Apprentice Scone Making

Over Christmas break, Angelica mentioned that she wanted to learn how to make scones with the underlying implication that Nancy wouldn't always be around to make them. Holiday break ends much too quickly, and the scone lesson never took place. Now that we are in lock down, with plenty of time on our hands, this seemed like an opportune time for cooking lessons. We devoted a late morning learning to make White Chocolate Apricot Scones. And then, an early afternoon to enjoying them fresh from the oven.

She set about gathering all the ingredients - mise en place, which is a culinary expression that refers to gathering all the ingredients in place, having them prepared and organized, ready to use in the recipe. Lining up flour and sugar, butter, baking powder, apricot pieces, white chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream. The oven was preheated, the scone tray was covered with parchment, and the instruction began.

Not a novice to cooking, Angelica jumped in and began following the recipe. Only on a few occasions did 'the instructor' take over and offer guidance on improving her technique. Cutting the butter into the flour and determining when the pieces were fine enough. Kneading the dough, using the right amount of strength, but not overworking the dough. The rolling pin, belonging to her great grandmother, still does the trick for rolling out the dough. It's using the proper method that requires a bit of demonstration.

Above, she is preparing an egg wash and sugar coating the tops of the scones before baking them. To the left, checking the baked scones, testing to see if they can be removed from the oven.

The family seemed to know exactly when to show up. We sat in the tea room, and enjoyed the labors of this new found skill. There was a tub of mascarpone cheese in the fridge so that worked as our cream. A friend had sent some pineapple sage jelly which we decided would be a lovely complement to the scones. In addition, apricot jam was another option. Pots of tea were brewed, and we gathered around the table,  savoring freshly baked scones and quality family time where we reminisced about vacations taken over the years, including many tea room visits.

The recipe we followed is from Pat Hartman. She served these in her Gettysburg tea parlor, Civil-La-Tea, many years ago. She graciously granted permission to share the recipe, which we posted in a previous blog post here: White Chocolate Apricot Scones.