Since Broadway has temporarily closed in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, I’m teaming up with Broadway Roulette to bring a mini-series to bring Broadway to your kitchen: Broadway-themed bakes!
Six: The Musical was actually slated to open on Broadway the night they made the call to close Broadway for (at least) 6 weeks. Featuring the girl power-fueled storyline around the six wives of Henry VIII, this musical has a seriously catchy soundtrack that I recommend blasting while you make these scones.
Scones seemed like an obvious choice to go with the British theme of the show. I chose the most quarantine-friendly option from my recent scone bake off (was it also the bake off winner? You’ll find out the post, which is coming soon!) and customized the dough six different ways to represent each of the wives. With an extremely basic ingredient list–just flour, leaveners, eggs, milk and butter–these are super easy to make. And then you can add whatever mix-in you have access to!
Scroll down to see all the flavor customizations and ~welcome to the Bakeremix~
Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. – a history of all the wives.
Jane Catherine Parr // PLAIN
“I don’t Need Your Love”
Like Parr’s signature song, she doesn’t need any added flavor, either. Accordingly, she’s your basic, unadorned scone. Follow the base recipe as written for a simple, vanilla-scented scone!
Jane Seymour // PEACH
“You’ll find that I’m unshakeable / When the fire’s burnt / When the wind has blown / When the water’s dried, you’ll still find stone / My heart of stone“
Heart of stone, but make it a scone–with peaches, or any other stone fruit you have on hand.
- Before shaping, fold 1-2 cups of diced peaches (or your favorite stone fruit) into the base dough
Catherine Howard // LEMON & CRAISIN
“And ever since I was a child / I’d make the boys go wild”
Accused of some “tarty” behavior (ahem, committing adultery), Catherine Howard’s scone is topped with a tart lemon glaze. The lemon-scented scone base is studded with craisins (or currants, if you want to be more traditional).
- Before mixing the dry ingredients, rub 2 tsp of lemon zest into the sugar until fragrant
- Before shaping, fold in 2/3 cup currants or craisins to dough
- After baking, whisk together 3/4 cup powdered sugar with 2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice (add more juice if needed to thin). Drizzle over each scone
Anne of Cleves // CHEESE & CLOVES
A simple pun on “cleves”–I love a savory scone, and this combination of cheese and cloves (inspired by this recipe) is actually amazing. The warming hint of cloves rounds out the savory melty cheese.
- Reduce sugar to 2 tablespoons
- Add 1 tsp ground cloves to the dry ingredients
- Before shaping, fold in ~5 oz of diced soft cheese (like camembert, fontina, gouda, or gruyere)
Anne Boleyn // MATCHA HONEY BUTTER
“Henry sent me a poem / all about my green sleeves / I changed a couple words / put it on a sick beat”
These swirly matcha scones are a nod to Boleyn’s signature sleeve color. Inspired by Bouchon’s cinnamon honey scones, these require freezing cubes of matcha honey butter and stirring them into the dough right before shaping.
- Replace the vanilla with 2 tsp almond extract
- For the matcha honey butter cubes, you’ll need:
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 2.5 tablespoons sugar
- 1.5 teaspoons matcha powder
- 2 tablespoons of room temperature butter
- 1 tablespoon honey
- Directions: combine the flour, sugar and matcha. Use a spatula to incorporate the butter until roughly combined, then add the honey and mix until you have a paste. Use a piece of plastic wrap or a butter wrapper to pat this paste into a thin block and freeze for 20 minutes, or until firm-ish (but not fully frozen).
- After mixing together the wet and dry ingredients, remove the matcha block from the freeze and chop into small cubes. Fold into the dough until well-incorporated. At this point, you can also fold in an extra pinch of matcha to create a marbled dough effect.
Katherine of Aragon // CHURRO
Hailing the Spanish roots of Henry XIII’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon’s scone is churro-inspired. Using the lamination-esque technique from Epicurious’ ultra-buttery Irish-style scones, this scone layers cinnamon sugar into folds of the scone.
- Sub brown sugar for the white sugar in the base dough
- Add 1 tsp cinnamon to dry ingredients
- Shaping: roll out the cinnamon scone dough into a 14×8″ rectangle. Use your fingers to spread 2 tablespoons of softened butter over the surface, then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- After baking, combine 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1-2 tablespoons of milk and a pinch of cinnamon to create a very thick glaze (or add additional milk to thin). Drizzle over each scone
Ingredient modifications to the base recipe:
Milk: You can use any kind of milk in this recipe, but higher fat milk will yield richer, more tender results. I used whole milk, but half and half or heavy cream would yield even richer results. A non-dairy milk or low-fat milk would work in a pinch, but will result in a chewier texture.
Eggs:
- If you’re short on eggs (but have plenty of butter), use this Epicurious recipe as your base instead.
- Or, if you want to use less butter and no eggs but have heavy cream, try this cream scone recipe from Smitten Kitchen
Flour: If you don’t have all-purpose flour on hand, you can easily sub pastry flour or a blend of all-purpose flour and cake flour. You could even try blending bread flour and cake flour to get the right protein ratio per this blog post. You may also be able to use self-rising flour (and omit the salt and reduce the baking powder to 1 tsp), though I haven’t tried this.
This post was created in partnership with Broadway Roulette. All opinions are my own!
Scones, Six Ways
Ingredients
- 2.75 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup cold butter, diced into 1/4" cubes
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 cup milk, your choice (I used whole)
For brushing
- 1 tablespoon milk
- demerera, turbinado, or granulated sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
- Rub the cubes of butter into the dry ingredients, flattening each cube between your fingers until you have a crumbly mixture with little flecks of butter distributed throughout the flour.
- Gently fold in any mix-ins you're using.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and milk. Pour into dry ingredients and gently stir until the mixture just comes together. Use your hands to work in any dry floury bits, but be careful to not overwork the dough.
- On a floured surface, divide dough in half and pat each half into a 5" circle about 3/4" thick. Brush each circle with milk and sprinkle with sugar (coarse sugar like demerera or turbinado is great, but regular sugar will also work).
- Cut each circle into 6 wedges and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If time permits, freeze scones for 30 minutes (uncovered) to help encourage rise and flakiness. Otherwise, skip straight to baking.
- Preheat oven to 425 and bake scones for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top (if you cut the scones smaller, adjust the baking time down accordingly). Let cool briefly on the pan, then serve warm!
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