London Flavor - Ginger Scones

Back in March of '99 I was blessed with the chance to visit London for 10 days. I had the time of my life. It is extremely awe inspiring to wander amongst buildings that have been standing longer than the United States has been a country. We are SO young... I will stop right there, before I get on a philosophical tangent.

My favorite breakfast foods, while I was staying in Hammersmith, became the scone with a simple application of Clotted Cream... Sadly, I have yet to find its equal in the U.S. But with 2 jars of Meyer Lemon curd staring at me from my refrigerator, my need for a decent scone, with or without decent Clotted Cream, was becoming unbearable.

Luckily, I remembered that I had picked up a recipe awhile back from Kate at 4 obsessions. I had printed out the recipe and tossed it in my stack of "Must Tries"... It's a VERY large pile. It would take me 4 lifetimes to get through it... But I found it, somewhere towards the bottom third.
I decided that instead of dried fruit, since I was going to be slathering Meyer Lemon Curd on them, that Candied Ginger was in order.

Here is the Recipe in it's original from from Kate's Site.

English Scones

1 and 3/4 C flour

1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C unsalted butter
1 C dried fruit (see *note for good combos below)
1/3 C milk
1 t fresh lemon or orange zest (microplane zested is best)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
Cut in butter then use your fingers to flatten the little bits into flakes--don't over do it--it should not look as fine as cornmeal or your scones will be heavy.
Stir in dried fruit.
Combine milk and egg, add to flour mixture and fork stir.
Turn out onto floured surface and knead 5 or 6 times, just 'till you get it to hold together.
Pat into a circle about 1 to 1.5 inches thick and cut into 6 wedges (like a pie).
Place wedges on a parchment or silicone-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
The tops should be slightly golden.

*a note on dried fruit:
Currants are the traditional dried fruit to put in scones, but you can be as creative as you like.
Dice bigger stuff until it is about currant-sized.
Here are some of my favorite combos (all combine to 1 C total of dried fruit) :
diced dried pears with crystallized ginger
diced dried peaches and dried cranberries
chopped dried cherries (particularly good with orange zest)

I tried dried figs once and they were nasty...
This is what I did different....
I dropped the Zest, because I didn't have any more Meyer Lemons, only had Eureka lemons.
I added 1/2 cup Chopped Candied Ginger not 1 cup dried fruit.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. (DD would be proud of me, I actually sifted instead of whisking)
Slice butter thinly and add to the flour,
Work it in with your fingers, leaving it flattened pieces instead of Corn Meal like Pâte Brisée.
Chop 1/2 cup ginger. (chop it finely)
Toss with the Flour/Butter.
Whisk Egg and Milk together.
Add flour mixture
Stir into a soft dough with a fork.

Turn out onto floured surface and knead 5 or 6 times, just 'till you get it to hold together.
Pat into a circle about 1 to 1.5 inches thick
and 6 inches wide.
Cut into 6 wedges and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the tops should be slightly golden.

Let cool slightly and Fork split and fill when you are ready to eat.
The Scones were absolutely delicious... I used my Meyer Lemon Curd and some Crème Fraîche, and while Crème Fraîche is not Clotted Cream, it was still pretty delicious.

Mangia!!
~~