Cream scones

If you've never made this style of scone/biscuit before, the ingredient list and method will seem bonkers. But it works. Better than any traditional recipe ever I've used. 

I'm giving the basic recipe here, but of course there are endless sweet and savory variations you can play with. But the basic no frills version is very good, topped with butter and jam, or alongside scrambled eggs and ham, or whatever.

Dry ingredients: 3 1/4 cups flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt. Mix together in a big bowl.

Next ingredient: 2 cups cold whipping cream. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the cream.

Stir together with a big spoon. 

Until it forms a moist, shaggy dough. 

Flour your work surface and tip out the dough. 

And pat it into a big rectangle about a centimetre thick. You do not have to be exact or tidy here. The dough will feel cold and dense and you will be certain you screwed something up. You haven't. Don't overwork it, just firmly press it out.

Now we're going to do the envelope method of creating layers. Fold each side towards the centre so that instead of having a wide horizontal, short vertical rectangle you now have a thicker tall vertical, narrow horizontal rectangle. Does that explanation make any sense at all? Maybe the pictures help?

Now turn this 90 degrees and pat it down until you have a new large wide rectangle and do the same folding thing. Repeat patting and folding once more.

Now it's ready to shape. You can do traditional scones and divide it into three or four chunks to shape into round disks and cut into wedges. Or just pat it down evenly and use biscuit cutters like shown here. I made these on the thin side because I was planning on eating them as little sandwiches with ham. But you can cut them out with the dough quite a bit thicker to make higher, fluffier scones.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375F til golden brown, about 15 minutes. Timing will vary depending on size/shape of course.

3 1/4 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 cups whipping cream

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix together all dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and stir in cream until a moist dough forms. Pat dough out to a large rectangle of 1cm thickness. Fold both sides to center. Rotate 90 degrees and pat down to 1cm thickness again. Repeat folding. Turn and pat down and fold again. Shape into disks and cut into wedges, or pat down and cut with biscuit cutter. Bake until golden brown (15-20 minutes, depending on size and shape). 

Variations: 

• add grated cheddar and chopped green onions to the dry ingredients, and brush with garlic butter after baking
• scatter dough with a cup of frozen berries during the folding stage to incorporate into dough
• before baking, brush with milk or cream and sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon sugar
• reduce salt to 1/2 tsp, add 2 Tbsp sugar, and add dried cranberries and white chocolate chips