Cream scones are the classic compliment to the Devon cream tea. They’re comparable in flavor to an American scone, but smaller, lighter of crumb and above all easier to slather with clotted cream and jam. Though the procedure and ingredients may be similar to American biscuits and/or Australian scones, they’re really their own animal. Try them and you’ll see.
READ ONThese scones are the kind I remember from my college days in Devon when I, along with the other overcoat-wearing nihilists from the University of Exeter’s philosophy department, would descend on a local tea shop and munch cream-covered scones from delicate china plates set on doilies. The universe might have been impersonal and meaningless but the butterfat content was high. You’ll need:
READ ONI know, I’ve done scones before, but they were American scones. Those aren’t really scones in the British sense. Oh right, then I did those Aussie pumpkin scones, but those aren’t British scones either. More like American biscuits. Which I should probably point out aren’t like either Australian or British biscuits. Those are more like American cookies. Which is not to say that no one makes cookies in Britain, they…
Hang on, I’m getting all confused now. This is going to be a short week for me, I’d better not get my little brainpan smoking already. I’m just going to put up a recipe…
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New Zealand/Australian scones are so like American biscuits it’s tempting to say there’s no difference between them at all. That’s not true of course. On balance they contain a little less butter and are moistened (at least the pumpkin versions) with egg instead of buttermilk, which gives them a more tender, cake-like crumb. Another big difference is that they’re frequently loaded up with flavorings like pumpkin, cheese or dates. Most Americans (especially Southern Americans) view flavored biscuits with deep suspicion, if not outright hostility. These, however, are fantastic.
READ ONThings work a little differently in New Zealand and Australia where baking nomenclature is concerned. Relative to American baking, their scones are our biscuits. Their biscuits are are our cookies, and their cookies are…well honestly I don’t know what they are. I’m not sure they have any. But these pumpkin biscuits scones are something special. Talk about a great way to get kids to eat their vegetables fruit, these things have more pumpkin in them than flour.
Slightly cake-like relative to American biscuits (that’s because of the egg) the process of making them is identical. Try them soon, as you’ll be able to whip up a batch in about half an hour total.
READ ONThis is a very American scone. It’s big, it’s triangular, it’s rich. Note, however, that it’s possible to do a lot of different things with this dough. I generally favor small scones, and indeed I normally make 12 little triangles with this recipe instead of eight large ones. You can use round cutters if you […]
READ ONLet’s face it, the scone is a British staple that’s been horribly abused in the America. Go to a chain bake shop, ask for a scone, and you’ll likely be handed a giant, thick-as-a-brick wedge of flour and (probably) shortening. Most often, they’re crumbly, dry and almost totally flavorless. No wonder Americans, by and large, […]
READ ONThis is a really good question. On the one hand an argument can be made that they’re that way because the triangle is the original, most authentic shape for a scone. That’s true, since the original Scottish scones were fairly large, flat cakes, cooked on griddle, then sliced into sections like a pizza. Yet there’s […]
READ ONOh, maybe a billion bucks, give or take. But let’s back up a little. When last we left our hapless heroes at Post Cereals it was 1964. They were alerting the media about their big idea of packaging pre-made toaster-ready jam turnovers in metallized mylar packets. Announcements started appearing in national papers that week.
That Thursday over at the Kellogg Company, CEO J.P. Bigshot was following the story closely. “Say, that’s a pretty good idea,” he said through a mouthful of doughnut. “But what’s Post calling these things? Country Squares??? That’s about as exciting as a Beverly Hillbillies re-run. Miss Jones, get me the R&D department.”
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The texture of clotted cream is really unlike any other dairy product I’m aware of. It’s smooth, incredibly thick, full of big, curd-like blobs and just a little gooey. “Mud-like” is the term I usually use, and it’s apt.
For a one-time Devon resident like myself, the realization that I had the resources available to make my own clotted cream caused waves of both nostalgia and lust — butterfat lust — to wash over me. I had to rush out immediately and try it. If you have small, local dairy cream available to you (un-homogenized and especially un-stabilized) this recipe will be a snap. If not you probably won’t get quite the same result, but to my way of seeing things that’s no reason not to try. The potential rewards are simply too great.
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