Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Morning Morsels of Marvelousness

Mmmm.

Mmmm.

Mmmmm.

Scones. I love scones-they've become my new favorite baked good. Sweet or savory, scones=love. They are the perfect little accompaniment to a steamy hot mug o' ______ (Fill in the blank please)...seriously.

Coffee + scone=YES. Tea+scone=YES. Soup+scone=YES, YES, YES!

I'm partial to the S'bucks cinnamon chip and pumpkin scones but damn(!) in this economy? I'll be making my own, thanks! Which, by the way, is sinfully easy to do. The key to a good scone is cold, cold ,cold! Bowls, beaters, cream, or butter-whatever-it needs to be very cold...and don't overwork the dough. That's simple enough, right? Really-I am not a skilled baker-I suck at baking because I'm so sloppy and impatient. Baking is mathematical and precise in nature-cooking is throw it in there and tweak it like this, tweak it like that...I want to be a good baker though-so I work at it. Scones are perfect for me-they are so easy and quick to throw together, and the end result is always perfect bites of light flavorful goodness. They are so simply perfect they make people who don't know any better think they have to be difficult to make.

I have yet to make a savory scone at home-but I will be trying a recipe out soon. I just purchased a little scone cast iron pan to make the process even easier. YAY!

Anyway-these babies are yummy! I threw them together last night on a whim. I've been obsessing over making a new scone this week, so I looked in the pantry and saw some leftover toffee chips. Hmmm...googling I a went.

I came across THIS lovely recipe at Recipegirl.com

I did tweak it a bit-so here is the recipe for the version I made:



TOFFEE CHIP SCONES

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
1 Tbs plus ¼ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup chopped Heath or Skor bars (or use toffee bits)
2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream


TOPPING:
2 Tbs (¼ stick) unsalted butter, melted
granulated or coarse white sugar


1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; mix well. Stir in toffee bits.
3. In a large, chilled mixing bowl (chill bowl and beaters in freezer for 15 minutes- or in fridge for an hour), whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whipped cream into dry ingredients; combine well. It will be sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead gently until a soft dough forms; about 2 minutes. Form dough into 2 balls. Pat each ball out into a circle. Place each on a cookie sheet, and cut pie-like into 8 wedges. Pull each wedge out a little bit to create about 1-inch space between each wedge.

5. For topping: Brush scones with melted butter. Sprinkle each scone with a bit of granulated or coarse white sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 18 to 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in airtight container at room temperature.


Yield: 16 small scones or 12 big ones

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

a bitch betta bring me one

RecipeGirl said...

Glad you enjoyed these. I LOVED them (and anything else with those toffee chips in them!)

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big scone girl, but I {heart} toffee chips. Yum!

Anonymous said...

Okay, I just caught myself drooling, lol.