Toasted Oat and Cinnamon Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...These homely scones will have those who love the oatmeal variety begging for more. These certainly are the best I've ever had. I found the recipe on the Cookie Madness blog where the original recipe was attributed to Cook's Illustrated. Despite their pedigree, the scones are simple to make and they are especially good keepers, staying moist for several days. They are rich, sweet and buttery, and, it goes without saying, they are a perfect accompaniment to an English afternoon tea. I used cinnamon chips at the request of the Silver Fox, but I must admit I like them just as well when made with raisins. If you do not have a food processor, a pastry cutter can be used to work the butter into the flour. It will take a little longer, but it will do the job. I do hope you'll give this simple recipe a try. I know you will love the scones. Here is how they are made.

Apricot and Ginger Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...These are scones I make only for family or overnight guest. They are best eaten when eaten warm from the oven and topped with a liberal schmear of apricot jam or clotted cream. They are quite plain in appearance and not sweet enough for all tastes, but they are delicious and have a homey quality about them that I love. They have the added advantage of being easy to make. Both the dried apricots and crystallized ginger are quite sticky when cut, but the task is made much easier if you snip them with scissors rather than attempt to chop them with a knife. The recipe originally came from William Sonoma and I have included their version below. I haven't altered the recipe for my personal use, but I have altered the way the scones are made. I use the food processor to mix dry ingredients and cut in butter. It's a faster, easier and less messy way to make the dough. I pulse the dry ingredients and butter for about 8 seconds and then dump the mixture into a bowl where it can be combined with liquid ingredients. Obviously, you're not locked into apricots and ginger as add-ins. Dried cherries or cranberries are excellent substitutes and about a tablespoon of lemon or orange zest can replace the candied ginger. The are fast and simple to make and if you enjoy less sweet breakfast pastries, save this recipe for a day you can experiment. Here is how they are made.

Miniature Scottish Scones with Lemon, Candied Ginger and White Chocolate

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This recipe, sans the white chocolate chips, first appeared in Molly Wizenberg's book A Homemade Life. It's had a great run on the internet, but for one reason, I never actually made the scones. Several weeks ago, I saw a version of it on Pinterest and I decided it was time to make, rather than drool over them. I have a weakness for all types of scones and I assume the world shares my passion. I usually tote them to morning meetings, and because I make them so often, I've become a self-proclaimed expert at their construction. These, with the addition of white chocolate, sounded unbearably delicious. I had one small problem, however. While I can buy squares or wafers, but I've never seen white chocolate in chip, much less miniature chip, form. I solved the problem by taking my chef's knife to a couple of squares of what was available and fashioned small chips of my own. And while I was creating miniatures, I also decided to make petite scones. For the past several years, I've seen the calorie conscious cut single pastries into smaller portions for their plates, so I decided to eliminate the middle man and help them by making my scones pint sized to begin with. I know you will like these. The combination of lemon and candied ginger is one of those matches made in heaven. It is further enhanced by the addition of white chocolate to the mix. The scones have a lovely crumb and when they are served still warm, paradise comes suddenly near. Here is how they are made. 

Brown Sugar Scones with Butterscotch Glaze

                         The Get-Together

    The Scones with Buttery Sweet Dough Flavoring

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...These scones are such Plain Janes that I hesitated to feature them this evening. I thought about it, but then tossed out that idea because they are so good. I hosted my book club yesterday morning and these scones were one of the items I made for the meeting. I wanted to serve things that were a bit out of the ordinary and these scones certainly filled that bill. I was attracted to the recipe because it called for a flavor enhancer called Buttery Sweet Dough. Another blogger sent me a large bottle of the extract for Christmas, and I thought these scones would be a perfect recipe for its trial run. The scones are easy to make, and while their appearance leaves much to be desired, they are delicious. I made one batch with the enhancer and one without it. They are good either way, but the buttery sweet dough extract adds richness and a bakery butter flavor to the scones that the other batch lacked. I found the recipe for the scones on a site called The Merchant Baker and I followed that recipe to a tee, save for the fact that I refrigerated my dough for about 30 minutes once the butter had been cut in and the dough came together. I think this makes for higher, flakier scones and it definitely makes them easier to roll and shape. I know they are not pretty things, but they are delicious and I hope you'll give them a try. Here is how they are made.

Double Chocolate Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Chocolate lovers aren't picky about when they will indulge themselves. I have a handful of recipes that are made with chocolate and can be eaten at any time of day. I pulled out this scone recipe for a "coffee" I'm hosting on Wednesday, sure in the knowledge that the scones will appeal to the chocolate lovers in the group. They are delicious and easy to make, and have a texture much like that of cream scones. They keep well for a day or so, and they can be frozen for up to 2 months. The recipe is straightforward and easy to follow. My only caution is not to increase the amount of chocolate chips you use in the recipe. There really is such a thing as too much chocolate and extra chips will just throw off the balance of the recipe. If you love chocolate, do give this scones a try. You won't be sorry. Here is how they are made.

