Here are the results (just in time for Mother’s day!):
The clear loser of the group was the Tartine scone. A full third of them never got eaten and went hopelessly stale. They were intimidatingly large and unremarkable in both texture and flavor.
The winner, to my surprise, was the Flour scone. It was delicious and addictive and looked beautiful (we eat with our eyes, so the importance of this factor shouldn’t be understated). Harry and I both loved them. Others would probably have loved them too, if Harry hadn’t gone all creepily hoarder-ish and refused to share. The next time I serve brunch, these will be on the table. Guaranteed.
On the other hand, the Flour scone recipe seems fairly rigid to me. It wouldn’t be easily adaptable to suit an entirely different flavor. Of course, you could easily use raisins or dried cherries or even fresh blueberries in place of the currants, but I couldn’t see myself turning it into a completely crazy different flavor. The America’s Test Kitchen scone is not only delicious and classic, but also infinitely adaptable. I am sure that I will continue to use that cream scone base to bring you creative and tasty treats. So I have a little bit of difficulty saying that it’s the runner-up in this contest. It simply has different strengths.
I hope that you, my readers, have enjoyed this little experiment as much as I have, because I can see myself doing similar bake-offs in the future. After all, there are a lot of recipes claiming to be the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. Somebody needs to take one for the team and bake (and eat) them all. Don’t thank me, really.
