Scone Crit!  If you’re friends with me, that’s the sort of email subject you’ll be getting on your inbox. Because currently I’m taking a baking course at The New School of Cooking in Culver City. It’s a very fun, very educational, and very expensive course. I’d rather not say how much it cost, but you can check it out for yourself, if you’re interested. On our first week we learned to make scones, and I’ve been meaning to practice, so I’ve been on a scone kick in the past week. Thankfully, I’ve got great friends who put up with these sorts of baking frenzies and help me eat all the baked goods. One friend in particular, even helped me critique them.  Normally I avoid showing my work to friends and asking them that dreaded question, “So, what do you think?” One should never put one’s friend in such a position. Friends are supposed to be supportive, not give you their honest opinions, that is unless they’re super special. My friend Jamie is super special. Somehow she manages to always be supportive of everything I do, and still be very helpful in telling me what she really thinks.  So when I gave Jamie the task of critiquing my scones, she took the job very seriously and gave me a bunch of helpful insights. I gave her chocolate strawberry scones and chocolate cashew with raisins scones. She thought the chocolate cashew scone was more like a traditional scone, “it was lighter in both weight and taste, as well as crumblier.” As for the strawberry chocolate scone, she says, “the combination of chocolate with fruit is appetizing in theory, but it was the form of chocolate (the chips) that wasn’t exactly right?” She suggested to drizzle the chocolate on top, to get both the strawberry and chocolate flavors. Up to this point, I had not thought of using glazes to flavor the scones. She also suggested using zests, icing, and juices to flavor the scones. Cranberries with orange zest, apricot with lemon juice, zesty peach icing, cherries and lime?  Wow, all I had to do was send her an email with the subject line of “scone crit” and she came back with a bag full of ideas. I had a sudden flash of a scene from Ratatouille when Remy and Emile just got struck by a lightning, which incidentally roasted the mushroom they were cooking into perfection. I want that. I want to find flavors that are so awesome, they’re “lightningy.”  So here’s to friends who are full of great ideas and honest opinions. I dedicate the following recipes to Jamie, the muse to my scones. ——————————— » Get the Recipes: Traditional & Versatile Blueberry Lemon Scone with Peach Glaze Chocolate & Cashew Quinoa Scones A Non-Traditional Chocolate Chip & Strawberry Scones Light Cherry Scones - Two Ways (with Lime Icing or Chocolate Ganache) Super Moist Blackberry Scones (a failed attempt at America’s Test Kitchen scones)

Scone Crit! 

If you’re friends with me, that’s the sort of email subject you’ll be getting on your inbox. Because currently I’m taking a baking course at The New School of Cooking in Culver City. It’s a very fun, very educational, and very expensive course. I’d rather not say how much it cost, but you can check it out for yourself, if you’re interested.

On our first week we learned to make scones, and I’ve been meaning to practice, so I’ve been on a scone kick in the past week. Thankfully, I’ve got great friends who put up with these sorts of baking frenzies and help me eat all the baked goods. One friend in particular, even helped me critique them. 

Normally I avoid showing my work to friends and asking them that dreaded question, “So, what do you think?” One should never put one’s friend in such a position. Friends are supposed to be supportive, not give you their honest opinions, that is unless they’re super special. My friend Jamie is super special. Somehow she manages to always be supportive of everything I do, and still be very helpful in telling me what she really thinks. 

So when I gave Jamie the task of critiquing my scones, she took the job very seriously and gave me a bunch of helpful insights. I gave her chocolate strawberry scones and chocolate cashew with raisins scones. She thought the chocolate cashew scone was more like a traditional scone, “it was lighter in both weight and taste, as well as crumblier.” As for the strawberry chocolate scone, she says, “the combination of chocolate with fruit is appetizing in theory, but it was the form of chocolate (the chips) that wasn’t exactly right?” She suggested to drizzle the chocolate on top, to get both the strawberry and chocolate flavors. Up to this point, I had not thought of using glazes to flavor the scones. She also suggested using zests, icing, and juices to flavor the scones. Cranberries with orange zest, apricot with lemon juice, zesty peach icing, cherries and lime? 

Wow, all I had to do was send her an email with the subject line of “scone crit” and she came back with a bag full of ideas. I had a sudden flash of a scene from Ratatouille when Remy and Emile just got struck by a lightning, which incidentally roasted the mushroom they were cooking into perfection. I want that. I want to find flavors that are so awesome, they’re “lightningy.” 

So here’s to friends who are full of great ideas and honest opinions. I dedicate the following recipes to Jamie, the muse to my scones.

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» Get the Recipes: