The Mango Scone Experiment

Sounds like some kind of wacky metaphor, doesn't it?  It's not.  I was just thinking about making some scones, and also thinking about what I could do with the bag of organic mango chunks in my freezer.  Usually I just eat them frozen, like the best little popsicles in the world.  (Frozen peach slices are very good this way, too, incidentally.)  Also,  my true love is hosting/entertaining his t'ai chi teacher from China, and he could conceivably make an appearance at our house at any minute, and while I am ever looking for new ways to get my bake on, I also was pondering different ways I could edit my traditional output to appeal particularly to Chinese taste.  So I fooled around with my basic scone recipe, et voilà, mango-honey scones were born.  (Click to enlarge.)

Since Master Chen did not make an appearance at our home yesterday, and since he is in any event probably far too polite to let us know if he didn't like something I baked for him, and since half the scones have already been consumed, I may never find out how well I did or could have done with that sector of my target market.  But another sector, my half-Mexican, part-Welsh, perennially scone-craving true love, was quite enthusiastic.

"These aren't scones. They're pan dulce," he informed with with a note of cheerful surprise in his voice.

"Really?  I thought pan dulce were fluffier than this."

"Whatever.  Both sides of me are very happy right now."

Yay.

Anyway, here's the recipe.

Mango-Honey Scones

2 C all-purpose flour
1 T potassium-based baking powder
3 T your favorite local honey
4 T melted salted butter
2 jumbo eggs
1/3 C plain, unflavored soy milk
half a 10 oz. bag of frozen organic mango chunks, still frozen
¼ t ground cardamom
¼ t ground ginger
1/8  t ground nutmeg
1 lightly beaten egg white for glazing
a tiny amount of extra nutmeg for sprinkling

1.  Preheat oven to 400°F.

2.  In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.

3.  In a separate bowl, beat together honey, eggs, and soy milk until well blended.  Beat in melted butter.

4.  Dump combined dry ingredients into wet and blend gently with a rubber spatula.  Do not over-mix.

5.  Fold in mango chunks, still frozen.  NOTE:  You may need to cut the mango chunks down.  Sometimes they come out of the bag small, but sometimes they are large.  Ideally you should be looking at third- or quarter-inch cubes, but rough cubes, not preciously perfect little dice.

6.  Scoop dough onto a cookie sheet in approximately eight equal portions.  Because you have used honey instead of a dry sweetener, dough will be extremely sticky and gloopy.  I used my hand covered in a disposable plastic glove to plop the dough onto the cookie sheet and form the scones, and I recommend this.

7.  Brush egg white onto every dough glob to glaze.  Then sprinkle nutmeg VERY sparingly over the egg white.

8.  Bake for 15 minutes.

9.  Serve hot with salted butter.

Comments

[Jana]

I can't wait to try this recipe! And I'm so tickled that you're participating in NaNooNaNoo month. Because life just isn't as sweet without a daily dose of Sara. :)

[Sara]

Aw, thanks sweetie. As I said a few days ago, I'm not sure I'll be able to pull it off this year, but it's always fun to try.

Hope you enjoy the scones! While soaking in the bathtub today, I contemplated different things I might try to make them a little perkier, and the thought of adding a teaspoon, or maybe even a tablespoon of freshly grated lime peel popped into my sodden head. Let me know if you try it, or if you make some other alteration you'd recommend.

Cheers!

[Penny]

In my personal version of the perfect universe, all baked goods and sweets would contain cardamom--so this recipe makes me very, very happy. Oooh, and grated lime zest sounds like a nice bright option, too....

[Sara]

Cardamom fiends of the world unite! :)

[Amorette]

They look delicious. Curse my damned defective body for being allergic to honey. :(

[Sara]

Oh, Amorette, I am sure that the dry sweetener of your choice will work every bit as well, with the added advantage of not creating ultra-gloopy, sticky dough. The honey listed here is an exactly proportional substitution from my basic scone recipe, so I know this for a fact. :)

I don't really feel honey added much flavor-wise, but it did make for a cake-ier, less biscuit-y texture in the finished scones as well as a dough that was more difficult to work with.

[Maija Haavisto]

Damn, I'm a baking nut and a mango lover, but frozen mango isn't available in this country (and fresh mango is just very difficult to handle). :-(

[Kris]

Oh boy! Just the kind of recipe I was looking for to further my obsessions with the wonderful mango and the fabulous scone. This sounds delicious!

[Melissa]

These look amazing! I was searching through mango scone recipes and this is by far the tastiest looking one I've found! But I have a question, I've never heard of potassium-based baking powder. When I googled I came across potash, is that the same thing? And where might I find it? Because I'm dying to try this recipe!

[Erik]

Here's a great link about baking powders, but Rumford fits the bill for this recipe:

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/BakingPowder.htm

[Kitschykat]

Do you think I could use fresh mango? We're on vacation in Hawaii, haven't found good scones, but there's tons of fresh mangoes!( Wow, does "mangos" really have an "e"? Silly me.

[Erik]

If Sara was still around, she'd probably say try it, and see! The issues I can imagine are moisture, ease of cutting, and texture. Frozen mangoes are easier to cut, but also may release more moisture into the scone. The chunkiness of the cut frozen mangoes adds a delicious counterpoint to the texture of the scone. You could also grate or blend the mango, which would give you the flavor, but less of a contrast when you bite into them.