Thursday, June 17, 2010

Very near perfection!

Once upon a time there was a young girl who visited a tea house with some dear friends and tried scones for the very first time. They were round, light, moist and delicate. Topped with a bit of cream they were absolutely delicious! Much to her dismay she soon discovered that anytime anyone spoke of "scones" they were referring to hard, dense triangles that brought back not a bit of that old delight.

As you may have guessed, that poor confused girl is me. And while I have come to appreciate the regular scone, and have even had some I greatly enjoy, I still had fantasies in my head of those never forgotten delicacies.

Oh the joy that flooded my heart the other day as I discovered that my dreams could be a reality once more! "British Scones" were what I was dreaming of. Not sure why it took me so long to figure this out. My friends that I learned all of my tea loving times from are very English.

I found a recipe that we are loving so I thought I would share it with you!

Here's how it goes~
Preheat oven to 425'
Mix~  2 1/2 cups flour
          2 tsp. baking powder
          5 Tbls. Sugar
          1 tsp. Salt

Blend in 1/2 cup butter with a fork, pastry blender or fingers.
Gently mix in 1 1/3 cup milk
Add as much flour as you need to get it to a workable consistency.   ( Be careful to not overwork at this point or they will get tough!)

Pat out to 1/2 - 1 in. thickness and cut out with a biscuit cutter or any handy cup you have on hand!

Place parchment paper on cookie sheet and place scones on it.


Bake for 10-12 minutes

This batch made 15 scones (Sisters Rachel and Anna are over!!!)


We ate ours with whipped cream, lemon curd and strawberry jam.






*Lemon Curd*

Mix in double boiler and cook on medium heat~

3 eggs
1/3 lemon juice
3/4 sugar

After approximately 10 min. it will thicken. ( Use a whisk if you don't want lumps!)
Remove from heat and stir in 4 Tbl. butter until melted. Add 1 Tbl. lemon zest. Cool

I now LOVE lemon curd!!!

A beautiful cup of tea. A delightful light, flaky and moist scone, topped with whipped cream and lemon curd making for a creamy, sweet and slightly tart flavor. Ahhhhhhh! Just about as good as it gets!

7 comments:

Aly sun said...

I am SO hungry for that right now. Wow, that looks terrific. Really, really delicious. I'm going to try that. Someday soon when I have a few people to share with so that I don't eat them all.

Mrs David W said...

This is a wonderful post! It puts me in the mood for a tall glass of iced tea along with scones and lemon curd. Plus, the pictures of your wee little gals enjoying it, makes me think of doing this with my daughter. Many happy returns as you savor the tasty moment Grace!

tlcmom said...

I will have to try your recipe Grace. My grandma was from England and we had tea and scones every afternoon when I would stay with her. Her recipe is in pounds and ounces so I never took the time to figure it out. This one looks great!
Jill

Sonja said...

That all looks so yummy! I love scones. I will have to try out this recipe sometime.

Anonymous said...

Hi Grace, I love English scones too. Thanks for the recipe! I have a recipe for mock devonshire cream, which a friend of mine made to put on scones once. It was so good! I'll have to get that out and pass it on, if you're interested.

RachelD said...

You are making me hungry for scones and lemon curd now! :) Looks delicious!

Martha A. said...

Yum!!! I too have had trouble getting scones to turn out!