I am having one of those days when I love baking so so so much my heart could explode. Cheesy? Yes. Slightly odd? Yup. True? Absolutely. I've been thinking a lot lately about trying to bake for a living, opening up a storefront, or setting up an online store. This is likely a long way off if it ever happens at all, but when I think about what I would want my business to look like, it would look like this place. Concord Teacakes, a tiny but charming sit in bakery in my home town started out as one lady baking cakes that she loved. Now they are serving breakfast, coffee, lunch and selling adorable gifts out of its small town storefront. It is a very charming, very delicious establishment, but the reason I always stop in when I'm in town is simple. Scones.
I love Concord Teacakes scones so much that I think I have put off attempting to make them until now just because I was convinced I'd be disappointed. I've looked longingly at recipes many times, but never pulled the trigger. Finally today I gave it a shot. And WOW was I surprised. I am so absolutely delighted with how these came out. I will probably eat every single one of them (if my husband doesn't beat me to it). They are Bomb. I am proud of them. And I made them just for fun, and just for me. I. Love. Baking.
The recipe after the jump....
This is slightly adapted from a recipe I found Here on allrecipes.com. I made a few changes as I went along to try to get as close to the Concord Teacakes magic as possible.
Ingredients:
1 cup Sour cream
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
4 cups Flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 egg
2-3 tablespoons milk
1 cup currants
First up, mix together your sour cream and Baking soda and set aside.
Then it's time to mix up your dry ingredients. Flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar cinnamon and salt. Into a large bowl and mix with a spoon to combine. Then you cut in the butter, just like you would when making a pie crust...
Once that is all combined and your butter pieces are the size of small peas, pour in your sour cream mixture and your egg. Mix it up with a wooden spoon. At this point I decided to add a couple of tablespoons of milk to moisten up the dough a little bit.
Then it's time to add your Currants..... which are basically tiny raisins that are a little more tart.
Once you're all mixed up, turn out your dough on a lightly floured surface, and form into 2 disks. This will take a bit of kneading as the dough is crumbly, but be careful not to overwork it. You want your scones to be flaky and delicious which means not beating up the dough too much.
Now it's time to slice the scones into their classic triangle shape. The scones at Concord teacakes are a circular shape, I'm guessing they use a biscuit cutter, but I went for the standard triangle...
Bake at 350 for about 13 minutes, or until the edges start to turn a golden brown.
Yum. These scones are just what a scone should be. Buttery, salty and sweet in all the right amounts. They don't need silly adornments like powdered sugar, crumb topping or (heaven forbid) the dripping glaze you see all over them at places like Starbucks. They are just divine in their simplicity. I love these. I am actually so full as I write this because I ate like 3 of them for lunch.
Happy "I Love Baking Day" to you and yours. Do something you love doing today!
-Shannon
No comments:
Post a Comment