A few years ago, my kids and I decided that the cost of going out for brunch didn’t make sense. I could easily and quickly make cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon and breakfast potatoes at home for far less money, and we wouldn’t have to wait in line, squeeze into a too-small table or shout to be heard. It became something of a weekly ritual, and the one thing they always asked for is homemade scones.
Now that the kids are increasingly off on their own, I realized that it’s time to give them a scone recipe they can whip up with limited time, supplies and, well, experience.
What most people don’t know is how easy scones are to prepare from scratch, especially if you start with this take on cream scones. Crisp outside and tender within, they come together by simply stirring a handful of ingredients and plopping the dough onto a pan.
Recipe: Easy Blueberry Cream Scones
If you’re wondering what cream scones are, you’re really asking what scones are. Like cookies and cakes, there are endless styles. From their wide-ranging origin stories to the present, scone varieties share only the defining characteristics of sturdiness and getting their rise from baking soda or baking powder instead of yeast. Ideally, they’re not tough, but they also shouldn’t be plush like muffins.
Cream scones, mixed without butter or other fats, veer a little caky. If mixed with a light touch, they approach the kind of delicate softness that feels like sinking into a cozy armchair. Butter-based scones, prepared by cutting butter into dry ingredients before mixing in dairy, end up heartier even if they are tender. They develop a crust outside, feel a bit bready within and tend to be the kind you find in bakeries. They also require the butter to remain cold and firm, even as it’s worked into the flour and smashed to gravelly bits. It’s a wonderful skill for any baker to acquire, but it’s not intuitive and takes practice to master.
Cream scones don’t demand that kind of work or experience. They also don’t hold up as well on shelves for hours, which is why the best way to taste cream scones is to make them at home. They are freshest that way and can be especially tender inside, with a crackly shell. With many cream scones, the dough is rolled or patted and cut into rounds or wedges. That makes them pretty enough for high tea, but requires the dough to be a little drier; handling the dough more risks a tougher scone.
For this recipe, a wetter dough stirred gently by hand and simply dropped onto the baking sheet ensures a soft center with a top as craggy as the Rockies. The spiky peaks and ridges brown and crisp in the extra hot oven. (If you want, you can pat the dough gently into prettier domes.) The whole process is easier than making muffins, doesn’t leave you with 12 annoying cavities to wash and requires fewer tools than butter scones. At a bare minimum, you need a bowl and a fork.
The only other thing these scones need is a little time. Refrigerating the dough before baking gives the flour a chance to hydrate fully and, in the process, relax a bit. So even if you went at stirring and shaping too vigorously, you’ll still end up with great scones by leaving the dough alone for a while. The very best thing you can do sometimes, in the kitchen and in life, is to leave something be, to give time to let any toughness resolve itself. And in this case, you’ll be rewarded with the most delightful scones.
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