Sip & See

Hello. How are you? Please sit. Welcome to my place. I'll be back in a second. I have got something really tasty for you today other than of course a lot of afternoon tea gossip.

You would probably be thinking why I sound like a hostess for a tea party. Because it really was one. We had people, tea and a yummy something(I'll tell you what. Just wait)

I had heard about this dish long before but never really gave much thought. It is something not very common here and most of the people don't even know about it I'm sure. Then suddenly one day I saw its picture somewhere and it looked kinda appealing and I had to find something new to put up here, so I dug out more about it( history and stuff. Yeah I like doing that) and here I was making this mellow yet tasty, Britain origin dish- SCONES.

If you want to know more about it you can find it here. But if I have to tell you what it looks like to me then I would say Scones are mini bun shaped cakes which are very low at sugar(plus point for dieters and those with diabetes) and gives you a nice buttery taste. Very soft, it is a perfect compliment to your favourate tea. And another really good thing - its an easy bake. (I always prefer simple recipes-newcomer you see)

Now the ingredients that are used are pretty simple. In fact there are only 3-4 major ingredients which are very easily available at at any provision shop or supermarket. And for a change I already had them at my place.(Yes that does happen sometimes)

Coming to the preps, take a medium sized bowl and put 2 cups flour and mix 1/3 cup powdered sugar into it. Also add 3/4 tsp salt and 4 tsp baking powder. All dry ingredients mixed.
Add 4 tbsp of white butter(makkhan) and 2 tbsp of vegetable shortening(dalda).

Lets move on to the wet ones. In another bowl mix well 1 egg and 3/4 cup cream(fresh malai).
Put these wet ones in the dry ones slowly and knead the batter to make a dough.( Just the way you do for rotis.) The dough will look like this. It should be moist and soft. Why? I'll come that in a while.

Divide these into smaller balls and flatten it a bit(not much. You aren't making rotis). You will get around 10-12 balls with this dough.

Time for baking. Pre heat the oven at 190°C. Keep the dough balls in gaps in a baking tray greased with a little oil or shortening(dalda).
Now if you do not have a baking tray LIKE ME (yeah I am sad) you can use a tgreased cupcake mould, the way I have used. But it will obviously affect the shape of these scones. But you know here we are talking about using items that we already have. And frankly speaking I really don't mind the shape that my mould gave. It looked very neat.

So just put the balls in the cupcake mould and put a little cream on top of it. This will help in the browning of the top.(Though mine didn't brown much, I should have put more cream. Sharing mistakes)

Now set the temperature for 15-18 min or until brown. You can extend it a bit or switch it off in between if you see they have got a nice light brown shade.(You don't want them to burn).
Do the fork or toothpick test. Put a fork inside a scone if it comes out clean you are done with baking.

Scones ready. Let them cool.

They are typically served with clotted cream and jam in Britain during afternoon tea. This is called as high tea. You may ask what is clotted cream (lot of terms I know) ? Clotted cream is made with cow's milk which is indirectly heated. In short rarely available here. (I didn't find.) So I used are old fashioned fresh thick cream(malai again) with jam and it was super yummm.
The scones are low in sweetness which is perfectly complemented by the jam and your tea and the buttery taste goes really well with the cream. Overall it was heavenly.

Where I went Wrong 
Few of mine did crack in between you can see that in the pictures as well. I researched about it and got to know the reasons.
They may have cracked because my dough became dry. Its pretty cold here and I left my dough as it is since I was having dinner. Do not do this. Make the scones as soon as you make the dough.
 Also when you knead the batter, if you feel it is dry add a little more butter just so that it remains moist. These are mistakes even you could do so be careful. Hope it helps.

 Enjoy these little cakes. They are really delicious. Let me know if you try these or have any queries. Have a happy tea. ☺

The original recipe I used was from food network-http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/scones-recipe.html
My simpler inspiration is down here.

INGREDIENTS

All purpose flour                                           2 cups
Sugar(powdered)                                          1/3 cup
Baking powder                                              4 tsp
Salt                                                                   3/4 tsp
White butter(makkhan)                             4 tbsp
Veg shortening(dalda)                                 2 tbsp
Fresh Cream(Malai)                                     3/4 cup
Egg                                                                   1

METHOD

1) Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl- flour, sugar, baking powder, salt.
2) Add the butter and shortening(dalda) in this.
3) In another bowl mix the wet ingredients well- egg and cream(malai).
4) Add these into the dry ones slowly and knead it to make a dough.
5) Make smaller balls of this dough.
6) Keep these balls on a greased(with oil or dalda) baking tray or in cupcake moulds. Put some cream over it.
7) Pre heat the oven at 190°C.
8) Bake the scones for about 15-18 min or until they brown a little.
9) Let it cool and have with cream and jam.☺

DO NOTE:
1) It is a non veg recipe. Contains egg. Haven't tried without it but soon i'll try and let you know how they turn out.
2) While removing the tray from the oven be careful it will be very hot. Use gloves.

Happy Baking! ☺