When is a scone not a scone? I don’t know. I get the feeling that if ever a scone was not a scone, it was these scones. Am I making sense? They were really delicious when I made them the other day for morning tea with my Mum and Dad. Moreish and buttery with a large textured crumb. But scones? I don’t know. I think the thing that is throwing me off here is that they weren’t crying out for cream. Every other scone I have had in my short little life has practically been flat on it’s stomach, kicking and screaming and begging me to slather it with cream, whereas these ones were too-cool. They were like the aloof cool kid of the scone world. “Whatever”, they said when I suggested cream, “we’d be just as good with butter or jam or nothing at all…”. So weird. It’s like a little kid who doesn’t want chocolate. Kind of unnatural.
This recipe was based one I haven’t tried before, but which has been around for a while, you know the lemonade scones? I had no milk, so my usual scone-dough was out and lo and behold I had (kinda) all the ingredients for this one! I used soda water instead of lemonade (not being super keen on carbonated sugar, but very keen on carbonated water?) and upped the amount of sugar in the mix to make up for this substitution. Strangely, I ended up with a very wet dough which needed a lot of flour on the bench to prevent sticking. They didn’t rise a lot, they didn’t stay in the shape I cut them into and they didn’t look anything at all like a standard scone, having an interestingly mottled surface. And still, I photographed them. I was losing faith by the minute that these would end up being edible, let alone bloggable, yet I still had the camera on the action.
I guess that goes to show you just what kind of a blog I’m running here. It’s not about turning out perfectly pretty specimens, becuase that’s just not my style, and unfortunately I just don’t have the anal-retentive personality that I think is a requirement of that sort of cooking. All I care about is chowing down on something that is DELICIOUS. And that, ladies and gentleman, brings me to the scones. YUM. They weren’t lying when they said that they’d be good with butter, jam, nothing at all. They are buttery and sweet enough as it is. They are almost like a cross between shortbread and butter cake, or an estranged cousin of that buttery treat family. And they are easy, easy, easy to make, like most scones, but even easier because these don’t call for any rubbing in of butter to flour. You just mix the whole lot together, pat it into circle, cut out your scones and bake! Now that I think of it – these would be great to do with kids.
OK, so maybe these aren’t the scones that you want to make for the school bake sale, or any other time where you think they might be judged on looks alone. I say that you reserve them for those special people in life who will try one just because you made them, even if they don’t look perfect, and then they get the double surprise of a tasty scone as well. Like Mum’s and Dad’s. Or just keep them for yourself. All for yourself.
Note: Interestingly when researching scones for this post, I learned that the word scon in Scots, actually means “to ?crush flat or beat with the open hand on a flat surface”. So that must be where the term to “scone” yourself comes from.
Lemonade Scones, adapted from a recipe on Taste.com
300g or 2 cups plain flour
3 tsps baking powder
55g or 1/4 cup caster sugar, plus 2 tbsps extra
125ml or 1/2 cup thickened cream
125ml or 1/2 cup soda water
Preheat the oven to 220C.
Place your flour, baking powder and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl and stir together well. Make a well in the centre and pour in the cream and soda water. Stir through with a butter knife until just combined, and all the flour has absorbed some moisture, and then turn out onto a well floured bench-top. Pat the dough out into a round of about 2cm thickness, and then using a 6 cm cutter dipped in flour, cut out your scones. I got an odd number (9) out of this batch, but just keep going until all your dough is used, very gently patting the scraps back together. Place the scones on a paper lined baking tray and slide them into the oven for about 12-15 minutes.
Voila! Fresh baked scones. And you my friend will be the envy of all those who caught the scent of fresh baked goods wafting from your kitchen.
