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Photographs copyright © 2017 Deb Perelman.
In the Muffin Olympics, my favourite—bran muffins—would never even make the team. I get that gritty brown masses hardly have the appeal of blueberry-buttermilk, sweet-cornmeal, banana- walnut, and pumpkin-spice, but I’ve always enjoyed their quiet, nutty complexity—plus, it’s kind of adorable, the way I convince myself that they’re healthier, right? So I decided that they needed a makeover, and I reformatted them as scones, and pretty ones at that. Preloading the scones with jam makes them self-contained packets of breakfast luxury. Yes, like a jelly donut but still craggy and wholesome enough that we get to enjoy them way more often.
1 1/2 cups (195g) all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 1/4 cups (75g) wheat bran
1 tbsp (15g) baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea or table salt
1/2 cup (95g) dark brown sugar
6 tbsp (85g) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup (120g) sour cream
1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tsp water
1/4 cup (80g) jam, or marmalade of your choice (or more if yours is on the thick side)
1 tbsp (10g) coarse or raw (turbinado) sugar, to finish
Jam-bellied bran scones recipe excerpted from Smitten Kitchen Every Day by Deb Perelman. Text and photographs copyright © 2017 Deb Perelman. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.