Since my last two adventures in baking were sweet, I thought why not explore baked goods of a savory nature? Here follows the account of the fabled scone recipe of 2012 (yes, it's that good... I have to keep myself from baking more and more batches). To be fair, this type of scone is technically called a bannock (which refers to the fact that it's baked as one big scone and then sliced into pieces, as opposed to individually baked scones).
To be fair, credit goes to one of my favorite food blogs, The Wednesday Chef, for the basic scone recipe and the tomato jam that follows.
Basic Scone Recipe:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chilled butter, cubed
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon water
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a large baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper (I'm a major fan of parchment instead of butter/flouring the sheet... makes for much easier cleanup).
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix in chilled butter until the entire mixture resembles fine crumbs. I used my hands for this part, since I don't have a mixer, and it didn't take too long. Just make sure that you aren't melting the butter into the flour (it doesn't matter if you still have small-to-medium clumps of butter left in there).
In a separate bowl, mix together the egg and the buttermilk. Add to the dry ingredients and stir just until barely combined (overmixing the dough will make it tough). It will be extremely sticky and an absolute pain in the arse to work with.
Pour the dough onto the baking sheet and pat out into a circle approximately 9 inches wide. Bake for 20-30 minutes (until the top becomes golden-brown), pull out of the oven, and allow to cool. I can guarantee that the smells in the kitchen will make that last step exceedingly difficult. Once it's cool, you can cut it into wedges.
Now, here's the fun part. You can have so much fun with flavorings.
For my first batch of scones, I adhered to the basic recipe and stuffed them with tomato jam (recipe to follow). To do this, as soon as you finish making the dough, you divide it in half and (laboriously) shape one half of the dough into a 9-inch circle on the baking sheet. Spread with tomato jam (or any other jam/fruits of your choosing), shape the remaining half of the dough into a 9-inch circle on a lightly-floured sheet of parchment paper, execute a slightly-complicated maneuver in which you flip the second batch of dough over onto the first batch, and slowly peel off the top parchment paper. Another idea is to add your flavorings directly to the scones. For the second batch, I added finely chopped curry leaves, cumin powder, and several teaspoons of this Turkish barbecue spice powder that had been sitting in my pantry for a while (any sort of paprika would do, preferably smoked).
Tomato Jam/Chutney:
(this makes quite a bit of chutney, so you might want to cut the amounts in half for a test batch)
3 lbs coarsely chopped tomatoes (the ripest you can find)
1/2 cup finely chopped ginger
1/2 cup finely chopped garlic
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons cayenne pepper (to your taste, if you like a spicier condiment, you can always add more towards the end)
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons salt
Combine all of the ingredients in a heavy, non-reactive pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn the heat down to a simmer and continue to cook, stirring regularly, for approximately an hour. By this time, you'll be able to see the chutney thickening up and you want to keep a closer eye on it and stir more frequently so it doesn't burn. Once it gets to the consistency of a soft jam, you're done, and you can take it off the heat and let it cool. I didn't bother canning it since I was going to use it in the scones and for other nefarious purposes. So exquisitely fiery/tart/sweet that you'll probably be eating it out of the jar like me.
