Let’s get grounded again. Let’s get our hands messy: in the dough, chopping vegetables, making dinner. It’s good to have something to do with our hands. While we feed our stomachs, let’s feed our souls; nurture those places that right now are broken, anxious, scared, fearful. This is something you can control and actually glean joy from.
Tomorrow is St. Patricks Day - a holiday synonymous for most with green-colored food, garish decorations and costumes, Guinness, brisket and potatoes. What it should be remembered for is a man, who, believed in something so fiercely, he returned to a land (Ireland) he had escaped from as a slave, to spread a message that was so dear to him. Faith in the face of fear. Tenacity against the odds. May we all be bolstered by this memory as we don the green or sip that green beer.
Ireland, Scotland and England (Wales) all claim the scone as their own - where the tradition began of baking these mounded leavened buns is unclear. What also is not clear, is why so many scones, their looks looks so flaky and enticing on the outside, are dry, powdery and flavorless on the inside. The trick - managing the butter in the correct way so that it doesn’t melt as it is incorporated into the flour. As the milk fat in the butter evaporates as it cooks, it creates little pockets of air (small enough not to see, but big enough that the tongue picks up on the flaky texture).
Cream Liquor Scones
2 cups white flour (can sub 1/2 wheat flour if you would like)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 TB sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 TB butter (or one stick), cut into pieces and kept cold
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1 large egg
1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur (or sub heavy cream for this if you do not have)
1/4 cup milk
Glaze: 2 TB Irish cream
1/3 cup butterscotch chips
Pre heat the oven to 425F
Combine the flour and the butter using just your fingertips (or a kitchen aid mixer) until the mixture looks like cornmeal.
Mix in the rest of the dry ingredients
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the egg, Irish cream, and milk. Mix just until it comes together. Toss in the butterscotch chips (or any other decadent additions you would like).
Drop the dough by large spoonful onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool and crack on making the glaze.
Melt the chips and the cream together in the microwave in 30-second blasts. Drizzle over the scones. Enjoy with clotted cream or loads of butter.