Carla and Ina Garten Make Chocolate-Pecan Scones _ From the Test Kitchen _ Bon Appétit

The Joys of Scone Making: A Kitchen Adventure

As we begin our kitchen adventure today, I must say that I'm excited to share with you one of my favorite recipes - scones! And what makes them even more special is that they don't have to be homogeneous, meaning they don't need to be perfectly uniform in texture and appearance. In fact, a little bit of character can go a long way in making our scones truly unique.

One of the things I love about baking scones is that it's all about experimentation and having fun with the process. We're not just talking about throwing together some flour, sugar, and butter, but rather creating a delicate balance of flavors and textures that will make our scones truly special. And yes, even if they don't turn out perfectly uniform, that's okay! A little bit of crumbliness or unevenness can add character to our baked goods.

Now, let's talk about the tools we'll be using today. We've got a trusty bench scraper, which is essential for scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl when mixing our dough. And while some people swear by metal bench scrapers, I personally prefer the Meadows brand - there's just something about the way it glides through the dough that makes me feel like a pro baker. Of course, we also need some basic pantry staples like sugar, flour, and salt, which will form the foundation of our scone recipe.

But what really sets these scones apart is the addition of an egg wash - that's right, folks! We're talking about a simple mixture of egg and water or cream that we'll brush onto the tops of our scones before baking. This will give them a beautiful golden brown color and a subtle sheen that's just irresistible. And let's not forget the sugar - just a little sprinkle on top will add a touch of sweetness to balance out the savory flavors.

Now, it's time to get our hands dirty! We'll be mixing together our dry ingredients (flour, sugar, and salt) in one bowl, while our wet ingredients (egg wash and milk or cream) come together in another. Then, we'll gently fold everything together until we get a beautiful, shaggy dough that's just begging to be shaped into scones.

The real magic happens when we pop these lovelies onto the baking sheet - I'm talking about a perfectly golden brown color on both sides, with just the right amount of crunchiness and softness. And let me tell you, folks, there's nothing quite like biting into one of these babies... The texture is sublime, with just the right amount of moisture and tenderness.

But wait, there's more! We're also going to make some Grand Rounds-style scones, complete with a beautiful golden brown color and a generous helping of chocolate chips. And let me tell you, these are the real deal - they're like little pieces of heaven in every bite.

And finally, it's time to put our creations to the test! We'll be checking for the perfect balance of texture and flavor, with just the right amount of crumbliness and springiness. It's all about finding that sweet spot where our scones are both delicious and visually appealing.

As we take a bite of one of these lovelies, I want you to close your eyes and imagine the pure joy of baking - the feel of warm flour on your hands, the sound of sugar bubbling in the oven, the satisfaction of watching something beautiful come together from nothing. That's what it means to bake with love, folks, and that's exactly what we're doing here today.

Now, let me just take a moment to savor this deliciousness... Mmm... The wine note is very strong, isn't it? And just when I thought it was all over, the sweetness kicks in - it's like a little party on my palate. This, my friends, is what baking is all about.

And finally, let's take a moment to admire our handiwork. These scones are truly something special, don't you agree? The way they're perfectly browned and topped with just the right amount of sugar... It's like we've created little pieces of heaven in every bite. And that, my friends, is the true magic of baking.

