I decided to put my box grater where my mouth is and try a smaller version of the Guardian cheese scones, craving a spicier, cheesier, bite-size version: a petite mini-me. A scone-ette, if you will.
Using half the recipe, I increased the following ingredients: cheddar by 50% (4 oz to 6 oz), cayenne pepper, Sunny Paris seasoning, butter, and then added parmesan. I’m not sure how much of that last one because I was grating while watching Doctor Who and became distracted by Weeping Angels.
Also, I have a sloth-like habit of taking the easiest path of least resistance and so I grated blocks of cheese using the largest hole on the box grater. This caused two major issues with the finished product:
The first came when I tried to punch out the dough using a small 1.5” (3.4 cm) fluted plastic cookie cutter. The original batch of large scones were cut with a sharp chef’s knife and so the long shards of cheese didn’t matter. This time the cheese caught on the edges of the cutter and smooshed the dough out of shape.
The second came when I piled mounds of shredded cheese on top, craving a St. Petersburg onion dome cap of melty happiness. And while this worked perfectly on a few scones, the majority developed an irritating problem: when the cheese melted and oozed downward (as gravity dictates), shards melded to the cookie tray and baked crisp. This solidarity bound the scone to the cookie tray and kept it from rising to its full potential height. Sort of like a needy ex-boyfriend who won’t let you go, continuing to cling and hold you back.
There was also a problem when I patted the dough sort of, kind of, roughly 1.5” high to ready it for cutting. However, the cookie cutter had an internal rim that was exactly 1.5” high. So any portion of dough taller than 1.5” was compressed before baking. Those didn’t rise at all.
The finished scone met most of my expectations, coming in crunchy on the bottom, cheesy on top and with just enough soft dough in the middle to remind me it’s a scone and not a super thick cheese cracker. In fact, I ate 5 right out of the oven in the time it took to write this sentence. Okay. That’s hyperbole. I ate 5 in the time it took to write the last two paragraphs--and that’s the truth.
Unfortunately, I found that this smaller version did not reheat well. Even at 50% power, the texture isn’t as good as the batch fresh out of the oven. The full-size version (with lots of soft doughy center) was fine being reheated the next day.
Conclusion: I’d make this version again, watching out for the areas I screwed up (like using a micro zester for the final cheese topping) and either refrigerating or freezing the scones prior to baking. And I would bake them no more than an hour before serving.
225 grams (8 oz) AP flour
1 TBL baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 TBL English mustard powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
72 grams (2.5 oz or 5 TBL butter)
170 grams (6 oz) sharp cheddar
1 TBL grated parmesan cheese
60 ml cold milk
60 ml cold water
1 TBL Sunny Paris seasoning
For the top:
Egg beaten with splash of milk
30 grams (~1 oz) of finely grated sharp cheese
Makes 24 1.5" scone-ettes. (4 are equal to one full-size scone)
Baked for 14 minutes.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2016/oct/06/how-to-make-the-perfect-cheese-scones
https://recipeswap.org/fun/wp-content/uploads/swap-photos/tinyscone.jpg
Using half the recipe, I increased the following ingredients: cheddar by 50% (4 oz to 6 oz), cayenne pepper, Sunny Paris seasoning, butter, and then added parmesan. I’m not sure how much of that last one because I was grating while watching Doctor Who and became distracted by Weeping Angels.
Also, I have a sloth-like habit of taking the easiest path of least resistance and so I grated blocks of cheese using the largest hole on the box grater. This caused two major issues with the finished product:
The first came when I tried to punch out the dough using a small 1.5” (3.4 cm) fluted plastic cookie cutter. The original batch of large scones were cut with a sharp chef’s knife and so the long shards of cheese didn’t matter. This time the cheese caught on the edges of the cutter and smooshed the dough out of shape.
The second came when I piled mounds of shredded cheese on top, craving a St. Petersburg onion dome cap of melty happiness. And while this worked perfectly on a few scones, the majority developed an irritating problem: when the cheese melted and oozed downward (as gravity dictates), shards melded to the cookie tray and baked crisp. This solidarity bound the scone to the cookie tray and kept it from rising to its full potential height. Sort of like a needy ex-boyfriend who won’t let you go, continuing to cling and hold you back.
There was also a problem when I patted the dough sort of, kind of, roughly 1.5” high to ready it for cutting. However, the cookie cutter had an internal rim that was exactly 1.5” high. So any portion of dough taller than 1.5” was compressed before baking. Those didn’t rise at all.
The finished scone met most of my expectations, coming in crunchy on the bottom, cheesy on top and with just enough soft dough in the middle to remind me it’s a scone and not a super thick cheese cracker. In fact, I ate 5 right out of the oven in the time it took to write this sentence. Okay. That’s hyperbole. I ate 5 in the time it took to write the last two paragraphs--and that’s the truth.
Unfortunately, I found that this smaller version did not reheat well. Even at 50% power, the texture isn’t as good as the batch fresh out of the oven. The full-size version (with lots of soft doughy center) was fine being reheated the next day.
Conclusion: I’d make this version again, watching out for the areas I screwed up (like using a micro zester for the final cheese topping) and either refrigerating or freezing the scones prior to baking. And I would bake them no more than an hour before serving.
225 grams (8 oz) AP flour
1 TBL baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 TBL English mustard powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
72 grams (2.5 oz or 5 TBL butter)
170 grams (6 oz) sharp cheddar
1 TBL grated parmesan cheese
60 ml cold milk
60 ml cold water
1 TBL Sunny Paris seasoning
For the top:
Egg beaten with splash of milk
30 grams (~1 oz) of finely grated sharp cheese
Makes 24 1.5" scone-ettes. (4 are equal to one full-size scone)
Baked for 14 minutes.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2016/oct/06/how-to-make-the-perfect-cheese-scones
https://recipeswap.org/fun/wp-content/uploads/swap-photos/tinyscone.jpg
