Scones & Scone Mixes - All about scones
Do you wonder why such a delectable confection is loved by many for so many years? It's because these scones practically go with everything! Popularized as a perfect light food with tea for the English afternoon ritual, scones have evolved into something more delicious every person can devour any time of the day.
According to a Scottish poet, Gavin Douglas, in his literary piece, The Aenaid, in 1513, scones are believed to have come from Scotland in the 1500s. The first scones are concocted using unleavened oats and have a big flattened round form with four or six triangular portions. These delightful treats were baked on a griddle over an open fire. Scones, nowadays, have a voluminous round shape and are made with flour, making them ideal for oven-baking.
This type of shortbread got its name from the Dutch word 'schoonbrot', which means fine white bread and is similar to the German term 'sconbrot' or beautiful bread. Scones became a famous partner to the English afternoon tea in 1840 when Duchess Anna of Bedford asked for a light snack to complement her cuppa. Scones are best with hot drinks such as tea and coffee. They are excellent with butter, jam, or clotted cream.
Scones are generally made using oats and wheat flour, enriched with eggs, milk, dairy fat, and sugar. These miniature sweets use baking powder as a leavening agent, and adding fruits, nuts, or chocolates makes each treat irresistible. Scones offer layers of crumbly bread that may be a bit dryer than biscuits, giving a thick, uneven, and crisp texture. They are also similar to cakes. However, cakes differ by having a lighter consistency and a more spongey finish.
You can make the best British scones with the trusted baking mix brands
English Tea Store has gathered all the best brands to make your scone craving easy to bake at home. We have stored the finest names and flavors from the all-premium Sticky Fingers products to our very own ETS scone mix. Irish scones are also up for grabs for your particular taste. Get them all here and please your palate with every bite of this yummy quick bread straight from your kitchen.
Relish 'berry' mouthwatering scones mix from Sticky Fingers Bakeries
Sticky Fingers Bakeries is proud to share its family secret in delivering the best-tasting scone recipe since it opened publicly in 1987 in San Diego, California. The demand for its tasty scones spread across and opened opportunities to make a packaged scones mix that every home baker would love to have in their kitchen. True enough, Sticky Fingers have been a household name when it comes to baking the world's most delicious scones, homemade and perfect for modern lives.
Sticky Fingers makes scone mixes in different flavors aside from the gourmet Original Recipe that you can customize with your favorite berries, nuts, jam, or cream. It has fruit-flavored scone mixes that will make you bake for more. Sticky Fingers has the best Apple Cinnamon scones mix, packed with juicy apples, cinnamon, and seasoning, convenient to make to go well with brewed spiced teas. If you're yearning for tart cranberries and zesty oranges, the Cranberry or Cranberry Orange scone mix is a great choice for you. These two flavors set an incredible combination of zesty sweet taste, perfect to jumpstart your day with your favorite tea or coffee. Bursting with flavorful berries is Sticky Fingers' Red Raspberry scone mix. This raspberry scone tastes excellent with clotted cream, or try having it with white chocolate to make a lush twist.
Apart from the mouthwatering berry fruity scones, Sticky Fingers has exceptional versatile scones mixes to make your brunch or afternoon tea time a blast. A tasty fusion of sweetness and a bit of spice is the Salted Caramel scone mix. Chocolate lovers would be thrilled to have a bite of Sticky Fingers' Dark Chocolate scones! This chocolatey goodie tastes impeccable with icing, strawberries, or ice cream! The Pumpkin Spice scone mix is a combination of autumn-inspired spices and pumpkin flakes, sharing the warm feeling of fall relished with your well-loved hot tea blend.
These Sticky Fingers Scone Mixes offer one year of shelf life and have dried buttermilk. They do not contain eggs or partially hydrogenated oils. You are guaranteed to consume each scone without cholesterol, transfats, and saturated fats.
Buy your English Tea Store's scone baking mix
Have the chance to be creative in baking your light food with English Tea Store's Oatmeal Scone Mix. Each of these scones produces a crunchy outside texture with a light oaty interior. These scones flourish with a dash of butter and buttermilk or add a note of sweetness with a combination of white and brown sugars. Bake them with your favorite fruits, nuts, or spices according to your own recipe. Make as many as you want and share this scone mix's savory treat with family and friends over a cup of tea.
Try various scone flavors by Hogan's, Lakeland Bake, and Hayward and Padgett
If you're looking for a special Irish treat, Hogan's Irish scone mix puts forward fresh quick bread baked in the comfort of your home. You've got to serve this Irish delight with your satisfying Irish Breakfast tea or famous British blends.
