Today we are making flaky currant scones from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s book the Bread Bible.
If a shortbread cookie married puff pastry and produced an offspring, it would be a scone --
crumbly, flaky, and mildly sweet. Before I learned to bake pies, tarts, brioche, and croissants,
I learned to make these humble scones and they are still one of my favorite breakfasts. Just
in case Rose ever sees this video, I want to say a huge “thank you” for turning me into a baker.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the middle.
Cut 2 cold sticks of unsalted butter in half lengthwise, then in half lengthwise
again, and dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Put the butter back in the fridge to
keep it cold while preparing the dry ingredients.
To produce the most delicate scones, you need to use a flour with a moderate protein content.
Today, I am using Gold Medal bleached all-purpose flour. A mix of King Arthur unbleached all-purpose
plus some cake flour also works well. But if all you have is unbleached all-purpose flour,
that’s not a show stopper. Your scones will still be lovely.
Let’s measure 600 grams of flour, 100 grams of granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking powder,
1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, and salt. As always, the salt measurements are a little
complicated. I am using 1 teaspoon of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, which is 1/2 teaspoon of
table salt. If you are weighing with a high precision scale, that’s 2.8 grams of any salt.
We need to combine all this stuff very thoroughly and evenly. The most reliable way to do it is to
sift it twice. You can also sift once and then whisk it a lot. If some salt flakes don’t make
it through the sifter, shake them into your flour anyway, so that the salt amount won’t be off.
Dump the butter into the flour and separate the cubes with your fingers. We’ll need to squoosh
each piece of butter to flatten it out. To make it easier to figure out what’s done and what’s
not done, I move all the butter to one side of the bowl. And after I flatten the pieces, I move them
to the other side of the bowl. Eventually, you’ll be able to do it with two hands at the same time.
But if this step takes you a while, and your butter starts to get soft, you can put the
dough in the fridge for 15 minutes and then proceed with the recipe wherever you left off.
It’s normal for your butter to still be in pretty big pieces -- that’s what will give us layers.
Add 464 grams of cold heavy cream and mix it in with a large spoon using a cutting motion.
Once the cream is absorbed, add 130 grams of
currants. Clean off the spoon and toss the dough a few times to distribute the currants evenly.
Then squeeze it briefly but very aggressively just until the dough starts to hold together.
It’s normal and desirable for it to feel dry and crumbly at this point.
Once more of the dough is willing to stay together in a large clump,
even if a whole bunch of it doesn’t want to join the party,
get it out onto a lightly floured work surface and shape it into a rough rectangle.
A pastry scraper really helps with this task. If your rectangle is really uneven,
you can alway cut a little piece from the thick part and attach it to the thin part.
We want our rectangle to be roughly the size of a printer page. We are not quite there yet,
so let’s sprinkle the dough with a little flour and roll it to the correct size.
Now, we’ll turn all those chunks of butter into layers. Fold the dough in thirds, like a letter.
Help yourself with a pastry scraper. Yes. It will crack. It will crumble. Chunks will fall out.
Are we going to panic? No. We’ll squoosh. We’ll tuck. We’ll carry on. We need a total of
4 letter turns. The first one is done and we have 3 more to go.
Flour.
Roll.
Tuck.
Fold.
By the way, instead of folding, you can always cut the dough into 3
pieces and sandwich them. As long as one layer becomes 3 layers, you are good.
Rinse and repeat.
If your rolling pin becomes sticky, scrape it off and sprinkle with flour. Same with counter.
In case you are wondering if the currants are supposed to look like cartoon characters run
over by a steam roller, no, they are not. This is my fault. I made a little oopsy here. The only
currants I had in the house were a little old and completely stuck together into one big dry clump.
I thought I could just soak them, separate them and then dry them out overnight. Unfortunately,
this got them a tad too soft. And now, we aren’t just laminating the dough,
we are laminating the currants. So learn from my mistake and don’t soak your currants.
I am still rocking and rolling here. One more letter fold to go. Don’t be afraid
to add flour to both the top and bottom of your dough and if it starts to get too soft,
chill for 30 minutes and pick up where you left off.
If you do get a little stuck to the counter,
don’t panic. You can always unstick your dough with a pastry scraper.
We are all layered now, and it’s time for the final rolling and shaping.
I am shooting for a rectangle that is 12 inches by 8 inches.
This is the time to start worrying about keeping the thickness as even as possible. Let’s cut the
dough in half this way. Then in half that way.
Then each piece in half again. You should end up with 8 squarish
pieces. It’s ok if they are a bit more rectangular than square. And cut each square into 2 triangles.
Look at all those layers. Wait till we bake them. You’ll end up with 16 scones.
And we’ll need to bake them in 2 batches. Keep whichever batch you aren’t baking in the fridge.
Place 8 scones on a parchment lined baking sheet and put in the middle of the oven.
You can ignore the pizza stone. I baked them with and without a pizza stone and both came out fine.
Bake for 9 minutes, rotate the pan front to back and bake another 8 to 10 minutes or until the
center registers between 195 and 200F. Immediately remove the scones to a kitchen towel placed on a
cooling rack. I forgot to show you, but there is a cooling rack under that towel to prevent
sogginess. Place another towel on top and let the scones sit for 7 to 10 minutes. This resting step
really helps with the right texture. Don’t worry -- they’ll still be perfectly crisp, but not hard.
Come here beautiful. Ah -- it’s so delicate and layered. We haven’t
talked about a very important topic yet, which is the serving temperature.
I believe that the scones have to be served hot or at least warm. Let me tell you why.
Pretty much every scone recipe reassures you that these scones won’t be dry. It’s like
dryness is the biggest hurdle scone recipes try to overcome. I find that kind of funny.
Complaining about a dry scone is like complaining about a dry shortbread or a wet soup. I mean,
that’s the nature of the beast. What I am guessing most people are complaining about are
hard scones, not dry scones. So to make them softer, most recipes bring them into the realm of
biscuits by increasing the wet ingredients. Don’t get me wrong. I love biscuits. But a
scone is somewhat different. It’s less fluffy, but more rich and crumbly than a biscuit.
The reality is that both biscuits and scones can only be magnificent when they are served hot.
Once they cool off, they firm up and taste stale. Of course, they might be hard because
you didn’t measure your ingredients correctly or kneaded the dough too much, but even if you do
everything perfectly, a cold biscuit or scone will always be harder than a warm biscuit or scone.
That’s why I never get scones in bakeries. Making them myself is the only way to catch them
at their best. You are probably thinking, but what about the leftovers? What if you don’t
want to eat 16 scones in one sitting? No problem. Wrap each scone in plastic wrap. Place them into
a freezer bag and put in the freezer. When you want to serve them, preheat the oven to 300F,
place frozen scones on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. They’ll be as good as new.
In case you are wondering if it’s possible to make the dough
and shape the scones in the evening, and then bake them in the morning, yes it is.
Just keep them tightly wrapped and refrigerated. Basically, this recipe
gives you a lot of flexibility of how to end up with the most decadent hot scones anytime.
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