Chef's Scone Recipe - Season two taste (2024)

Chef's scone recipe- There are many contributions to the culinary world that can be credited to England. Scones are firmly placed in the top ten list by us here at Season Two Taste.

A mainstay of traditional English tea service. They can be made "American style" with fruit flavors and a little extra sweetness, or tailor made for clotted cream and other condiments, as the British prefer.

This particular version was made with fresh red currants, an annual harvest from our garden. This scone recipe is very versatile by design, though, and can be made with fruit or your choice, or even without it entirely.

Ingredients

• all purpose flour
• sugar
• salt
• egg yolks
• red currants, (optional, see below under variations)
• unsalted butter
• orange zest, (optional)
• half and half
• baking powder
• pistachio nuts, (optional)
• powdered sugar, (optional garnish)

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Mixing Wet Ingredients/Cutting Flour

Mix the wet ingredients, egg yolks and half and half, and get the dry ingredients ready.

After cutting the butter into small pieces, use a pastry cutter to "cut", or uniformly mix the butter and flour together.

Combining

Once the butter is cut in properly, the consistency will look like this. Notice the hand made lumps.

Combine the wet, dry, and flavor ingredients.

Finishing Dough

Mixing by hand. While it is messy, it's best to do it this way. You don't want to over mix. Being able to feel what is happening really helps with this.

Carefully remove from the mixing bowl onto a floured flat surface, delicately roll out with a rolling pin until it forms a relatively uniformly 1 inch thick "loaf" as shown.

Portioning and Baking

Cut the loaf into desired shapes. We chose the triangles that are most common here in the states, but any shape will do. Just make sure that they are all the same size as best as possible. They will cook evenly this way. Place in the freezer for a least 2 hours or overnight before baking.

Give them a light brush of half and half, followed by a sprinkle of granulated sugar. You'll also see that they are now evenly spaced on a parchment lined sheet pan to go in the oven.

Cooling and Service

Once they are out of the oven, let them cool fully on a rack before giving them a little dust of powdered sugar.

We like to serve them with clotted cream and some lemon curd. You can of course have them however you choose, they are scrumptious no matter what!

See Also

The Best Basic Quiche Recipe-- add mix-ins to make it your own!25 Scone Recipes That'll Make Your Brunch BetterToffee Scones - An Easy How-To Recipe - Teas The SeasonBasic Artisan Sourdough Bread Recipe - Taste of Artisan

Hint: The category of baking recipe that this falls under is "quick bread". This is a general term for items leavened, (risen), by means other than yeast. The basic build of the recipe will be very similar for all recipes of this type. Keep an eye out for this, as it will help you be more familiar with the steps.

Substitutions

We made these bad boys with our choice of fruit, nuts, and citrus zest. These can be subbed out for others quite easily.

• Berries - we used red currants from our garden, but blueberries or raspberries are great. If you choose to use a really moist fruit, you may have to make the batter a little drier.
• Nuts - pistachios are super popular in our house, but any kind will add a nice crunch and richness. Maybe almonds, or pecans?
• Citrus Zest - Lemon would be a great flavor booster in place of orange.

Variations

We touched a little bit on the different types of scones earlier in this post. Here's some easy ways to make that happen.

• Classic English Tea Scones - remove the fruit, nuts, and citrus zest, and cut back on the sugar by a third or so.
• Different shapes- you can use a shaped cutter or simply cut them differently.
• Extra Sweet- increase the sugar in the recipe by 25%, as well as sprinkling more sugar on top before and after baking will have this effect.

Equipment

• citrus zester
• dough cutter/knife
• mixing bowl
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• kitchen scale
• pastry brush
• rolling pin
• sheet pan
• parchment paper
• cooling rack
• wire whip
• pastry cutter
• offset spatula

Storage

The finished scones are of course best when eaten in a day or two. They should be stored in an air tight container at room temperature to avoid them getting stale. When packaged this way, they will stay fresh for 3 to 4 days. If you freeze the uncooked portions, those can stay in the freezer for up to two months.

Recipe

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