It Was A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - Perfect for Lemon Cornmeal Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...There are days I truly believe that the universe conspires to drive us mad. I'm sure I lost a cosmic card game, because today the fates and furies turned on me and anything that could go wrong did. My "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day" began before eight o'clock this morning, when HVAC and electrical specialists arrived to install a new heat pump and furnace for our home. The old equipment died yesterday despite heroic attempts to resuscitate it, and we needed it replaced as soon as possible. It was obvious from the get-go that some rivalry existed between the two trades sent to install the new equipment. Their first hour together reminded me of road trips when my children were preteens and hated each other. I became so intent on avoiding the conflict that I managed to trip over a toolbox as I tried to get out of the room. The fall was not life threatening, but when I got up I was bleeding rather copiously from the mouth and had to pay the dentist an emergency visit. It seems I broke the post of one tooth and managed to crack two others. The only man who loves me more than the Silver Fox is my dentist. I have single-handedly put his children through the finest schools in the country. He was very glad to see me this morning. I was at his office for several hours while he put me back together as best he could, and when we returned the HVAC guy and his apprentice were eating pizza. "I have some bad news for you," he said. "There's a 'possum in your crawl space, and we won't go in there until he's gone. We don't do wild animals." Now, the Silver Fox and I do rats and roaches, but neither of us has worked with 'possums, so I got out the phone book and found someone who does - for $500 - when he has time - next week. We don't have time, so the Silver Fox dashed to a local farm store and bought what we think is a humane trap. Understanding my frustration, which was approaching volcanic proportions, the electrician and HVAC guy jury rigged the furnace so we could operate it on emergency power tonight. I'm happy to report we will not freeze to death this evening, and if the 'possum takes the bait, they will return tomorrow to install our beautiful and expensive new heating system. I can't let myself ponder what will happen if they don't. Now, I know you are asking what all this has to do with scones. Time had boxed me into a corner and I needed a fast and simple recipe if I was to share a feature with you tonight. I remembered these unusual scones, and thought those of you who enjoy barely sweet European desserts might like to give them a try. They take about 15 minutes to prepare and they can be table ready in less than an hour. The recipe is straight forward and the scones are foolproof. Here is how they are made.

Miniature Chocolate Chip Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I love scones, but I usually serve them only for breakfast or brunch. These little gems are very sweet and can also be served for dessert or tea. They are quite simple to make and I know those of you who have a sweet tooth will love them. I do, however, have a caution or two to share with you. I think you'll find 2 cups of miniature chips to be a bit much. In that quantity they make a very stiff dough that is hard to work, and I think you'll have the best results if you use only 1 cup of the miniature chips. It is also important not to skip the freezer time. These small scones will burn if you pop them into the oven without thoroughly chilling the dough. These scones are not great keepers, but unglazed scones can be frozen, brought to room temperature and glazed about an hour before serving. This is a nice recipe and I hope you'll give it a try. Here is how the scones are made.

Morning Glory Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Years ago, I posted a recipe for Morning Glory muffins that drew a surprising number of visitors to my blog. I thought about the muffins today while I was putting together a menu for a coffee that I'll be hosting towards the end of February. I happened to remember them and wanted to scan the recipe to see if they would be an appropriate addition to the pastries I had already planned for the morning get-together. You can find that recipe, here. Muffins are not my favorite morning pastry, and as I reviewed the recipe I had a thought. What if I took that recipe and adapted it for making scones. I have a basic recipe for scones and I thought if I added the Morning Glory ingredients to it, I might have something special to serve my friends. I quickly scribbled down the recipe that was floating through my head, and then did a search to make sure I hadn't re-created a recipe that someone else had already posted. I found one similar to my own on a site called The Cedar Spoon, but felt the recipes were different enough that I could feature the one I patterned after my muffin recipe. I made the scones this afternoon and they are good enough to share with you this evening. They are packed with fruits and nuts and use much less sugar that the muffins that I make. I did this deliberately because several of the gals who will be attending the coffee are really into healthy eating. I thought these scones might appeal to them. If you share their persuasion, you can substitute half of the all-purpose flour used in the recipe with graham flour or the whole wheat variety. The scones are barely sweet, so while I don't think they will have universal appeal, they do make a nice pastry that you might enjoy. Here is how they are made.

