Adventures in Baking: Scones

It’s Labor Day, so I decided to labor in my kitchen. No seriously – even though it’s hotter than hell outside, I decided that I wanted to give my new mixer a test drive. Plus, I’ve been thinking about making my own scones because *$ has gotten pretty damned pricey lately. I downloaded this recipe from the Food Network, went to the store for some supplies (heavy cream and parchment paper, organic King Arthur flour and oranges), and got to baking. For the record, I’m a great cook when it comes to beans, gumbos, and jambalaya, but I’ve never really been much of a baker. This is my new “thing” — the hobby to keep me sane. Plus, I have The Coach for a guinea pig, so I’m all set.

So, I got the green mixing bowl down and blended together all of the dry ingredients before dumping them into my new mixer. I chopped up the butter and added it a few bits at a time, just like Alton Brown does. I whisked the heavy cream into the eggs and dumped them in. The only problem I really had — at the beginning — was the orange zest. Let’s just say that a tablespoon of orange zest is equal to the zest of one big orange. Don’t even bother measuring it. Then, when I went to put the cranberries into the mixer, I realized that I had f*cked up earlier. Yes, I didn’t bother to reserve the flour to coat the berries. Oops. I added just a little sprinkle to help the berries stick to the batter better, but … later thought that might have been a mistake when my first round of scones came out like dried up ol’ hockey pucks. (Luckily the Black Plague of Death and the Little White Dog don’t care. Anything that is human food is okay by them!)

The second round went better because: (1) I cooked them 18 minutes instead of 20; (2) I made them slightly thicker so they weren’t all dry; and (3) I didn’t get the egg wash all over the parchment paper. Actually, the second round came out light and flakey, with little layers like a good buttermilk biscuit. The third round also looked pretty damned good:

As you can tell, my kitchen does not have enough counter space. I had to hang my cooling rack over the sink just so I had enough room! Anyways, that was the least of my traumas. The recipe includes an orange/sugar glaze. A nice concept except … it does not make enough glaze at all! If I hadn’t already thrown out the spare orange juice, I would have made more! Anyhow, if you decide to make this recipe, I have the following advice:

• The bigger the scone, the moister it will be.
• Make sure to check them after 18 minutes. The recipe actually says 20-25 minutes, but let me tell you – these things were drier than hell at 20 minutes.
• Make more glaze. And make sure you wait until they’ve cooled a while or the glaze won’t look like the picture in the recipe.

And now, I will have to test the second batch on a couple of my co-workers. I think the recipe could use a little more tinkering. It could use more orange flavor, so I will probably double the amount of zest in the next batch. I’ll keep you posted.