why not make a basket of these for your little loves (or big ones) on the 14th?
Well I was fully intending to make that gorgeous flourless almond cake from Spain that I posted yesterday on In Food Today, but I got to thinking about something entirely different this morning.
When I went out to do my morning errands, I thought I picked up the very faintest essence of Springtime in the air – the heavy rains yesterday having washed away a great amount of the snow and leaving a freshness lofting around from the newly washed and slightly warming earth due to the 50F+ temperatures……. Well, it may not be true that Spring is approaching in the urgent rush that I was imagining, but that heady air got me motivated. That it was in the direction of something so earthy/spicy, like, say for Gingersnaps, one of my all-time favorite cookies, is really inexplicable here. Perhaps it is because I find the fragrance of ginger to be intoxicating, like that of Spring. Anyway, that’s what I settled my nose on. But, I wondered, could I transfer that aroma to a rich and earthy scone, but one that didn’t too closely resemble a Gingersnap cookie or cake?
These came out of the oven looking and smelling just as I was hoping.
GINGERSNAP HEART SCONES makes 10 4″ heart scones
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tblsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
8 tblsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
4 tblsp unsulfured molasses
2/3 cup minced crystalized ginger
egg wash
muscavado sugar
one 4″ diameter heart cookie cutter
Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In the bowl of your food processor, whir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Add the cubed butter and pulse 8-9 times or until the butter resembles small peas. Dump the dry ingredients into a low wide bowl.
In a 2 cup measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, yogurt and molasses until completely blended. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour half the wet mixture into the center of the dry ingredients and, working with a dough scraper, gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet, adding the other half of the wet ingredients as needed. Add the crystalized ginger and work in very “gingerly”. Sprinkle a little more flour over the dough if it is very sticky. Gather into a nice mound and pat out onto a lightly floured board. Roll with a rolling pin to a 1 1/4″ thickness. Don’t let the dough stick to the work surface.
Cut out the scones with the heart cutter and place on the prepared pan. Re-roll excess dough, handling as little as possible and cut out remaining scones. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with muscavado sugar.
Bake for 15-18 minutes or until well browned and puffed. Watch these as they have a tendency to burn quickly. Enjoy this amazing fragrance and taste!
Here’s the one that didn’t fit on the baking sheet.
a roll-up, pinch-top baked in a small brioche tin