I'm posting recipes I used for my Valentine crafting open house tea party. I already posted about the square bread recipe I used for the sandwich bread. Like it, I didn't want my scones to be like the typical tea house white flour kind. I used my home-ground whole wheat pastry berry flour and oat flour. I also didn't want large scones, so used a small round cutter - like a donut hole size. I wanted to make pumpkin scones too, but found I didn't have any canned pumpkin like I thought I did ... Typical me ... I did plan a lot for this party, but I assumed I had canned pumpkin. Hmmmm.... now that I think of it, I do have that proportion in the freezer ... Oh well, we had enough.
BUTTERMILK SCONES
3 C whole grain flour1/2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 stick (3/4C) unsalted butter
3/4 C buttermilk
Combine dry ingredients and cut in butter till fine crumble, then add buttermilk. OR you could do this just fine with the butter melted and mix the wet ingredients in with the mixed dry ingredients. The most important thing with scones is to not over mix - like DON'T KNEAD! Dump ingredients out onto floured (oiled would probably work too) counter, mixing together more - I had to add a bit more buttermilk. Pat out in large circle till about 1 - 1 1/2" thick. Cut with a circle cutter (recipe called for 3" circles). Put on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 425 degrees for about 12 minutes or till lightly browned.
Sweetened recipes used same recipe, but added 1/3 C sugar. I did a mixed berry scone recipe adding in the sugar as well as about 2C mixed berries - I had fresh blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries (I used the leftover berries to make a mixed berry jam for the scones). The pumpkin scones used the same recipe with the added sugar, 1 C canned pumpkin, 1/4 tsp each ginger and cinnamon, then 2 Tb vanilla. I did make turtle scones later, using a caramel glaze also used on the pumpkin scones.
TURTLE SCONES
3C whole grain flour1/3C sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4C unsalted butter
3/4C chopped pecans
3/4C mini choc chips
1 1/4C buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
Caramel Glaze
Mixed the dry ingredients, added in the wet till barely mixed, dumped onto counter mixing it together better, tho not kneading, into a circle about 1 1/2" thick. Cut in circles and put on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 12 minutes at 425 degrees.
CARAMEL GLAZE
2 sticks (1C) unsalted butter1C brown sugar
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt
1/2C heavy cream
Heat all but cream in a saucepan over medium till light boil. Add the cream having turned the heat to low. Cook about 2 minutes or until thickened. Hold the scone bottoms and dip the tops into the glaze and put them back onto the baking sheet.
Like I said above, I made a mixed berry jam from extra fresh berries I bought for the berry scones. I made a Tangerine Lemon Curd and a Un-clotted Cream for the scones.
UN-CLOTTED CREAM
1 Qt heavy cream3 1/2 C powdered sugar
2/3 C fresh lemon juice
Mix the cream, slowly adding the sugar. Then add the lemon juice in a slow stream. Turn to high speed and whip till the mixture holds peaks. This will keep refrigerated a week.
I ordered up Tea Party books from the library. One book I gleaned a lot of ideas from was Alice's Tea Cup - a famous tea house in New York. When googling lemon curd recipes I came upon this tangerine curd recipe from a blog: www.joythebaker.com, which I've bookmarked cuz I want to try a lot of stuff she posts!
TANGERINE LEMON CURD
Mix together well, rubbing together with the back of a spoon -5 Tb sugar
1 tsp tangerine zest
In a saucepan over low heat whisk together -
1 lg egg & 2 lg egg yolks (I'd written down another lemon curd recipe and they used the whole eggs so I used 3 whole eggs)
the tangerine sugar mixture
2Tb lemon juice
1/4C tangerine juice
4Tb unsalted butter
pinch of salt
Whisk in the saucepan over low (the other recipe did it over medium) till thick enough to coat the back of a spoon - about 5 minutes (the other recipe stirred in the butter in pieces, a bit at a time, lowering the heat and continuing cooking stirring constantly till thick)(I probably did a mixture of both recipes.) Joy pressed hers thru a fine mesh strainer, then jarred up the mixture. I didn't. I figured the tangerine peel pieces would be fine. I did jar it up and pressed plastic wrap on the surface, as the other recipe suggested, to keep a skin from forming, let cool to room temp and then refrigerated. This will keep a week too or freeze.
PS I read it's best to make these fresh, so I was making them the morning of the tea. Now it's several days later and I'm reheating them in the toaster oven and they're still good. I'm thinking if made later in the day the day before, covered with foil and kept in a warm oven right before the tea, they'd be good. They really aren't hard tho to whip up quickly and cut out and bake ...
PPS I ran out of baking soda! I'm usually a great list-maker, adding things to a list when getting low. I looked all over for another box, so I googled "baking soda substitute" that morning in the thick of making everything! Lots of science you could read: base/acid... The bottom line? Add extra baking powder - so I used a Tb of baking powder in the scones.
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