Tag Archives: scones

Lemon Poppyseed Scones from Neddies Harbour Inn

Our annual sojourn with our friends, The Grizzlies, commenced right after Labour Day. We had been on a several year hiatus because of the pandemic, but in early September we visited Gros Morne Newfoundland. On the West coast of the province, it is home to some of the most breathtaking fjords and coastal landscapes in Canada. It has been on my husband’s bucket list for quite a while now.

The Grizzlies is not their real name. It’s our nickname for them, to protect their identity. They are such fabulous travelling companions, I worry that if I reveal their identity, others will want to travel with them and they will never be free to travel with us. I mean, Mr. Grizzly travels with a Costco sized bag of twizzlers, 3 different flavours of potato chips and Monkey 47 gin. Who wouldn’t want to be his travel companion?

This was our second trip to Newfoundland with the Grizzlies. If you’re curious, you can read more about our adventures together in St Johns and Fogo Island.

This time we stayed at the charming Neddies Harbour Inn, in Norris Point.

Through our travel agent, we worked with Kathryn of Gros Morne Adventures to plan an action packed 3 day trip filled with hiking, kayaking and touring.

Neddies Harbour Inn is home to The Black Spruce Restaurant, where Chef Jason Lynch is cooking up some of the most delicious food I have eaten in a long while. While he is a wizard with cod and all nature of seafood, his breakfast scones just blew me away.

Can we chat for a few minutes about the anatomy of a perfect scone? If your eyes are beginning to glaze over, feel free to jump straight the recipe.

A perfect scone should be tall, light and flaky.
The interior should have a soft and tender texture. It should not be doughy or stodgy or claggy.
The exterior should have crisp, crumbly edges.

Luckily for us, Chef Jason shared his recipe and method for making perfect scones. Here is how they come together:

Tips for success:

Using frozen butter in the dough is key to flaky tall scones. The easiest way is to grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients, using the large holes of a box grater. When mixing the dough, use your forefinger and thumb to flatten out the grated butter into thin slivers. When the dough hits the hot oven, these slivers of butter will melt, releasing water which creates steam. That steam causes the dough to rise, forming air pockets, which then result in majestic flaky layers.
Don’t knead the dough. You will see in the video that the dough is quite shaggy. That is what we want. I have used the process of “lamination” to get flaky layers. Essentially I folded the dough over onto itself, like a letter before stuffing it into an envelope. This builds layers. Repeat this folding 2-3 times.
Don’t spread the scones too far apart when arranging them on the baking sheet. About 3/4″ space apart is perfect. This encourages them to rise nice and tall. They essentially support each other during baking.
Pop the scones into the freezer for about 10 minutes before baking. This will firm up the butter and prevent the scones from slumping.
Brush scones with a bit of heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse white sugar or turbinado sugar, for a crunchy exterior.

I flavoured my scones with lemon zest and poppyseeds. Feel free to get creative with your flavours.

Click here to print recipe for Lemon Poppyseed Scones.

Wild Blueberry Cream Cheese Scones

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Chances are, unless you live in the northeastern area of North America, it is unlikely you have ever experienced the wonder of a fresh from the bush wild blueberry. They differ wildly (pun intended!) from their sibling, the cultivated blueberry. They are smaller, sweeter and more flavourful. The majority of them are frozen and used by commercial bakers all over North America. But, if you are lucky to live in The Maritime provinces, Ontario, Quebec or Maine, you will understand why I squeal with joy when they finally arrive in late July each summer.

In our increasingly global economy, where you can get anything at any time of year, fresh wild blueberries remain one of the few holdouts! They are only available late July-September. And for that I am grateful. There is something to be said for delayed gratification. Sure, you can get cultivated blueberries all year long, from other parts of the world, but nothing compares to the sweetness and burst of blueberry flavour that explodes in your mouth when you eat the wild ones.

There are those who believe that it is a crime to bake with wild blueberries. They are purists and feel that the wild ones should be saved for eating raw and that coercing them into a baked good is heresy. They postulate that only cultivated blueberries should be used for baking. To that group of extremists I say, “Try the grey stuff, it’s delicious!” If you have ever created a muffin or cake with cultivated blueberries, you know of the baking fiasco I refer to. They burst during baking turning the whole cake a disgusting shade of greyish blue. Wild blueberries are well behaved. They hold their shape perfectly during baking and do not explode.

While each summer I certainly I eat more than my body weight in raw wild blueberries, mixed with Greek yogurt and Double Coconut Granola, I defend the right to use them in baked goods as well.

I recalled a blueberry cream cheese scone I used to make many years ago, but could not find the recipe, so I did a google search. The blueberry cream cheese scone from Honolulu restaurant Diamond Head Market & Grill kept popping up in my search. Studded with blueberries and chunks of cream cheese,everyone raved about it. Although the bakery refuses to share their secret recipe, Hawaii food blogger Bonnie has cracked the code. Thanks Bonnie! We loved these scones fresh from the oven, but they were even better, split and toasted the next day! The key to these scones is to mix in the blueberries very gently and then carefully push small chunks of cream cheese into the dough. I scooped the dough with a spring loaded ice cream scoop and lightly pressed them with my palm to flatten. A brushing of cream and a sprinkling of turbinado sugar, and they were ready for baking.

