Cooking During COVID | Poggione Stay At Home Scones

Poggione Stay At Home Scones–fresh out of the oven.

By Sarah Poggione
Associate Dean for Students, Instruction, and Curriculum and Associate Professor

Adapted from the Joy of Cooking

If you are thinking, “Why would I bake scones?” I have three answers for you.

1. They are delicious.
2. They are easy to make.
3. It is more acceptable to eat scones for breakfast rather than cookies.

Ingredients for Poggione Stay At Home Scones

What you need:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• ½  tsp salt
• 1¼ cups heavy or whipping cream
  You may be asking, “Who has heavy cream in their house.” I do, always. I love it in my coffee. I can make whipped cream any time I want, and I can make these scones.
• ¾ cup dried strawberries
  (You can use any dried fruit. I have also used dried cherries, cranberries, strawberries, apricots—larger fruits may need to be cut into chunks. You could also skip the fruit altogether and use 1 tsp of orange zest.)
• ¾ cup chocolate chunks of chips
  (You can use whatever chocolate you like or have.  If I use a sweeter dried fruit, I try to use dark chocolate chunks or semisweet chips. If you use a less sweet fruit like cranberries you could use a white chocolate chip. You can skip the chocolate, too, and use a different dried fruit or ½ cup of chopped nuts.  I never do this.)
• A bowl for mixing
• A baking sheet

Scones ready for the oven

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix up all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt). Then add your chocolate and dried fruit and mix. (If you have a food processor, like me, you can dump the dry ingredients in and swirl a bit, and then add in the chocolate and dried fruit and swirl again. Yes your food processor might protest loudly when it hits a chocolate chunk and try to jump off the table, but it’s really fast and easy, so I do it anyway.)
3. Add the cream. Mix with a fork or spoon until everything is a little wet and no liquid remains in the bowl. Then need the dough against the side of the bowl between 5-10 times so you are picking up most of the dough in a shaggy ball.  You don’t need to need it until it’s smooth but just until it stays together. (Again if you are blessed with kitchen gadgets, dump the cream in the food processor and pulse a few times. Again, you are looking for a shaggy ball of dough.  You can dump onto a floured surface and knead a few times to bring it together.)
4. Pat your dough ball into a circle about until about ¾ of an inch thick. You can cut into 8 to 12 wedges. (Usually, I just cut the dough into 10 equal portions, roll into balls and press into circles about ¾ inch in thickness.)
5. Put your scones on the baking sheet with at least ½ inch between scones. You can brush the tops with a little extra cream and then sprinkle with sugar or sparkling sugar. (I do this if I have it.)
6. Bake 12-15 minutes until tops are browned. Cool on a wire rack if you have one or eat immediately (I prefer the second option.)