The Haphazard Baker Strikes Again ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ this is a cautionary tale with a moral ~~~ when making a dish for the first time, read the recipe all the way through. Simple.  You won't always get away with it, although I scraped through this time.

The incident happened the other afternoon when I was whiling away a moment or ten {as you do} on Pinterest, I came across a recipe for Peaches and Cream Scones which you can find here and I pinned it on one of my Good Things To Eat series of boards.  Now, as it happened, I had a punnet of slightly over ripe nectarines on hand, but was missing some of the ingredients called for in the recipe, so I Googled "Peach Scones" and came up with quite a few, all slightly different, recipes. In the haphazard style that only I can imitate, I muddled them all up to suit the ingredients on hand and off I went to the kitchen to bake these delicious sounding treats.

I was in a bit of a rush, and in gathering my information I failed to notice one major difference in the 'wettest' recipe, {see below}.  My plan was to do what I normally do {and also imitate the image on Pinterest} with a large round cut in triangles. I read a lot of recipes and methods, and figured they all ended up the same way.  Not so. Mixing ingredients on a mean average from across the recipes, I ended up with a very wet dough that I was supposed to dollop into muffin pans, or into spoonfuls on the baking sheet. What I did with my very wet heap of dough was plop it en masse in the middle of my baking sheet to make one of those circular scones you cut in wedges.  My clue that something was not right should have been when the knife would not mark out the desired wedge lines. O~er!

I put it in the oven, Gas Mark 6, for 20 minutes, but after 15 minutes it was growing rather rapidly across the tray. O~er! again.

Too late now ~~~ so, Onward and Upward, as they say ~~~

I adjusted the temperature {slightly lower} and turned the pan. I put it back in for another 15 minutes, now way over the anticipated 20 minutes, but eventually I took it out, a great big patty looking more like a loaf of bread than a scone ~~~ oh, well ~~~ not quite as planned, but it is cooked, and it is very, very delicious.

 

You can just make out a couple of the score marks.  This is how it looked once cut into wedges ~~~

Ready to eat, with honey and butter, for tea.

I did make notes as I went along, and this is a list of ingredients I ended up using after reading three or four different recipes. The thing about scones, unlike with cakes such as a Victoria sponge, you have a little more flexibility in what you add or leave out ~~~ as the Giant Peach Scone has proved ~~~

2 cups plain/all purpose flour, sifted
1/3 cup golden granulated sugar
1 slightly rounded teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg {optional, to taste}
6 tablespoons butter or baking spread
2 large eggs, beaten
2 small pots vanilla flavour Activia yoghurt {about scant 2/3 cup}
1 cup of fresh nectarines {or peaches} skinned and diced.

In a bowl place sifted flour, baking powder, sugar, and nutmeg. Chop in the butter and rub lightly until resembling fine crumbs. Add the beaten eggs and yoghurt. Bring together, then cut in the diced fruit.  Mixture will be wet.

*according to one recipe, you now drop this wet dough by spoonfuls on to a greased baking sheet or into greased muffin pans and bake at 375 for 18 ~ 20 minutes.  This is where I went astray ~~~ and ~~~
I plopped it all on one large heavy, greased baking sheet and formed into a circle and baked at Gas Mark 5, 375*F for 25~30 minutes, keeping an eye for the last few minutes or so.

So the moral of this cautionary tale is to read your recipe right through to the end!  In this case, all's well that ends well!

Bon Apetit!

Until next time
Sincerely yours
Deborah