Oh, No . . . More Scones!

Before I made my "Emergency Scones", I made a batch of scones for the Chamber Coffee which was hosted by the Master Gardeners and Garden Club.      Of course, I signed up to bring a treat.     

The Chamber of Commerce Coffee is held each Thursday morning and each week a Chamber member is the host -- and it was "our turn"!      

Coffee, of course, and orange juice, to drink.    There is always a fruit plate as well.    Treats tend to be "bites" rather than full size treats (think mini muffins, cookies or doughnut holes).    And I figured that someone would bring mini muffins (someone did) and someone would bring cookies (they did), so I chose to make scones.     Scones are a definitely breakfast treat.    They go well with coffee and if I made them small . . . . 

I decided to make them American Style (triangles) rather than British Style (rounds) and to make them small I used my 2 inch square cutter rather than my 3 inch one.

But since it was the Garden Club hosting, not just ordinary scones but orange rosemary ones!

With an orange glaze and decorated with sprigs of fresh rosemary.     They're a basic scone recipe that you can vary by adding herbs or dried fruit or lemon or orange zest.  

They must have been good -- I brought home an empty plate.    I did, however, have one at home before I brought them to the "party"!

ORANGE ROSEMARY SCONES

2 c. flour

1 T. baking powder

3 T. sugar

1/2 t. salt

5 T. cold butter, cut into small cubes

1 c. heavy cream

grated zest of 1 orange

handful of chopped fresh rosemary

Heat oven to 425.   Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor.   Mix to combine.    Add butter and turn machine on until the mixture looks like coarse meal.    Add zest and rosemary.   Pour in the heavy cream through the feed tube and mix until dough forms (no more than about 30 seconds).

Take dough out and put onto floured and knead until it just comes together.    Press (or roll) dough until it is about 3/4 of an inch thick.    If I'm making "American" scones, I like to use a square cutter and cut that in half (I like my 3 inches best but for these I used my two incher because I wanted smaller scones).   If I'm making British scones, I use a round cutter, either 2 or 3 inches in diameter.    

I like to brush the tops with egg wash (1 egg and about 1 T. water mixed together) and sprinkle with coarse sugar.    Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until they are light brown.

After they are cool, make a glaze of powdered sugar and orange juice.     I also added about zest from 1/3 of another orange.     I like a more "icing" type glaze so didn't use that much juice -- just enough so it sort of ran off the top a bit.    I decorated with sprigs of fresh rosemary.