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| See the little black flecks in the scones? (I know it's hard, the uploaded photo quality isn't great.) They are from the vanilla bean paste. Yum! |
. Ironically, I bought the cookbook because I wanted to make the scones I love from the restaurant, but I haven't made the pumpkin or turtle scones or any of the other that I love getting there. Instead I made these, which I've never eaten (or even seen) at the restaurant. Well, it was a great choice! These are sweet, potently vanilla-y, and so moist and tender. FYI, the recipe calls for a real vanilla bean...I find they're a little too pricy, so instead I use Nielsen-Massey vanilla bean paste
(the same brand as the vanilla extract I use and love). That way, you get the taste and appearance of having used a vanilla bean, but at a much more reasonable price. Yes, I'm sure a real vanilla bean is better, but really, this stuff is great and affordable!I made them smaller than the recipe said. I did this because I like being able to have two but not feel like a pig, plus I want to bring some to the office and still have leftover for myself and smaller scones means more scones. I'm glad I decided to make them small because I think they may not have been as moist if I'd made them bigger. You see they cooked through faster since they were small, if they'd been bigger, I think the edges might have dried out a bit while the center was still getting cooked. I could be wrong...but I've noticed that problem with the scones I've eaten at Alice's, so I think I'm right.
cookbook, which I find has slightly more complex recipes than most but is overall an excellent cookbook. Basically these are lemon bars made with a graham cracker and toasted coconut crust filled with lemon curd. Now I'm not sure what I did wrong, but the filling didn't ever fully set (it remained nice and creamy and curd-like, but not quite bar like) and the crust was a bit hard to cut and stuck to the pan. So they didn't look beautiful, but they certainly tasted amazing. I mean really, lemon curd, graham crackers, and coconut...yum!
) but with decaf chai tea and a dash of orange extract instead of Earl Grey tea. The texture is just like the Earl Grey ones (which is good, because as I said, the texture of those was perfect), but obviously the flavor is different. I think I like the Earl Grey slightly more, probably because I like Earl Grey slightly more than Chai, but these are still great!
