Pumpkin Scones with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Glaze - Scones #3

I rarely bake without my weighing scale..but on this day.. it died on me just when I wanted to weigh my flour.

Scones are very forgiving, and you need not to be on the dot, unlike delicate cakes and pastries. It'll still come out alright. A +/- of 20gm flour doesn't matter much, as we don't even measure how much we dust the table during shaping and cutting. As long as the dough is soft and sticky, don't overwork it, you should be on the safe side.

Strawberry Heart Shortcake - Scones #2

Valentine's day is coming...... my girls love hearts.
They also love scones, and when scones come with hearts, they will love it even more.
The taste of is shortcake is pretty much close to a scone to me, and so I included it into this week's theme.

Lemonade Scones - Scones #1

I think most of us do have the issue of having leftover whipping cream after baking a cake and not knowing what to do with it.

I had some extra cream from a cake and was thinking of making scones with cream. So, I googled for "lemon cream scones". When I saw this recipe,I got interested. The gas in the soft drink provides aeration and the sugar in it... just replaces the sugar that we put in. The cream just takes place of the milk and butter.
The lemonade....the lemonade......will the flavour shine through?

Unfortunately I can't detect the flavour of the drink I used. Too subtle.
But it's ok. I enjoyed the crisp crust with a soft fluffy center.
My kids enjoyed it with whipped cream and homemade strawberry jam.

Take note that you need to use cold lemonade from a freshly opened can. Bottled ones are not recommended as they are less gassy than canned ones. And cold ones release less gas when you form the dough, and will only release more gas upon contact with heat during baking.

Lemonade Scones
Adapted from: foodinaminute 

260gm Self Raising Flour (better to use 300gm)
150gm cold lemonade soft drink (Sprite or 7up, weigh it as gas will make volume measurement difficult)
150gm cold whipping cream (35% fat)
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 200 (fan)/220C.  Prepare a baking tray lined with baking paper
2. Pour lemonade and cream into one cup. No need to stir.
3. Mix flour with salt and make a well in the center.
4. Pour the lemonade cream mixture into the center.
5. Use chopsticks or 2 dinner knifes to combine the ingredients. As long as the flour look moistened, stop mixing. It may still look lumpy and very sticky.
6. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp of flour onto the table.Scrape the dough onto the floured surface. Sprinkle very generously with more flour.*
7. Form the dough (pat with hands and use a scraper to straighten the sides) into a 1 inch thick rectangle. Flour a dough scraper, and cut it into 6-8 squares, according to your preference. Flour the scraper before each cut.
8. Transfer the cut dough onto the baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the scones look beautifully golden.

*I used almost 1 cup of flour just to dust.

Southern Pinch Biscuits

Mine look so much different from the recipe source.

At first I thought it was some sort of bread, but no, it's a scone.
Southern US calls scones biscuits. I only knew that after making this.

And it's after I make this, that I found out that many of them who made them smooth (looks like bread), swear by White Lily Self Raising Flour. Gosh, where can I get this??? It's impossible. I might have changed the shortening to butter and slightly changed the method, but hey, I don't think that would've made them not smooth, because some recipes on the internet use butter as well.Anyway, these flatter scones taste great and remain soft the next day and the next. Not soft like cake, soft like a good scone, but not dry like a cookie. It's the yogurt!!!

I made 2 batches, because the first one was a bit too tall.
This one below is my first batch. Making them in a 8 inch square pan makes them about 1.5inch tall after baking. I followed the intruction exactly, but with cold butter. Not smooth. So, I immediately made a second batch, with melted butter to see if it'll be better.....

And this is my 2nd batch, baked in a 10 inch pan. Any better???? Haha, can't compare as one is unbaked and one is baked, but I can tell you that they look pretty similiar, except for the thickness.

Southern Pinch Biscuits Recipe adapted to local ingredients
300gm cake/superfine flour or self raising flour
1 Tbsp baking powder (omit this if using self raising flour)
1/2 tsp salt (omit this if using self raising flour)
2 Tbsp sugar (some sweetness will be nice, but it's not obviously sweet, it only makes it taste nicer)
80gm butter, melted
180gm plain yogurt (substitute for buttermilk)

1. Preheat oven to 200/220C
2. Sift both flours and baking powder together.
3. Mix with sugar and salt.
4. Pour yogurt and melted butter into dry ingredients and work through to form a soft but non sticky dough. Do not knead too much.
5. Divide dough into 9 pieces and gently roll into balls.
6. Arrange balls into a 9 or 10 inch greased shallow pan
7. Press down balls with your knuckles to make indentation. The dough will be flattened as well.
8. Bake for 20 minutes.

Keep them airtight in the fridge, and whenever you feel like eating,

zap on high for 20 seconds and yummy, warm scones..

Oh sorry, biscuits.

Killer Cranberry Cream Scones (with video)

I think this recipe lives up to its name. It’s a real killer.

I’ve eaten scones at a few places, and I have to say, Coffee Bean’s my favourite. The buttery smell is so so obvious. Even YTL’s Cameron Highlands Resort’s crazy expensive scones can’t beat Coffee Bean's. Ate that a few times.

This one although doesn’t use much butter, uses a lot of cream cheese,has a very nice buttery fragrance. And I think cream cheese could be Coffee Bean’s secret ingredient to their scones. It remained soft and crumbly the next day, and the next next day.

I loved this scone so much, I made a second batch of it the very night.

Killer Cranberry Cream Scones
adapted from Natalie's Killer Cuisine

125gm all purpose flour
125gm cake flour (original recipe only called for all purpose, I substituted half with this as a safety measure)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
80gm dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
120gm cream cheese, room temp
30gm butter
90ml milk
1 egg, 1 Tbsp removed for glazing

Glaze
1 Tbsp egg mix with 1 tsp milk
Extra melted butter for glazing

1. Preheat oven at 200C. Combine both flours and baking powder. Sift twice to aerate. Mix in salt.
2. Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in flour mixture until it resembles fine crumbs.
3. Combine egg and milk and pour into (2).
4. Mix with a spoon until moistened. Lightly mix in cranberries.
5. Spoon batter into floured moulds and lightly tap to flatten. Lift mould carefully.
6. Glaze scones with egg mixture.
7. Bake for 9 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and quickly brush on melted butter. Put them back into the oven and bake for another 5 minutes.
9. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
10. Serve warm with butter and jam. (I used butter and golden syrup and it was lovely)

The original recipe called for cream cheese glaze. But I didn’t do that due to our hot weather. I couldn’t leave the baked and glazed scones at our tropical room temperature, the cream cheese glaze would go bad and turn bitter. And if I chill them in the fridge, then I warm it in the oven again, the glaze will melt.

So, I’d rather not do it.

Here's a video of an updated version