Irish Soda Bread Scones
I completely owe all inspiration for this recipe on the viral Irish Soda Bread Scones from Mary O’s in New York City. If you haven’t heard of her or her scones, take a few minutes right now to Google “Mary O’s scones” to learn a bit about her. Her story, her scones, and her shop have been written about by many people and in much more depth than I can manage here. Because I live on the other side of the country, I sadly do not have access to the real thing, so I thought I would try to make a version myself.
I would say the most notable difference between her scones and other ones I’ve seen or had, is that she bakes hers in a muffin tin, rather than round or triangular on a sheet pan. I gave her method a go, and it truly made me wonder why everyone isn’t baking their soda bread scones like this. The tins keep the scones in a nice, uniform shape, while still allowing the tops to get a bit wonky and craggily. And the shape allows for a good amount of space inside to spread copious amounts of butter and jam.
While I almost always use unsalted, American style butter (salt content control, price, and ease of availability) in my baking, I thought it was only fitting to use Irish butter in this instance. I went with the salted variety because I find it to be so much more flavorful than even its unsalted counterpart. Plus I wanted to lather up the finished scones with salted butter, so buying two different types seemed very silly.
Finally, I have included a berry jam recipe, but store bought jam is obviously totally fine! But if you want to go the extra mile and show off a little, the recipe below is a relatively small batch of simple stovetop jam, not meant for canning. The recipe can easily be halved or doubled, just note that cooking time will decrease and increase accordingly. And it can be made with any single or variety of berries, either fresh or frozen. At the bottom of the recipe, I have a few additional notes on jam, should you have more questions.
Makes: 12 scones
Active time: 10 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes (additional 30 minutes to 1 hour if making jam)
Ingredients
Scones
472g (3 1/5 cups) all purpose flour
8g (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
196g (14 tablespoons) salted butter, cold, ideally Irish (such as Kerrygold), plus extra for serving
1 cup dried currants, optional
280g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) buttermilk, cold
egg wash, see note
turbinado sugar (or granulated)
Berry Jam
500g fresh or frozen berries
75g granulated sugar
Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
Method
Make the jam. In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients and place over medium low heat. Let the fruit and sugar simmer, stirring and adjusting the temperature as needed. Lower the heat if the mixture is boiling too rapidly and sticking to the bottom. In the beginning, simmering bubbles will be very active and move through the mixture very quickly. As the jam reduces and thickens, they will become less active and a bit more slow moving. To test if the jam is done, place a small plate in the freezer for 5 minutes. Place a small dollop of jam on the cold plate and drag a spoon through the center. If the jam fills in the open space quickly, it needs a bit more time. If the jam does not fill in the opening made by the spoon, the jam is ready.
Depending on the berries being used and whether they are fresh or frozen (frozen will release more water), this will take between 30 minutes to 1 hour. When the jam is done, you can keep it as it is, with noticeable pieces of fruit or seeds, you can blend, or you can blend and strain - whichever you prefer. Then move the jam to a heatproof container and let cool at room temperature. If you are making ahead, store in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
Make the scones. Preheat the oven to 375F and lightly brush the cups of a standard muffin tin with softened butter. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine 472g (3 1/5 cups) flour, 8g (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Whisk.
Cut 196g (14 tablespoons) butter into 1/2” cubes and add to the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, smush the butter into the flour. This is similar to making pie dough or biscuit dough, but here you want to continue mixing until there are no big chunks of butter and the mixture looks sandy. Alternatively, this can be done in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment.
If using, add in 1 cup dried currants and toss with your hands to mix.
Add 280g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) buttermilk, cold and mix with a spatula until it is just combined.
Using a 2 tablespoon cookies scoop, place heaping scoops of dough into the prepared muffin tin. No need to press the dough into the tins or flatten the tops. Lightly brush each scone with some egg wash, milk, or cream and sprinkle with turbinado (or granulated) sugar.
Bake the scones for 25-27 minutes, but until the tops are lightly golden brown.
Try to let them cool for a few minutes, or eat immediately with some salty Irish butter and jam.
Scones are at their best the day they are baked, but will last in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.
Notes
Jam! For the most part, I like to calculate the amount of sugar as 15% of the weight of whatever fruit I’m using. So, if I have 100g of fruit, I would use 15g of sugar. I prefer my jam to lean a little more towards the tart and slightly sweet side. This does sometimes change based on the fruit and the quality of the fruit. If the fruit is super tart, I’ll up the sugar a bit, to maybe 25%. If the fruit isn’t super flavorful, I might up both the sugar and lemon juice a bit. Additionally, if you start making your jam, then taste it and it’s way too tart, add a bit more sugar and let it cook it bit longer. Just like cooking, you can absolutely taste and adjust as you go, just be careful to not burn yourself or your mouth because boiling hot jam does not mess around!
Egg wash simply allows to better browning to occur in the oven. And when I mention egg wash, all I mean is an egg that has been vigorously beaten (or even immersion blended). Different pastry chefs have different preferences for egg wash (some add cream or milk to the eggs, some add salt, some do just yolks or a combo of whole and yolks, etc). And while there are reasons for these variations, I find that for home baking, a vigorously beaten whole egg does a great job. If you don’t want to waste an egg, you can brush a little milk or cream in its place. It won’t brown quite as much as the egg, but will look good.