proceed as below.

Directions for both by hand or food processor

• Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Divide it in half. Working with one piece at a time, pat the dough into a rough circle that's about 5 inches in diameter, cut it into 6 wedges and place it on the baking sheet.
• Brush scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar
• Bake the scones for 20 to 22 minutes (start checking at 15 min) or until their tops are golden and firm. Transfer them to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for them to cool to room temperature.
• The scones can be frozen on the baking sheet as the cut wedges, then wrapped airtight. Don't defrost before baking- just add about 2 minutes to the baking time.
• Serve with jam and clotted cream or butter