A Big Little Recipe has the smallest-possible ingredient list and big everything else: flavor, creativity, wow factor. That means five ingredients or fewer—not including water, salt, black pepper, and certain fats (like oil and butter), since we're guessing you have those covered. Psst, did you hear we’re coming out with a cookbook? We’re coming out with a cookbook!
Odds are, if a recipe calls for lemon, the author will tell you to zest it or juice it or both. Look no further than these this creamy pasta or these speedy shrimp or this no-churn ice cream. But what about the rest of the lemon? Does it not deserve our attention, too?
It does. Just as you can eat banana peels and coffee grounds, you can eat the lemon leftovers—scraps, rejects, whatever you call them—that you’d normally toss in the trash. Don’t believe me? Just think of preserved lemons: slit, packed with salt, and cured for weeks. Or ask cookbook author Dorie Greenspan:
In Paris Sweets, she shared a Whole-Lemon Tart inspired by Rollet-Pradier, a pâtisserie in Paris. In the years since its publication in 2002, the recipe has soared to internet stardom, found on Smitten Kitchen, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. (Our site has its own version—à la Lazy Mary.)
While the tart calls for only one lemon, “it contains every bit of that lemon except the seeds,” Greenspan writes, “so you get the powerful flavor of the zest as well as the jolting freshness of the juice and pulp.”
Today we’re applying that same smart logic to scones. Because why have lemon scones when you could have the lemoniest?
This template, spurred by another Big Little Recipe from a couple years back, is as simple as it gets: flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt, stirred together and drowned in cream. The seemingly absurd amount plays the role of liquid and fat, which eliminates the need for butter and, in turn, eliminates the usual butter pitfalls.
But before we stir the cream into the dry ingredients, we’re going to spike it. Not with lemon juice, nor lemon zest, but a whole lemon blitzed into an applesauce-like mush. Within seconds, the sloshy cream magically thickens into something that more closely resembles crème fraîche.
And we could stop there. We could. Why would we, though, when we could also reuse most of this little ingredient list for a puckery glaze? More cream, more sugar, and, yes, more lemon. Because when I said lemoniest, I meant it.
| 2 | cups (240 grams) white whole-wheat flour |
| 2 | tablespoons (14 grams) confectioners’ sugar |
| 3 1/4 | teaspoons (13 grams) baking powder |
| 1 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| 1 | large organic lemon (about 142 grams) |
| 1 1/4 | cups (284 grams) cold heavy cream, plus more as needed |
| 2 | cups (240 grams) white whole-wheat flour |
| 2 | tablespoons (14 grams) confectioners’ sugar |
| 3 1/4 | teaspoons (13 grams) baking powder |
| 1 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| 1 | large organic lemon (about 142 grams) |
| 1 1/4 | cups (284 grams) cold heavy cream, plus more as needed |
| 1 | cup (114 grams) confectioners’ sugar |
| 1 | large organic lemon (about 142 grams) |
| 1 | tablespoon heavy cream |
| 1 | pinch flaky salt (optional) |
| 1 | cup (114 grams) confectioners’ sugar |
| 1 | large organic lemon (about 142 grams) |
| 1 | tablespoon heavy cream |
| 1 | pinch flaky salt (optional) |
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Written by: Emma Laperruque
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8 Comments
I have AP and Bread flour.
Can I replace with one of those?
Imagine you got what you wanted in regards to this issue.
How would your life change?
(BTW, she's the author of this recipe and this article)
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