Recipe: Almond Scones

Recipe Source: The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion.  W. W. Norton and Company, New York, 2003 pp. 113 - 4

I received my Christmas present from my husband a little early this year.  Ordinarily he wouldn't do that, but this year the present involved coordinating deliverymen and plumbers and his hectic schedule, and last Friday was when he was able to make the schedules work.  My Christmas present was a beautiful, wonderful new BlueStar stove.  I really wanted to get to work with my new treasure right away, but unfortunately I had to wait.  First I had to burn off all the "goo" from the plant.  Then I had to get some oxygen.  Anyway, by the time I woke up the next morning I was ready to try again, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to make.  My husband suggested scones. 

Now, I knew I didn't want any plain, boring, bland and kind of tasteless scones.  They needed to have something to them.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any of the ingredients for the suggested variations on hand, not being a huge fan of dried fruit.  I did, however, have almonds.  And so I give you Almond Scones.  I was certainly a fan of the almond flavor, and I was very pleased with my oven's performance.  Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've had a convection oven to play with... and a few of the scones scorched.  This in no way appears to have inhibited my husband's enjoyment of them. 

Almond Scones (serves 16; approx. $0.33/scone)

12 3/4 ounces all purpose flour (3 cups)

2 5/8 ounces sugar (1/3 cup)

1 1/2 ounces nonfat dry milk (1/4 cup)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 cup toasted almonds

2 eggs

2 teaspoons almond extract

1/2 cup 2% milk

1 stick unsalted butter

Equipment:

• Skillet
• Two baking sheets, lined with aluminum foil
• Two mixing bowls
• Pastry cutter

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Using the skillet, dry-toast the almonds until fragrant. 
3. In one of the mixing bowls, combine the dry ingredients, including the almonds.  Combine well.
4. In the second mixing bowl, combine the wet ingredients. 
5. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients using the pastry cutter.  The goal is to wind up with something that resembles coarse meal and, this is important according to the book, to have pea-sized pieces of fat.  Not all of them need to be pea sized, but some of them do.
6. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredient-butter mix and combine.  Do not overmix.  It's actually okay for a little bit of the flour to remain dry. 
7. Divide the dough into two parts.  Place one half the dough on each baking sheet.
8. Pat each half into a disc about 7" diameter.
9. Cut each disc into 8 equal pieces. 
10. Gently separate the pieces, so that they are spread out on the baking sheet. 
11. Bake in the oven 7 minutes. 
12. Turn the oven off and, without opening the oven, let the scones rest an additional 10 minutes. 
13. Remove from the oven and let cool a bit. 
14. You can serve the scones at room temperature, but they taste better warm. 

Comments

[[eatingclub] vancouver]

Now *that's* a Christmas gift that will keep on giving!