Afternoon Tea at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City

R

richard-in-cincy

Well-known member
Sandra joined us for afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle before the 6:30 curtain for "Tristan und Isolde" at the MET.

We love to have tea for those early Wagner curtain times when it's too early for dinner.

Erin was set to join us, but her daughter became sick and she had to stay home to be Mom.

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http://s56.photobucket.com/user/Finer_Kitchens/media/tea1_1.jpg

http://s56.photobucket.com/user/Finer_Kitchens/media/tea1_1.jpg

 
Mandarin Oriental Candied Ginger Scone Recipe

The scones were amazing. Candied ginger served with house-made tart cherry jam and Devonshire cream. What's not to love?

And the recipe from M.O. Executive Pastry Chef Paul Nolan:

Mandarin Oriental Candied Ginger Scones
(Yields 20 Servings)

3 cups All Purpose Flour
2 sticks Unsalted Butter
3 cups Cake Flour
2 Eggs
1 1/8 cups Powdered Sugar
3/4 cups Cream
1 1/2 tablespoons Baking Powder
1/2 cup Chopped Candied Ginger
1 teaspoons Salt

Combine flour, cake flour, powdered sugar, baking powder and salt and sift in a large bowl. Cut butter into small pieces and mix in. (Do not over mix.) In separate bowl, whisk together eggs and cream. Combine egg mixture into flour mixture to form dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll dough into 1/2" height and use 2" cutter to make 40 pieces. Brush with cream and sprinkle sugar on top. Chill scones in refrigerator for 30 minutes before baking. (Very Important!!) Take in pre-heated oven at 325° F for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve immediately with Marmalade and Cream.

Richard Note: When I make biscuits, pie crusts, scones, etc. I use a frozen stick of butter and grate it with a box grater into the flour. Quick, efficient, no mess, and works like a charm. Then just toss the flour with the frozen butter rasps. Perfect.

 
I was just able to get in today..... Sorry I was not able to do tea. What a lovely spread!

Love the view from the restaurant!

 
Thanks Richard. I also use the frozen butter grated trick. And I follow Michelle's lead and

put the dough in the freezer and bake frozen. Other bakery cookbooks have recommend baking them frozen. An even slicker trick is to pat the dough into a square or rectangle, freeze for about 15 minutes, take out, score deeply and then package them up. You end up with a nice solid block (easier to store in freezer) and can break them apart when ready to bake.
Supposedly baking from frozen state helps the edges rise straighter.

What I like best about this method is that I can bake 3 and not a dozen and then eat three and not a dozen.

 
Also, first test to make clotted cream was a 25% success. I couldn't find

PASTEURIZED cream anywhere, only ULTRA-PASTURIZED and I'm speaking in CAPITALS because that's what the instructions screamed at me: "DO NOT USE ULTRA-PASTEURIZED!!!" But I live in a culinary wasteland so I went ahead anyway, warnings be damned.

I also read that you need a wide crock pot and after keeping my 5.5 QT crockpot on the shelf for 10 years, I finally took it up to NC this past summer. So, OF COURSE, NOW I need a wide crockpot but only have a small round 1.5 QT. That wasn't going to work because the theory is based on gently heating a wide exposed surface area.

Regardless of the fact that I only had the ultra stuff, I tried the baking method (12 hours at 180 degrees, then chill for 12 hours) putting the heavy cream in a glass 8x10 pyrex dish.

Unfortunately, the top layer skinned, turned golden and crusty. (I'm thinking that's where the DON'T USE ULTRA-PASTEURIZED part comes in.) Attached underneath was a thin 1/4" layer of clotted cream and then liquid stuff. I had to painstakingly lift off each section of crusty stuff, flip it over and carefully scrap the clotted cream off without getting any of the darker crust. Out of 32 oz (a frigging quart) I ended up with 8 oz of clotted cream.

But wow, that was very good with warm orange/cranberry scones and cherry jam.

I'd probably try it again if I can get pasteurized heavy cream. But then, if I can get my mitts on pasteurized heavy cream, I'm gonna make caramel with it.

I think the website was https://fearlessfresh.com but work won't let me open that site now. It had four different ways to make the cream: crockpot, oven, stove-top and I don't have a clue what the fourth one was.

Just noticed on another site that I was supposed to cover the darn thing while it was in the oven. Oh well.

 
I have some beautiful Australian candied ginger, but it's hard. Is there a way

to soften it up to use for these scones?

PS: I tried zapping it in the microwave and it did soften, but then it just got hard again when cool.

 
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