Cinnamon Scones
Oct 29th, 2008 by Yoko
Angie is a top-notch scientist, craftologist, and baker. Her zest for life is evident in everything she does. She’s another person with whom I’d love to have dinner with someday. Here, she shares with us her version of “Mexicanized” scones, redolent with my favorite spice, cinnamon.
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Experimenting with spices.
One of the things I enjoyed the most growing up was going to the baker’s in the afternoons. It was always a nice walk, plus I’d get to choose what pan dulce my family would have for merienda and breakfast.
For myself, I always chose a nicely sugar-covered concha, looking forward to the pieces of cinnamon I’d find. I liked that our baker never bought powdered cinnamon and instead he’d crush cinnamon into the dough. Finding these spicier bits was something I really enjoyed.
The years passed, I left my little town, and found myself in a city without a Mexican bakery (the kind where they bake on the premises). I might have adapted to the culture…but daydreams of crushed cinnamon in baked goods haunted me. Being a scientist, I was resolved to fix this. I had already tried muffins successfully but now I had to try it in my favorite baked breakfast baked good: the scone!
That weekend I took my favorite basic cream scone from Baking by Dorie Greenspan. Her recipe calls for also adding currants, but I currently don’t care for them.
Ingredients
1 large egg
2/3 cup of heavy cream
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
5 Tbsp. butter, cut and chilled
1/2 cinnamon stick
This is my version of the instructions:
Mix dry ingredients together. Crush cinnamon over these (if it helps, use a microplane– it’s okay if you get bits as that was the point of this experiment; you can also use a mortar and pestle). Add butter and mix until you get crumbs. Add remaining ingredients and mix.
Once it holds together, form a ball. Place in a cookie sheet, flatten and slice into 6 or 8 (being careful not to ruin your cookie sheet, I use the back of a serrated knife). Place in a preheated oven (400 degrees F) and bake for 22 minutes.
Let cool (optional) and serve. Enjoy!
I’ve been utterly jonesin’ for some kind of cinnamon baked good lately, to no avail, and it looks like this would fit the bill nicely. Might try it this weekend.
Let me know how it is if you try it.
Bought all the ingredients, but slept in instead. (chuckle) Maybe this upcoming weekend…
Made the scones this morning. I used bread flour, brown sugar and Earth Balance non-dairy spread instead of butter, plus a whole cinnamon stick instead of a half. It took a few tablespoons more heavy cream than indicated to get a mixture that would cohere with bread flour, and brown sugar wasn’t the best choice, as it resisted being dispersed in the dry mixture, but neither of those things hurt the end product. I ground the cinnamon stick with a mortar and pestle rather than microplaning; it was a lot of work, and still left me with very large pieces (many of which the pestle distributed about the kitchen counter and floor- ouch!) but I think it was a good choice, since if the pieces were any smaller they wouldn’t have contributed any kind of mouthfeel to the scone.
They came out very light and fluffy at the prescribed baking time, just perfect. I served them to my son fresh out of the oven, but sadly, he had chosen that precise moment to beat the final level of “Super Mario Galaxy” on the Wii, necessitating that his be put on hold while the two of us watched the end of the game. He ate them lukewarm later, with strawberry jam, and enjoyed them just the same.
Sounds delicious, Ace. It’s still on my list of things to try. I baked something else today– post to come soon.
FYI- Angie has made a point about using cassia vs. using true cinnamon: http://www.flickr.com/photos/camedina/2966081267/