You know how they say, ‘When in Rome …’, etc. etc.? Well, we try to be adaptable meanderers, to enjoy what we have rather than to miss what we don’t have. So although neither of us are avid coffee drinkers, in Rome we drank coffee on a regular basis. It helped, of course, that the coffee was excellent and was often accompanied by a cornetto or other attractive pastry. Now that we live in Dublin we have rediscovered our love of tea! We love Irish breakfast tea, and we’ve happily reinstated our proper morning tea ritual. And just as a cornetto is an excellent accompaniment for coffee, so nothing goes better with Irish tea than Irish scones.
One of us is especially fond of scones and has often tried (with limited success) to make them. Scones can be found in America, of course; the best ones usually follow New England recipes. (We leave aside, as unworthy, the monstrosities that try to make up in size what they lack in taste.) Still, we remain partial to those found in these islands. And, truth to tell, we now prefer Irish scones to the ones we’ve had in Britain.
As you know, we take our eating responsibilities seriously, and so we have applied the same keen research methods to Irish scones as we did to Italian gelato and pizza. Indeed, we began the day we arrived, when we saw a beauty in the coffee shop in Kinsale. Nor were we disappointed. In Dublin we have tried them from all venues: bakery, coffee shop, supermarket, even street markets. We’ve yet to eat a bad one. We recently tried the scones at Avoca, recommended as ‘the best scones in the world’ by an Irish friend. And they were indeed scrumptious. We’ll need to eat a few more before we attach a superlative, but they’re certainly in the running.
Irish scones are like British ones, though with less sugar and leavening (i.e., baking powder), so they tend to be smaller. On the other hand, we have seen any number of very un-stunted specimens of Irish scones. They also use more eggs, so the dough is more yellow. And both Irish and British scones tend to use less butter than their American counterparts.
Our own attempts to make Irish scones have brought mixed results. The first time we tried we had inadvertently brought gluten-free flour and the results were – well, let’s just say, unfortunate. We got regular flour the next time and the results were significantly better. So we are encouraged to try our hand again. We used chopped dates for our first ones, and our next batch will be ginger and apricot.
For now, however, we’ll leave you with the Irish scone recipe we tried. And we urge you to stay tuned for our further adventures in scones.