So there you have it - our very own recipe for scones, complete with character, texture, and flavor. I hope you've enjoyed this kitchen adventure as much as I have, and I look forward to sharing many more with you in the future. Happy baking!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enon this episode of drunk baking hi I'm Karla and I'm here in the v8s kitchen today with not just a queen but the contestants here today and she's gonna make chocolate pecan scones from your new book cook like a pro you were gonna make no I'm just gonna stand by it's gonna be amazing it's like one of my favorite things to make actually because there's a little technique in the middle of it that makes all the difference between a hockey puck slow and light flaky scum yes we need to talk about why how is this gone not a biscuit and why do people talk so much crap about Scott Oh people it's terrible things look it usually tastes like hockey pucks right and they like their giant flour balls like their door stoppers but these are not gonna be that alright so let's start first things first one of the points you can make in the book that I think is so smart is people don't read recipes all the way through that's one thing that's super important especially with baking people don't read recipes period Rick all the way through is another prop well people really ingredients and then they came together yeah but also how to measure so the one of the first ingredients is flour exactly so show us how or show me how you so this is a high measure flour you know like your mother or your grandmother used to sift it so each cup of flour had exactly the same amount of flour and yeah but what I do instead is I just lighten the flour in the flour bin just like that and then very carefully scoop it and just level it off with your finger at it you so much easier leveling your fingers all right and that's so the difference is like you're not packing it you're not packing it because if I were to go like that right you'd see you could get much more flour into that if it was packed and that makes all the different so we need four cups of flour great okay okay cool right onto the mixer well you do that I'll do the same thing with there's a flower that goes into this pecan and chocolate mixture right and you know what that does that no I wanted to ask you it keeps it from sinking to the bottom okay so that's four cups of flour great okay so you're in church up pecan okay so this is another thing so the recipe says one cup pecans con I chopped I like it says one cup of chopped pecans oh oh you're right which is interesting so one cup of pecans chopped means you level off the cup of pecans yeah and then you chop them which is actually different from one cup of chopped pecans and then should I measure measure after I chop them exactly and how do you want these child it's just rough chop rough chop you know the way you kind of want them in in a scone chunky yeah yeah okay alright so and now I'm gonna put in two tablespoons of sugar I like them a little sweet but not really sweet so two tablespoons of baking powder and four teaspoons of salt the most important ingredient okay so I'm gonna put the mixer on I'm just gonna mix the dry ingredients together here just mix it low this is more like a pastry dough where you have cold butter going into flour as opposed to yes so I couldn't butter that you creamy right exactly exactly chocolate you know I've used lean to bittersweet chocolate for a long time and recently we thought if do we still like Lent as much as we did and we got like six different kinds of chocolate and did a blind tasting was the lint that was still reeling it was just the right balance of sweet and bitter you can still see the butter in this and it kind of big pieces yeah we want to let it keep going on low speed until it's the butters like the size of peas but absolutely not incorporated right it should still and if the butter it was too soft it would it would design of Sebastian right okay exactly right alright and in the meantime I have a cup of heavy cream and four extra-large eggs I always use extra-large eggs for that interesting to me too we use large just here and I feel like people don't know how much more liquid yeah it's involved in an extra I didn't actually my assistant said to me once that once you start using extra large eggs her bacon got better I thought that you need to know okay exactly okay so I'm just gonna stop this and see how it's doing I'm just looking for the butter being mixed up like the size of peas easy looks pretty good maybe a little large but but by the time you get this cream in I think it's better in this sense smaller you can't go back while the mixer is going I just pour this in and that's it just until it's just mixed okay that's really like barely there's still flour your pocket yes okay could you be more faster no it's interesting because all the modern just kitchen designs have a counter and then with cabinets go straight down and I'm like they've missed the point of the counter if there's an overlap you can just do like that exactly the front of your drawers it's alright so I'm just tossing that right my hand to coat and actually that's the extra flour that I needed and there was another phrase in this recipe that really got me was stop and take notice which was you mentioned chocolate puddles yeah I don't think those are two words that I ever heard back-to-back but it was quite appealing yeah you want little puddles of chocolate in this chocolate okay that's the dough just mix the chocolate pecan scones to ease the dough just like that yeah well yeah before the scones come out yeah we're gonna flour this surface which is not marble but we roll out on this that's right it's cold so and are you professional at doing that what is a I'm a professional but I learned how to do instead of just the dumb yeah do the like oh that's really that's really good so this goes our very wet very wet you really want to go to amount of flour and then do you like to flour your pin as well I do I like that one do you use that one so I used to always use this which is a technically a French pen right it's got the tapered edges I feel like I got a more uneven because I feel like I use it is no but you if then we're gonna use our matter you do I feel like if I use the edge of the pin yeah that's real fast and you want to fire this too yes okay okay all right so I'm