As far as I can tell, scones come in two varieties. The first kind is meant to be simple and light, and to carry a heavy load of clotted cream, strawberry jam, orange marmelade, or gooseberry preserves. These are the scones you get with a cream tea in England. I have a standard recipe that I use for them, which I’ll save for some other day. Right now I want to talk about SCONES.
SCONES in all capitals are big, rich, full of inclusions, and need no elaboration in the way of condiments (although naughty boys might put clotted cream on them anyway). These are the scones you get at Panera, and the kind that Ina Garten likes to make. They’re just heavenly, and I have a favorite recipe for them, and it’s one of Martha Stewart’s.
Do you remember Martha Stewart in 1997? In my mind, that year will always be the height of her powers because it was the year that The Linen Closet Article was published (and her magazine has been re-using the photographs and Good Things from that article ever since!) It was also the year that her show featured bruleed oatmeal (again, darlings, saving that for a later post) and the first recipe for scones that my young American eyes had witnessed. The recipe is still on her website, here. I’ve been making the light and inoffensive tea scones ever since my trip to England last summer, but a few days ago I got a hankering for these. Oh gosh, they’re good. The whole wheat flour and oats make them hearty and healthy and flavorful, more like rock cakes than scones, to tell the truth.
It’s been so long since I’ve made these that I had never tried my Kitchenaid on them, so I thought I’d do that, seeing how the recipe calls for it. The amounts of ingredients in the recipe are rather frightening–just look at how full the bowl is with just the dry ingredients, and then look at all that butter! In the end, using the Kitchenaid wasn’t really necessary. The dough is so heavy that the motor strained to keep up with it, and I called the whole thing off long before the butter was as small as it ought to be.
The dough held together just fine, though, and baked up even better. The scones are just ideal, flaky and flavorful and tender. One thing I’m going to really regret about moving into a new house is that it comes with a new-ish stove. These old gas clunkers I’ve been baking with give things a nice brown edge that the newer, more temperate models just don’t. Ah, well. Possibly my last batch of crispy scones. Heaven.
Tell me you don’t feel just a little scone envy?
That recipe looks very familiar, what with the oats and dried cherries. I think my mother used to make them. The year is right–I think I remember her being heavily into Martha around then.
I made these scones yesterday. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. They a r e heavenly. Very delicious.
I am living in Central Europe and nobody here knows Martha Stewart, so for me (and my family) the scones are Kat’s scones.
Oh and Kat could you share your other scones recipe, too? I would be very happy! Thank you!