Infused Sugar Scones

Is there anything better than fresh out of the oven scones? This recipe is a great base dough that allows for endless personalization. I made a quick batch last night and am looking forward to baking a set with different flavors on Sunday. 

We've made this dough using the butter process outlined below or by grating frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Both turned out well, but the grated butter creates denser scones and has a higher likelihood of overworking the dough. 

Scone shape matters! Round scones are associated with British baking while their triangular cousins are proudly American. Good news is both taste great and for this recipe baking times are the same. 

Makes 8 scones

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons SKORDO Infused Sugar, divided. We used SKORDO Posy Sugar

1 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks of butter, cold

1 egg

3/4 cups milk + 1 tablespoon vinegar

3/4 cup chunky filling, if desired (chocolate, cranberries, frozen fruit, nuts). This batch used 1/2 cup Chili Flame Raisins and 1/4 cup Luxardo Maraschino Cherries. 

Directions:

1. Start off by dicing your butter into small pieces and placing it in the freezer.
2. Next, measure your milk, add your vinegar, and chill the mixture in the fridge.
3. Measure your flour, granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon of your infused sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Whisk it once or twice (a fork is fine!) to incorporate the ingredients.
4. Remove your butter from the freezer and dump it into your dry ingredients. Using one hand against the palm of the other, smash + spread the chunks of butter into the flour. Continue this process of rubbing the butter until you get all of the butter coated and spread into long flakes. The idea is to preserve large butter pieces throughout the mixing process so they are highlighted as flakes during baking. If you over work the butter into pearls or crumb size pieces, you'll get a denser scone. 
5. Next, create a well in the center of your dough, add your milk mixture + egg to the center and with a fork, whisk the egg to combine. You don't want to overwork the flour, so pre-mixing the egg allows it to distribute evenly. 
6. Using your hands, slowly work the edges of the dry ingredients into your well, add your chunky ingredients and and fold the mixture until a rough dough is formed.
7. Dump the dough onto a clean counter, and using a butter knife or bench scraper, cut your dough in half and stack one piece atop the other, pressing down to seal. Do this a few times to create additional layers, you may have seen this technique in our biscuit recipe.
8. After 3/4 stacks, form your dough into a round disc and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
9. Roll the dough until about 1 inch thick, maintaining the round shape.
10. Like a pizza, cut the dough into 8 triangle slices. Or, use a drinking glass to cut round scones. 
11. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. This is a bit higher temp as you really want the butter to melt quickly + produce steam to create layers as opposed to slowly melting and oozing out of the dough before rising. 
12. Transfer your 8 pieces to a lined baking tray, and set in the freezer to chill again once more baking. **if you'd like to save a few for another day, wrap + freeze them at this point**
13. When ready to bake, brush each scone with milk and sprinkle scones with remaining 1 tablespoon of infused sugar. 
14. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!