A couple years back all I wanted for my birthday was to go to tea. I wanted to go to a ritzy hotel and sip on tea and eat tea sandwiches. You know, be all lady like and what not.
Lucky for me, my mom took me to the Four Seasons in Philadelphia for tea one afternoon and it was glorious.
You got to choose your tea and they gave us each a tea pot with a tea cozy. I'd never even seen a tea cozy before (its a little clothe covering to keep your tea pot warm).
They brought out delicious tea sandwiches and mini pastries on a tiered platter. Scrumptious cucumber sandwiches, shrimp salad sandwiches gallour.
However, what I remember the most were the scones served with devonshire cream. One bite and all my lady like sensibilities went out the window!
I love scones, they are dense and sweet and the perfect accompaniment with tea or coffee. But with the devonshire cream from the Four Seasons took the scones to a new level of ecstasy.
Devonshire cream is also called clotted or clouted cream and it is sweet and thick and glorious. Remember that cereal commerical, I think it was that Reeses cereal, with the little girl who told her brother to just marry the cereal if he loved it so much? I literally, if I could marry Devonshire cream from the Four Seasons I just might, ok maybe not literally but I'd love it a lot. However, it is not that easy to find in the US and so I haven't had an encounter with it since.
Sad.
But moving on.
I bought a bag of cherries the other day, not realizing how expensive they are and decided these precious ruby red fruit jewels could not go to waste so I decided to make cherry scones.
But that just seemed slightly boring and dare I say healthy? So I threw in some chocolate chips to create chocolate cherry scones.
I had never made scones before but I was surprised to find they are not difficult at all. However, I was nervous about the scones getting too dry and rock like. I mean if I wanted to have my teeth taken out, I'd just go to a dentist.
Plopped the dough into this nifty scone pan. Who knew there was even such a thing?
And baked until golden. I'm impatient and I usually burn my tongue trying to eat something right out of the oven but in this case don't be like me, wait. They taste much better once they dry out a little and firm up. You'll thank me later.
I topped them with more sugar while still warm so they would glisten.
And while they look lovely this way... I thought they needed a little more. Especially because I had no devonshire cream to savour these with.
what can I say I'm a bit of an excessive.
So I created a cream cheese icing to adorn the top. Milk, sugar and cream cheese are all it takes to dress these bad boys up.
Much better, right? It added extra sweetness and tartness and made them look delightful.
I could eat these for breakfast everyday. I swear I would never get tired of them.
Chocolate Cherry Scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup cherries chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chop cherries and put to the side.
In a bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder and soda. Cut the butter in until pea sized. Then add the chopped cherries and chocolate chips and mix.
In another bowl mix sour cream and eggs until combined.
Add the sour cream egg mixture to the flour butter bowl and mix just until combined.
I used my roommates nifty scone pan but if you don't have one of these just roll out dough with some flour and cut the scone into triangles and place on a greased baking sheet and brush with egg wash. Bake for 20-30 minutes in a 400 degree oven.
Let them cool and then devour!
These really would be awesome with some Devonshire cream...sigh.