gonna jump out the foot of the dough how good does this look could you just eat the tail like that just like that but but then we wouldn't have puddles oh yeah that's right we got to get to a puddle stage so we're gonna use a buon apetito awesome okay here we go so I'm just you know there's always a a part of the dough right at the bottom that doesn't get mixed in yeah so I always turn it just to make sure it's well mixed here we go for the dump okay you ready I'm ready duh nice see there's a lot on the bottom so we'll just mix it in and want to do this fast cuz you don't want the butter to get warm right are you a cold handed person not particularly now hello into culinary school with a guy who had he just technically had hot hands diggin it was like trying to learn how to you know the poor guy was trying to learn how to make like Pat Sucre and it just would turn into like soup every time and we finally figured out he just had hot that's right thanks okay so we need it needed about three quarters of an inch thick okay and we need a precise yeah sure I love a ruler a little over a little over an inch okay so let's do it a little more okay great so we'll get more scones cutter three inch cutter right and do you flour this I do to my flour everything including myself okay and then you have a sheet pan yep lined with parchment paper yes ma'am these are a little sick but you know they'll be really good right more petals just okay you didn't twist is there a twist that I don't know you're doing the press down and fake to loosen but I've read that if you do twist what happened pinch down all those nice layers that you want I wouldn't either because it's like almost compresses that straight those super delicate the back and forth I think I got very overzealous and they're a little thicker but I think they're gonna be really warming anyone complain no you don't think so if the scones are bigger nope I've never had any complaining so far phones are too big right well they're Tony puddles yeah and this little crack is like doesn't concern you in any way no no great showed it me neither no I I I think it's good to see that the dough doesn't have to be homogeneous yeah and like what it really means when it isn't homogeneous and it's gonna give maybe more of a craggy surface exactly they're gonna have character yeah by now a small child or a grown-up would definitely be in the kitchen eating righto okay one of gummy it doesn't out of it okay fabulous great alright so let's do this bench scraper first are you a metal bench scraper bird exactly that one yeah some people like the plastic we've written about the plastic they're all fine but I think Meadows better okay you step back I will go into the magic now that's great Trash Can right where that works so the next thing I do is I want to make sure the tops are really nicely browned when they bake yeah and a little egg wash which is egg and it can be cream or half-and-half or milk or water mmm just do a little and that's for brownies for tiny yeah and as it makes it look delicious and there's a little sugar a little sprinkling of sugar on the top just to give it a little bit of a sweet crust because there's not much sugar in this there's only 2 tablespoons in the entire recipe and all of that all that salt and all of the salt yeah exactly but the you know them no sugar right if I had a coarse sugar like sugar in the rock I would do I would do that would be wonderful yeah gracious okay so just just like that okay into the oven 400 degrees for 20 minutes and we're gonna switch the pans halfway through so they bake really evenly great I don't know if I can wait that long a long tiny minute that's almost the exact length of of a show exactly put on a show and you want to separate them if they're right on top it's okay okay cool I'm gonna flip front to back top to bottom perfect okay and I feel like this is another thing that people think lady are they big enough not enough puddle it's not enough puddles of choc chocolate overflowing Wow okay and why is it those are the biggest scones I've ever seen you can see that the it's brown on one side and that was the that wasn't was facing back so it really makes a difference and then these ones are a lot paler right exactly and that's because they were the heat is coming from the bottom of the oven I think pretty sure they look pretty good huh see in tap okay see intense so what's going on over here turkey oh my god that smells so good so wish you were here this is what you guys do for a living it's the best job in the world and you eat your homework that's the best part of it I make Thanksgiving dinner and then I make another Thanksgiving dinner for them to take home yeah the wine note is very strong wonder if it eats one other thing like a little sweetness really testicles is just like that Mauro Mauro and and you kept very good Cheers if I drink any more of that I won't be able to take this comes out of the oven all right we're gonna check on these okay so I'm looking for Grand Rounds on brown and puddles puddles but also you're looking for when you touch it it springs back oh that's a go and it's done those look pretty good don't they is really nice we're talking big puddles I feel like this is a nice house oh yeah they're not holding yep product the rotating really works like they're evenly browned they're superhuman Brown and front too you know on both sides yeah fantastic I think we nailed it for sure okay which one do you want to test whistle this which was the guy that you love to flake eight yeah his lift okay he's gonna be really hot a flaky that is a sign and there's like the perfect cross-section of the pecan - exactly yes how's that those are you're gonna try you know why wait for them to cool off I don't know any man young lady who works with me always like this bestest tongue I can eat anything right Wow and chocolatey and you don't take today sorry but it but it's perfectly seasoned right it is so light and it's like the best part of a warm chocolate chip cookie with a nut but the texture is it's like moist and light at the same time yeah these would change any a person who thinks is gone is deaden or ledin mm-hmm converted no door stoppers here no door steiner's chocolate puddles thank you so much dr. scone revelation thank you I like scones with you anytime come back any time okay your scones for Yom and these are all for Carla and me make some more for you later\n"