Bread Bible - Ginger Scones

Late last year, with the maelstrom that is Christmas, the end of the work year* and the beginning of summer holidays, I missed a few of the monthly Bread Bible projects. I've caught up with some of them - including my current favourite, the Basic Hearth Bread. Next on my list is the November 2016 project of Creamy Ginger Scones. 

I made these a while ago now but with the demise of the weekly discipline of the Baking Bible bake-through, my blogging mojo (always pretty tardy) has almost completely faded away. I have two other Bread Bible posts lined up to finish, hopefully I can whip up a bit of enthusiasm and get them out before I forget all the details.

These scones are really delicious. I mean really delicious. I urge you to make them. Unless you don't like ginger, in which case, don't. I'm going to make them next time I visit my parents because my mother would absolutely love them. She's always been a devotee of those old fashioned Chinese vase-like containers of glace ginger. Something I wasn't keen on as a child but now appreciate.

As I remember these were easy to make. I used glace ginger in the scones instead of the recommended crystallised ginger. This is only because I read the back of the two packets (i.e. glace and crystallised), while standing at the supermarket shelf, and the glace one had a 'perfect for baking' label on it, and a recipe for scones on the back (not as good as this recipe). So glace it was.

I was waaaay too lazy to whip the cream before I mixed it into the dough. This is meant to make the scones airy-er. And it might do. I'll never know.

I'm thinking that next time I might try then with milk rather than cream because for me they were overly rich. However, providing yet another reminder that it's all in the beholding, my colleagues thought otherwise. One of them asked for the recipe and another told me he 'really liked the stodginess' (thanks Che).

I also loved these scones because it gave me an excuse to show off my new Christmas-present-teapot (thanks J & M).

*Or that's how I like to think of it even though, disappointingly and in actual fact, work keeps rolling on.

Next up I'll be posting about Jewish rye bread and olive bread.

Gingersnap Biscuits

This week the Alpha Bakers are cooking Gingersnaps. Follow the link to see how the other group members fared this week. It's quite remarkable to see how different the same recipe can look when made by different bakers in different locations.

These biscuits are really delicious and very quick and easy to make. I love ginger and the flavour is quite strong in these, with a generous three teaspoons giving them a bit of residual spicy heat. They're also rather handsome (in the main).

 

Rose suggests a baking time for these biscuits which leaves them a bit chewy. I don't mean to be a pedant but the name does imply a certain kind of texture. (Although it occurs to me now that the snap could refer to the instant it takes to make them). Preferring a 'snappier' biscuit (similar to the delicious teeth-blunting gingernut biscuits) I cooked mine a bit longer.

I made the UK version that Rose provided as an alternative primarily because I thought they would be crunchier. The recipe involves melting butter and golden syrup, mixing it with self-raising flour, spices and an egg (UK version). 

The dough turned out a bit crumbly with just the one egg and I probably should have added a bit more egg as the recipe suggested. When I came to bake them they didn't flatten out that much and I needed to cook them longer just to get to chewy let alone crunchy.

You roll the dough into tablespoon sized balls. Make sure they don't have corners...

I lost track of the time but I may have baked them for just under 20 minutes and they were still reasonably chewy.  I had to use the convection microwave again which may have affected the timing. I suspect they would be delicious however long you cooked them. A few Alpha Bakers suggested adding glace ginger which I think would be a great variation.

Next week is Swedish Apricot Walnut Bread. My biga is waiting in the fridge...