Scones Delight

Speaking of Mallorca seeing all those citrus trees everywhere on the island, even in February, I had to buy couple kilos of Clementines and Oranges for the husband. Had to because he loves citrus fruit and will trade in his Fall Apple days for all-year-around citrus.  And he’d do it in a heartbeat.  You understand my husband’s obsession with citrus?  On the last day of our trip, while lugging around our bags and newly purchased olive oils, I made my final purchase at Palma Farmer’s Market.  I bought 1 kilogram of Clementines and 1 kilogram of Oranges.  The obvious difference I could tell were Clementines are sweeter in taste than their Orange counterpart.  And they have thinner skin (easy peel) compared to Oranges.

The Clementines were devoured within the first week.  And the Oranges were almost gone after few Sunday mimosas but with some left, we made delicious scones.

If you’ve never made scones, I suggest you try these.  The fresh orange zest coupled with cardamom, it is breakfast bliss.

We followed this recipe.  I am reposting here if you didn’t click on the original.

Orange Cardamom Scones 
Yields 8 scones

200 grams plain flour, sifted
1 scant teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
47 grams sugar
2 1/2 ounce unsalted butter, very cold
2 eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream
56 grams blanched almonds, roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons freshly grated orange zest
1 teaspoon ground cardamom (if using fresh from pods, use 10 cardamom pods, cracked open and the black seeds crushed in a pestle & mortar)

1 egg
1 Tablespoon water
demarara sugar for sprinkling (also known as Turbinado sugar or sugar in the raw)

Preheat the oven to 450F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into the flour with a fork or pastry cutter, or pulse in the food processor until you have the texture of coarse sand. Don't worry about seeing little bits of butter in the flour, this keeps the scones flaky.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and cream together and add the orange zest, and cardamom. Add the flour into the egg and cream, add the almonds and stir quickly to combine. Do not beat the mixture, just stir gently to form a rough ball shape. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead no more than 3-5 times.

Press the dough into a 3/4 inch thick flat circle.  Cut the dough in 8 equal slices, like cutting pizza into equal slices.
Put the scones onto an ungreased baking sheet with 1 1/2 inch space between each scone. Make the eggwash by beating the egg and water together and brush the top of each scone. Sprinkle with demarara sugar.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Mark Bittman tips- do not over knead the dough or the scones will be dry.  And try to avoid adding too much flour as you knead, the dough is much softer than a bread dough and will be slightly sticky to the touch.