In our first attempt at making the perfect scone, my daughter Natalie and I made some pretty tasty scones, but the texture was not as light as we’d hoped. We tried Ina Garten’s scones next, and came up with a lighter scone that seemed a bit dry.
Thanks to my reader’s comments and a little research, I’ve figured out that the scone I am looking for must be an English scone, which it seems, is more akin what we Americans would call a biscuit. Given that the first scone I’d ever had was in Bath, England, that made sense to me.
So last weekend, at the suggestion of both Waynetta and Chairwoman, I finally tried Delia Smith’s Scone Recipe (complete with photos, here). Delia is sort of the Julia Child of Britian, a TV chef who made cooking seem simple, and whose recipes are known to be tried and true. (You can read her BBC bio here). I figured that if Delia didn’t have the right British scone recipe for me, no one would.
The first thing I noticed about Delia’s recipe was that she recommends the butter be at room temperature, which goes agains everything I’ve come to learn about making pastry, and is the exact opposite of the recommendation in my Professional Chef, namely, to put the butter back in the fridge after cutting it up to be sure it stays cold until the very last minute. This was my first inkling that perhaps Delia’s recipe would not be the best…
I decided to stick with the Professional Chef, and kept my butter cold. Otherwise I followed Delia’s recipe exactly, even using castor sugar and a round biscuit cutter (except I added chocolate chips).
The first batch was made with daughter and her friend. The kids took a little longer than I wanted working the dough, and it really became too cookie like. So I made a second batch myself, working like lightening to keep the dough light. Mine is on the left up there, and the kid’s scone is on the right.
They look great, and the flavor was great. But you know what? The scones were too dry. I know scones are meant to be eaten with clotted cream or jam, but still I was disappointed. I think the recipe I seek has a bit more liquid than Delia’s. In fact, when I look at biscuit recipes, they definitely have more liquid.
So it’s back to the drawing board. Next up, I think I will try the Cook’s Illustrated scone recipe. If anyone knows where I can find it, do let me know.
Of course, it may be that what I am looking for is not a scone, and perhaps doesn’t even exist. But I have this memory of a warm, light, not dry scone with clotted cream sometime in my culinary past (perhaps in Bath?), and I’m determined to make it…
Addendum: I Found it! The Pefect Scone.
Category: Food
For the love of scones, please take Delia’s advice about the butter. I can’t make good scones with cold butter at all. If you want more liquid (and this is good to prevent overkneading), you can always add a bit of milk or cream. The easiest scones to make don’t even require butter, just a lot of heavy cream (these are drop scones). A scone is not as fussy as other pastries, so don’t worry about substitutions.
And where did all this information come from? I’m an occasional lurker who just happens to love scones.
-Ada
p.s. If you’re looking for even more moisture, why not use chocolate chunks instead of chips?
Oh I almost forgot; my favourite cook book, the Joy of Cooking, has an excellent dissertation on scones and biscuits. And on pretty much everything else.
And I’m not sure how you rub the butter into the flour mixture, but I always use the food processor, to the point that it looks like yellow flour.
I’ll go back to lurking now…
Why were you trying to make pastry? English scones aren’t pastries, they are somewhere between a sweet bread and a cake, and you should end up with a very soft, sticky dough, not a ball of pastry. The butter definitely should not have been chilled. If you follow Delia’s recipe exactly you will get the warm, light and not dry scones you remember. (Were they chocolate chip? I have only ever seen plain or fruited scones here.)
As Katy’s mum I know that I might not be considered impartial, but she recently made some scones from Delia’s recipe, and they were light, crumbly, and delicious.
She is a far better patissiere than I have ever been, I don’t know where you professional women find the time 🙂
Ada the Lurker-
Glad I coaxed you out of hiding 🙂
I was just doing what my cooking bible tells me. I will check the Joy of Cooking, another favorite of mine, and see what they say.
