Cream Scones

Breakfast is supposedly the most important meal of the day, then why is it that I find it the most difficult? For me, it’s hard to find something to eat, something to make or even something to go out and enjoy in a restaurant. The weird thing is that I am a morning person. I get up early and potter around before the kids are up, even on the weekends. So, why is it that I hate thinking about breakfast? Breakfast is one meal that I really wish someone else would cook and I would just come down, like the mistress of the house and eat! You see, I am not a breakfast food kind of person. I don’t like huge stacks of sickeningly, sweet pancakes with dubious looking fruit swimming around in some dangerous syrup or even an all out English fry up. I am not a fan of eating eggs everyday and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to decide how I would like them cooked! I was never a cereal person and even now, it’s usually my last resort breakfast.


When I was younger, I would get up before everyone else, especially on the weekends. I didn’t like cereal so, I would just throw a couple of slices of bread in the toaster, and have toast with butter and some jam or marmalade. As a senior in school, I would skip breakfast at home and on my way to school, stop at the cafe around the corner and pick up a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich and a cappuccino. Oh, those were so good. I think about them to this day. 


When we were on vacation in India, staying at my grandparents house, I had the best breakfasts. I have to admit, Indian breakfasts are my favourite. There is such a variety. My grandparents had a cook, a wonderful man named Ismail. He was just wonderful and a great cook too. Pity I was too young back then; I would have loved to have learned from him. He was up before everyone else getting breakfast started. Hot rotis and parathas, kaleji (liver, not my favourite at all), masala bheja (spiced brains..not too bad), eggs any style you wanted, and no darned cereal in sight! I would come to the dining room and Ismail would be waiting there to ask me what I would like for breakfast that morning. He called me “Nizzi bibi.” Once I told him, he would promptly rush back into the kitchen and get my food made. Maybe, it was Ismail who spoiled me?? I think back on those memories with so much affection. The dining room would be filled with laughter and jokes and the smell of heavenly food. The voices of my aunts and uncles rising higher in pitch as they tried to get their story heard. Good times. I miss my grandparents and their home. I miss the summers where they showed us what family was all about. I miss Ismail too. May Allah bless them and grant them a place in the highest of heavens.


So, I do love Indian breakfasts: rotis and parathas, dosas, idlis with spicy sambar, savoury seviyan, daal, upma ( of course, I still don’t like making them). I also, love croissants and French breakfasts and Belgian waffles. When we were in Greece, my dad would walk down to the bakery and get us fresh bread and cheese pies. So good; they were still hot from the oven. So, I guess you are getting the general drift here; I do like breakfast but I like someone else to make it for me and I prefer savoury breakfasts rather than sweet.


Ok, now, you are probably all wondering what the heck cream scones have to do with any of the stuff above. Cream scones are traditionally eaten at tea time in the British isles, so why all this breakfast nonsense? Well, because I made them for breakfast yesterday. Yes, I made breakfast. That’s not to say I didn’t whine beforehand to my husband. I was hungry, I told him, but I didn’t want cereal. He offered to make eggs and I, being my usual, difficult self at breakfast time, said no. So, I lay there in bed, mustering up enough energy to come up with something I wanted to eat. I remembered I had half a carton of heavy cream in the fridge that really needed to be used up, and so the thought of cream scones entered my stubborn, breakfast defying head. Of course, there followed ten minutes of internal conflict on whether I should really make scones because I have been eating too many refined flour goods lately, and that’s not good for my health, my weight and especially, my RA.
But the cream would go to waste…..


So much for internal conflict.


These scones are deliciously light and soft inside with a nice crunch outside. These are cream scones so they do not have any butter or eggs in them. The heavy cream takes care of the fat. They are very easy to make since you don’t have to mess with cutting the butter into the flour. Just add the cream and mix gently. Don’t be harsh with the dough. You need a gentle hand otherwise your scones will be as hard as you were on them. I didn’t roll out the dough and cut the scones into the usual rounds, because I was being lazy (it was breakfast time after all and, the way I see it, everyone was lucky I was making anything at all.) I just gently patted the dough into a 8″(9cm) round circle, about 3/4″(2cm) thick and cut into 8 triangles. You may roll the dough into an 8″(9cm) circle and using a 2 1/2″ (6.5cm) round cutter, cut out about 10 round scones.