from Kris B.Fresh Blueberry Scones

It is not fresh berry season here in Texas right now, but thanks to imports from South America, fresh blueberries can be had all year round.  They were even on sale this last week!  I do try to by local and in season most of the time, but going from September through March with no fresh blueberries is tough!  I bought the berries with scones in mind.

As an aside, I chuckled a bit when I read the recipe title on the King Arthur website.  My first thought was, “Well, I’m glad that they are fresh scones because it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between blueberry color and mold color in baked goods. 🙂  Syntax in the English language is a funny thing.  Moving on…

With this recipe, I read the comments before making it, something that I don’t often do.  More chuckles were had.  Some reviewers said the scones were too sweet; others said they weren’t sweet enough.  Some said the dough was too dry and would not come together; others said the consistency was perfect.  Some said this recipe was too American; others said it was too English.  This final criticism got me wondering what was considered an authentic English scone and what caused a scone to become Americanized.  I decided to do a little research.  This question also gave me an opportunity to find out what the shape of a “real” scone should be, something I’ve wondered about for some time.  Here in the U.S. they are almost always triangular.  The scones I ate (way too many of) while in the U.K. were all round, resembling a Southern rolled biscuit in shape, but nothing like their taste or consistency.

Here is what I found:

What’s the biggest difference between British and American scones?

It’s really about the butter…a true British scone is not as buttery. Not because the Brits are nutritious, but because in Britain you don’t put a lot of butter in because you slather butter on it when you eat it! By the same token, you don’t put a lot of sugar in it but you pile jam on top. They’re probably equally injurious to one’s diet but in different, equally lovely ways.

That makes sense to me.  Basically, the English view a scone as a delivery system for clotted cream )or butter) and jam, much in the same way that here in Texas we consider tortillas chips as merely a vehicle for salsa.  American scones, with their unique texture, sweetness, add-ins, and often added glaze are icing are meant to be a stand alone pastry – no clotted cream and jam required.

Interestingly, I found no definitive answer to my question about the proper shape of a scone.

Basically, I think that it comes down to convenience.  The common wedge-shaped scones are easily cut from a circular disk of dough.  Making round scones, like traditional round rolled and cut biscuits, is less desirable because the continuous rolling, cutting, and gathering of the pieces to re-roll the dough causes the dough to toughen.  Square scones are easy to cut and have no waste or re-rolling like the circular ones. The King Arthur Flour Fresh Blueberry Scones recipe says that it makes 10 scones when cut in wedges.  I made nine squares so mine are slightly bigger.

Scones are super easy to make.  Sift the dry ingredients together.  Cut in the butter.  Whisk the wet ingredients together.  Combine the wet and the dry.  Stir in the blueberries.  Pat the dough out in the shape of your choice on a well-floured surface.  Cut the individual scones.  Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  Done!

INGREDIENTS

• King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or Pastry Flour
• salt
• sugar
• baking powder
• cold butter, cut into pieces
• eggs
• yogurt (vanilla is good)
•  vanilla extract
•  lemon zest
• fresh blueberries

Here are a few suggestions and a few things that I did differently:

1. I used a full 6 oz. container of Chobani vanilla yogurt.  It is slightly more than what the recipe calls for.
2. I grated frozen butter into the dry ingredients.
3. In addition to the lemon zest, I squeezed a tiny bit of lemon juice into the dough.
4. Don’t judge the dryness of the dough until the blueberries have been added.
5. Place the pan of scones in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking.  This helps them to rise.
6. Rather than brushing the tops with melted butter, I used heavy cream and sprinkled a bit of sparkling white sugar on top..  One of the reasons the American scones often have a heavy glaze or icing is that it keeps them moist longer.  You could use a simple glaze on these.

That’s all there is to it.  Except to eat them.

from Tracey G.

Back in September, I did the plain Water Bagel recipe, with the King Arthur Flour Everything Bagel Topping and I’d mentioned that I’ve made the Cinnamon-Raisin version – well, I decided to make them again for Jeremy (they are his favorites) and share the method, because they are so much better than the store-bought version (unless of course you’re getting yours fresh from a bakery!). It’s funny because I’m really fickle about raisins, they are ok in certain things for me, but not everything that they’d normally go in – like cookies, never in any cookies, unless of course it’s Hermits, lol. But anyway, I don’t usually like raisins in things like this, but I actually love these!

And I know I said it before, but they are really EASY to make, and not even that time-consuming at all. The time really does seem to fly by as I’m making them. After you mix your dough up, it rises for about an hour and half, or until it’s doubled. And that’s the only rise time of that nature – so you get right to the shaping and making fairly quickly.

I add all my plain bagel ingredients into the bowl of my stand mixer, and then I add about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1 cup of raisins. Then I mix as directed. Here’s the ingredient list:

DOUGH

• active dry yeast or instant yeast
• lukewarm water
• instant malted milk powder or Non-Diastatic Malt Powder
• sugar
• salt
• King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• * 1-2 teaspoons Cinnamon (KAF recommends 1 teaspoon – I used 2 and it worked beautifully)
• * 1 cup Raisins

WATER BATH

• water
• instant malted milk powder or Non-Diastatic Malt Powder
• sugar

The only *special* ingredient is the Non-Diastatic Malt Powder, and it’s the most important one in my opinion. It’s what gives you and pretty darn close to authentic (if not very authentic) bakery-bagel taste. And it’s really pretty inexpensive, plus I’ve gotten lots of batches out my bag of it. I actually just used up the last of it and am in need of more! It goes in the bagel dough, and in the water bath for it. I can say it again as I said back in September, I will never buy my bagels again if I can help it!

Once dough is mixed and risen, I weigh my total dough, then divide it by 16 so I know how much to pull off for each bagel. I weigh as I go, getting all my pieces ready for shaping into the classic bagel shape. And I really love the shaping part! I get the water bath going and the oven preheating while I get my bagels weighed and divided into 16 pieces. Usually by the time I’m done doing that, my water is ready for them. I get 4 shaped and in the pan to boil for 30 seconds per side. As my timer is going, I’m getting 4 more shaped. When the first 4 come out of the water, the next go in – and when they’re done, that pan in ready to go into the oven! I keep my parchment lined pan right next to the stove so I can transfer already-boiled bagels right to it. When it’s full, I get 8 bagels per sheet, in the oven it goes for about 20-25 minutes. While they’re baking, I get the rest of the dough (the 8 pieces left) shaped, boiled and on the pan ready to go when the others come out of the oven.

I can’t say enough how easy they are to make – the only downtime is waiting for the dough to rise, once that’s done, it’s a pretty quick process from then on. You can be snacking on a fresh-out-of-the-oven bagel while you’re finishing up the shaping of the rest of the bagels!