One of my favorite lines in Moonraker (I'm a James Bond junkie) is, "You arrive at a propitious moment coincident with your country's one indisputable contribution to Western civilisation - afternoon tea." Tea is a beautiful thing. I'm not a tea aficionado; I do enjoy black, green, white and red teas. I just enjoy them in a bag. My favorite brands are The Republic of Tea and Revolution.The perfect tea accompaniment for me? A good scone. There is just something special about a cup of Earl Grey, a blueberry scone and lemon curd. I'll take it for breakfast or 4 pm. Let's be real, I'll take it at any time! This recipe is from Baking Illustrated. I think the blueberries are my idea.
Take your dry ingredients for a spin in the food processor.
Add your chopped cold butter. I actually use frozen butter in all my pastry recipes for extra protection against it melting. I chop it with a bench scraper.
Sprinkle it evenly over the dry ingredients and toss it in the flour. Take it for a few quick spins.
Pour the contents into a mixing bowl. Have your fresh-from-the-freezer frozen blueberries ready. Toss them in the mixture. Move quickly. If the blueberries thaw, you'll have purple dough. Add cold heavy cream and fold gently. Move quickly. If the blueberries thaw, you'll have purple dough. Fold gently. Dump the dough out and knead it together gently. This is much easier to do without frozen blueberries, but it's the winter, so you have to work with what you got.
Eeek! Purple dough. It's just a few spots. Use a cake pan to shape the dough; get it into the pan and press lightly. Invert the pan and cut the circle into triangles. You can use your bench scraper to cut.
Get the triangles onto a lined baking sheet and brush with heavy cream. They should bake until golden brown. Here's my disclaimer: I discriminate against dark-skinned food. I've always liked my baked stuff lighter. I like the flavor of a browned top, but I don't like the texture. And yes, I have been known to eat just the center of biscuits. I think I hear the food police knocking at my door. In my defense on these scones, I reheat them in a toaster, so they dp eventually get golden brown.
How civilized!
Tools of the trade:
No comments:
Post a Comment