Cranberry-Lemon Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This lovely pastry is my attempt to recreate one that appeared on a breakfast buffet while we were in Egypt. The Silver Fox and I were staying in Alexandria at a hotel where Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot would feel right at home. The art nouveau rooms were huge and the buffet tables that held meal selections were as opulent and florid as the rooms in which guests stayed. I can guarantee that Agatha and Hercule would have been indulged and overfed. Breakfast was a real eye opener, and even those whose usual repast was yogurt and oatmeal, could not pass the pastry table without adding at least one of the creations to their plates. The scones were my weakness and if you share my love for them, the cream scones I'm featuring tonight must be tried. In addition to being delicious, they have great eye appeal and, better still, they are ridiculously easy to make. The recipe is straightforward and departs from others like it only because it calls for briefly freezing the dough before it is cut and baked. As nearly as I can determine, this has nothing to due with technique and it's done strictly for the sake of appearance. I do hope you will try these scones. You can, of course, substitute orange zest for lemon, but having tried the scones made with both types of citrus, I must admit I like the lemon best. Here is how these wonderful scones are made.

Golden Raisin and Lemon Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...My sister has been visiting with us, and while she was here she mentioned that she had developed a taste for scones. As soon as I heard that, I pulled this recipe out of mothballs with the intent of making them for her before our visit ended. Let's just say we were having too much fun to make all the dishes we planned and this is one that fell by the wayside. I did, however, want to test the recipe before I put it aside, so I made these homely scones for our breakfast this morning. I really liked them and plan on keeping the recipe handy for my own use. I used my food processor to mix them, so they truly were no work at all and they are delicious as they are simple to make. I think those of you who try them will enjoy them, too. Here is how thy are made.

Currant Tea Biscuits

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Once Labor Day has passed, meetings and committees sprinkle the calendar and baking pans resurface after a long summer's internment. I took a good look at mine today and have concluded that some of them need more than a rest, they are looking pretty grungy and need to be put down. I hate to replace pans at this stage in my life, but these are an embarrassment, so at least some of them are going to that great pot rack in the sky. Just not today. I had need of my half-sheet pans this morning, so I lined them with parchment paper and looked the other way as I placed tea biscuits on them. I had my first meeting today and was responsible for refreshments. Working on the theory that everyone had too much to eat over the holiday, I decided to keep things really simple and just serve scones. I've been waiting for an occasion to try looking a recipe for Raisin Tea Buns that I found on a site called Rock Recipes. Today was the day. I made a few changes to the Rock recipe and ended up using currants instead of raisins. As you can, see I also gave them a new name.The biscuits are easy to make and they are delicious. I hope you will give them a try. Here is how they are made.

Cinnamon-Raisin Cream Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...We so enjoyed the pancakes I made last week, that I decided to use the cinnamon-raisin combination to make scones this afternoon. We are at the lake today, staying with English friends who are on sabbatical this year.  Smoke from wild fires has settled over the valley and an inversion is preventing it from moving on. We were not in any danger, but the air is decidedly unpleasant. When an opportunity to stay at the lake developed, we had the car packed and were on our way within the hour. The cottage in which are friends are staying is only slightly larger than the lake house we usually rent. While it has the same terrible kitchen, we valley refuges have learned to make these tiny spaces work when we are in residence. Back to the scones. I decided to make the cream variety because they are simple to make and come together quickly. Once I had hydrated the raisin, I moved from the kitchen to the porch and finished making the scones on a picnic table. It takes about 5 minutes to prepare them and they were ready to eat thirty minute later. This is the type of recipe that will neither make or break your reputation as a cook. The scones are good and you will enjoy them, but you won't win any recipe contests with them. If you need an easy scone recipe for a brunch or tea, do give this truly simple recipe a try. Here is how they are made.

Cherry Bombs (Scones) for Big and Little Kids

Cornmeal-Cherry Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...These scones were named by a young visitor who was in the kitchen, watching, as I made them for breakfast this past weekend. They are shaped liked small balls when they go into the oven and, for whatever reason, the addition of dried cherries made him think of fireworks and cherry bombs. I will be the first to admit these are homely and there appearance might not lure you to the table, but their taste will, and I feel certain that once bitten, they will make return visits to your table. The recipe comes The Cheese Board: Collected Works and it was featured on Food52. I bookmarked the recipe because the scones were simple to make and they could be prepared without the use of an electric mixer or food processor. That makes them a prime candidate for vacation breakfast that have to be prepared in bare bones kitchens. These are really quite good. While the cornmeal adds crunch and some texture to the scones, the addition of dried berries, prevents them from being just another version of cornbread. I happened to have dried cherries in the pantry, so I followed the recipe as it was written, but having tasted them, I think dried blueberries or cranberries would work equally well. The scones are quite short and crumbly, so make sure the kids are sitting at the table to eat them, or you'll spend the remainder of the morning cleaning up their crumbs. If you have an air-tight container the scones will keep for up to three days and still make for pleasant eating. I do hope you'll give this recipe a try. Here is how the scones are made.

