Because the owner friend was a guy, a special brand of chill out guy, he gave the guy cooks a pass. Guys who, while slapping out breakfast, enjoyed vodka and orange Crush. In that light it was difficult to wield authority, impossible really, when a red-rimmed dude could come in three days late and get promoted. What I could do was focus on pastry, which desperately needed attention. The bakers had no set morning menu, browning whatever came to mind any sunrise of the week. There might be cherry chocolate scones for three days, no scones for two days, and a creative burst of pistachio-pineapple-something toward the end of the week.

This would not do. I wanted to see a schedule. Schedules with headings, and attached pens, and clipboards.  I wanted staff and customers to know what to expect, sure that if flour, sugar and order prevailed, the line would be out the door. I held a staff meeting to discuss the impending change.

“Why do we need a scone schedule?”

“Because when you get here at five a.m., I don’t want you to have to think.”

They were looking at me, at their phones. What am I saying? They don’t think about anything now.

I proposed doing a plain scone every day – a traditional Cream scone – in addition to a variation, say, Blueberry Oatmeal on Monday, Apricot Pecan on Tuesday, and so on. They cast suspicious looks at the typed lists I passed around, as if I were an uptight mayor cracking down on deviant art.

“Does anyone have questions?”

One agitated look. “Yeah…what’s a cream scone. Don’t we put cream in all the scones?”

“Yes…but that’s just a traditional name, Cream scone. Something we can call the everyday one.”

Dead air.

“So customers know what the everyday scone is called.”

“But…it’s just, you know like, cream. It’s one word.”

“Yes. Yes it is.”

“All your other ones have two things in them, like two names.”

“Yes. But this is a CREAM scone. Our flagship scone!”

“Customers want two names for everything.”

“Fine. We’ll call it Cream and Sugar Scones. Two things.”

Grumbling, shifting of car keys, and one confounded cook.

“I just…that just sounds weird, Cream and Sugar.”

“It does.”

“Yeah…I mean, one word sounds plain, and two words sound stupid, and…whatever.”

I took the sheet from his hand and pulled a pencil from my apron.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. I will take care of the menu, and I will make the scones, and you guys just come in late and drink heavily and clean the grease traps. Okay?”

This threw them. One elbowed another.

“Yeah. So I guess Cream and Sugar is fine.”

“Good.” I scratched out Cream and wrote Cream AND Sugar, then handed back the lists. “Meeting adjourned.”

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE GINGER SCONES

The slacker boys got this much right: people do love combination scones. This might be my all-time favorite, a signature flavor from my old Scone on the Range frozen scone business. I am happy to bring it back for your chocolate (and ginger!) enjoyment.

makes about 1 dozen large or 24 small scones

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
6 oz. cold butter, cubed (12 tablespoons)
1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup semi-sweet (or darker) chocolate chips
1/2 cup roughly chopped crystallized ginger, in chunks

extra sugar for sprinkling

———————

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl.

Cut in butter. You can do this one of two ways:

Electric stand mixer With the flour mixture in the stand mixer bowl and the paddle blade attached, turn on the slowest speed and slowly add butter chunks, mixing to a coarse meal texture, with only a few remaining large flour-butter crumbs.

(or)

By hand Using a sharp-bladed pastry cutter tool, or two knives, “cut” the butter pieces into the flour mixture until you have a coarse meal texture.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, and vanilla.

Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients by hand or with stand mixer on low, using “on-off” mixing. Stop just long enough to add sugar, chocolate chips, and crystallized ginger, then continue mixing briefly to form a soft and sticky dough. Scrape dough onto lightly floured surface and turn over a few times to combine, adding flour if necessary.

Form scones You can divide dough in half, form each piece to a 1″ thick round, and cut into equal wedges, or you can pat to 1″ thick and use floured cutters for rounds or triangles.

Transfer scones to cookie sheet pan, preferably lined with parchment paper.

If desired, brush the top of each scone with a small amount of milk or cream. Sprinkle the extra white sugar thickly over tops. Bake 15-18 minutes, or until set and tops are golden brown. For the chocolate-ginger variety, watch the bottom of the scones for darkened color. Cool on baking sheet a few minutes, then transfer to racks, and serve.

* For a look at scone-mixing process (same method) visit this post: Scone, Scone on the Range

Note: use the best cocoa powder you can find for a rich chocolate dough. Cocoa tends to dry out baked goods; these hold very well for several days wrapped at room temperature, but after 1-2 days are best briefly reheated in a microwave, for just a few seconds. This also gives you the added, insanely pleasurable bonus of gooey chocolate chips.

