Well, let’s be honest, the kitchen is currently in a state of absolute chaos. There’s flour on my eyebrows, and I’m fairly certain I have a crumb of some sort of crusty bread tucked away somewhere in my hair. Why did I decide to take on the ‘Great Scone Challenge’? Honestly, probably because I saw a reel of someone making perfectly symmetrical, golden-brown scones that looked like they belonged in a pink boutique café and I thought, ‘Well, if they can do it, so can I.’
In reality, my first three attempts at perfecting the scone technique have been nothing shortly of a disaster. The first batch was so dense it felt like trying to learn a bit of heavy masonry rather than baking; they were less ‘fluffy’ and over-ledged into a high and sturdy structure. They weren’t really just scones, they were bricks. I’m not sure what the other people who made them were doing differently. It turns out that handling the work even though it didn’t touch the dough is an art form in itself.
Finally, this morning, I decided to take a leap of faith and actually followed the recipe exactly as written without making any substitutions or trying to rearrange the mind. My very first attempt had been so bad that I’m still feeling quite humbled by the reality of baking be honest. I spent about an hour just preparing the ground ingredients, and then I finally managed toppled over onto a bit of clotted cream. I finally achieved a perfect, golden-edger edge and a towering height. They were honestly magnificent.
The best part is that I’m going to share some of these beauties with my local cafe. The fact that they be shared with the morning coffee crowd will give me a bit of confidence to go out and tell people what I mean when I’m talking about baking dreams. This might not even be as well as I imagined, but it’s a beautiful thing to feel like I finally cracked the code.
If you want to know more about how I eventually managed to find some good clotted cream, a bit of a laugh and a lot of perfectionism is what I took to try and crack the code. If you want to hear more about my kitchen-related successes and failures, stick around! There’s always something new to be cooked up, literally speaking.
The Secret Sauce
So, why did I do it? Because I love a warm scone and a cup of tea. It’s the ultimate comfort food. There’s something about that specific, buttery, slightly crumbly texture is what makes it feel like a special occasion. My local cafe doesn’t even have scones on their menu but I’m going to try and offer them to give them to a sample for a bit of fun.
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