Moomy Reminisced About Mrs Holland's Scones

I'm the kind of person who eats and enjoys breakfast.

And boy, do I miss those huge breakfast buffets at Malaysian hotels … *sighs*

Y'know how that saying goes … 

I've whipped up pancakes, French toasts, scrambled eggs and a simple bowl of oats for that first meal of the day pretty often (not at the same time, mind you) but most recently, I've been a-wanting some good ol' scones.

I remember one afternoon in Abu Dhabi: my wonderful dear mommy-friend/neighbor, Mrs Holland, had called to say that she'll pop by for a bit. She knocked on our front door not long after with a box of the cutest freshly baked scones and tiny Bonne Maman jam jars! 

I've held that memory in my mind for several years now, wanting to recreate those lovely scones but it was only recently that I managed to do so.

Kyra had sent this over to me this past summer - thank you, babe! It was such a wonderful surprise and a sweet reminder of the lil playgroup lil Tommy & I were in when we were in AD. It was funny when slowly, then steadily, each of us became preggy with our 2nd child … it was like a pregnancy-bug was going around the group hehehe a number of us have already left for greener pastures but we still keep in touch through FB. 

My dear Kyra, Carrot and lil Issy (whom I've yet to meet but already adore through pics posted in FB), this one's for you guys. Lil Tommy & I miss you three and all of our friends in AD and hope that one day, our paths will cross once again.

Here's my take on Cranberry-Orange Scones, which I most recently made for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning:

The first thing to do is to take half a cup of dried cranberries and plonk them into a bowl. Pour enough orange juice to cover the fruit and cover it with cling film. Let it sit for at least an hour or two.

Soaking the dried crans in OJ will plump up the fruit with extra juiciness :D

Better still, if you're planning your day ahead, do this the last thing before you go to bed so you can have these scones for breakfast tomorrow morning. This was what I did on Thanksgiving eve, before calling it a day.

When you're up the next day, drain that bowl of orange juice and set it aside.

Into a big bowl, add these ingredients: 2 cups of all purpose flour, 2 level teaspoons of baking powder, a quarter teaspoon of salt, 2 heaped teaspoon of sugar and the grated zest of half an orange. Toss these together.

Next, add a quarter cup of cold and cubed butter into the above flour mixture. I used a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembled small peas/crumbs.

Now that I have a good pastry blender, its all I needed to combine the butter and flour together for my pastry :D Easy peasy :D:D:D

You work the butter into the flour until you get small crumbs ...

Into a measuring jug, pour a quarter cup of milk. Then pour enough orange juice to fill the liquid to the third of a cup line. Break a large egg into the jug and whisk the mixture together.

Make a well in the middle of the bowl and pour the above mixture in. Also add another tablespoon of OJ.

Make a well in the middle of that butter + flour mixture so that you can pour the liquid binder into it ...

Add that (drained) bowl of soaked cranberries into the mixture and using a spatula, mix the dough together.

Here's a good tip: Do not overwork your scones mixture. You want this to be a scruffy mess. Scruffy is good because if you handled the dough too much, you won't have that crumbly buttery-ness when your scones are baked.

So remember: Handle the dough as little as possible!

Once your dough has come together, scoop it up and put it into a Ziploc bag and pop it into the fridge to rest for about 15 minutes. 

Let the dough rest for a bit in the fridge so the butter gets cold again. Cold dough makes for a flaky scone :D:D:D

The measuring and mixing of the above dough is pretty quick and I used that 15 minutes of waiting time to freshen the boys up, put the kettle to boil and also to preheat the oven to 400degF.

And by then, you're ready to roll out your scones. On a clean, floured surface, roll out the dough to about 2-3cm thick. I rolled mine out as though I was making a thick-crust pizza, and cut the circle into 6 wedges.

Ahhhh … at this point, I just couldn't wait for the scones to be ready …

Place edge wedge upside down on a lined tray. I brushed each wedge with extra milk and sprinkled some sugar on top for added crunch. Bake these scones for about 12-15 minutes until the tops and bottoms of scones are nice and golden brown.

The first round, I sprinkled brown sugar on top of my scones (as pictured above). The second time round, on Thanksgiving morning, I used regular granulated sugar. I like the regular sugar best. Your choice, really. You don't need to sprinkle anything but I do recommend that you brush the tops with milk or melted butter before baking.

All you need now is a mug of freshly brewed tea (I'm an Earl Grey kind of person), a dollop of butter or jam, whichever you fancy and then you can sit back and enjoy your scones like Queen E does at the Palace! *winks*

Its just me, an Earl Grey, my fresh-from-the-oven scone and 2 fairies today …

Cranberry-Orange Scones. A perfect pairing like apples and cinnamon, peanut butter and jelly, strawberries and cream ...

The Lil Walkers Off-Island Group of AD, Christmas picnic 2011. 

Despite our short time there, we had forged beautiful friendships with the mommies and lil ones of this playgroup and a couple others. Lil Tommy and I defo miss our AD friends and we hope our paths will cross once again …

We miss you, Kyra & Carrot! Thank you for the numerous rides to and from playdates and helping to manage the group. We should make a date to meet up at a Tim Hortons near you one summer, OK? *winks*

Enjoy this recipe, everybody! :D:D:D Keep warm and stay dry! x