Sunday Baking Series: The Great Sunday Scone-Off
Hubtastic and I got in to The Great British Bake Off about 4 or 5 years late, for Americans, which is really like 8 years late for anyone who pays attention to food. The typical Food Network competition really turns me off (other than Iron Chef) with the unrealistic scenarios and the unfriendly jabs. But GBBO is so wholesome, silly, and knowledgeable that it totally changed my opinion of food competitions. It’s also very inspiring…
So we decided to have a Great Sunday Scone Off, pitting my go-to recipe from America’s Test Kitchen against our new favorite baking contender, BraveTart (a.k.a. Stella Parks). In contrast to my normal M.O., I’d have to follow the ATK recipe precisely, while Hubtastic took on BraveTart.
We worked on our respective recipes more-or-less at the same time and spent the afternoon in the kitchen together, which is one of the best ways to make the kitchen a place you want to be. We couldn’t have cared less how much time it took, because it was a fabulous way to spend an afternoon. And, I mean, we ended up with plenteous scones.
In true science-nerd/culinary-competition style, we created a scoring rubric for:
- Ease of Assembly
- Aroma
- Appearance
- Texture
- Taste while warm
- Taste when cool (single-blind test- we stuffed pieces in each other’s mouths with eyes closed. Made up for the fact that we didn’t do that with cake at our wedding.)
For a total of 30 points, plus 5 bonus points for:
- Make-Ahead-Ability – can you freeze the dough and rebake later? ATK says you can, BraveTart is silent on the matter.
The two recipes are extremely different- ATK has a lot more sugar, grated frozen butter for the fat source, and more blueberries divided between more scones. BraveTart uses coconut milk and coconut oil as the fat source, only a smidgen of sugar, and scones cut out of a circle rather than a rectangle.
Notice both of us are wearing silicone wedding rings… hubtastic is a materials engineer, and he’d prefer we don’t mar our metal rings while getting our hands covered in flour.
I started first, because the ATK recipe involves lots of various little steps that all have to be chilled before assembly. Hubtastic subbed in and created the BraveTart dough, then I shaped my scones while his chilled. His went in the oven first though, because they bake at a lower temp.
That’s where the first hiccup occured. After it took a good 25 minutes for his little scones to brown, we realized that our oven temp (on the thermometer, not on the knob) was 50 degrees lower than it should have been. So this isn’t as controlled of an experiment as we would’ve liked. With five science degrees between the two of us, that doesn’t sit right. Oh well. The only other issue was some burnt melted butter on the ATK parchement paper that caused the scones to smell burnt even though they weren’t.
During and after baking, we were scurrying back and forth, filling out our score cards. I have included those here for readers interested in the specifics of each scone- Hubtastic first and myself second, but skip ahead to the winner if you’re impatient.
| Category | ATK | BraveTart |
| Ease of Assembly (directions, ingredients, steps) | 3/5
H. Explanation: Not terribly hard, but not “user friendly” either
|
4 /5
H. Explanation: Rather simple, but at times not intuitive. i.e. how do I know when the coconut oil is mixed in. |
| 3/5
A. Explanation: I’ve made this a million times, so it’s pretty easy, but there are a lot of steps and lots of refrigerating/freezing- confusing for a first timer |
3.5/5
A. Explanation: Weird ingredients… we’ll see how that turns out. It’s tough to divide a circle into 6 even wedges |
|
| Appearance (color, shape, blueberry distribution) | 4/5
H. Explanation: Brown, appealing color. Sugar more apparent on the surface. |
3/5
H. Explanation: Retains shape well, decent browning but not great, some leakage of the blueberries. Baking time: 33 mins (noticed oven thermometer was too low part way through)
|
| 4.5/5
A. Explanation: Very dark brown- maybe too brown at minimum bake time (18 min), tons of blueberries |
3.5/5
A. Explanation: Took a long time to brown, but ended up very attractive, a little pale |
|
| Aroma (blueberry, biscuit-y-ness, overall) | 4.5/5
H. Explanation: Toast like, but the blueberry comes through |
3/5
H. Explanation: Toast-like, but not picking up blueberries |
| 3/5
A. Explanation: Smells burnt, but that may be the stuff on the parchment paper. Stronger caramel and blueberry scent when up close |
4/5
A. Explanation: Took a while to notice the aroma, but ended up warm and buttery and, up close, like burnt blueberry jam |
|
| Texture (moisture level, crumb, tender/flaky balance, crust) | 3/5
H. Explanation: Soft, not flaky and crumbly |
4/5
H. Explanation: Mildly dry, reasonably flaky, good crumb
|
| 3/5
A. Explanation: Too soft despite almost-burnt exterior, almost under baked. |
4/5
A. Explanation: Crunchy/flaky edge, very tender center, didn’t get any blueberries in first 2 bites |
|
| Taste when warm (blueberry, dough, sweetness level, overall blend of flavors) | 4.5/5
H. Explanation: Buttery, rich flavor. Blueberries really come through. |
3.5/5
H. Explanation: Good flavor, especially the top, needs more blueberries, overall good |
| 4/5
A. Explanation: So many blueberries- awesome. Butter flavor is nice, but a little too sweet. |
3.5/5
A. Explanation: Edge- pie crust; not at all sweet, no coconut flavor (good); more blueberries would be good |
|
| Taste when cool *blind test* (blueberry, dough, sweetness level, overall blend of flavors) | 3.5/5
H. Explanation: “Oh this is the BraveTart one” [oops] reasonably flaky, lacking blueberry, good flavor in dough and good sugar crust |
4/5
H. Explanation: Good tang from blueberry, not the scone-y texture that I’d want, some flavor in the dough, decent sweetness |
| 4.5 /5
A. Explanation: Texture is better. Good amount of blueberries, less like pie crust. Likes the texture better now |
4/5
A. Explanation: Very crunchy, not super sweet, “I think this is BraveTart,” [yay] not enough blueberry, like the dough flavor/texture good too. Good crumb. |
|
| Total H | 22.5/30 | 21.5/30 |
| Total A | 22/30 | 22.5/30 |
So technically ATK won, BUT the scores were both excellent, and both well within a margin of error considering we had one repetition and n=2 for each sample (but it was a scone-off, not a science experiment, so give us a break). Keep in mind we still have the bonus round later, once we bake the frozen scones. Stay tuned for those results!
Here are some final thoughts on the matter:
“If I were to make scones again, I’d do the BraveTart scones but add more blueberries. Personally, I think the ATK were better tasting but not worth the extra effort.” ~Hubtastic
“I liked both better cold vs. hot, despite BraveTart saying consume warm. I’d also make the BraveTart again because it’s easier, but with extra blueberries, and I’d make 8 instead of 6.” ~Annette
Up next for the Sunday baking experiments: tackling Schichtortte. We’ll see how that goes.