Cream Scones

Ahh....a little sad that I didn't manage to squeeze out the time to look through bread recipes to support dearest Sweetylicious' Aspiring Bakers this month. Baked scones instead for breakfast.

They look awfully beautiful, like works of pastry shops eh?

The downside is though...My bad. I used bleached all purpose flour instead. I think the lower protein content caused the insides to be softer and more crumbly. Plus I underbaked them a little, so it resulted in scones that are made for old people without teeth.

Cream Scones (adapted from Sur La Table's The Art & Soul of Baking)

Ingredients:
280g unbleached all-purpose flour
50g sugar
2 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
113g cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inches cubes
(Toss in 70g raisins before adding cream)
240ml chilled heavy whipping cream
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp sugar, or for more crunch and a touch of brown sugar flavor, 2 tablespoons turbinado or raw sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C and position an oven rack in the center. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or a thin silicone mat. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of the food processor and process for 10 seconds to blend well. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse 5 times at 1-second intervals, or until the butter is cut into medium pieces. Add the cream and pulse another 20 times, or until the dough holds together in small, thick clumps. Use a spatula to scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently squeeze the clumps together until they form a cohesive dough.
2. Pat the dough into a circle 7 inches in diameter and about 1 inch thick. Use a chef's knife to cut the dough into 8 equal wedges and transfer to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
3. Brush the tops with a thin coating of the lightly beaten egg (you will not use all the egg). Sprinkle evenly with the sugar. Bake the scones for 14 to 16 minutes, until firm to the touch and golden brown. Transfer to a rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve the scones warm or at room temperature.

Storing: Once baked, serve the scones within 2 hours, when they are at their freshest and most appealing. Keep them uncovered at room temperature until serving time.

Cream Biscuits

It has been a hectic week for me, netball practice, dinners with colleagues and ex colleagues. There is a netball competition on Thursday and no one remembered it till the week before and we have not been training. Kinda omgwtfbbq especially when the last time I played netball was like what, during PE classes in secondary school? Nevertheless, it was fun and the practice left my thighs aching for 2 days due to the numerous short bursts of sprints. The irony is the netball competition got postponed to November due to rain lol? Oh well.

So here's my attempt on Dorie Greenspan's cream biscuits. She said it's okay to use whipping cream for the recipe, since I have a litre of it sitting in my fridge, so I did. I love making biscuits, they're tasty and really easy to make. Just combine the dry ingredients, pour in the cream, rollrollroll, cutcutcut, rollrollroll, cutcutcut...bake!...profit!!

These biscuits are more sumptuous, flatter than my previous attempt. I think they'll taste even more amazing if I've used a cream with higher fat percentage. I can imagine pairing them with sweet butter, jams and fruit spreads. The insides are also softer and tender. But I like the previous biscuits better as they're taller and more flakey and have more holes in them so that my butter can sit inside the pockets =P

Cream Biscuits (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours)
Book states it makes 12 biscuits. 16 for me.

Ingredients:
280g all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
240ml to 300ml heavy cream, cold (I use 33.5% fat, used 280ml)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 220°C and prepare a baking tray with parchment paper
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt
3. Pour in cream and use a fork to gently toss over and turn the ingredients. Add in cream one tablespoon at a time if necessary, until you have a nice soft dough
4. Reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gentle knead, abt 3-4 turns to bring everything together
5. Light dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough
6. Use your hands to pat or roll the dough with a pin (I used a pin) till abt 1/2 inch high (Don't worry if dough is not completely even, a light quick touch is more important than accuracy)
7. Use a 2 inches biscuit cutter to cut out as much biscuits as possible and transfer them to the baking tray*
8. Gather together scraps and repeat step 6 & 7 until the dough is used up
9. Bake for abt 14 ~ 18 mins or until they are puffed up and golden brown, and serve warm

* At this stage, the dough can frozen on the baking sheet for up to 2 months. For baking without defrosting, just add a few more mins to the baking time.

Basic Biscuits

Feeling adventurous, I tried making biscuits. The first I ever had was from Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits when I was in USA. They were so good (waaaaaaaaay better than what we have here in Singapore) that we went to Albertsons and bought a tube of Pillsbury's biscuits to bake in our apartment. Thereafter I had cheddar bay biscuits at Red Lobster too...those were godly! So in my honorary Biscuit Hall of Fame, the ranking goes like this: 1. Red Lobster, 2. Popeye, 3. Pillsbury.

So mine are actually really-pretty good as well! Crispy on the edges, soft and flaky on the inside. May I also say...It's so FLUFFYYY I'M GONNA DIEEEEEE!!! Damn, you should see the multiple layers of flakes, oh wait a minute, there're pictures Pretty impressed with the recipe. I'll rank them uhh...better than Pillsbury as it's just a basic biscuit without any flavoring or spices. But texture wise, they're comparable to the tops. They go well with butter and jam. I prefer them to be served warm, so I'll heat them up before eating if I'm not feeling too lazy.

Even though Dorie suggests it's okay to use our hands to handle the dough, I try not to use them over here where it's practically summer all year round. It's a race against time to send these babies into the oven before the cold butter melts, so I'll rather use my equipment. This recipe going to be in my bake-again list.
Basic Biscuits (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours)
Book states it makes 12 biscuits. 16 for me.

Ingredients:
280g all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
85g unsalted butter, cold and cut into 12 pcs
180ml milk, cold

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 220°C and prepare a baking tray with parchment paper
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt
3. Add in cold butter into the flour mixture
4. Work with your finger tips or a pastry blender (I use this) to rub the butter into flour until the mixture is pebbly
5. Pour in milk and use a fork to gently toss over and turn the ingredients until you have a nice soft dough
6. Reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gentle knead, abt 3-4 turns to bring everything together
7. Light dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough
8. Use your hands to pat or roll the dough with a pin (I used a pin) till abt 1/2 inch high (Don't worry if dough is not completely even, a light quick touch is more important than accuracy)
9. Use a 2 inches biscuit cutter to cut out as much biscuits as possible and transfer them to the baking tray*
10. Gather together scraps and repeat step 8 & 9 until the dough is used up
11. Bake for abt 14 ~ 18 mins or until they are puffed up and golden brown, and serve warm

* At this stage, the dough can frozen on the baking sheet for up to 2 months. For baking without defrosting, just add a few more mins to the baking time.