This weekend I got to relive one of my favorite childhood pastimes—having a tea party.
As a little girl, I fondly remember throwing tea parties with my great grandmother with my teeny tiny porcelain tea set. While I don’t remember the food or the drinks—probably because there weren’t any, I always remember her smiling face. She let me dress her up for the tea party with makeup, which more often than not resulted in her looking like a clown. But she didn’t care. Grandmothers are amazing like that.
This time the tea party was for our church’s women’s group. I finally got to use the fancy tea cups my Mom has been displaying for decades.
We finally got to wear some fancy adult tea party hats.
But most importantly, I got to try out not one but two new recipes.
Today’s recipe is a healthier version of a scone. You can easily make this a vegan scone by subbing out the butter for Earth Balance. I didn’t have the energy to run out to the grocery store just for Earth Balance so my creation ended up being mostly vegan
While we are talking about butter, the key to any good scone recipe is keeping your butter (or vegan butter) as cold as possible. Make sure to keep the butter in your refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Some people recommend even freezing the butter. I’ve never tried it but I’m sure it would work.
Tea Party Scones
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup soy milk
- 2 teaspoons lemon
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup raw sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup preserves
Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Since scones are made from a traditional biscuit recipe, they typically require buttermilk. We will be making some buttermilk from soy milk and lemon juice. Add two teaspoons of lemon juice to a ¾ cup measuring cup. Fill the rest of the measuring cup with soy milk. Let this sit while you make the rest of the recipe.
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Now, cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the flour.
Using two knives, mix flour mixture and butter together until it resembles crumbs. You want the butter to be completely covered in flour.
Now add “buttermilk” to mixture until your dough forms. It may take more or less “buttermilk” to create the right consistency.
Remove the dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead dough until you’ve formed a circle about 1 inch thick.
Take a lightly floured cookie cutter and cut out the dough into your desired shape.
Place cut dough onto parchment covered baking sheet.
Once you have the dough all cut, use your thumb to make indentations in your shape. Since I used a heart cookie cutter, I tried to make a heart looking indentation.
Fill the indentation with a scoop of your selected preserves. I choose classic strawberry preserves.
Now bake on middle rack for 20 minutes until scones are golden brown.
Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack.
The resulting creation is a flaky, delicate treat, reminiscent of a time when people took a leisurely break to enjoy tea during the middle of the day.
Oh, how I wish I could stop for a tea break more often.
Guess, I’ll have to wait until I have some grandchildren…
