Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
8 tbsp or 1 stick butter
There was a thunderstorm a couple days before I put together this recipe. This summer has been cooler here in Victoria compared to the rest of the world, and compared to previous years locally. The cool cloudy weather had me craving a cup of tea and a cozy treat, so I created this soft-scone recipe to share with you all.
This recipe is quick to put together, mainly because it’s a race against the clock to prevent the butter from warming up. The first step is to grate or cut up the butter into pea- or bean-sized pieces. After you’ve done that, put the butter into the freezer—this will ensure that it will remain as cold as possible for the rest of the recipe.
Preheat the oven to 400 F and make sure the racks are set to the middle of the oven. Then get a medium-sized bowl for the dry ingredients. Measure out into the bowl 2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda, 1/4 cup white sugar, and a pinch of salt. You may have noticed that the white sugar is being added to the dry ingredients—that’s because scones like to break the rules of baking; it’s also because white sugar is dryer than brown sugar. You can use brown sugar for this recipe, but you must add it to the wet ingredients.
In a smaller bowl for the wet ingredients, put in 2/3 cup of cream, an egg, and 2 tsp of vanilla extract. Whisk the wet ingredients till combined.
Take out the butter from the freezer and put it into the dry ingredients. Use a fork to mash the butter into the flour, making sure there are still clumps of butter visible. Then carefully pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in parts, mixing between with a fork. When all the wet ingredients are poured into the dough, quickly knead the dough until it just comes together and is still very slightly crumbly.
Put a little bit of flour onto a counter and dump the dough onto it. Stretch and press the dough into a circle until it’s about an inch thick, then cut the dough into eight pieces. Place the pieces onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper, then bake for 18 minutes. When you pull the scones out of the oven, wait for at least 10 minutes before eating.
Like many of my other baking recipes, there’s a lot of fun you can have with the add-ins. On the sweet side, you can add in dried fruits such as dried cranberries. Or you can add frozen fruits, like blueberries. I’ve see others add chocolate chips, although when I told my dad he was offended by the idea.
You can even go in the savoury direction by adding cheese and herbs. Or you can add meats such as bacon bits.
You can also freeze the baked scones for later; they’re a great meal-prep option. I recommend warming them back up in the oven or a toaster oven. Using an oven will help keep the texture softer than using a microwave will, as microwaves tend to make the scones have a slightly soggy or gummy texture.