Being at home all the time has me dreaming of travel. I’ve been to England a few times over the past few years and recently had a hankering for a simple scone with a side of cream. Something quintessentially English that takes me back to afternoon teas and strolling through Kensington gardens or Portobello Market. Maybe the simplicity of the recipe reminds me of a simpler time in the world. It also doesn’t require any yeast which can be difficult to find right now.
My attempt at scones was a 8/10 and the clotted cream was a 5/10 (I will explain more on this later). I recommend making the clotted cream the night before the scones because it takes a full day of cooking in the oven. Don’t let this deter you from trying it!
Here is the scone recipe that I used:
- 3 cups flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick) (easier to work with at room temperature).
- 1 cup whole milk, (I used the leftover cream from the clotted cream)
- 2 eggs
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl (large bowl preferred).
- Slice butter into several pieces and add to the dry ingredients (I sliced about half the stick, then mixed, then repeated). Use your hands to work the butter into the mixture until it becomes crumbly.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the milk or cream and eggs (I set an extra spoonful aside to baste the scones before going into the oven). Add wet ingredients to the flour mix and stir until a dough begins to form.
- Knead the dough on a well-floured surface until the dough becomes smooth and rollable.
- Flour your rolling pin and then roll out dough to a 1 inch thickness. Cut out scones using a round biscuit cutter or you can use the rim of a glass or the rim of a round measuring cup. Transfer the scones to a cookie sheet. Gather remaining dough into a ball and repeat the same process above. Keep repeating until you use the remainder of the dough.
- Brush the top of the scones with the remainder of the egg & milk. Bake scones for about 12-15 minutes depending on the size of your scone. The scones will cook quickly (quicker than I realized) and will be a very light golden color when finished.
My lessons learned with the scones: I could have made them a little larger, as they came out pretty petite. I also had two cookie sheets of scones and the rack on top came out slightly better than the bottom rack, even after I moved them around. The top rack had a little bit more color all around and I liked the texture more.
Now for the cream! Clotted cream is quite simple, you just need a full day to complete it. All that’s really required outside of patience is a carton of heavy whipping cream and a good piece of crockware. Turn on your oven to 180 degrees and place the cream filled crock into the oven. Let the mixture cook a full 12 hours at that temperate. The thick layer of cream on top is your clotted cream. Scrape the cream layer with a slotted spoon and transfer to a jar or container. Place in the fridge to be used with your scones. The remaining liquid is what I used for the scones.
My lessons learned with the clotted cream: Do NOT use an ultra-pasteurized cream. The recipe did work using the ultra-pasteurized cream, but I ended up with a small amount of clotted cream because the pasteurization affected the cream’s ability to fully clot. I have not attempted another batch with a pasteurized cream, but I am looking forward to improving my clotted cream game. Please drop me a comment if you do try either the scones or clotted cream or send me an email.
Cheerio!
-xo
Darcy