Simply Scrumptious Cinnamon Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...If you have houseguests coming for the holiday, or are just looking for something simple to make for Easter brunch, you might want to give these scones a try. They have the soft texture of a cream scone, but the sugar topping gives them enough crunch to make their texture interesting. These scones are not overly sweet, so the glaze, which might be excessively sweet in other recipes, is perfect here. I use the food processor to simplify their assembly and make clean-up easier. This is a very straightforward recipes that you can alter to your personal taste. Like nuts? Add them. Yearn for lemon? Give it a shot. This has become my go-to recipe when I'm harried, hurried or worried about creating a guest-worthy morning pastry. These scones take ten minutes to make and another ten to bake. While this is not my favorite recipe for scones, I use it more than any other because it is so easy. I do hope you'll give the recipe a try. Here is how the scones are made.

Fresh Strawberry Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Let's start with the high cost of bragging. Several days ago, I waxed poetic about the glorious weather we were experiencing in the Pacific Northwest. I knew it wouldn't last, but when the magnolia trees came into bloom, I thought there was a possibility that Mother Nature might take us from winter into spring without allowing winter to take an extra bow. Silly me! Frost warnings were issued last night and things got pretty hairy before the sun rose this morning. I was up at first light and was greeted by a landscape that was covered with hoar frost. As visibility got better, I could see the buds on our magnolia tree had frozen, and if we have blooms on the tree this year,  it will be nothing short of a miracle. The pansies, however, were troopers and and by noon they were holding their heads high. Someday, I'll write an ode to pansies, but that won't be today and when I do, I promise to spare you my poetry. The irritating part of all this was that by early afternoon it was warm enough to picnic. Go figure.

The springlike weather we've had, also led me to buy strawberries when I made my last "to market, to market..." run. I do this every year, and despite the fact I know these early berries taste like cardboard, I keep trying. They don't have a lot of flavor, so I usually end up using them in cakes or pastry where their lack of flavor and sweetness can be disguised. I've wanted to try the recipe I'm featuring tonight for a while now. I already have a wonderful recipe for strawberry scones, but this one is so much easier to make, that I thought it was time to give it a try. I'm glad I did. If you have a sweet tooth proceed directly to the nearest exit. I am not a sweet lover and even I thought the scones should be sweeter. The next time I make these I'll make it a point to make a powdered sugar glaze to drizzle over the scones before serving. I will, however, make these again for the same reason I tried them. They are quite easy to make and that forgives a lot of things. Here is the recipe.

Bite-Size British Scones

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...How times have changed! A year ago entertaining one or two dozen people wouldn't phase me. I had space enough to feed large groups of people, and meals and parties came together with ease. Here's the conundrum. Our new digs are much smaller and I have to be careful if we are doing anything larger than a dinner for six or eight. This week, I'm testing how many people we can comfortably squeeze into our condo. With one group of 12 and another even larger, I've decided to serve bite-size foods that will make it possible to feed folks without setting formal places at tables for which their is no room. A gathering on Wednesday is a "coffee" and, among other things, I'll be serving two types of miniature scones. One is American and the other is British. I found the recipe for British scones in Cook’s Illustrated magazine and with their help I was able to discern how the British version differs from our own. In a British scone, flour is sealed with fat, so gluten doesn't readily form and the dough can be kneaded with an abandon that would toughen the American variety. If you have a food processor, you'll find these currant scones a breeze to make. They'll take about 10 minutes of your time to assemble and just a bit longer than that to bake. I am happy to report they are delicious. I plan to serve these two-bite morsels while they are warm. I make and freeze these well ahead of serving and warm them, while still frozen, in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes before serving. I do hope you'll give this recipe a try. You won't be disappointed. Here is how the scones are made.

Gingerbread Scones for Christmas Morning

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...These scones would make a nice addition to any holiday table and I think you'll find they'll have a special appeal to those who prefer a pastry that is only moderately sweet. Molasses and ginger in two forms, ground and crystallized, are combined to make a spicy breakfast bread that is quite simple to prepare. Better still, if you are pressed for time, the scones can be made well ahead of time, frozen for up to a month, and then reheated when you are ready to serve them. Frozen scones should be wrapped in foil and warmed in a 300 degree F oven for about 20 minutes before you need them on the table. I like to serve this seasonal treat with a slightly sweetened whipped cream cheese or a spreadable European butter. I do hope you'll give this simple recipe a try. Here is how the scones are made.