There is no singular way to make ascone. Some prefer the dense, crumbly scones slathered with clotted cream popular in the United Kingdom. Others want a flaky mound that, if you weren’t wearing your glasses, might be mistaken for abuttermilk biscuit (technically, some say the only difference between a scone and biscuit is the former’s dough must include egg). Personally, I want a lofty, tender wedge that’s jam-packed with fruit, like inthis blueberry scone recipe. And there’s no better way to achieve that kind of height and texture on a scone than using frozen, grated butter.
The technique really is as simple as it sounds. Using abox grater or afood processor fitted with the grating attachment, grate a stick of butter straight from the freezer; or grate a fridge-cold stick, then freeze until solid. From there, you’re just a few steps away from craggy, mile-high scones.
To nail a pillowy texture in any scone, the ingredients (and especially the fats) need to be cold. Typically, that means pulling elements like eggs, butter, and other dairy (cream, buttermilk, sour cream, or crème fraîche) from the refrigerator only just before baking. Unlike cake or cookie batters, which often call forroom temperature ingredients to avoid a lumpy, curdled mess, dough recipes like scones, biscuits, and pie crust typically call for cold butter to be “cut into” the dry ingredients. Oftentimes this style of recipe will call for chopping butter into small pieces, then refrigerating for a bit before cutting it into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender (or simpler: your fingers). With the frozen, grated method, you’re only increasing the payoff.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich
“Distributing the fat throughout the dry ingredients creates the lighter, flaky textures in the final baked goods. For this method to work effectively, it's ideal that the fat is shingled in flat pieces.” explains author ofThe Book on Pie andSavory Baking Erin Jeanne McDowell, who tells me that butter should be “as cold as possible throughout the mixing process for best results.” When asked about the freezing and grating method, she notes it’s a “very effective way to complete the ‘cut in’ method for scones, because it allows you to do the most important things very quickly.”
Joanne Chang, co-owner and pastry chef of Boston’s Flour Bakery, agrees, telling me that Flour’s popular oatmeal maple scones are always made with chilled butter. “You want lots of pockets of butter in your scone dough—when the dough hits the hot oven, the water in the butter turns to steam, and it raises the dough just a little bit. This is what makes the dough flaky.” Although Chang cuts cubed butter into the dry mix with a stand mixer at Flour, she says that, with the grating method, “you ensure thatsome butter stays in small pieces, for the steam and puff; and some butter starts to soften and mix into the dough, for tenderness.” For the best textural contrasts, Chang loves a wedge-shaped scone, and I have to agree. “I especially crave the craggy bumpy edges that bake into crunchy buttery bites,” she says.
