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Scrumptious Scones

One of our guests’ consistently asked-for recipes is the following for cream scones, lifted from the Joy of Cooking. Our scone-loving guests unanimously love this recipe, citing these scones as being unusually moist and flavorful, without being overly sweet. Scones are actually incredibly easy to make at home, and the final product is superior to the consistently dry, day-old (or at least hours-old) scones most people are used to eating. Please try making them at home – they are fabulous!

Here’s the JOC basic cream scone recipe plus tips I’ve refined over the years to complete the recipe:

Preheat oven to 425 F with a rack in the middle.

Mix dry ingredients:
2 cups AP flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Add 1 ¼ cups cream and any other ingredients (fruit, nuts, citrus zest) and mix gently with cool, damp hands. Our guests especially love these scones with the addition of fresh cranberries, but you can include any dried or fresh fruit, nuts, or citrus zests you enjoy. As with all biscuit batters or doughs, don’t over-mix the ingredients, just make sure wet and dry are blended – using your hands is best – and stop. Create a mound of dough, rolling along the interior of the mixing bowl to pick up all the bits of batter.

Place the mound of dough on a prepared baking sheet and flatten it out with your hands until it’s about eight inches across each way and even. (Use damp hands, the dough is sticky.) I use Silpat on my baking sheets rather than butter or oil. It’s brilliant at keeping baked goods from sticking.

Here’s another trick to getting them perfect inside and looking even and tidy: go ahead and cut the round into eight scones using a pastry cutter, but don’t pull them apart.

Brush with cream, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (mix in your palm, then dust on from above so it spreads evenly).

Place in the oven at 425 F for approximately twelve minutes (ovens vary, so trust your nose and watch them – once they begin to turn gold around the edge and smell fragrant, you’re ready for the next step).

Pull them out of the oven, cut them again with a clean pastry knife and move them apart just so they’re no longer touching. Check the inside, they will probably need about another minute at this point.

Return them to the oven for no more than one or two additional minutes to finish off the inside.

Remove from oven, lift the scones off the tray gently with a pie slice-server or your fingers, and place them on a wire rack to cool. They are delicate, so be careful.

Enjoy straight away with butter and jam and fresh black coffee or espresso.

South Kona Eats

In addition to wonderful Mi’s, there are several other excellent eateries in South Kona to look forward to during your stay. Here are a couple of our other favorites. Prepare to eat well here! 

Just up the hill on the highway heading south (again about a ten-minute drive from the Inn) there’s an excellent pizzeria called Patz Pies that offers high-quality pizza with a home-made hand-tossed crust (which clearly has some whole wheat in it because it has an excellent chew), pasta dishes, and delicious salads. Bring it home to enjoy with local beer on the lanai at sunset, or pay a little extra to have it delivered (a novelty in South Kona).  Our favorite pizza is "Da Works" with pepperoni, sausage, olives, spinach, onions, and peppers, which comes with a lovely salad of fresh local greens, onion, pepper, feta and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.  

Next to Patz Pies is the new Up Country Cafe which specializes in chewy delicious bagels, and also offers espresso drinks, smoothies, juices, and other baked treats.

About a fifteen minute drive north from the Inn on highway 11 is Annie’s Burgers and Brew, a wonderful newer restaurant featuring gorgeous local burgers made with delicious local beef. Annie’s is one of those rare places that is open from lunch through dinner, so it’s an excellent choice for a late lunch or early dinner. The burgers are delicious and the portions generous, and there are even fish and vegetarian options. Our favorite burger features local mushrooms, local arugula, and blue cheese. The dining room is airy, open, cool and relaxing, and the service friendly. Make sure to save room for their homemade chocolate pudding for dessert – it’s cold, smooth, and very rich - a dark-chocolate lover’s heaven.  http://www.anniesislandfreshburgers.com/index.html

We love Mi's

We are very fortunate on the Big Island to have access to so much fantastic fresh food. Unlike the other islands, the Big Island is still a farming island and most of our produce is local. Because of the microclimates, we have access to a variety of amazing produce year round: from delicate lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes, leafy greens, juicy beets, and heirloom carrots from higher elevations with more rainfall and less sun, to exotic fruits like jaboticaba and Surinam cherry from dry, lower elevations – in addition to coffee, avocadoes, citrus, and bananas. There is plenty of fresh local fish and delicious grass-fed island beef. Everyone grows something on their property here, and we’re surrounded by small farms. In our neighborhood, there’s a queen bee farm, a plumeria farm, a coffee farm, and tons of citrus. We grow white pineapples, coconuts, green figs, mangoes, herbs, sweet potatoes, and some greens on our own land.

Luckily for us, the closest restaurant to the Inn is Mi’s Italian Bistro, about a ten minute drive away, up on Highway 11. Mi’s is all about treating local produce with restraint and respect. It is so spectacular that most of our long-stay guests go there for dinner more than once. Mi’s is about four years old, and continues to improve and gain popularity, refining the menu as they go, which is very exciting to see. It is owned and operated by a young couple who are dedicated to both fantastic food and a wonderful dining experience. We’ve been there many times over the years ourselves and have tried just about everything on the menu. Our favorite dishes include: an arugula and marinated beet and green bean salad with Maytag blue cheese and candied mac-nuts to start, cioppino with local fennel, home-made ravioli in a blue cheese cream sauce, fresh local fish over creamy risotto, or homemade polenta with local mushrooms and greens for mains, and the Meyer lemon cream brulee for dessert. There is an excellent wine selection, service is attentive yet unobtrusive, and the dining room is cozy and romantic. Five stars, all the way. For their current menu, please visit their website: http://misitalianbistro.com/