Click here to print recipe for Wild Blueberry and Cream Cheese Scones.

Rhubarb Coconut Scones

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Upon waking each morning, I peek through the drapes to see if any buds have appeared on the bare limbs of the Norway maple tree outside my bedroom window. Seeing none, I am overcome with the urge to burrow right back into my hole (or under my covers). Mother nature has a perverse sense of humour this year. This long cruel “polar vortex” winter seems to have segued into a particularly nasty spring.

When I finally saw the first buds materialize, followed by a thatch of chives popping through through the earth, I knew that local rhubarb was not far behind. I’m not a rhubarb fanatic, but I do like to create with it at least once a year to celebrate the season. Last year it was this gorgeous tart. This year, I had had my heart set on rhubarb scones. I was inspired by Midge over at Food 52. When I told my husband about my plans, he frowned and grumbled, “What a way to ruin scones.” Clearly I am married to a Spring Grinch. Blueberry scones would make him purr, but those come in July. Get with the program honey.My favourite scone recipe is from the bible Baking Illustrated, created by the same geniuses over at Cook’s Illustrated. These scones use heavy cream which contributes to a rich and tender crumb that buttermilk or whole milk would never achieve. They are not overly sweet, just 3 tablespoons of sugar are called for in the recipe. Knowing that rhubarb is super tart, I decided to add an additional few tablespoons of sugar to macerate with the sliced rhubarb, before adding it to the dough. When I went to make them, I discovered that I didn’t have quite enough heavy cream. Feeling too lazy to run to the store, I topped up the measuring cup with a bit of coconut milk. To ramp up the coconut flavour I added about 1/4 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut. The dough gets pressed into an 8 inch cake pan to give you a perfectly round circle for dividing into triangular scones. A bench scraper or sharp knife work well for cutting the scones.A final brush of heavy cream before they hit the oven gives the finished scones a lovely glossy surface. They were the height of scone perfection. Moist and flaky with a lightly crisped exterior. Even the Spring Grinch enjoyed one with butter and jam.

Click here to print recipe for Rhubarb Coconut Scones.

Sour Cherry Scones

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I have a bit of a thing for online shopping. I think it harkens back to my childhood when my grandmother would send us cookies in the mail, packaged in a shoe box. There is something so exciting about a package arriving in the mail for you (even if you did send it to yourself, but then I never spring for the express shipping, so by the time it comes, I have forgotten all about it).

A few weeks ago I was ordering a book on Amazon (Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-your-mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich.). I was about to check out when those lovely folks over at Amazon wanted me to know that customers who bought” Chewy Gooey”, also bought Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson, Baked, New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco. Of course I had to look at all these books too. I could have easily clicked “add to cart” for all three of their recommendations but I exercised some restraint and just added The Craft of Baking.

I had never heard of Karen DeMasco, but when I read the little blurb, I discovered that she used to work as the pastry chef at Tom Colicchio’s Craft, Craftbar and ‘wichcraft restaurants. I still dream about the lemon tart and pistachio and coconut sorbet I ate at Craft over 3 years ago. That, and their roasted carrots still make me weak at the knees. Plus I am a huge Top Chef and Tom Colicchio fan.

I loved the premise of this cookbook. It is designed to let the reader be creative. After many of the recipes, Karen gives you ideas and tips on “varying your craft.” Great suggestions on how to make the recipe your own. Baking as a craft, not just a science. Plus, If I added this book to my order, then I would qualify for free shipping, so really I was saving money, not spending more money.

When I began reading the book I wanted to bake everything from it. The photography is gorgeous and her instructions are so detailed. I decided to start with the Sour Cherry scones. It has been a long time since I have baked scones but I love tea time. Karen had me at “sour cherry”. I order American Spoon Sour Cherry Preserves by the caseful. When I went to the supermarket to find frozen sour cherries I discovered they were sold in a 4.5 kilogram tub. I lugged the tub home and opened it up to discover that they were not individually quick frozen like blueberries. I had a solid mass of sour cherries. I used a screwdriver and hammer to chisel out a half a cup. It barely made a dent. I rinsed off the cherries to separate them, then dried them and put them on a plate and stuck them back in the freezer so they would not defrost. (Karen says if you are using frozen, don’t defrost). I hauled the tub down to my basement freezer.

After measuring out the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter, she instructs you to pop the whole mixing bowl into the freezer for 5 minutes. Then mix on low-speed to break up the butter into pebble sized pieces.

Hot out of the oven we tore into them. The top was all crunchy from the Demerara sugar and silvered almonds we sprinkled on top. However, inside they were kind of wet, not underdone but just too moist from the sour cherries. Plus, I was a little disappointed with the sour cherry flavour. They were kind of bland.

To “vary my craft”, I decided to do a second batch, using frozen wild blueberries and buttermilk instead of cream as the liquid. I also added about a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. Do not adjust the colour on your monitor. The blueberry dough will turn purple. It’s kind of pretty. I have to say, I prefered the tang of the buttermilk over the cream on the cherry scones. I also found that the blueberry ones were not as wet inside, which I liked better. I am excited to try my hand at some savory scones with cheddar and jalapeno.

Salt and Serenity

Tales from my kitchen