I know that Cooks illustrated did a scone test at some point, I am just trying to find it in m back issues and can’t. I should just break down and pay for their web site, but it annoys me that subscribers to their magazine don’t get free access…
Katy and Chairwoman-
Delia has a bunch of different scone recipes out there – do you know if the one you liked is the one I used? (The link is there in the post).
The chocolate chips are because that’s how my daughter likes them. I actually prefer raisins…
I think that is basically the recipe that I used – except that I didn’t have any buttermilk, so I used the same quantity of natural low-fat Greek style yogurt, which worked fine.
I think the key is to have the butter quite soft, which makes everything very moist, and not to work the dough at all once it all comes together in the bowl; also not to flour it too much as you are cutting the scones out. This does make it incredibly sticky and soft – to the point where you wonder if the recipe can possibly be right – and it can be a bit of a struggle to get the scones out of the cutter as a result – but they do work, or at least they did for me.
Incidentally, my scones rose a little higher than yours but not nearly as high as Delia’s. I suspect her of sneakily adding raising agent.
the most important thing is not to overknead, I had a cooking instructor tell us that with biscuits, scones, and pie crusts, you should never work the dough more than ten times…it seems counterintuitive, it looks like nothing is mixed together, but on a smaller level which we don’t see it really is…there is some chemistry behind this which I think they go over in the joy of cooking…but no matter what the recipe says, I always follow that instructors advice about kneading, and my biscuits, crusts, scones are always light and fluffy
I’m not much of a pastry chef Although when I fantasize about leaving medicine, I leave it for being a chef. I love food science.
If I recall correctly, Alton Brown has a scone recipe out there, I feel like I’ve made them and it worked well. I know what you mean about moist scones; it’s almost a paradox because the perfect scone is moist and crumbly.
One day I just KNOW that you will try my scone recipe that I keep sending you…after all we ARE family and they ae the BEST scones ever if I do say so myself!
I’m with obs housekeeper…we learned to bake them together. I promise you a tasty scone, not too dry. Always remember that the baking powder is key. Use the wrong one and you’ll get the metallic aftertaste.
Hi, I do have a cooks illustrated membership, so here are two recipies from them:
Sweet-Milk Scones
Work the dough quickly, don’t overmix, and put the dough rounds into the heated oven as soon as possible. The process–from mixing to pulling the finished scones out of the oven–shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes. Scones are best served warm and fresh, split open and topped with thick homemade strawberry or raspberry jam and clotted cream (or crème fraîche, marscarpone, or whipped cream). This recipe can be doubled.
Makes 8-9 scones
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 – 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (optional)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup whole milk
Breakfast/Brunch Quick Breads
See Illustrations Below: Making Wedge-Shaped Scones
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Sift first 4 (or 5) ingredients into large bowl, or measure into workbowl of a food processor fitted with steel blade; pulse until blended. With pastry blender, 2 knives, or steel blade of a food processor, cut or process butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps.
3. If making by hand, (preferred method), make a well in the center of mixture and pour in milk. Working quickly, blend ingredients together with a rubber spatula into a soft, slightly wet dough. If using a food processor, pour milk through feed tupe; pulse until dough just starts to gather into a rough ball (do not overprocess or scones will be tough). Turn dough onto a well-floured work surface.
4. Quickly roll dough to 1/2 inch thick. Use a lightly greased and floured 3-inch biscuit cutter to stamp dough with one decisive punch, cutting close together to generate as few scraps as possible. Dip cutter into flour as often as necessary to keep dough from sticking. Push scraps of dough together so that edges join; firmly pinch edges with fingertips to make a partial seal. Pat this remaining dough to 1/2 inch thick; continue to cut 3-inch rounds. Place dough rounds 1 1/2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake until scones are lightly brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve immediately.
Currant and Cream Scones
The easiest and most reliable approach to mixing the butter into the dry ingredients is to use a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Resist the urge to eat the scones hot out of the oven. Letting them cool for at least 10 minutes firms them up and improves their texture.
Makes 8
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter , chilled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup currants
1 cup heavy cream
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in large bowl or workbowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.
3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender, or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in currants. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Add currants and pulse one more time. Transfer dough to large bowl.
