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scone-oisseur
n.
1. A person who consumes many scones from a variety of places and debates the merits of each establishment’s scones.
2. A person who plans their holidays around scone stops.
We recently had our first family mini-vacation. We visited the Blue Mountains and consumed an outstanding number of outstanding scones.
Outstanding Scone Establishment Number 1:
Megalong Valley Tea Rooms
Scones with fresh cream and homemade jam beside a roaring fire. Divine.
They are also famous for their apple pie. Don’t mind if I do.
Outstanding Scone Establishment Number 2:
Tomah Gardens Restaurant
Blueberry scones with lemon butter served on the most glorious crockery. I’m such a sucker for a souvenir teaspoon.
Consumed whilst looking out over the most spectacular view of the Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens.
Prior to this trip, I would have described myself as a scone traditionalist.
Plain scones with jam and fresh cream, thank you very much.
Then I consumed a game-changer.
Oustanding Scone Establishment Number 3:
The Gingerbread House Katoomba
The date and chocolate scones here changed my scone-eating landscape forever.
Here is my attempt to recreate this delicious scone.
Date and chocolate scones
Makes about 14
3 cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon salt
60g diced butter
1 1/4 cups milk
about 15 dates, roughly chopped
about 1/3 cup of milk chocolate chips, roughly chopped
about 1/3 cup of white chocolate chips, roughly chopped*
extra milk for brushing
*The originals didn’t actually have white chocolate in them, but I had some in the pantry, so in they went!
Preheat the oven to 230 degrees celsius.
Line a tray with baking paper.
Sift flour into bowl. Add salt.
Rub the butter in.
Add most of the milk and mix in quickly. If it is not mixing to a soft dough, add rest of milk.
Add chocolate chips and dates. I think it’s up to personal taste- add as much or as little as you like.
The measurements I used created scones dense with chocolate bits and dates.
Turn dough onto floured benchtop.
Knead lightly, flipping and pressing with heel of hand three or four times.
Roll dough out to about 2cm thick.
I used an old jar to cut out rounds that were about 4cm across.
Place scones close together on tray and brush tops with milk.Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden.
Serve with fresh cream and jam.
Basic scone recipe adapted from Margaret Fulton’s Baking cook book.
Are you a scone traditionalist or do you love a scone filled with other bits of deliciousness?
Linking up with Fabulous Foodie Friday hosted by the lovely Lucy at Bake Play Smile and lovely Lauren at Create Bake Make.
Love your scone journey and will definitely be giving these ones a try. I do love a traditional scone but it’s great to experiment too especially when they look as yummy as these ones!
A bit of cream and jam is just so satisfying!
I love the Blue Mountains and I love a good scone. Unfortunately I have really bad scone making karma but these babies look too tempting not to try. By the by, we enjoyed scones with lemon butter when we had high tea in Chicago, and you’re right it’s a real game changer. Anything with chocolate is a winner in my books, so yes, scones with chocolate bits of deliciousness are far and away my favourite!
Oooooh bad scone karma? Sounds like an intriguing tale….
Chocolate just makes everything better!
Trick to nice light scones is not to play with them too much. I sift my flour twice. Rub butter in till it is incorporated and when you add the milk, mix it until it forms a nice dough that is not too sticky but not over dry but don’t over mix. You want to keep all that lovely air in that you got when sifting and unlike making bread, you don’t want to develop the glutens in the flour too much. My favourite scones are date scones and cheese and herb scones – fantastic with a bowl of homemade soup in winter!
Love it, I am never a traditionalist, ever, so bring on the chocolate scones!
Yay to the anti-traditionalists!
You have just blown my mind with date and chocolate scones – wow! It sounds like you had a wonderful trip. Thanks for linking up with us for Fabulous Foodie Fridays, I hope you are having a wonderful weekend x
You keep blowing my mind with all the deliciousness you keep posting! xx
These sound great!
I will definitely keep the mt tomah gardens cafe in mind for our next venture to the mountains. 🙂
It’s such a lovely place to visit, Simone! The restaurant is great. We had a delicious cauliflower soup whilst we were there as well. Loads of yumminess!
Oooh yes please!!! Adding chocolate to date scones is the best idea ever! Love, love, love this!!
I’m loving that you added dates to lemon slice! Now I have a use for my leftover lemons!!!
OMG SHut up! I need these in my belly NOW! 🙂 No really! xx
I just made another batch of your apple cinnamon crisps… sooooo good!!!