In anther lifetime I lugged hundred-pound bags of flour, I hadn’t met hair-smoothing heat tools and I ran a business called Scone on the Range.  Scone opinions may vary – but for tastefully sentimental reasons, these will always be my choice. Original post, from April 2008, found here.
—————

It seems like I’ve been around scones forever, but for years I only read about them, in lacy novels and high-tea books, until I was twenty-two. I went to work for a very gourmet food shop, answering phones and typing menus, and I did it two steps from a busy kitchen door.

When that door swung toward my desk, I could catch another world, and when I wasn’t confirming the luncheon for trophy wives, I began to sneak small bites: salty prosciutto and runny brie, streaky pancetta and French green beans, currant butter and fresh-baked scones - melting sugar that was never too sweet, glorious buttery bread that oh my god was not bread at all.

I stopped going out for subs and started lunching at my desk, crumbly scone-currant butter-prosciutto sandwiches, munched on napkins with sips of Orangina. After the first scone I was hooked, and instead of trying to beat them, I’d spend the next twenty years trying to join them.

Now scones are an everyday thing, and they inspire strong feelings; more exotic than a biscuit, more homey than cake, always utterly delicious. We didn’t invent them, but there they are in our coffee shops, our groceries, our airports and kitchens. Are they ours? The British would hmph and the Scots would say they are not even scones, but what of it? Holding a tray from the oven, arguments disappear and the scones do too.

I should tell you that the gourmet shop fired me, and I’d never been fired before, or since, and when that swinging door kicked me it broke my hungry heart. But it also pushed me into the kitchen for good, and eventually I would spin that first taste into a business called Scone on the Range.

And that is a story for another day.

Hmph…now I’m all worked up. Let’s make some scones.

Scones aren’t a perfect science, so don’t fret about all the steps – after a few rounds of mixing, cutting and eating, it’s like riding a bike. A very warm, buttered bike.

We’re making Orange Chocolate Chip Scones, and to get them truly orang-ey, we need orange zest.

You can finely chop thin strips of orange peel, or use a fine-holed cheese grater, or spend seven hours with a shmancy zester. But if you’re an extremely zesty girl – like me – consider investing in a Microplaner. It is a heavenly efficient tool.

Whisk together the eggs, heavy cream and vanilla.

Mmm. I’m thinking eggnog.

Put the dry ingredients (except the sugar) in a mixer bowl, and add the cubed butter. Yes, you can make perfectly good scones without a stand mixer – but this leaves me one hand to push Cleo off the counter.

Cutting in Butter Like biscuits, you want the butter to disappear into the flour. Here, we do it by running the mixer on low – and I mean low, or it’s hello, white volcano - until the butter is reduced to large floury crumbs.

Grab those lovely whisked eggs. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the liquid…

…turning the mixer on and off, on and off, like the ‘pulsing’ of a food processor.
Before the dough comes together, add the sugar, chocolate chips, and orange zest.

Keep mixing on low, on and off, until it just comes together…

…like so. Is it slightly wet and sticky, is there flour at the bottom? Does it look shaggy and uneven and not done? Good – you made scone dough!

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using floured hands or a bench scraper – a metal pancake turner works, too – turn it over a few times, pressing lightly but not kneading, until it just comes together, soft, thick, and smooth.

Beware of lurking labs. They are a scone’s natural predator.

Pat dough 1/2″ to 1″ thick (thicker = higher, but fewer scones) and cut as desired. You can cut wedges or use a floured cookie cutter to stamp out rounds. Below, I’ve cut fluted triangles…

…because the tall wavy edges make me happy. Can you spot the lucky butter chunk?

For a ‘browner’ scone, brush lightly with cream or milk. Then sprinkle the remaining sugar in a thick layer over the tops. See that imperfect scone in the corner? That’s for Josie. She can spot an earmarked leftover blob a mile away.

It’s the homeliest, the tastiest, and the first one gone.

—————————–

Scone on the Range Scones, Orange Chocolate Chip

(click here for a printable recipe)

makes about 1 dozen large scones

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 oz. cold butter, cubed (12 tablespoons)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
finely grated zest of one orange

extra sugar for sprinkling

———————

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl.

