September 21, 2009

Apple, Bacon + Cheddar Scones

It's not very often that I make something and think, "Wow, I really kick ass." Sure I have this little thing called a blog where you can find me yammering on about cooking a few times a week, but it's a very humble blog. I don't know all there is to know about cooking or baking and I don't make really complicated or complex dishes, so I certainly hope I'm not giving off a vibe that I'm some kind of expert. Please correct me if I'm wrong. One thing that I'm confident that I am not wrong about is touting these apple, bacon, and cheddar scones as delectable morsels that you need to make immediately. There is nothing about these that's wrong. Well, I guess they did come out looking more like muffin tops than scones, but if you judge scones by their shape rather than their taste then you are wrong.

I talk to my mom close to every day, and our conversations usually include one of the following: what we had for lunch or dinner, a newfound recipe that we're looking forward to trying, a new restaurant that we want to go to, or that fact that my mom can (temporarily) stop being jealous of my ability to eat at Potbelly whenever I want because for the next few weeks my dad is going to be working in a town with both a Potbelly and a Whole Foods. I'll give you a hint: It's not in Iowa. I usually wait to call my mom until I am bored while walking home from class or until I have something to say that isn't related to food, but these scones could not wait. I took them out of the oven, transferred them to a cooling rack, gave up on my plan to wait until after dinner to try them, tore off a little piece, began chewing, walked around in search of my phone while continuing to chew, called my mom, and then proceeded to eat an entire scone while I was talking to her. Did I mention that I started making dinner while the scones were in the oven? The last time I checked scones are not filed under "appetizer." Nor were they anywhere close to the size of an appetizer.

Self control, is that you? My name is Kirsten. I don't think we've met. Can we please hang out more?

Apple, Bacon + Cheddar Scones
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan via The Floured Apron with a little help from BakeWise

1 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1-3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick (8 tbsp) cold, unsalted butter
3/4 cup cheddar, grated
3/4 to 1 cup diced apple (about 2 small apples)
3 strips bacon

Preheat the oven to 400, and then get that bacon cooking. The bacon is key here. I suppose you could leave it out if you're a vegetarian or something, but you would really be missing out.


You want the bacon to be fairly crisp so it will crumble. Once the bacon is cooked let it cool on a paper towel, and then slice or crumble it into small pieces.


Grate about 3/4 cup cheddar.


One of these is a honeycrisp and the other is a zestar. I think the honeycrisp is the one that actually went into the batter. I only used about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of diced apples, but I think more would be nice so I've adjusted the recipe above accordingly.


Cut the apple into small pieces.


Crack an egg into a bowl.


Add the milk, and stir to combine.


This is what it looked like after sitting around for a few minutes. It reminds me of spring. Or art class.


Add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a large bowl.


Whisk to combine.


Cut the cold butter into small pieces and add to the dry ingredients.


Use your fingers or a pastry cutter to blend the butter with the dry ingredients until the largest pieces of butter are the size of a pea.


Add the milk/egg mixture and stir with a fork just until combined. It's OK if there are still some patches of dry ingredients. We're not going for perfection here.


Add the apples, bacon, and cheddar.


Stir to combine.


Using a rubber spatula, turn the batter over itself in the bowl several times. Several being 7 or 8, not 25 or 30. You're trying to get it to be more of a cohesive mass than a big bowl of batter.


Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spoon piles of batter onto it. I used a 1/2 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter, and I ended up with 7 large scones. Next time I would probably do 1/3 cup scoops.


Bake on the middle rack of your oven for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. So maybe they look like muffin tops and they all grew together, but they sure taste good. If you want more crumbly, drier scones you should reduce the amount of milk by 1/4 cup.


I prefer this moist version. It's a little like a biscuit, actually.


Please make these soon.

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3 Comments:

Blogger kenikeia said...

I plan to take your advice and make these as soon as I possibly can - they look amazing! As the member of the family who believes in a little bit of: cookie with my chocolate chips, cake with my frosting (see where this is heading) when I do make them I'm going to try a little maple glaze drizzled over the tops! I'll report back!

September 22, 2009  
Blogger dsm1alw said...

per usual your scones leap off my screen and wanna spend time in my mouth. mmmmm

kinda off topic but in the cities have you spotted any SweeTango apples? they are the thang.... developed in MN, only locally available. try one out and report for us? thanks

September 23, 2009  
Blogger Kirsten said...

Mom - Maple drizzle sounds awesome. I would reduce the milk amount in the scones by 1/4 cup, though, or they might get too soggy.

DSM - I have not seen any SweeTangos yet, but thanks for reminding me! They were all over the news a couple weeks ago because of all the controversy surrounding their limited release, but they kind of fell off my radar after that. I will keep my eyes open and let you know what I find.

September 23, 2009  

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