Photo courtesy of East Durham Bake Shop
East Durham Bake Shop’s buttermilk scones with strawberry glaze
East Durham Bake Shop
406 South Driver Street, Durham
919-957-1090
With heartfelt apologies to the queen, scones, almost universally, are dry, dense bricks whose lack of pleasing texture is matched only by their lack of flavor. My dad likes them, but he was raised during the Great Depression and served in the military. Until recently, I was convinced that all scones were this unappealing. And then I tried one from East Durham Bake Shop.
The bakery’s guiding philosophy is to use only the best ingredients and to treat them well. Its scones use King Arthur Flour, the choice of most bakers, and European butter, which tends to have a lower water content and higher butterfat content, making the scones richer.
East Durham Bake Shop scones come in two varieties: sweet and savory. Sweet scones are filled with seasonal fruits, nuts, and sweeteners like maple syrup and honey. A few standout flavors are blueberry pecan, buttermilk with strawberry glaze, and fig walnut. Among these, co-owner and baker Ali Rudel’s favorite is the carrot cake scone, which is packed with shredded carrot and warming spices.
A year ago, when Rudel and co-owner Ben Filippo converted their home-based pie business into a brick-and-mortar establishment, they knew they wanted to keep using local ingredients as much as possible. But they’d need a large, ongoing supplier for the cheddar that is a main ingredient in many of their savory scones. After searching for a suitable local product and coming up empty, they turned, once again, to Vermont and the Cabot Creamery’s three-year cheddar. In various herb scones, the cheese is paired with dill and thyme or caramelized onion, garlic, and bacon. Rudel says that sales of the savory scones have grown to double those of the sweet.
Quality ingredients are one lodestar of these delectable pastries. But when all the crumbs have been furtively devoured, a question still remains: What else makes these pastries coming out of the oven so darn good? The answer is lamination, a technique employed by many skilled biscuit makers. After the dough is rolled out, it’s folded, then rerolled, folded, rolled, and folded again. The result is a light, flaky scone that in no way resembles the tragic, heavy cinderblock of yore. It’s so good that East Durham Bake Shop regularly sells out by lunchtime.
Now that I know about these scones, when I’m lucky enough to get in before they’re all gone, I buy as many as I can fit into my freezer. Then I turn to my foolproof method for saving them: I double-wrap each in parchment, wrap them again in plastic, and finally pack them into labeled, dated zip-top bags. With a bag in my chill chest, I am invincible. Then, I ration as ruthlessly as with life jackets on the Titanic.
When Rudel told me her favorite scone, she asked which of them was my favorite. I answered honestly: It’s whichever one I’ve eaten last. And my homemade rejuvenation method earned the baker’s seal of approval. When it’s time for a scone, I heat my cast-iron skillet with a pat of butter. Then, I set in a scone, right side up, and cover. After a few minutes, when it’s warmed through, I flip and lightly toast the top. The unglazed version comes out looking fresh-out-of-the-oven gorgeous. The glaze will melt into the rehabbed scone, but, as Rudel says with a smile, “As problems go, there are worse.”
food@indyweek.com
