Drop Scones

This recipe for drop scones was featured in the News & Observer a few months ago. The write-up for it was very interesting and really what piqued my interest in this brunch option. It's said that Queen Elizabeth shared this drop scone - or Scottish pancake - with President Eisenhower. You can read the N&O article here and get all the details.

We served the drop scones topped with cream cheese and fresh strawberry jam (per the article's recommendation) alongside fresh pineapple.

Queen Elizabeth's Drop Scones
   Featured in the N&O; adapted from Elaine Szlosberg
   Yields 16 pancakes [we halved the recipe]

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/4 cup superfine sugar
   Superfine sugar can be found in specialty grocery stores or blitz regular sugar in a small food processor
1 1/2 cups whole milk, divided
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons baking soda
6 tablespoons butter, divided

Directions
   Stir together eggs, sugar and 3/4 cup milk in a medium bowl until fully combined. Add flour and stir until completely wet. Add remaining 3/4 cup milk, cream of tartar and baking soda. Stir to combine. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and fold that into batter.
   Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat. Melt 1 tablespoon butter as needed. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into pan and cook until bubbles appear, about 2 to 3 minutes.

   Flip, cook until lightly browned, about 1 to 2 minutes.

   Serve with strawberry jam and English clotted cream or cream cheese.

For the strawberry jam I loosely followed this Quick Strawberry Jam by Martha Stewart recipe. Basically I did a rough chop of strawberries, placed them in a small pot to simmer with a little bit of water and some sugar. After the strawberries started to break down I used a potato masher to get them to a jam consistency. The recipe calls for lemon juice but since we were only making what we were putting on the scones (and not storing it) I didn't add in the lemon juice.

It was our first brunch outdoors - one of those brief respite mornings in the upper 60s that was the calm before all the snow storms!