By Isa Covo
We stayed indoors for months, looking out of the window, wishing for escape, for travel.
Now the doors are cracking open slightly, and I have started to think of destinations. I would like to go to England and have a proper afternoon tea. But in the meantime, I made cream scones, which are usually featured as part of tea. For the most authentic presentation, serve with jam and clotted cream (available at Myers of Keswick), but if you don’t have clotted cream, whipped cream works well too.
Rich Cream Scones
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- + 1 tablespoon for dusting
- 4 tablespoons of chilled unsalted butter,
- cubed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- (preferably not ultra-pasteurized)
- + 1 tablespoon for brushing on top
- Pinch of salt
DIRECTIONS
- Combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl, and whisk the ingredients to combine thoroughly.
- Add the butter to the flour mixture and cut it in with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture looks like coarse meal.
- In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the cream, vanilla and salt, and pour into the butter-flour mixture. Mix with a fork until the dough almost holds together. Knead the dough lightly with fingertips until it becomes smooth and even.
- Leave the dough in the bowl, cover it and let it rest 15 minutes in a cool place.
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Separate the dough into two equal pieces, place them on a cookie sheet and flatten each one into a circle six inches in diameter.
- Score each of the cakes into four or six equal triangles, but do not separate them.
- Brush the tops with the remaining cream, being careful not to drip it on the sides. Sprinkle with the additional sugar.
- Bake until thoroughly cooked and golden on top, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Let the scones rest five minutes on a rack and then separate.Yield: 12 scones
For Orange or Lemon Scones, add 1 teaspoon of grated orange or lemon rind and one tablespoon or two of lemon or orange juice to the cream mixture. Instead of the sugar you may press some slivered almonds into the top of the scone. Bake as above.
For Walnut-Raisin Scones, add 1/3 cup of coarsely chopped toasted walnuts and 1/3 cup of dark or golden raisins, or, even better, currants, to the dough, Proceed as above, but add 1 scant teaspoon of powdered cinnamon to the sugar sprinkled on top.
