Says I.
For years, before it sold to a new owner, Joel and I would vacation at the lovely Thorpe House Inn in Fish Creek, Wisconsin.
Door County. Dugh.
We have the fondest memories of our many visits there. We were total nerds about it. (Twice we stayed for a WEEK! It was like the breakfast table from A Room with A View… we would watch the guests change throughout the week but we felt like the constant.)
We loved the owners and lived to enjoy their hospitality every morning of our stay. And I’d snarf down their perfect, heart-shaped scones with no shame. I mean SNARF.And I mean, NO shame.
The innkeepers were just the classiest, loveliest people and we’ve sort of befriended each other over the years in that now that the inn’s been under new ownership these past five years or so, we still grab a visit with them whenever we can when we visit Door County.
Just lovely people.
So lovely in fact that we can’t bring ourselves to check into the Thorpe House anymore. It’s still just as lovely as ever… but the magic is gone for us without them there. (If you were a romance novel gal in the 80’s and 90’s, The Thorpe House and its surroundings were the inspiration for the fabulous LaVryle Spencer’s Bittersweet.).
I’ve never had the heart to ask the lovely “C” for her scone recipe. My only assumption is it was handed on to the new owner as part of the deal. I compare every scone in every coffee shop to those delightful, heart-shaped dreams I used to wolf down with her homemade raspberry preserves. (Are there ANY other kind of preserves worth ingesting than homemade???)
If you’d like to experience just a smidge of that old hospitality the previous owners of The Thorpe House still operate The Beach House which is all about location, location, location. You’ll LOVE your stay and view! Tell them Angela says hello!
All these years I’ve been trying to figure out a scone recipe that would conjure up these fond, fond, memories for us and I’ve finally done it. So, in my little world, this is the World’s Best Scone Recipe.
The World’s Best Scone Recipe
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 3 cups of flour, plus more for work surface
- 6 tablespoons of butter, room temp, or least not stone-cold-fridge-cold
- 1/2 cup of sugar, plus a little more for sprinkling
- 4 teaspoons of baking powder (replace yours and start fresh if you’ve had it forever)
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of milk, plus a little splash more if needed
- 1/2 cup of plain yoghurt
- Cinnamon for sprinkling
Preheat your oven to 450. I’ve been LOVING using my countertop convection oven for this. Poor thing is so used and abused. We dropped it once and it chipped, I’m not the best at cleaning it out but the thing is worth its weight in GOLD (and I’m not a big kitchen gizmo person).
Now here is where I probably make the purists cringe. I’ve got people to feed.And fast.I’ll do whatever it takes in some cases to make it happen. So I’ll use my Cuisinart or KitchenAid for mixing all this depending on what’s clean. (That’s the extent of my kitchen gizmo’s really. Those three toys.) But there’s is no proper pastry mashing here. I’ve got to combine those ingredients and do it fast.
Sift together all your dry ingredients. Cut your butter into tablespoons and toss in. Cut in, mix, blend… depending on what your using, add the milk and then the yoghurt.
The dough should be moist but not overly sticky. If you need to, add a splash of milk but be warned, a little goes a LONG way to change the consistency and if you find your dough over-wet and too sticky you’ll want to add a puff of flour.
Now – here’s where you can fudge depending on your schedule.
If you’ve got five extra minutes sprinkle your work surface with a little flour and pat your dough out into a 1-inch thick rectangle. Using a butter knife or dough scraper cut your dough into triangles (about 3-4 inches long), sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, place them on your baking tray and bake for ten minutes (or until golden on top). If you’re super pressed for time or want to let your little ones to take over, they can be dropped like biscuits, just give them a little press to smoosh them down a bit. I’ve photographed these two ways for this post so you can see the end result. Baking time is the same for both.
Makes about 14 scones.
So, there you have it. Now of course… get creative girl! Add dried fruit, cinnamon chips or lemon zest… add blueberries or cheddar and thin jalapeno pepper slices. The possibilities are endless. Or you could just go basic and slather them with the best butter and raspberry preserves you can get your hands on. Oh gosh, I’m starving. That pizza I just ordered better get here soon!!!!
