A Happy Valentine's Day to all!
I'm sharing my favorite scone recipe today and will add a few alternative (to me they are healthier) ingredients you can substitute and play around with.
This is a simple recipe and a simple way to celebrate love tonight as a before bedtime treat, or tomorrow, or Sunday morning with a special friend or better half. It's tea and scones for two or more!
After the recipe is presented, I'll share several table settings with you. Perhaps you're not a fancy tea-cup person, but prefer a hearty mug for your brew. Then stick around to get inspiration from my table settings.
If you are also looking to prepare a special tea for your loved one and yourself, then check out my post on making a London Fog Latte. It's so delicious! See it here.
Chocolate Chip Scones
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. sugar
½ cup shortening
½ cup milk
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup chocolate chips (mini chips work great - I used chocolate chunks here)
Preheat oven to 425°F. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in shortening till mixture resembles small crumbs. Mix together milk, egg, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients along with chocolate chips. Mix with fork until soft dough is formed. Knead on lightly floured surface 5 or 6 times. Roll into a 7-inch round. Cut into 8 wedges. Pierce tops with tines of fork. Place on greased cookie sheet or place parchment paper on cookie sheet and don’t grease (or use nonstick pan) and bake15 minutes or until light golden brown. Serve warm.
*Here they are served on my latest addition to my green Depression glass collection.*
Alternative Ingredients
I prefer the following alternative ingredients for a healthier recipe. I use organic Einkorn flour. If you're not familiar with Einkorn flour, check out this link where I purchase mine here. (I don't receive any kind of reimbursement for promoting their website.) Einkorn flour is our original wheat of 5,000 years ago. It has a different gluten content - very, very healthier than the altered gluten-type we've been subjected to for many years. Einkorn flour is a very pale yellow. It's awesome! It's also more expensive. I feel it is worth it for my health. You can also get small bags of a different brand at Whole Foods Market.
Replace the milk with full-fat buttermilk. Replace the shortening with butter or unrefined coconut oil - which is what I mostly use. For this recipe, I used Nutiva Shortening (a blend of organic red palm and coconut oils - nonGMO). For the sugar, I used powdered Stevia. I use pink Himalayan salt. It's loaded with minerals.
Let's get on with the table settings! I hope I inspire you to make these scones often and serve them up however way you feel comfortable doing. A cozy chair next to a roaring fire is a lovely option!
*An upscale/casual setting with my Alpine Toile (Pottery Barn) mugs*
*Another casual setting with fun mugs*
(notice that I change out the cutlery and napkin rings)
*And lastly, a more fancy setting for tea-cup lovers!*
Have a great Valentine's Day weekend!