Sourdough Cherry Scones-Experiment!! Lance Armstrong is in our neighborhood today : ))
My husband is out with his bike cycling team today and Im doing my favorite thing 'baking' of coarse! : )...so I've taken a favorite recipe from the http://allrecipes.com site and made a few changes to convert it into a sourdough cherry scone recipe...the original recipe is called Grandma Johnson's Scones...tested by over 1000 bakers and given 5 star rating. Instead of sourcream I used sourdough a little buttermilk, cut the butter in half added some vanilla and almond extract with some lovely extra fancy sour cherries from a specialty market, I also added a 12 grain flour from K.A. flours.
The scones turned out wonderful....they had a lovely flavor and tender...I mix in the butter with my fingers and like using a gentle drop shaped scone!
Brushed and baked with egg glaze and decorator sugar.
These scones have a lovely flavor without any topping! In fact I was enjoying the taste of the raw dough : O !!
Sylvia
Comments
...are something I have not been able to make well, they come out like lead and far too dry!
Sylvia, yours look moist and delicious, we love good scones. And of course we love cherries... Maybe your sourdough recipe would come out better for me as I think it does a better job for me in raising sweet doughs than baking soda and commercial yeast in the long run. Thanks for the ideas, love the combo of sourdough and buttermilk in anything!
Thanks Mdog...Iron hand-velvet glove...same applies to scones and soda bread and just about everything made with flour....coming from a large Irish family Ive made a lot of soda bread and it was soda bread and my Mum that taught me how to handle dough.... if this simple dough is not handled right it ends up flavorless, dry and hard. Try starting with your all your dry ingredients in a medium bowl...rub your cold butter in with your fingers....make a well in the center of the dry ingred. Then pour in your wet/with the egg gently beaten..mix 'don't stir' tossing just till the ingredients are moist and start to hold together...you don't want a wet dough...gently give a couple of kneads till all holds together...handle as little as possible...form into scone/farl/bannock shapes of your choice! Hope this helps some!
Sylvia
That sounds a lot like the rules for a good pie crust made with butter, I'lll try that next time, thanks Sylvia!
Funny you should mention pie crust...My Mum would bake so many pies my Dad put an oven outside in the shed...so the kitchen wouldn't heat up so bad in the summer time in the desert were we lived...we would line them up on a long table outside to cool! Thank you for the lovely memories!
Sylvia
My husband is from England and got me into making scones routinely and I have grown to love them. I'll definitely have to try yours!
Nice that you can enjoy the Tour of Califonia your own way!
Summer
Hello Summerbaker! My Mum and brother were born in England and I was born in Ireland...though US raised........sure wish I could get some good Fish and Chips : )) ..... Thank you and the recipe is wonderful with or without the sourdough!
Sylvia
I don't suppose you could take pity on me poor brain and post the recipe (as best you remember, if you didn't write it down -- I often don't, LOL) so I don't have to convert the original? I'm new to sourdough starter, and while I love experimenting, I don't yet have the conversion of non-sourdough recipes to sourdough down. This might be a teensy bit expensive to do the trial-and-error thing with... TIA!
Unfortunately I didn't write down the recipe...I think I just replaced the sourcream with sourdough one cup. There is a similar recipe on at the http://www.recipezarr.com for sourdough scones...looks like it might be pretty good.
Sylvia