scones!

Brrr! It was chilly out there, but the sunshine was bright and the Great San Francisco Snowstorm of 2011 did not materialize, so PQ did not have to bolster everyone with hot toddies to get through her demo (although they probably would have been welcome!).

On the menu: apricot-candied lemon scones, and meyer lemon-blood orange curd to go with. The scones were particularly successful, as several people came up to me, post-sampling, to say that they'd always thought they hated scones, only to realize that they only hated BAD scones.

Unfortunately, almost every bakery & coffee joint I know makes/serves these crappy, hard, tasteless scones, so scones have gotten an undeserving bad rap. (The only exception is Remedy, the coffee place at 43rd & Telegraph, in Temescal, which has gotten justifiably famous for the awesome scones made by its in-house baker. Lotsa cream & butter, and a madly perfectionist attitude, seem to be her secret...)

Given that this was a farmers' market demo, I tried to use as much stuff from the market as possible, which meant using Eatwell Farm's locally grown and freshly ground flour, made from Sonora soft winter wheat. Soft wheat, as opposed to hard, is lower in protein, which makes it less gluten-y and thus better for tender "quick" breads like scones, muffins, and pancakes rather than yeasted breads that need to rise. The whole-wheat flour was more delicate than I expected and worked beautifully, in a 2:1 ratio w/ regular all-purpose.

Since it was winter, without a lot of fresh-fruit option besides citrus, I decided to highlight the gorgeous dried & preserved fruit available at the market, using chopped dried apricots and June Taylor's candied lemon rinds. This made a lovely sweet-tart combination that balanced nicely with the fluffy, buttery, not-too-sweet scone.