Next Up: British Cream Scones

I know, I’ve done scones before, but they were American scones. Those aren’t really scones in the British sense. Oh right, then I did those Aussie pumpkin scones, but those aren’t British scones either. More like American biscuits. Which I should probably point out aren’t like either Australian or British biscuits. Those are more like American cookies. Which is not to say that no one makes cookies in Britain, they…

Hang on, I’m getting all confused now. This is going to be a short week for me, I’d better not get my little brainpan smoking already. I’m just going to put up a recipe…

5 thoughts on “Next Up: British Cream Scones”

  1. Any chance you’d be able to expand on what clotted cream is, and why it doesn’t seem to be something that can be purchased in the US? Is it practical to make at home? Just doesn’t seem one can have a proper scone w/out some clotted cream to go with it.

  2. But hold it, aren’t Aussie scones and English scones pretty much the same thing? I know here in NZ we use the same recipe as the English (well I do, but then my Mum is from the Channel Islands and I use her recipe)…we sometimes use pumpkin, but our plain,cheese or fruit scones are pretty close to the ones found in England (actually, better, I thought when I was last there in 2009)
    All the pictures I’ve seen show an American “biscuit” is the same as an Aussie, NZ or UK “scone” and yes the biscuit here (and there) is more like a crisp cookie in the US.

      1. We have scones, but they’re giant, extremely rich and triangular. They’re more akin to short bread. I don’t know how we ever got around to calling them scones, but somehow we did. A bit of a mystery, that.

        – J

    1. Hi Annemarie and thanks for the comment!

      There definitely strong similarities. All of them are chemically-raised and generally made via the same methods. However there are differences. Our biscuits are virtually identical to Aussie scones, save for the fact that ours a richer and don’t contain any of the creative additions like pumpkin or cheese. Go figure. We’ll pile 20 different toppings on a cheeseburger and invent chicken teriyaki submarine sandwiches, but add chives to scone and it’s an affront to tradition.

      A classic American biscuit differs from a British tea scone in that it has more fat and leavening, employs buttermilk and is not sweetened (another affront to God and man). They’re also taller and are never glazed. So the differences might be somewhat subtle, but they’re real. An American (especially one from the South) would never sit down to a British scone and confuse it with a biscuit. Likewise, when presented with an Aussie scone an American would be likely to declare it “pretty good…but what’s with the texture and the weird squash taste?

      Thanks Annemarie!

      – Joe

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