Cut in butter – you can do this two ways:

Electric stand mixer With the flour mixture in the stand mixer bowl and the paddle blade attached, turn on the slowest speed and slowly add butter chunks, mixing to a coarse meal texture and only a few floury crumbs of butter remain.

(or)

By hand Using a sharp-bladed pastry cutter tool, or two knives, “cut” the butter pieces into the flour mixture until you have a coarse meal texture.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, and vanilla.

Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients by hand or with stand mixer on low, using “on-off” mixing. Stop just long enough to add sugar, chocolate chips, and orange zest, then continue mixing briefly to form a soft and sticky dough. Scrape dough onto lightly floured surface and turn over a few times to combine, adding flour if necessary.

Form scones You can divide dough in half, form each piece to a 1″ thick round, and cut into equal wedges, or you can pat to 1″ thick and use floured cutters for rounds or triangles.

Transfer scones to cookie sheet pan, preferably lined with parchment paper.

If desired, brush the top of each scone with a small amount of milk or cream. Sprinkle the extra white sugar thickly over tops. Bake 15-18 minutes, or until set and tops are golden brown. Cool on baking sheet a few minutes, then transfer to racks, and serve.

“the meaning of Rechelle”

Whoa.  I get many searches related to The Country Doctor’s Wife, but until now, none had been looking for answers.  Let’s face it – asking for the meaning of Rechelle is kind of like saying “How do you solve a problem like Maria?”

Rechelle was one of my earliest readers.  She was a staunch supporter, nudging Simmer along when there were still drywall buckets on the floor and my new kitchen was just operational enough to bake her some take-home scones.  We’ll never know who was searching for the meaning of Rechelle, (maybe the Country Doctor himself) and though certainly she seems like a complicated person – how do you catch a cloud and pin it down, anyhow? – maybe it’s simply all about the scones.  Happy Birthday, Rechelle!

These Toffee-Cinnamon Scones are a heady combination of buttery, crunchy, sticky and slightly sweet. You won’t find meaning, but you’ll certainly find scone heaven.

1. Start by making my basic scone recipe, minus the orange zest and chocolate chips.
2  Instead, mix in approximately 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate toffee bits and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.
3. Follow the basic recipe’s instructions to form the scones. Sprinkle with sugar, bake as directed, and serve.

Wait…ah ah ah! Hold on there. If you’ve been quietly enjoying this blog – and you know this blog enjoys you – today’s your day to speak up. Leave a little comment so we know you’re out there – then pull up a chair and take a bite! Because snacks are much better when you know who you’re snacking with. When one is doing some virtual snacking. Whatever.

Sweet plump apricots…melting chocolate chips…come on…I’ll just put one on the table…

Now, that’s better. Lurk no more! By the way, you picked a good one. I gave that one extra chips.

Want to make your own Apricot Chocolate Chip Scones? Follow this recipe, but omit the orange zest and add 1 cup of chopped dried apricots.

Little Tips that Work: Plump dried apricots can be both sticky and tricky to chop, so try this: use a sharp, wide knife and before you chop, spray both sides of the blade with cooking spray, such as Pam. It works!

EDIT 5/14/08

Wow. You know when you make an invitation list and you figure, 30% of the people won’t come, and then something like double the guests show up? That’s how I feel. And since so many of you early arrivals snarfed down the Apricot Chocolate Chip, I felt obliged to make more scones. Hope you don’t mind trying out a few Cherry Hazelnut.

When that door swung toward my desk, I could catch another world, and when I wasn’t confirming the luncheon for trophy wives, I began to sneak small bites: salty prosciutto and runny brie, streaky pancetta and French green beans, currant butter and fresh-baked scones - melting sugar that was never too sweet, glorious buttery bread that oh my god was not bread at all.

I stopped going out for subs and started lunching at my desk, crumbly scone-currant butter-prosciutto sandwiches, munched on napkins with sips of Orangina. After the first scone I was hooked, and instead of trying to beat them, I’d spend the next twenty years trying to join them.

Now scones are an everyday thing, and they inspire strong feelings; more exotic than a biscuit, more homey than cake, always utterly delicious. We didn’t invent them, but there they are in our coffee shops, our groceries, our airports and kitchens. Are they ours? The British would hmph and the Scots would say they are not even scones, but what of it? Holding a tray from the oven, arguments disappear and the scones do too.

I should tell you that the gourmet shop fired me, and I’d never been fired before, or since, and when that swinging door kicked me it broke my hungry heart. But it also pushed me into the kitchen for good, and eventually I would spin that first taste into a business called Scone on the Range.

