Christmas Scones or How I Relive the Best Breakfast in San Francisco
Every year, the grownups of my husband's family (his 2 brothers and their wives and his mom) always exchange something homemade, not bought as a gift. I traditionally do biscotti (see multiple posts via links on side) but brother and sister in law stated they didn't want cookies/sweets this year. This left me stumped. I don't really do savory baking, and chex mix just doesn't seem special.
I was blindly stumbling through the store when inspiration struck---scones! everybody has to eat breakfast, right? Then I thought, what about cranberry or even cherry scones...with cornmeal...that sounded really good, inspired even. Then I realized it sounded familiar.
Arizmendi's cherry cornmeal scone was my breakfast obsession when I lived in San Francisco. Every weekend day I had off, I hopped on the train for 20 minutes just to buy one of these babies. Sweet (but not too sweet), wonderful texture, just utterly crave worthy. It was like London meets the South with the cornmeal goodness. I pined for them so much I think my mind made me forget them when I moved back to St. Louis so I wouldn't miss them so much.
Fast forward to my subconscious flashback in the store. Thanks to Chef Google, I had a recipe at my fingertips in seconds. It was fate. Delicious fate.
I doubled the recipe here: http://en.onegirlinthekitchen.com/2009/08/arizmendi-scones-n1.html
which made 14 scones (12 to give away and 2 for me and C). It is killing Chris not to dive in tonight. We are saving ours for breakfast on Christmas.
Nice, rustic, craggy scones are the best:
Army of pastry:
Hopefully my in laws will enjoy them. Although if not, I think C will take care of them without questions.
ADDENDUM: These were fantastic! Wonderful texture (definitely use stone ground corn meal; I did a medium grind so ours were extra toothsome so you might want to do finer, but we really enjoyed them). Not too sweet, fantastic crumb. This will become a staple; they come together so quickly. Next time, I may try brandy soaking the dried cherries for a bit of extra pop, but bravo on these scones. Made for a very merry and satisfying Christmas morning---I hope all you have the same.
I was blindly stumbling through the store when inspiration struck---scones! everybody has to eat breakfast, right? Then I thought, what about cranberry or even cherry scones...with cornmeal...that sounded really good, inspired even. Then I realized it sounded familiar.
Arizmendi's cherry cornmeal scone was my breakfast obsession when I lived in San Francisco. Every weekend day I had off, I hopped on the train for 20 minutes just to buy one of these babies. Sweet (but not too sweet), wonderful texture, just utterly crave worthy. It was like London meets the South with the cornmeal goodness. I pined for them so much I think my mind made me forget them when I moved back to St. Louis so I wouldn't miss them so much.
Fast forward to my subconscious flashback in the store. Thanks to Chef Google, I had a recipe at my fingertips in seconds. It was fate. Delicious fate.
I doubled the recipe here: http://en.onegirlinthekitchen.com/2009/08/arizmendi-scones-n1.html
which made 14 scones (12 to give away and 2 for me and C). It is killing Chris not to dive in tonight. We are saving ours for breakfast on Christmas.
Nice, rustic, craggy scones are the best:
Army of pastry:
Hopefully my in laws will enjoy them. Although if not, I think C will take care of them without questions.
ADDENDUM: These were fantastic! Wonderful texture (definitely use stone ground corn meal; I did a medium grind so ours were extra toothsome so you might want to do finer, but we really enjoyed them). Not too sweet, fantastic crumb. This will become a staple; they come together so quickly. Next time, I may try brandy soaking the dried cherries for a bit of extra pop, but bravo on these scones. Made for a very merry and satisfying Christmas morning---I hope all you have the same.