[Sca-cooks] cheese scones

[Patricia Dunham]

umm, FWIW, as I learned it, I think you're trying to get the flour buttered (not the butter floured), without handling (aka "working") the flour enough to develop any gluten (or, the less gluten that gets developed, the better)

I agree with Shoshanah that the reason you do the combining with tools, is because you don't want warm hands melting the butter. but as I understand it, toughness comes from overworking flour, not melting butter.

IF you have really cold hands, OR a really "light touch" (if you have this, you know it; and if you know someone who has it, they MAY be able to teach you), and a cold kitchen and bowl, you can sometimes "crumble" successfully, by hand. 

My DH is the one in this house who makes the pie dough and shortbread, 8-)  He has been VERY good at this since he was VERY little (7yo). He says that everything he knows about pastry he figured out for himself (even in the early days). One of his tricks is that he always washes his hands before he sticks them into something (!), and that this always cools his hands, even if he's washed with warm water. He describes the "light hands" thing as being "mixing without kneading".  My dear farm grandma also did tons of piecrust, shortbread and all sorts of baking, but I didn't track on much of it, besides the breadmaking.

chimene


On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:25 PM, Susan Lin wrote:

> ,,,  the object is to break the butter up and get each
> little bit coated in flour without melting it or making it into a solid
> mass (not until you add the liquid)