My first blog post, thanks for reading. These cream scones are easy enough to try for the first time tomorrow for mom, she will love them. I think they are so much better than butter-y scones, even if you haven’t made scones before, give them a try.
I was introduced (via social media) to Imen McDonnell by my good friends Reid and Katy (Boo) Holmes. Reid worked in advertising with Imen here in Minnesota many moons ago. They told me about Imen’s wonderful story of falling in love with an Irish farmer and her journey of leaving city life to start a family on her husband’s family dairy farm in Ireland. She wrote a cookbook about her life in Ireland and I’ve been a secret stalker of Imen’s ever since 
I bought her book. I saved it to read on my favorite ‘nothing/guilt-free’ day, Christmas. I read it in front of the fire from cover to cover. Thoughts of our upcoming Ireland trip dancing in my head, forget sugar plum fairies! The cookbook is gorgeous, with amazing recipes and lovely photos. I would have loved to have met her during our trip to in April, but our paths did not cross. So I’ve decided to use one of her recipes as a nod to our fantastic trip, a nod to Imen’s lovely book and a nod to a local farm right here in Minnesota. All in time for Mother’s Day.
Check out some more fun Irish trending pastries (all with a Shelagh twist of course!) Make Irish Soda Bread, or Irish Tea Brack to go with a cup of coffee or tea mid-afternoon.
So, without further adieu, here we go.
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Cream Scones
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Breakfast, Brunch, Snack
- Cuisine: Irish
Description
For this recipe, I used Kappers’ Big Red Barn Heavy Cream that I purchased at the St. Paul Farmers Market. Kappers is a family owned dairy farm located in Chatfield, MN. They produce and sell milk, heavy cream, cheese curds, and ice cream, all from their own cows. It’s pretty amazing stuff. Check out the links below.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt (affiliate link)
- 1/4 cup superfine sugar (granulated works fine as well)
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly flour a baking tray and place in the oven to preheat (this really does make a difference for a fluffy scone).
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the sugar and 3/4 cup of the cream (you may not need it all); work to dough until you have even-size clumps. If the dough is too dry to hold together, add the remaining 1/4 cup cream and mix thoroughly.
- Place the dough on a floured worktop and knead 4 or 5 times (don’t over knead, that will toughen the final scone). Dust with flour and roll flat with a rolling pin (or finger-tips) until 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick. Cut out 2 1/2-3 inch circles with a crimped scone cutter (a cookie cutter or thin-rimmed glass will work as well).
- Place the scones on the preheated tray, and bake for 8 or so minutes, until they have risen nicely and browned at the edges.
- Serve with jam and whipped or clotted cream (hard to find in the U.S., so you better head to Ireland to give it a try).
- Imen also makes a suggestion of adding 1/2 cup sliced strawberries to the dough, I haven’t tried that yet, but sounds delish!
Shelagh’s notes: My comments on this recipe are in parenthesis. These truly are the perfect scone, and really easy too. Make them for Mother’s Day, better make a double batch, they will get gobbled up, that’s a guarantee.
Since I can never leave well enough alone, here’s my twist on Imen’s scones. My scones turned out a little bit on the biscuity side but were tasty too.
SheCooks Cream Scones
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Breakfast, Brunch, Snack
- Cuisine: Irish
Description
Recipe twisted from Imen McDonnell’s The Farmette Cookbook
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (I use Great River Milling)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (affiliate link)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (*I scraped some seeds from a vanilla pod, see note below on that)
- 1 cup cold heavy cream ((I ran out of heavy cream, so I used about a 1/4 cup buttermilk, which was nice, but completely optional))
- currants (if using)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place baking sheet in the oven to preheat (this really does make a difference for a fluffy scone).
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the sugar and 3/4 cup of the cream (you may not need it all); work to dough until you have even-size clumps. If the dough is too dry to hold together, add the remaining 1/4 cup cream and mix thoroughly.
- Place the dough on a floured worktop and knead 4 or 5 times (don’t over knead, that will toughen the final scone). Dust with flour and roll flat with a rolling pin (or finger-tips) until 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick. Press the currants into the dough, then fold like a letter, this helps the scones rise like a butter scone, it’s a good trick!) Cut out 2 1/2-3 inch circles with a crimped scone cutter (a cookie cutter or thin-rimmed glass will work as well). I used a sheet of parchment paper (affiliate link) once the dough was cut out, easy to transfer onto the hot pan.
- Place the scones on the preheated tray, and bake for 11-13 or so minutes, until they have risen nicely and browned at the edges.
- Serve with jam and whipped or clotted cream (hard to find in the U.S., so you better head to Ireland to give it a try a-mazing stuff).
Notes
For this recipe, I used Kappers’ Big Red Barn Heavy Cream that I purchased at the St. Paul Farmers Market. Kappers is a family owned dairy farm located in Chatfield, MN. They produce and sell milk, heavy cream, cheese curds, and ice cream, all from their own cows. It’s pretty amazing stuff. Check out the links below.
The Farmette Cookbook
Kappers’ Big Red Barn
Here’s what I did:
• Replaced 1/2 cup regular flour with Great River Milling organic whole wheat pastry flour
• Added vanilla bean*
• Added currants (folded in to layers) no butter
• Replaced white sugar with brown sugar
• Used 1 teaspoon kosher salt (affiliate link)
• Ran out of heavy cream so added 1/4 cup of buttermilk (organic)
• Baked for 13 minutes, 11 wasn’t enough
Consensus: a little more biscuit-y than Imen’s scone, not quite as easy to make as Imen’s either (more ingredients and preparation techinque) but all-in-all very delicious as well.
*Vanilla bean addition: I halved the vanilla bean, and scraped out the seeds with the tip of paring knife, added the seeds to the flour before sifting, but it clumped up quite a bit and didn’t un-clump through the sifter. My suggestion is to use a little vanilla extract.) If you had a bunch of time and you were thinking ahead, you could steep the vanilla seeds in the cream over low heat for 10-12 minutes, then cool and refrigerate the cream until cold. The nice thing about the vanilla beans are those tiny-tiny seeds are pretty and so tasty!
I’d love to hear how these turn out for you, shoot me a note in the comment section below! Let me know which version you tried.
Sláinte!
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This is a test comment. Me likie.
Hi Sheesh,
Can’t wait to try the scones! Love the look and feel of your blog, and beautiful pics!
I’m excited for you!
Have fun!
Make them for your family next weekend at the cabin Maureenie!
xo
I am truly going to do this!! So excited and the pictures are gorgeous. Also I love the ideas and connections with other food artists. I am so amazed at even knowing someone who actually makes up their own recipes! I am in awe!!
Hi Katie! Have you made them yet? I’ll need a full report when you do. You lift me up with all your comments, I’m grateful for you friend! xo
I can’t wait to try these. I’m addicted to my cinnamon scones but maybe I’ll replace the currants with cinnamon chips. Love reading the blog, friend!
Hi! I’d love to try your cinnamon scone recipe! Send it on over! Thanks doll! xo
I feel like I am in your kitchen! Love it!!
This is going to be so much fun, Shelagh! Can’t wait to try these scones.
Thank Joanie!
Hey Shelagh,
These look exceedingly yummy, but I’m on a no carb diet!!!!
Do you do any sous vide? I’m really curious about this!
Thanks!
David
Hey David, I’ll be posting a recipe I think you will like, and no carbs! Check it out shortly!
Love your new blog!!
Thank you lovey! It’s so much fun! xo
I love your new blog Shelagh and can’t wait to try the scones. Looking forward to reading more of your posts!
Thanks Peggy! Let me know how you like the scones! xo