A Scone, A Scone, The United Kingdom For a Scone! - Savory Black Pepper & Gruyere Scones

While in England back in '99 I became addicted to scones.  Sometimes delicately light and fluffy, other times tender and flaky.  Upon returning to the U.S. of A. I found myself in a state of yearning for those delectable treats to accompany my coffee or tea.  Being the eternal optimist, I always try the scones at whatever coffee house I happen to find myself in. Sadly, my optimism is soon crushed by bleak reality.  Cause lemme tell ya... Be it San Diego, Portland, San Francisco, L.A., Uniondale, Palm Springs, Yuma or Seattle, they are always like hockey pucks.  Which I don't understand at all.  Maybe they have just been sitting around too long or something, cause those horrendously dry crumbly things are NOTHING like what I was eating in England.

I find it frustrating.  I think I am going to start smuggling my own homemade scones into the coffee shop.

Now I must go on record as stating that while a traditional lightly sweet scone lavishly adorn with Devonshire Cream or Crème Fraîche and topped with Lemon curd or Raspberry preserves is the paramount addition to any cup of coffee and tea, occasionally I am in the mood for a savory scone.  Enter the Black Pepper & Gruyere scone.  They are awesome.

Because of the extra fat from the cheese, I tend to stick with my "Cream Scone" recipe, which is a flaky scone made without eggs, as opposed to Buttermilk scones or what I call Basic Milk scones; both containing Eggs and they tend to be fluffier.  Because of the "turning" of the dough, I cut my cream scones in triangles; where as with Buttermilk and Basic scones, I just use a 2 inch biscuit cutter.  After all, that was how they were made in England, like lightly sweet wee biscuits.  Now Bannocks; those were pressed into a round and sliced into wedges... But that is another post.

Black Pepper & Gruyere Scones

10 oz (285 g) AP Flour
1 TB Baking Powder (Aluminum Free please)
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
5 TB Unsalted Cultured Butter (they better the butter, the better the scone)
1.5 oz (45 g) Gruyere cheese, finely shredded
8 oz (235 ml) Heavy Cream

In a medium bowl, whisk the Flour, Baking Powder, Salt and Black Pepper together.

Add the sliced Butter.

Rub the Butter into the Flour until you have small pea sized bits.

Add the Gruyere cheese and toss to get it coated.

Form a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the Heavy Cream.

Mix with a fork until a soft dough begins to form.

Knead the dough as necessary until it comes together.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle that is roughly 7x10 inches.

Fold the dough over into 1/3rds (just like you would for Puff Pastry dough or Croissants)

Then roll it out again into a 7 x 10 inch rectangle (this is called "turning" the dough) repeat the folding and rolling 2 more times for a total of 3 turns.

When you have completed the 3rd folding, roll the dough out again, into a 7x10 inch rectangle and, using a VERY sharp knife, cut the dough into 12 Triangles.

Move these to a parchment lined baking sheet.

Cover with Plastic wrap and chill the dough for 1 hour.

At the 1 hour mark, begin preheating the oven to 425 degrees (go ahead and leave the scones in the refrigerator... the extra 10-15 minutes of chilling won't hurt them)
Remove the scones from the ice box, remove the plastic wrap and bake the scones for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Move scones to a cooling rack as soon as possible or the bottoms may become a little soggy and loose their crispness.

Enjoy while still slightly warm, slathered with copious quantities of cultured butter.

Scones are best when eaten the same day that they were baked, as they tend to become stale fairly rapidly.

Magia!!
~~

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!!
~~