4. Stir in heavy cream with rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
5. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Following illustrations for Wedge Biscuits on page 209, cut scones into 8 wedges. Place wedges on ungreased baking sheet. (Baking sheet can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 hours.)
6. Bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Let me know if you want more – they have many other flavor variations.
Laura:
How nice of you! Thanks!
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Hi having just read your post my i suggest that you use delia’s recipe, but leave out the eggs and replace with a cup of thick cream.the scones will be nice and light. i hope this helps regards .
I just made Delia’s recipe and from an English person’s point of view it was perfect. The only sub I made was to use cream (unwhipped whipping cream, organic) instead of buttermilk because that was what I had on hand. I used bakers sugar instead of caster (it amounts to the same thing) except I used white not golden. I also used aluminium free baking powder to make my all-purpose flour into “self raising” (baking powder which i keep in the fridge for freshness btw).
The secret is to handle the dough as little as possible, and to really believe the recipe when it says DO NOT ROLL THINNER THAN 1 INCH. One inch is pretty fat and it will look like you can make barely any scones. So…use the smallest cutter you have. Mine is only an inch wide. The scones are then as high as they are wide. Collect the bits and gently roll a second time and you will be ok with a second round of scones, but a third roll out they will lose their lightness to a level where they are probably better not served to guests, but fine for the chef to munch on.
From the recipe of Delia’s I made 13 x first roll out, 5 x second roll out and 3 x 3rd roll out. As they bake the scones split around the middle providing the perfect cutting point to split them and spread with jam, butter and clotted cream.
Btw – the English wouldn never dream of putting chocolate in their scones. It just doesn’t seem right. With cream jam and butter they are perfection already, and there is no point messing with perfection!
this is what mine ended up looking like
Hope my tips are of use to you.
Sam
Sam – Wow, those are some gorgeous looking scones you made!
Thanks for the tip.
I come from Devon in the UK (the home of scones). The idea of not having a scone with clotted cream and jam (must be strawberry) let alone putting chocolate in a scone shocks me. I am going to have to go and have a sit down.
Pastry … chocolate chips … deary me!
I own a traditional English Tea Room. If you want chocolate scones add cocoa powder ( 1 tbspn flour out, 1tbspn cocoa in). Serve with chocolate spread and whipped cream. Very decadent but you don't come to a Tea Room to mind the calories.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/homemadescones_73976.shtml
Classic English Scone recipe.
Remember a scone should be eaten with butter and jam or cream or both. But always with butter if you want a great tasting treat.
[…] Next: The Perfect Scone? Sorry Delia, not quite… […]
This came out a total mess and I’m from England and these taste more like shortbread than scones. The dough was wayyyy too wet and the scones where as flat as a witches boob lol and I followed the recipe to a T.
Alison-
Sounds like you agree with me that Delia’s recipe is not the best
Here is the recipe I ended up liking best is up there at the end if the post – link to the perfect scone (with a song too…)
All the best-
Peggy
Best scones are made with turned milk, ie soured milk.
It was a tradition to make use of your soured milk, turned by the presence of an electric storm, in baking scones.
The chemistry of this is that the acidic nature of sour milk with the baking powder creates extra carbon dioxide gas and therefore airy scones.
S –
Have you actually done this? Do you sour the milk yourself (adding lemon), or use bad milk from the fridge?
From what I’ve read, the process of pasteurizing destroys bacteria that sour milk, and milk just goes bad no instead of souring first. Others feel differently. Here’s an interesting discussion on the issue –
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3235/baking-sour-milk
Thanks for your comments.
Peggy
I apologize because I haven’t read all the comments. I hope I am saying something new when I day that I took a scone baking class and we were advised to take them out 5 minutes earlier than the recipe stipulates. Like with meat the scones will continue to cook out of the oven. This tip will keep them moist.
Delias little Buttermilk scones are delicious .I used her recipe in Home economics class .Those with heavy hands had heavy scones ! But most were delicious .You need a light touch to make good scones and pastry .