Totally Baked: Irish Raisin Scones with Homemade Citrus Faerie Butter
Hello again, witchy lovelies and welcome back to another installment of our Totally Baked series! Today, we are going to be making scones that are a homage to one of my favorite popular seasonal goodies; Irish Soda Bread. My mother’s side of the family, while not Irish, acquired an amazing recipe for a cakey and ultra moist soda bread years ago, complete with a decedent, sweet and lemony butter spread called “fairy butter”. While I would love to share that recipe with you one day, this year, I wanted to try my hand at creating something of my own, while still keeping the spirit of the original family favorite.
Scones 101
If there is one thing I could say about why I adore scones, as both a professional baker and a kitchen witch, it is their versatility. Once you learn the method of making them, the sky is truly the limit on flavors you can add. Below, we are going to highlight a few of the key points to help you create awesome scones in your own kitchen.
Chill out
Without a doubt, the most important key to scone success is to make sure the butter and dairy you use is cold. The reason for this is we are looking for a light and flaky scone and the less your butter melts into your dry ingredients, the better the finished products texture will be.
2. Don’t over mix
While easy to make, scones can also be easy to overwork, especially if you chose to use a stand mixer to whip them up. Over mixing the dough not only will develop extra gluten, which will lead to a tough scone, but it will also end up working in your butter too much and you will lose that ever so coveted flaky texture you worked so hard for above.
3. Watch your liquid
Unfortunately, scones often get a bad rap for being too dry, so the last thing I want is to feed into that stereotype. That being said, you don’t want to get too overzealous with your liquid components either, lest you be left with a gummy, dense mess of a pastry. Mostly this a caution if you decide to add flavor components that have a larger liquid content to them, such as frozen fruits, liquid flavorings, etc. You can absolutely add these items, however you may need to adjust the other liquids accordingly, so just be aware. On the other side of this coin, if you are adding ingredients that are on the dryer side (i.e. poppy seeds, dried coconut, dried fruit), you may need to add a touch more liquid to counteract them or soak them before adding the ingredient to the scone dough.
4. Bake Gently
The last big key to a making a great scone is to make sure you don’t over bake it. This comes down to watching two things, your temperature and your time. A lot of recipes i’ve seen over the years call for a very hot oven for baking scones, which I tend to steer clear from. I prefer a moderate oven temp so I can better control the baking process. As for time, I generally have an idea of about how long things will take to bake, however each oven does behave differently. I have gotten very used to knowing visual and tactile cues for when scones and other baked goods are done as much as an actual time. For me, I like to see a lightly golden edge on the top of the scones and an evenly browned underside, along with a springy texture when touched. This yields a soft, fluffy scone that retains its moisture, which is exactly what we are looking for.
Abundance, Success, and Faerie Magick
I think it goes without saying that Irish Soda Bread, at least in the United States, is unequivocally linked with St. Patrick’s Day. Since our scones are a riff on the flavors of this popular staple, the intentions they represent are also similar. While I am not going to go deeply into the background of the holiday since it is obviously steeped heavily in Christian lore, I do want to give a pagan perspective towards some of the magical energy that you can benefit from during this season instead.
The iconography of brilliant rainbows leading to boundless treasures for those savvy and tenacious enough to look for it lead me to see it as a great time to focus on magical workings geared towards success and prosperity. While your magic might not guarantee you a giant pot of gold, you can certainly use the energy of this holiday to charge money spellwork, work on your manifestation goals, and make positive moves towards your overall growth. It is also a time of gratitude; for the blessings that you have and the ones you have yet to receive.
Our scones feature abundance boosting golden raisins (a little cheeky color magick there for you!) that I soaked in Irish Breakfast Tea. Beyond imparting a lovely hint of extra flavor and moisture to the scones, I intentionally chose the richly tannic black tea as an element to help banish any unwanted or negative energies from interfering with any goals we are trying to achieve during this time. This is coupled with the uplifting citrus in the butter, which fills those voids left by the negative energy with bright and cheerful positivity.
I feel I would be remiss to not mention the ties I feel this time of year has to the faerie folk and fae magick. With Ostara right around the corner and beginnings of the earth waking back up after its winter slumber, the nature based energy of the fae folk feels stronger too. Even a brief foray into Celtic lore will lead you to tales of these ancient beings and there are many pagans who work closely with them. As with all deities or spirit beings you choose to work with, a relationship with faery folk can be extremely beneficial as long as you do your research beforehand, set your boundaries, be respectful, and show gratitude. If you are looking to begin or strengthen a relationship with the faery folk, these scones and the accompanying homemade butter make for an excellent offering.
If you are looking for great sources on how to work with fae folk and faery magick, I highly recommend checking these links out for more information:
Of Witches And Faeries: A Brief Examination Of Working With The Fae
The Recipe
Irish Raisin Scones with Homemade Citrus Faerie Butter
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour (abundance, prosperity)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (energy for drawing in positivity, "sweeten" spellwork)
- 1 3/4 tsp baking powder (raise vibrations)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda (raise vibrations)
- 1/4 tsp salt (protection)
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold Irish butter, cut into small cubes (abundance, fertility)
- 1/4 cup cold half and half (prosperity)
- 1/2 cup cold sour cream (prosperity)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (success, luck drawing)
- 1 cup golden raisins, rehydrated and drained
- 2 Irish Breakfast tea bags (banish negative energy)
- 1 pint heavy cream (abundance, fertility)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- Zest of 1 orange (prosperity, success, happiness)
- Zest of 1 lemon (positive energy, brightening)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degree F and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- In a heat proof bowl, place the raisins and tea bags and pour boiling water to cover. Allow mixture to steep for at least 15 minutes.
- While the raisins steep, blend together the flour, sugar, baking power, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer or other large bowl.
- Slowly blend in your cold butter into the dry mixture until it is roughly pea sized.
- Drain the raisins thoroughly and slowly stir in to the dry mix along with your wet ingredients until it just comes together into a workable dough. Do not overmix.
- Separate the dough out into two even disks and cut each circle into 8 even triangular pieces.
- Place 8 scones on each prepared tray and brush the tops with extra half and half and sprinkle with coarse sugar if desired.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden around the top edges and springy to the touch. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.
- Best served with a shmear of fresh citrus butter and a warm cup of tea, enjoy!
- Place heavy cream into the bowl of a stand mixer with a whip attachment
- Slowly begin to whip the cream until soft peaks form and add in 1/4 cup of the sugar.
- Continue whipping the cream on high until the buttermilk and butter solids begin to separate, approximately 10 minutes. The mixture will look curdled, don't panic!
- In a sieve, drain the buttermilk out of the butter solids. You may find it easier to use clean hands to press out the excess liquid.
- Once completely drained, gently gather the butter and dry it in a paper towel.
- Once dry, place in a bowl and add in the remainder of the sugar and the citrus zests and mix until fully incorporated. Serve immediately with the fresh warm scones. Refrigerate any remaining butter in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
