And neither does cream, that is why I was compelled, compelled, I say, to make some milk chocolate pecan scones. Woe is me!
My favorite type of scone is a cream scone, and I like them flaky, not cakey. Scones are a great way to use up buttermilk or cream, fruit, zest, and of course, chocolate. You see, chocolate doesn’t last forever – you have to use it up, especially white chocolate, which has a shorter shelf life. Dorie Greenspan’s scone recipe is wonderful, and I have used variations of it several times, but I wanted to try something different.
So, I found myself with several large hunks of milk and white chocolates left over from my voluminous Christmas baking, and a pint of cream which was screaming that its expiration date had just passed. I got to work, and after consulting several books, I came up with the following recipe.
I decided to live on the wild side and used Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor from King Arthur Flour for the flavoring instead of vanilla extract. The scones were fantastic, with rave reviews from Master Chow, a die-hard walnut fan! Will wonders never cease? The great thing about scones is that the raw dough freezes really well, so you can make and shape them, then pop them in the freezer (well wrapped), to bake whenever the urge hits you.
A couple of hints/thoughts: (1) Don’t overwork the dough. (2) If you don’t have a food processor, a great way to incorporate the butter is to use a box grater and grate the frozen butter into the dough. (3) You can make 6 or 8 scones. I flattened out the dough a bit more than I normally would, and made 8 because our sugar intake has risen alarmingly between Tuesdays with Dorie and the Daring Bakers. Recipe after the jump . . .
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