Game of Scone: The Tea Wedding
My go-to scone recipe is an adaptation of Dorie Greenspan’s Cream Scone. I love these and have made countless of variations using dried fruit, fresh fruit, citrus peel. It is my go-to scone recipe. Her scones are buttery, sweet, and tender. I often throw in dried wild blueberries and lemon zest or during the summer, bits of fresh ripe peaches. Scrumptious. There is enough sweetness and moisture that these scones can be eaten without accouterments. But feel free to slather a bit of butter and jam on them if you like. They are little triangles of buttery perfection, but…
They’re just not English Tea Scones
I love High Tea, almost as much as I love having a hot dog with all the fixings at a Giant’s baseball game. The boys and I went to Hong Kong before COVID and High Tea at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong (think Crazy Rich Asians) was on our bucket list.
I savored the entire experience-the surroundings, the impeccable service, fine china, my boys in jackets and slacks, an array of delicious bite-sized morsels, and of course dainty tea scones with clotted cream and jam. It was scrumptious.
Lady and Her Pups’ meticulous recipe for Classic English Scones popped up on my feed, I knew I had to try them. Her video and blog post for her scones are so detailed, you can’t go wrong. The texture of her scones is spot-on, light, and crumbly the perfect foil for clotted cream and jam. With that first bite, I found myself sitting at the Peninsula with the boys leisurely sipping on a cup of hot Darjeeling Tea, savoring my scone with clotted cream and strawberry preserves.
Game of Scones: The Rules
I encourage everyone to watch the video on how to make these scones but if you don’t…here are the highlights…
English scones are not as buttery and a little drier than American scones. Why? Because you are going to slather copious amounts of clotted cream or butter, jam, or lemon curd on your English scones, Silly.
Brown sugar adds both flavor and color. Substitute granulated sugar for the brown sugar for a lighter-colored scone.
Work in the butter, you should not have any pea-size bits of butter, mixture should resemble a coarse meal.
Squeeze the flour-butter mixture together, if it clumps you are ready to add the liquid.
A combination of heavy cream and yogurt is used as the liquid this provides moisture and fat. More butter would weigh down the dough. The dough will be shaggy after adding the liquid ingredients. It’s ok, it will come together as you knead the dough.
Roll dough to 1.125 inches thickness, any less and the scones will be too flat.
Keep scones small and dainty, use a cookie cutter no more than 2 inches in diameter. When cutting, press down without twisting as that would cause the scone to rise unevenly.
The dough will need to rest before baking so the flour has time to absorb the liquid.
Double egg wash, the secret to shiny tops.
These scones should have a crack around the circumference (classic). This is the perfect spot to split your scone. Then get ready to spread the clotted cream and jam on both halves! Yum!
Now go bake some scones!
English Tea Scones
Ingredients
WET INGREDIENTS
- 1 large egg
- 3 tbsp plain yogurt 45 grams, not Greek-style, regular
- 3 tbsp heavy cream 44 grams
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups AP flour 240 grams
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 3 tbsp light brown sugar 40 grams. You can substitute granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter, diced 70 grams
Instructions
- Crack the egg into a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Transfer 1 tbsp of the beaten egg into another cup and set aside. This will be the egg wash (do not add water). Then whisk the plain yogurt and heavy cream with the remaining egg until even. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, light brown sugar and fine sea salt. Add the unsalted butter, use your fingers to rub the butter evenly into the flour until NO SMALL LUMPS OF BUTTER ARE LEFT, and the flour resembles yellow cornmeal.
- Add all the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Use a spatula to fold and mix everything together until no loose flour are left in the bowl, then use your hands to knead the dough a few times until everything comes into a ball.
- Transfer the dough onto the counter, no need to dust with flour. Continue to knead the dough a few more times until it is on just until the dough has a TINY BIT OF RESISTANCE WHEN YOU PUSH IT DOWN. If the dough sticks to the counter, use a pastry cutter to scrape it off, do not flour board. The dough should look even but not as smooth as a bread dough.
- Now dust the dough with a little flour to prevent sticking, and roll it out into 1-1/8 inch thickness. Press the flat side of the dough scraper on top of the dough to make sure it's flat and level. Use a 2 inch round cutter to press down into the dough. DON'T twist, then gently push the dough out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet without making large dents or making the dough too lopsided. Dip the cutter into some flour and tap on the edge to get rid of excess flour, and cut again.
- Squeeze the remaining dough back together into a ball without big cracks, roll and cut again. Repeat until you use all of the dough. You should have 7 to 9 scones.
- Brush the reserved egg wash on the top surface of the biscuits, save the egg wash. Place sheet in the fridge for 30 to 40 minutes UNCOVERED. Meanwhile, preheat the oven on 420 F. Right before baking, brush a second layer of egg wash on the top of the scones. This double layer gives the scones a shiny finish.
- Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 10 minutes, then turn OFF the oven, and leave the biscuits inside for another 5 minutes to finish cooking. Transfer onto a cooling rack and serve warm with clotted cream and jam-required. In a pinch, you can serve with lemon curd in place of the cream and jam.
