Juliee's Scones with Walnut Variation
Submitted by frick on August 28, 2008 at 3:27 pm

Juliee's Scones, a Basic Recipe
Berkeley Scones, a Walnut Variation follows

A slightly sweet and very moist scone

Note: I was given only an ingredient list and oven temp with no baking time. You will have to rely on color and sampling to determine doneness. I consulted Marion Cunningham's book which gives a time of 10-12 minutes at 450. These bake at 425 F.

Preheat oven to 425 F. Line baking sheet with parchment, sil-pat, or spray well with baking spray.

3 cups *all-purpose flour (Gold Medal or equivalent)
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup cold butter
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 - 1/2 cup currants, optional

approx. 1 Tbsp. sugar, optional, for top
approx. 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon, optional, for top
approx. 2 Tbsp. milk, for brushing top

Measure flour lightly and whisk together with remaining dry ingredients (not currants). Cut butter into flour mixture so that crumbs form. Add buttermilk, stirring in lightly, not mixing thoroughly; stir in currants and mix only until just blended.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead briefly (5 or 6 times) until dough forms a mass. May be formed into one large circle or two smaller circles. Flatten to about 1/2 inch thick and cut into wedges, 12 for larger, 6 for smaller dough. Transfer to baking sheet, ideally lined with parchment, forming in a circle but pulling them apart so that there is 1/2 to 1 inch space in between. Brush top with milk; sprinkle on sugar, then cinnamon.

Bake at 425F until lightly browned.

• I have never made these with anything other than Gold Medal or Pillsbury flour. KA AP will probably be too strong; if that is all you have, you will need to substitute some of KA AP with a softer flour, perhaps 1 cup.

Berkeley Scones, a Walnut Variation

This depends on your having made scones before; you will need to remember the approx. texture/quality of a typical scone dough. You will need a food processor, or other device for rendering the walnuts into almost a coarse flour, or polenta state. The raspberry garnish is soooo good; please try it. I converted this to replicate scones from a popular coffeehouse in Berkeley.

Flour requirement: 2 cups*, plus 1/4 cup approx.
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
Raspberry jam or preserves; apricot would be nice; all optional

Note: Cinnamon sugar topping is omitted

Using all the walnuts, pulse several times in processor until they become almost like polenta, not as fine as cornmeal and certainly not as fine as flour. Small bits and pieces are desirable, and you don't want the nuts to become oily or a mass.

Measure them. You should have almost one cup. Add enough flour to measure one cup and have more flour available.

Continue with recipe, omitting currants (although you may include them if you wish; sounds pretty good, actually).

When stirring in buttermilk, this is the time to judge if consistency of dough is correct. You may add a bit more flour if it is too wet, but no more than 1 Tbsp. at a time.

Continue by forming scones as described above, panning them with the same spacing. On each scone, with a lame or very sharp knife, slice 1/4 deep slash from tip to base of scone. Using a small spoon*, spoon raspberry preserves into slash. Bake as above.

*Since 1/3 of the flour becomes walnuts, you could probably use KA AP flour, since the gluten content is also reduced by 1/3.

*I use a demitasse spoon.