Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie—Apple Cheddar Scones

Apple Cheddar SconesNo matter how you pronounce them, ScAWn or ScOHne or Scoooon (after the Coronation Stone), these are delicious.

In Ottawa, we have a wonderful little take-out restaurant called The Scone Witch where they make “sconewitches” using scones shaped into squares. You can get sconewitches such as goat cheese and tomato, ham and Gruyère, and poached salmon and cucumber. They serve a variety of different sweet scones too, such as Ginger-Currant, Lemon-Poppyseed, Oatmeal, Orange-Cranberry, and Vanilla-Cream. Dorie's apple cheddar scones would be delicious as a sconewitch with ham.

Scone Witch sign
The Sconewitch
Originally uploaded to FlickR by Ian David Blüm
(with permission)

Biscuit or Scone
Biscuits and scones are both leavened with baking soda or baking powder. Scones are often sweeter and have cream or buttermilk, making it richer. Scones are usually triangular while biscuits are circular. There are more differences listed here.

Scones "are made in a manner similar to biscuits and, in fact, share biscuits' buttery-layered texture, but their name, their shape, and the fact that they're served with tea rather than gravy, lift them to the level of fancier fare."
-Dorie Greenspan in Baking with Julia
The secret to light scones is wet batter. The stickier, the better. Don’t handle them too much, and they will be light and tasty.

Recipe
Ingredients for Apple Cheddar SconesYou can find the recipe for Apple Cheddar Scones in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Karina of The Floured Apron who chose the recipe for this week.

Tasting Notes
These scones were wonderful—light, fluffy buttery, and delicious. One of my daughters, who eats grilled cheese sandwiches every single day of the school year and sometimes asks for it on weekends (!), loved these scones.

Recipe for Next Week (July 8)
Double Crusted Blueberry Pie on pages 361-363 chosen by Amy of South in Your Mouth.





30 comments:

Heather B said...

sconewiches? Oh yeah! I'll take me one of those! Great job! Your scones look great!

Prudy said...

Beautiful scones! I love your pics. I saw your Danish bread earlier this week and I can't believe I didn't notice the crossword puzzle in the pic. I'm a puzzle addict. Food and a puzzle are the best pleasures the world can offer!

Anonymous said...

A sconewich! I love it! And yours look absolutely perfect!

kimberly salem said...

your scones look great! how do you get them in the triangular shape when the batter is so wet? i saw a scone pan at williams-sonoma, but i thought it was just a shortcut type of thing.

Mary Ann said...

Wow- they look absolutely perfect!

vibi said...

I knew it! I knew it! Shari!!! ...but I'm sure you're not only a scone witch!
You probably are the witch of many other talents!!! LOL
Great scones... as usual you succeed very well at everything you do!

Jules Someone said...

Sconewitches sound fabulous. And yours look yummy!

Susie Homemaker said...

What a freaking great idea! I was gonna toss these, but eaten as a sandwich - well, that will work!!
Thanks for the post!

Anonymous said...

I am thinking those Sconewitches sound quite nice...what a great idea and one that may need trying out soon...like maybe another scone weekend coming up as there are lots of people around for the holidays to help eat them up quickly.

You are as always, most inspiring in your posts, photos, ideas, creativity, and I am so happy you kept crashing my computer so I had the chance to meet you! Great job on the scones.

Engineer Baker said...

Scone witch with ham? I totally agree - a wonderful breakfast sandwich idea.

marae said...

yummy buttery flakiness!!! i think mine were not quite as flaky as they coulda been but still yummy. fab pics!!

The Kitchen Vixen said...

Wow I would have never thought of having a sconewich, but I like biscuit sandwiches so that could work;) great job!

Katie B. said...

What a fabulous concept (and word!) - sconewich! As I buttered one over the weekend, I thought to myself that it would be lovely with ham or turkey... nice to know it wasn't such a crazy thought! :)

Susan @ SGCC said...

Your scones look great! I love the idea of a ham sandwich with them. I still have 4 left. Hmmm, guess what we're having for dinner tomorrow?

Anonymous said...

Neat post. Pretty pictures. Yay.

Pamela said...

They look beautiful on the cooling rack!

Anonymous said...

Your scones look great- they have a perfect scone shape! The scone sandwich sounds delicious.

Patricia Scarpin said...

I'm intrigued by the combination of cheese and apples - these are delectable, Shari!

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, gorgeous photos Shari! And thanks for the background details on the differnce between scones & bisquits! I'm tempted to join TWD, but I wonder how far you al are, into the book. Maybe it is a bit late...

eatme_delicious said...

Oh I wish I lived in Ottawa!! The Scone Witch sounds like an awesome little restaurant and I love the name (and the sign)! Your scones look delicious. Ah now I'm going to be craving scones all day...

Anonymous said...

Sconewiches sound so tasty. I never would have thought about putting goat cheese on a biscuit. ;)

NKP said...

They look great. I like the idea of making scone-witches.
I like Ottawa very much, my son is thinking of going to school there.

Shari said...

Thanks everyone for stopping by and taking the time to comment!

kim - I happen to have a scone pan (probably like the one you saw at williams-sonoma). It was the first time I`d used it, and I highly recommend it, especially for such a sticky batter as this one was! The pan crisps up the sides too since it`s divided. I`ve included a link to one at amazon in the post now.

vibi - Don`t you just love the name of that little take-out restaurant! It`s brilliant.

kayte - I`m glad you didn`t give up on me given that I caused such trouble for you and your computer!!

sara - I`m sure you can catch up. It`s going to take us 5 years (!) to get through this Baking book!!

natashya - Ottawa is a beautiful city. Small enough that you can get anywhere without too much trouble but big enough to have some great shows, museums, restaurants, etc.

Thanks again, everyone!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Those scones look delicious! Very flavorful!

cheers,

Rosa

Jaime said...

yay - now i know the difference :) thanks for the lesson :)

your scones look nice and golden and delicious! i couldn't get mine into that nice triangular shape, it was too sticky!

Anonymous said...

oh my goodness...this is the posting i was waiting for, and they sound so delicious...cheese + apples...what could be better! :) lovely photos...can't wait to make these! happy 4th + thanks for the comment about my salted peanut butter cookies! so addicting, i had to give them away!

Anne said...

Those look beautiful! I love the first photo. Yum!

Cynthia said...

mmm i was just talking about scones with my friends over dinner today! this combination sounds so very good!!!

Mari said...

Your scones look perfect! Next time I'll pat them out too.

Jennifer A. Wickes said...

Thanks for sharing. I love scones and love to see other's input on their scone adventures!