And that is a story for another day.

Hmph…now I’m all worked up. Let’s make some scones.

Scones aren’t a perfect science, so don’t fret about all the steps – after a few rounds of mixing, cutting and eating, it’s like riding a bike. A very warm, buttered bike.

We’re making Orange Chocolate Chip Scones, and to get them truly orang-ey, we need orange zest.

You can finely chop thin strips of orange peel, or use a fine-holed cheese grater, or spend seven hours with a shmancy zester tool. But if you’re a zesty girl like me, consider investing in a Microplaner. It is a most heavenly and efficient tool.

Whisk together the eggs, heavy cream and vanilla.

Mmm. I’m thinking eggnog.

Put the dry ingredients (except the sugar) in a mixer bowl, and add the cubed butter. Yes, you can make perfectly good scones without a stand mixer – but this leaves me one hand to push Cleo off the counter.

Cutting in Butter Like biscuits, you want the butter to disappear into the flour. Here, we do it by running the mixer on low – and I mean low, or it’s hello, white volcano - until the butter is reduced to large floury crumbs.

Grab those lovely whisked eggs. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the liquid…

…turning the mixer on and off, on and off, like the ‘pulsing’ of a food processor.
Before the dough comes together, add the sugar, chocolate chips, and orange zest.

Keep mixing on low, on and off, until it just comes together…

…like so. Is it slightly wet and sticky, is there flour at the bottom? Does it look shaggy and uneven and not done? Good – you made scone dough!

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using floured hands or a bench scraper – a metal pancake turner works, too – turn it over a few times, pressing lightly but not kneading, until it just comes together, soft, thick, and smooth.

Beware of lurking labs. They are a scone’s natural predator.

Pat dough 1/2″ to 1″ thick (thicker = higher, but fewer scones) and cut as desired. You can cut wedges or use a floured cookie cutter to stamp out rounds. Below, I’ve cut fluted triangles…

…because the tall wavy edges make me happy. Can you spot the lucky butter chunk?

For a ‘browner’ scone, brush lightly with cream or milk. Then sprinkle the remaining sugar in a thick layer over the tops. See that imperfect scone in the corner? That’s for Josie. She can spot an earmarked leftover blob a mile away.

It’s the homeliest, the tastiest, and the first one gone.

—————————–

Scone on the Range Scones, Orange Chocolate Chip

(click here for a printable recipe)

makes about 1 dozen large scones

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
6 oz. cold butter, cubed (12 tablespoons)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
finely grated zest of one orange

extra sugar for sprinkling

———————

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt in large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl.

Cut in butter. You can do this one of two ways:

Electric stand mixer With the flour mixture in the stand mixer bowl and the paddle blade attached, turn on the slowest speed and slowly add butter chunks, mixing to a coarse meal texture, with only a few remaining large flour-butter crumbs.

(or)

By hand Using a sharp-bladed pastry cutter tool, or two knives, “cut” the butter pieces into the flour mixture until you have a coarse meal texture.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, and vanilla.

Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients by hand or with stand mixer on low, using “on-off” mixing. Stop just long enough to add sugar, chocolate chips, and orange zest, then continue mixing briefly to form a soft and sticky dough. Scrape dough onto lightly floured surface and turn over a few times to combine, adding flour if necessary.

Form scones You can divide dough in half, form each piece to a 1″ thick round, and cut into equal wedges, or you can pat to 1″ thick and use floured cutters for rounds or triangles.

Transfer scones to cookie sheet pan, preferably lined with parchment paper.

If desired, brush the top of each scone with a small amount of milk or cream. Sprinkle the extra white sugar thickly over tops. Bake 15-18 minutes, or until set and tops are golden brown. Cool on baking sheet a few minutes, then transfer to racks, and serve.

I don’t know, but WordPress absolutely refuses to let me serve you scones today. I have been fruitlessly formatting tasty-looking photos this way and that way far too long now – enough. I’ve got my in-laws coming before Josie’s play tonight – Peter Pan – and air conditioning guys here, and groceries to get and floors to clean.

She’s playing a Lost Boy. An hour with the blog and I feel like a Lost Brain.

Look up there! That’s the path me and my swiffer will follow. Those new old floors do show a lot more fur and dust than we thought. Good times.

