"scones" news and stories

My love affair with scones started early, when my family and I would head to Central Park in the summers to go see Shakespeare. Year after year, the little refreshment stand outside the Delacorte Theater would house a pile of delicious scones (with currants, I think) that my mother would wipe out every visit, for us to eat over the upcoming weeks.

Over the years, I never found a recipe that came close to those perfect Scottish treats, but I think I might have found one that could be darned close, with a little tweaking. The other night I made vanilla bean scones -- and I wasn't even looking for the perfect scone recipe, but rather to use up a vanilla bean so that I could make extract. Double plus!

These scones are incredibly simple and easy to make (I used a dough cutter to mix it all, rather than fingers and a knife), and they're perfect for the people who like a plain treat. But these are also scones just asking for a little flair -- some sort of fruit or extra flavor to make the scone pop. (This is why the recipe is teamed with a DIY jam, but that's only one possible option.) Add your preferred flavor and shape as you please -- you can make them round, like the recipe asks, or roll out a circle and cut with a pie cutter to create triangles, as you can see above. Then they're just nestled into a pan, and quickly baked.

If you have a recipe that you prefer, please share it below!

Had your fill of dyed green eggs and lime Jello? Here's a list of some more sophisticated Irish treats, in honor of Saint Patrick's Day.

1) Beef Stew. Chunks of tender beef, potatoes, a shake of Worcestershire sauce, all hot and bubbling. Is there anything better on a cold damp day?

2) Irish chocolate cake. As dark and moist as the soil of the Emerald Isle, kicked up a notch with a dash of Irish cream liquor.

3) Cream scones. Lightly sweet and crumbly, with a shiny top, these with raspberry jam and clotted cream make me wish America had more of a tea time tradition.

4) Irish cheddar fondue. Sharp Irish Cheddar with a glug of stout; try it with steamed Brussels sprouts or chunks of Irish brown bread for a humble, warming dinner with friends.

5) Bread-and-butter pudding. Chunks of slightly stale bread, lavishly buttered and soaked in custard, become a sublime comfort dessert.

6) Steak and kidney pie. Cooking kidneys is not for the faint-of-heart (hint: soak, soak, soak), but this rich, velvety pie will really stick to your ribs.

7) Irish oatmeal. These steal cut oats beat the pants of the insipid instant variety. Try them with fruit and yogurt.

8) Corned beef and cabbage. The ultimate nostalgia food for Irish-Americans, and a perfect slow-cooking Sunday dinner for the rest of us.

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Last Christmas, my mom decided that she wanted to make a batch of scones on Christmas morning. She looked through her cookbooks and scoured the internet, finally settling on a Cranberry-Orange scone recipe (I believe she got it off the internet, but I don't know the source). That morning, she quickly stirred up the batter in order to get it in the oven before the turkey needed to go in. When it came out, there was a line of people waiting for the scones, as they had filled the house with a hypnotically good smell.

This is the perfect recipe for a busy morning, because as long as you have buttermilk (you can also fake buttermilk by stirring a tablespoon of lemon juice into a cup of milk) on hand, all the other ingredients are fairly ordinary. You can even mix all the dry ingredients together the night before you want to bake them to hurry things along in the morning.