This is turning out to be one of the longest days of my life.
I woke up this morning only to remember I needed bananas. Which ended up in me having to traverse several places from wet markets to grocery stores to do the shopping for the entire household. Which then led me to find, having put my phone in the bad my mom uses for marketing, that there was sand in said bag which wreaked havoc on my the screen protector on my poor phone. I had to change it and it was barely two months old.
People seemed to annoy me left and right throughout the day - from not paying attention to anything I was saying to outright just not listening to me. I tired of repeating myself and so decided to keep my mouth shut, until I discovered that I was starving myself, thinking everyone wanted to go out a little later for dinner together, for nothing. No one wanted to go out at all.
A tantrum was very much due. And I got reproached for that too.
I hastily inhaled my dinner of random high-calorie foods (because as every stress eater knows, calories calm a soul), I decided that baking could be therapeutic. Halfway through the baking process, the new extension cable that I bought yesterday to replaced the old frazzled one, frazzled out as well. As did my nerves.
I suppose I could say it was lucky that we were all home and my dad smelled the thing burning a few seconds before I did, and that he helped me unplug the wires which cause the whole house to blackout for a moment.. But what I'm trying to say is that we're lucky it didn't set the wooden shelf it sat on on fire and burn us all to a crisp. Although now that seems very desirable to me.
So while my dad has gone out to find new extension cables, and my cookies are sitting in a slowly fading oven, whose plug I am not sure instill functional, I sit here in the mosquito-filled room and type this post to tell you about the scones I made yesterday morning when I was considerably less angry at the world (but I must mention that due to said older faulty cable, my oven blacked out before the scones were done so I had to finish them in my home broiler that is older than I am. I apologize for their anemic look. Let me assure you that they taste as wonderful as the best scones you will ever have.).
I have never been an advocate of filling things I made with cream with yet more cream, but having tasted actual clotted cream, I dare say that scones, no matter what they are made of, deserve the best clotted cream you can find. And jam. Any jam you like will do, but I must have some kind of red fruit jam because I think it looks lovely with the white. And since I don't seem to have clotted cream in and around my house, I stuffed mine with butter instead.
Basic Scones:
(Adapted from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery)
76g all purpose flour
152g cake flour
6g baking powder
1g baking soda
45g sugar
113g cold unsalted butter, cut into little cubes
67g heavy cream, plus more for brushing
62g Greek style yogurt
Brown sugar, for sprinkling
1. In a large bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and sugar. Add the butter and rub it into the flour slightly to reduce it to large crumbs, then smear the mixture between your palms until you get flat pieces of butter covered in flour. The butter doesn't have to be completely worked in, you want large flat pieces of it, this is what will make your scones flaky later on.
2. Pour in the cream and the yogurt, mix lightly with a wooden spoon until the mixture is just moistened. Turn it out onto a surface sprinkled with a little flour so it doesn't stick.
3. Using a bench scraper, gather the dough into a ball and pat it out into a rectangle. Fold it in thirds as you would a business letter, then pat it out into a rectangle again and fold it in thirds again. This will help to make the scones flaky too (Keller didn't do this, I added this step myself because I wanted to see how flaky I could make them).
4. Do the patting and folding step one more time, then press the dough into a rectangle and put it in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.
5. Roll the dough out an inch thick and cut out circles with a 1 1/2 inch round cutter dipped in flour. Don't twist the cutter, just press it down straight. Put the circles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put the sheet in the freezer until frozen solid.
6. Preheat the oven to 180C. Brush the scones with some heavy cream and sprinkle the tops with brown sugar. Bake them until risen and golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Once they're done, cool them slightly then split them in half and eat with jam and butter. Or cream.
