SCONES

SCONES, THE QUINTESSENTIAL TEA CAKE OF THE British Isles, were intended to be delicate, fluffy biscuits, which may come as a surprise to Americans. The clunky mounds of oven-baked sweetened dough that the British call rock cakes are often called scones in our restaurants and coffee shops. Unlike rock cakes, in which dough is dropped from a spoon onto a baking sheet, traditional scones are quickly rolled or patted out and cut into rounds or wedges.

We began our testing with the flour. We constructed a composite recipe and then made one version with bread flour, one with all-purpose flour, and another with cake flour. The differences in outcome were astonishing. The scones made with bread flour were heavy and tough. Those made with all-purpose flour were lighter and much more flavorful. Cake flour produced scones that were doughy in the center, with a raw taste and poor texture.

With the question of flour type easily settled, we experimented with fat in the form of butter and then lard. We decided we preferred the rich flavor of butter. (Although lard is not used much in home baking anymore, we can understand why commercial bakers might prefer it. Day-old scones made with lard hold up better than those made with butter. The preservative effects of different fats, along with lower cost, may be why store-bought scones are often made with margarine or other hydrogenated fats.) Although the amount of solid fat can be varied, we found 5 tablespoons butter to 2 cups flour to be just right. More butter and the scones almost melted in the oven, less butter and they turned out dry and tough.

The choice of liquid can also profoundly affect the flavor of a scone. We tested various liquids and found that cream made the best scones that were tender yet still light. Scones made with milk were bland and dry. Buttermilk gave us scones with plenty of flavor, but they were also too flaky and biscuitlike. Scones made with cream were more moist and flavorful than the others.

We tried adding an egg to the dough and found that this made the scones very cakey, more American (or rocklike) in style than British. Many tasters liked the effect of the egg, however, and because it helps the scone hold onto moisture and remain fresh tasting longer, we decided to use the egg in a variation on our master recipe called Cakey Scones.

In traditional recipes, one to two tablespoons of sugar is enough to sweeten an entire batch of scones. American scones tend to be far sweeter than the British versions, which are usually sweetened with toppings such as jam. Americans seem to eat their scones the way they eat their muffins, without anything more than a smear of butter, so the sweetness is baked in. We prefer the British approach, but to accommodate American tastes we decided to increase the sugar slightly to three tablespoons.

Finally, scones are often glazed to enhance their appearance and add sweetness. We tried brushing the dough with a beaten egg as well as with heavy cream just before baking. Scones brushed with egg became too dark in the oven. We preferred the more delicate look of scones brushed with cream and then dusted with a little granulated sugar.

Scones can be mixed by hand or with a food processor. (The processor is used to cut fat into flour; minimal hand mixing is required afterward.) As with biscuits, we found the food processor to be more reliable than hand mixing, which can overheat the butter and cause it to soften. The same shaping technique used with wedge-shaped biscuits works perfectly with scones, even though this dough is a bit stickier. Just pat the dough into a cake pan, gently pop it out onto a floured surface, and then cut the dough into eight wedges.