I promise that after Peter Pan tonight, I’ll be on the other side of that wall, bringing you the scones you deserve. Maybe if I sprinkle sugar dust on the computer and believe hard enough, WordPress will let me do it.

Until I see a scone. Then I am awake, and hungry.

See those Orange Chocolate Chip scones up there? Tomorrow we are going to make some, right here on this blog. That’s a preview, and if you’re not licking your screen, I’m not doing my job. There. That’s better.

Speaking of tired vs. hungry – around 9:30 last night, after we’d all settled in, Greg and Josie decided it was snack time. We’d eaten dinner just a few hours before – fried matzo with homemade strawberry syrup, unbelievably good in person, not so much in pictures – but the two of them acted like they’d never eaten at all.

This is what you get with an all-carb dinner – giant helpings of fried matzo do not an entree make.

Now I love carbs as much as the next girl, maybe more than the next girl, but a heavy-carb meal is like Chinese food – before you know what hit you, you’re hungry again. What hit my family was to head downstairs for turkey and swiss sandwiches. Upstairs I sat in bed, watching some quiet CNN with Cleo – she’s very concerned about those superdelegates – but downstairs I could hear fridge doors, mustard jars, a butter knife, then chewy silence. They returned ten minutes later, happy as clams.

Let’s take a look at the above: now I’m hungry for scones, fried matzo, strawberries, Chinese food, turkey sandwiches and maybe a few fried clams. I have got to stop writing this thing.

Now on your snack bar, Cranberry Chocolate Chip.

Eat some sugar, pour that coffee and wakey-wakey! Only three hours ’til dinner.

You’re welcome.

Especially when you were too busy packing and tile shopping to eat breakfast or lunch?

Here’s a little eye candy for the readers. These Cranberry Almond Scones were made for Josie’s “Coffee Cart” bake sale at school, but I’ll put them under the heading of “Regular Life.”

“Regular Life” is, unfortunately, the last thing on the list right now. The list kind of reads: Moving Temporarily, Moving Permanently, Building the House, and oh, yes…Regular Life.

Regular Life includes finding time to do the laundry, if I can find the laundry – it might have gotten packed – remembering to make lunch, or drive her to school, or finding the little piece of paper that says when the orthodontist appointments are. Regular life also includes not forgetting to bake for Coffee Cart and remembering to feed the dog. Did Cleo even eat today? No wonder she’s gnawing on my leg.

It’s shameful when mom’s a baker and becomes The Mom Who Forgot to Send Stuff to Bake Sale. So I had to find time for a few scones, and yes, for those of you who know me, they are like Scone on the Range, just…tweaked. Please, those are still a secret! And though I only knocked out 17 and not 17,000, bakery work never leaves your hands, and they felt and smelled wonderful. And Josie sold them all.

It’s good to have a little something sweet in the midst of chaos. It reminds me there are more sweet things to come. Everyone enjoy a coffee break, on me!

________________________

Cranberry Almond Scones

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 TBSP plus 1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 oz. cold butter, cubed
1/2 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 TBSP vanilla extract
a few drops of almond extract
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup sliced almonds

1/4 cup sliced almonds, for sprinkling
few tablespoons of sugar, for sprinkling
milk or cream, for brushing tops
___________________________

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl.

Cut in butter – you can do this two ways:

(1) By hand. Using a sharp-bladed pastry cutter tool, “cut” the butter pieces into the flour mixture until you have a coarse meal texture. Stir in the cranberries, 3/4 cup of almonds and the sugar until just mixed.

(or)

(2) Electric stand mixer. With your flour mixture in the stand mixer bowl and the paddle blade attached, turn on the slowest speed and slowly add the chunks of butter, mixing until you have a coarse meal texture and see only a few small bits of butter. Stir in the cranberries, 3/4 cup of almonds and the sugar until just mixed.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, and extracts. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients by hand or with stand mixer, combining just long enough to form a soft and sticky dough.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead a few times to combine. Add a bit more flour if necessary.

Form scones: Divide dough in half. Form and pat each piece into a 1″ thick round and cut into equal wedges.

Transfer scones to cookie sheet pan, preferably lined with parchment paper.

Brush each scone with a small amount of milk or cream, then sprinkle the extra white sugar evenly over scone tops. Sprinkle the extra sliced almonds over each scone, slightly crushing the nuts as you go.

Bake 15-18 minutes, or until set and golden brown on top. Cool on baking sheet a few minutes, then transfer to racks.

Or just eat them quick.