Once upon a time a girl baked a scone and it was good.

Or so she thought.  She later found out that it actually wasn’t good.

Did you know there is a difference between American scones and English ‘scawns’?

Yeah, I didn’t either.  But, my Furry Buddy’s Mom is from England and was appalled by the American concoction and kindly corrected me.  She sent me a recipe (from a “real” English lady) for traditional english scones after seeing a picture of my American sugar triangular counterfeit atrocities.  Traditional english ‘scawns’ are ROUND with just a hint of sweetness.

How did I even think to make scones in the first place?  I was inspired by the apron Debbie so kindly brought me back as a souvenir from England when she visited her family.  It was my very first apron and knew I needed to bake something special and fancy!  How do you show your appreciation for something except by using it and how could you show how cultured you are except by making American scones vs English ‘scawns’?? 😛

Practice makes perfect.  My first attempt was a lesson for sure:
I automatically set the oven to 350 Degrees instead of 425 Degrees causing them to have the consistency of rubber!  Always read and RE READ ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS!  Measure twice.  Cut once.  Sometimes we just need to completely screw up to know to never ever do that again.  (Debbie did not try those). I think Debbie may have gotten to try one eventually, but am too nervous to let her taste any.  I end up texting her in the process of baking scones and then realize what I have done and say “NONE FOR YOU!”.  There’s just too much pressure as she is from the home land.  You’d think that would make me want her to try them for constructive criticism, but that pride thing just gets in the way.  She also didn’t get to try the first go round of the real deal because they were too flat and dry.  I could go on and on with baggage, but let’s move on…

I took pictures to show steps, but you can see how short they are.

For those who don’t know, the UK and US are different as in it’s Imperial vs Metric system.  I ran out of patience googling conversions so used measurements from the King Arthur scones and the ingredients on the English ones (and hoped for the best).
Repeat: English scones are ROUND with a HINT of sugar.

“So it’s a biscuit.”

It looks like a biscuit but it is NOT a biscuit.

The real flavors and sweetness are supposed to come from the jams and clotted cream and compliment the hint of sweetness in the dough.  (Don’t you worry…I googled how to make clotted cream, but ended up purchasing that from World Market).

I have a habit of over rolling.  DON’T OVER ROLL YOUR SCONES.  They are not the same as King Cake, Aimee!  They are meant to be “high” and round.  That sounds like a bad habit.

Anyway.

All of that said you know how things in life set you up for something else?  How excited do you think I was when my cousin’s little girl had a dinosaur tea party for her birthday this year???  She’s so fabulously her quirky self.  Her mom suggested things people could bring and one of them was scones.

“…AND WHO KNOWETH WHETHER THOU ART COME TO THE KINGDOM FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS?” – ESTHER 4:14

I know, I know that bible verse COULD BE A TAD DRAMATIC for a dinosaur tea party…or could it???

Sign me up, man!  I told her I wouldn’t mind bringing scones.  I WAS READY!  THIS IS WHY IT WAS ALL HAPPENING!!!

(I did not tell her I volunteered for the scones in fear of American counterfeits at the party.  That sounds so intense.  Just that “My English friend taught me how to make them legit!”.  She didn’t know I’d been traumatized.  But, hey Liz, if you’re reading now you know!)

Integrity is integrity though, right?  Always do the right thing in all circumstances…even for a 5 year old’s dinosaur tea party.  This time had to be right.  NO OVER ROLLING.

SUCCESS!  I only have a picture of the lemon ones.  My priorities were elsewhere.

 

I made about 3 dozen doubling dough recipe twice: one batch was lemon zest and one batch was with fresh strawberries and white chocolate:

Scones:
3 Cups All Purpose Flour (plus extra for dusting)
1/2 Cup Cold Butter (I use salted and don’t add salt to dough)
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
3 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
1 Cup Whole Milk or Heavy Cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

(Directions copied and edited from King Arthur website)
1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and baking powder.  (I added lemon zest of one lemon in this step for batch one.)
2. Work in the butter just until the mixture is unevenly crumbly; it’s OK for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated.
3. Add the milk to the dry ingredients and stir until all is moistened and holds together.  ( Batch two: Add 1 cup chopped strawberries and 1 cup white chocolate chips in this step folding in gently)
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment; if you don’t have parchment, just use it without greasing it. Sprinkle a bit of flour atop the parchment or pan.
5. Scrape the dough onto the floured parchment or pan, and divide it in half. Round each half into a 5″ circle (if you haven’t incorporated any add-ins); or a 6″ circle (if you’ve added fruit, nuts, etc.). The circles should be about 3/4″ thick.  (***I do not have a cookie cutter…I KNOW!!…so I used a drinking glass.)
6. Brush each circle with milk, and sprinkle with white granulated sugar.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  (Depending on oven.  Mine requires shorter baking time.)
8. When strawberry scones are still warm drizzle melted white chocolate mixed with some milk.