Hayward and Padgett, UK's long-time and largest scone manufacturer, offers English scones with sweet sultana filling. Each pack of these 16 English scones is made with British flour and free-range eggs. These scones are highly recommended for vegetarians as they are free from artificial colors and flavorings. English crumpets are the best alternative for scones, should you need any. These English muffins are light and fluffy, scrumptious with clotted cream and jam topping for breakfast. You have endless possibilities when preparing these crumpets. You can eat them with a lunchmeat or burger patty, perfect for a quick lunch or dinner bite. The crumpets and sultana scones are shipped frozen and still guaranteed fresh when it comes to your doorstep. Serve them right away as they have a shelf life of seven days.
For more of your bread and baking needs, Marie Callender's cornbread mix is one of our few products to the rescue!
What is the secret to a good scone?
Baking a good scone has never been made so easy for every homemaker with these scone mixes. All you have to do is follow the recipe in the packet to produce the best-tasting scones for you and your loved ones to enjoy. But there are ways to make it even better. The secret to the crumbliest scones is the use of ingredients. Using cold butter, or much better if it is frozen, cold eggs and chilled cream in the preparation of the dough ensures better rise from your scones. You can also refrigerate your bowl and pastry cutter before you start on your scone-baking. This technique saves the butter from melting before you bake your dough in the oven, resulting in the soft, flaky texture you want to achieve. The consistency of your scone also depends on which ingredient you'll put in the mixture. Milk or frothy lemonade can produce light and puffy scones, while cream gives you richer ones.
You might want to savor fresh fruits in your scones sometimes. Adding them to the recipe is great! However, make sure not to use fruits that are too juicy. Rinse and dry them well before dropping them into the mixture. If you're going to include frozen fruit chunks, halt! Defrost, rinse, and drain them first.
Mix all the ingredients together gently, and be careful not to overdo the dough. Food processors or mixers might over-mix the ingredients, so it is much better if you use a pastry cutter or your clean hands in blending all the contents as if making a pizza crust or a pancake batter. Overworking the dough results in a rubbery or hard. The dough must look somewhere between a batter and a dough and should feel moist but comes out clean from the mixing bowl. Remember, a lumpy dough is what you need to accomplish this task.
Once the dough is ready, flatten it and cut it into wedges. Section your scones cleanly and carefully because twisting the cutter may compromise their rise. Proper spacing is essential in preparing the scones for the baking process. Place the wedged dough at least one inch apart in the baking tray so they can support one another during the rising stage. But wait! Don't get too excited putting them in the oven after this. Chill your shaped scones first before baking them in the oven. Refrigerating them eases the gluten and re-chills the butter, giving a tender and flaky finish to your baked beauty.
Lastly, please don't overbake your scones. Stick to the required temperature and time in the scone mix packaging. Your efforts are rewarded with a mouthwatering set of scones once you follow these tips.
Why do you wrap scones in a tea towel?
Keeping your freshly baked scones soft and tender is a must to make them delectable and enjoyable for your warm brewed tea or coffee. Cover your scones immediately with a clean tea towel once you get them out of the oven. The cloth aids in trapping the steam inside and helping maintain your baked goods' texture for a yummy bite. Though newly-made scones can last about one to two days at normal room temperature, it is important to bake the scones the day you intend to serve them. If you want them to last longer, enclose them in foil or plastic wrap to prevent them from getting dry. You can also put your leftover scones in the fridge to help them last for a week.
How to eat scones with jam and cream?
Scones taste more heavenly with a spread of jam and cream, but some connoisseurs argue which of these two add-ones should you put first in each scone. So, how do you eat scones correctly? Some say it depends on the tea you're having the scones with. Cream tea, for example, is enjoyed in Devon by splitting the scone in two then slathering the clotted cream first on a half scone to block the jam from bleeding in the scone. The second half is placed on top of the jam and cream, sandwiching the sweet center filling. It goes the other way in Cornwall, where people are used to adding jam first and placing the clotted cream on top of it as the scone's crowning glory. Putting the cream after the jam keeps it from melting right away. They, including the late Queen Elizabeth II, like the jam to sink into the warm scone, highlighting the preserve's fruity flavor better.
Whichever comes first, there is no denying that scones are divine with cream and jam or jam and cream! Take pleasure in it just the way you like it.