Scone Beginnings

Now, let's go back in time. The time, 4 years ago, I was living in San Francisco. I was gainfully unemployed and searching for a new career. This led to working for a caterer in San Rafel and taking countless cooking classes at the local California Culinary Academy. They had a weekend program for people like me who loved to cook, but want to learn something beyond chicken basics.

I wanted a challenge, so I signed up for the Breakfast Breads and Muffins class. We learned how to make crossiant dough from scratch. Wow, what a process and enough butter to kill a small village. I digress. One of the most interesting breads to me...the scone. Before that class, I had never had a scone or even a desire to eat a scone. I love the process of cutting the butter into the dough, we did this by hand...and I was hooked. When we finished, I have to admit, I was really disappointed. It was dry, crusty, and heavy (like a rock in the bottom of my stomach) but the flavor was good.

Over the next 6 months, I worked (I had all the time in the world. I was working only a couple hours a week for the caterer) on the recipe. Tweaking it and adjusting it. I was hooked. I knew I could perfect it and create a better scone.

So fast forward to December 2005. I had just moved back to the South Bay. I had no money and Christmas was around the corner. I have a pretty big expended family to buy gifts for... and the thought came to me...who doesn't love baked goods!??! So I baked my little heart out and hoped everyone would like my version of the "scone".

Well, I am happy to say, everyone raved. But hey, they are family, right, they can't really tell me the truth. I knew I had a good recipe, when months later, everyone was still talking about my scones.

Thus, my obsession with creating the perfect scone, was born.