Tea Scones

[RouxBabe]

Seeking baking tips and/or recipes for tender-light tea scones. The ones I made earlier today are reminiscent of hockey pucks. Is cake flour the answer? Any other pointers to help create that cloud-in-the-mouth feeling are much appreciated.

[adventuresinbaking]

I freeze the butter I use for scones and shred it before adding it to the mixture. It makes it easier to incorporate the fat into the dough without overmixing.

[rainey]

Freezing the butter was my great discovery after some 40 years of baking. As you and others are saying, it's avoiding overmixing that's the key, but using frozen butter that shatters into irregular shards both helps avoid overmixing and creates flakey layers of scone.

[rtms]

I agree with masha - overmixing makes scones and biscuits tough. The dough needs to be just mixed enough to hold together.

[Becca Porter]

There is a fantastic recipe in CI's Best International recipe...

[masha]

The toughness may be a function of over-mixing. Just like muffins or biscuits, you want to stir them the minimium to incorporate the liquid and dry ingredients, but not worry about every single lump.

[coll]

I use regular flour. Did you use buttermilk, that's sort of important.

[RouxBabe]

Good point. I did not use buttermilk, but will try it next time.