Like a Rolling Scone

Once upon a time on a blog far, far, South from the the Little Kitchen, a man made scones....and they looked so amazing the Little Kitchen wanted to make it's own tasty little bundles of scone goodness.  What follows is a brief synopsis of the great Scone Adventure of 2011!

Cheddar, apple, walnut scone with chamomile tea

The other day I stopped by Stumptown Savoury to read a little bloggy goodness. Gareth not only made scones, but he posted a lovely tutorial on making scones. I learned a thing or two about scone making that I did not know before! If you haven't been over the the Stumptown Savoury, you should. Lots of great recipes and ideas over there.  I do love to bake, and I do love to bake bready goodness and all things related.  Tonight just felt like a baking night.  Middle of the week, chill in the air (yes, up here a mere -14C is considered a chill in the air), this all means a warm oven to bake with will help take the chill out of the house.

Just before I was going to get a start on the scones, I sent Gareth a tweet asking how the snowfall in his neck of the woods was and it was deep, especially for Tennessee!  He suggested that perhaps apples and walnuts would go well with cheddar.  I thought this was a fantastic idea and I even had all the ingredients!  (My son even went on to suggest this combination was genius!)  I am very grateful for the idea as sometimes I do have trouble coming up with combinations of flavours like this.  Perhaps I am just nervous about making the wrong combinations? Perhaps I have watched Gordon Ramsay berate one too many chefs for bad combinations?  Who knows, but it is nice to have some help on this issue every now and then.  These turned out absolutely fantastic!  So fantastic that you should all go visit Stumptown Savoury and make your own scones!!
I just know I can't do the scone tutorial justice so I am not even going to try.  What I will tell you is this:

The first batch I made tonight were apple, cheddar, walnut.  I mixed into the scones, as per the instructions:

• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• 1 cup shredded old cheddar cheese
• a couple of handfuls of walnut pieces (about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup)

What I learned about the scone making process was the folding the dough over on itself.  I don't think I have ever seen this instruction in any scone recipe I've seen.  I definitely noticed the lovely layers of yummy goodness  forming while you work.

The second batch I made tonight were maple raisin oat scones.  For this recipe I left out the sugar and replaced it with maple syrup.  This means I had to reduce the buttermilk by the same amount.  I also got a little fancy and brushed a couple of layers with maple syrup before I folded the dough.  Next thing was to brush the tops with maple syrup before baking....yummy!  (A glaze made with icing sugar and maple syrup also goes well on top) To the dough I added:

• 1 cup raisins
• a couple handfuls of oats (1/2 a cup)
• 3 tbsp maple syrup (leave out the sugar, reduce buttermilk by 3 tbsp)
• brush the tops with maple syrup and sprinkle some more oats on top.

Once the first batch of scones were hot from the oven, and I had a hot pot of chamomile tea was ready, everyone was happy!  

Maple raisin oat scone with maple glaze....yum!

Thank you again Gareth for the scone recipe!