These scones are soft and tender and topped with sweetened whipped cream and macerated strawberries. They are the perfect treat to serve for brunch or even after dinner as dessert.
The women in my family have made it sort of a tradition to go for tea every year. We get all dressed up and pick a new tea parlor to try. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to try many, many scones. Let me just say I have had a few amazing scones while at tea, but I have also had my fair share of dry, flavorless, almost bricks served to me claiming to be a scone. Traditionally served with cream and jam, I tend to pile it on so as to make the scone palatable. After a few times, I thought to myself, “Now I know there is such thing as a good soft scone, I’ve had them.” They are soft, tender, and almost melt in your mouth.
Blending in cold butter
There are some critical steps you need to take when making scones. First of all, you want to start off using cold ingredients. Unlike most baking recipes where you want most of your ingredients to be room temperature. In scones, you want to use cold butter. This will create steam while baking, creating a nice soft scone. Another crucial step is making sure you do not overwork your dough. This will result in a tough scone, not what we want at all.
Shape and Cut Dough
After you blend your butter and add the wet ingredients you want to very gently mixt together your dough making sure not to overmix. Overmixing your dough will result in a tough scone. Once your dough starts to come together pour your mix out onto a floured surface. Shape dough into a round disc that is about 3/4″ to 1″ thick. Then evenly divide your scones into 8 equal size wedges and place on prepared sheet pan.
Brush scones with Heavy Cream and sprinkle with Sugar
Before placing your scones in the oven, make sure to brush them with heavy cream and sprinkle them with granulated sugar. The heavy cream will give the scones a nice golden brown finish while they bake while the sugar will give them a slight crunch and sweetness to the scone. You can always use egg wash if you prefer, but I like to use heavy cream since I am already using it to make the scone dough.
Macerated Strawberries and Golden Scones
Macerated strawberries are a super easy way to elvate your strawberries without all the muss and fuss. Pouring a small amount of sugar on chopped strawberries will help to break down the natural sugars in the strawberries, creating a natural strawberry syrup. This is a great way to enhance their sweet flavor. They only take around 20 to 30 minutes to develop a syrup, keep in mind the longer they sit, the more syrup they will develop. I like to do this step before putting my scones in the oven so they have enough time to marinate while the scones are baking. The scones bake at a high temperature for a short amount of time. This helps to create a nice golden exterior with a soft and tender interior.
Strawberry Shortcake Scone
Ingredients
Scones
3 cups Bread Flour
1/4 cup Sugar
1 1/2 tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
4 oz or 1 Stick Cold Unsalted Butter (cubed)
1 3/4 cups Heavy Cream
2 tbsp Honey
2 tsp Vanilla
Cream and Sugar for topping
Macerated Strawberries
1 cup Fresh Strawberries (quartered)
1 tbsp Sugar
Sweetened Whipped Cream
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
2 tbsp Powdered Sugar
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Scones
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar, stir to combine. Then add in your cold, cubed butter and blend into flour mixture using a pastry blender. If you don’t have a pastry blender, a fork will work just as fine. You want to break your butter into small pieces that resemble small pebbles. You want to use cold butter here because when the butter melts in the oven, it creates small little steam pockets that help to create a nice tender crumb.
After your butter is blended with the flour mixture, add in your heavy cream, honey, and vanilla. Gently fold all of your ingredients together, making sure not to overmix. Once everything is almost completely combined, turn mixture out onto a floured surface. Continue to mix by hand any of the mixtures that are not combined, making sure to work quickly as to keep the ingredients cold.
Mold mix into a round disk about 1 inch in thickness. I personally like a nice big fluffy scone, so i tend to shape them more on the thicker side. Then you want to even slice the round in half and cut each half into quarters, giving you 8 identical wedges. Now you can keep your scones in a circle and bake them like this, but I prefer the nice golden brown crust you achieve when you separate each wedge while baking. Place the scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of each scone with heavy cream. Then, generously sprinkle the top of each scone with granulated sugar. This will give the scones a nice golden color when they are baked while also giving them a sweet crunchy topping.
Place scones in oven and bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes. I would suggest checking your scones at 12 minutes and your time accordingly. Overbaking your scones will result in a dryer scone, so make sure to take out of your oven in time. When scones are finished, baking is removed from the oven and allows to cool slightly before serving.
Macerated Strawberries
To make the macerated strawberries, wash and remove the tops from the strawberries. then cut into quarters, I actually wanted even smaller pieces, so I cut each quarter in half, so basically, I cut my strawberries into eighths. This was purely a preference thing and wanted smaller bites of strawberries. Then, add strawberry pieces into a small bowl and sprinkle with sugar. Stir until combined, cover, and place in fridge around 20-30 minutes or until the strawberries start to break down and create their own natural syrup.
Sweetened Whipped Cream
For the sweetened whipped cream, place half a cup of cold cream into a medium-sized bowl. Using a whisk start whisking the cream until soft peaks emerge. Once at soft peaks, add in the powdered sugar and continue to whisk until soft medium peaks. Cover and set aside until ready to use. I like to whisk my whipped cream by hand, especially when it is small amounts like this. This helps to ensure a nice soft whipped cream that is not overwhipped and it’s a nice little arm workout, too. But overall, it had a better mouth feel when you whipped it by hand.
Assembly
You want to assemble these scones right before you serve them. Take a slightly cooled and cut it in half down the middle. Place the sweetened whipped cream in the middle and top with macerated strawberries. Continue the same process for each scone. Serve immediately and as always enjoy!
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