British Baking Part 9: Eat Some Scones, Skinny Girl

While being in Britain, it would be some sort of crime to be baking without attempting to make scones.  My friend, Kendra, and I have a very philosophical conversation about scones one day.  She has been to the States several times.  During our talk she looks at me very seriously and explains that British and American scones are very different.  And they are.  There is plenty of variety here: plain, fruit (raisins, sultanas, and currants, mainly), cheese, etc.  They range from moist and delicious, to hard, dry, and biscuit-y.  In America, they are more cake-like and often have some sort of glaze on them.  I elect a raspberry scone for my first try here, having purchased fresh, local, perfectly ripe raspberries.

After about 5 minutes.  YES, 5 minutes, I smell smoke.  The outside of the scone in the oven is brownish/blackish.  I open the oven, smokes pours out, and sets the fire alarm off scaring my child.  We scramble around opening windows and wildly fanning the air hoping to silence the thing.

It stops. 

I am crushed, truly wounded.  I recheck the recipe, the oven temperature, the directions.  I've followed them perfectly.  Truth is, it is a fan/convection oven.  These are new to me.  I do not have one at home, so I am still getting used to it.  It cooks things insanely fast.  The outside cooks much faster than the inside.  I have managed not to seriously burn anything yet...until now...

I would say that this is somewhere between charred and incinerated

Upon closer inspection, it is just the outside that has burned, and the inside looks salvageable.
  I take out a hack-saw serrated knife and do work.

I save them.  And they are GOOD!

Sorry Baby, but your plain scone is beyond repair.