I've been needing some good cold-weather running gear for years, so I was excited yesterday when my new merino wool socks and quarter-zip base layer arrived. I especially like the base layer, which is soft, breathable, and odor-resistant. It's also black and fits pretty sleekly. In my own mind, it gives me a smoky George Harrison Quiet Beatle loved-him-a-black-turtleneck kinda look. I checked in with Mom seeking some words of affirmation, more specifically, how hot I looked in the new shirt. Mom's response: "Black is a good color on you." Which is not exactly a rejection of my bid but is certainly no better than neutral. Mom subsequently confirmed, as I suspected, that she didn't want to tell me I'm hot in front of our boys, who were quite amused by our exchange.
I, on the other hand, think it sets a great example to show you all that we can still think the other person is hot even after 40+ years together. So, I will now, though not for the first time on UaKS (e.g., episode 60 and episode 240), publicly proclaim my appreciation for your Mom's extreme, one could even say too-hot-to-handle, hotness. Love me do, baby.
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The holiday baking continued on Christmas morning (the day after I made the Pistachio and Cardamom Loaf Cake), though not entirely without incident. This recipe requires either wheat bran or oat bran, which have sharp edges and keep too much gluten from forming when you knead the dough and rework the scraps after you've cut out the first six biscuits. Too much gluten = tough scones/biscuits, which is bad. I knew Mom had bought a new bag of wheat bran for just this purpose, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I checked all the kitchen cupboards twice, as well as the pantry in the basement where Dylan was trying to sleep. I finally gave up and was ready to have a meltdown. Brad offered to go to Food Lion to pick up some wheat bran, but I didn't know if Food Lion would be open on Christmas or stock wheat bran, so I said it wasn't worth it. But Brad checked the downstairs pantry anyway and found the wheat bran hiding somewhere, so he saved the day.
A note on nomenclature: if you're a fan of the Great British Bake Off (or Baking Show in the US), you know that American "biscuits" are British "scones," while British "biscuits" are more like Italian biscotti, hard ("with a good snap," as Paul would say) and meant to be dunked in the afternoon tea, and our scones (my traditional Christmas morning treat) are something else entirely. So, because these are Irish-style scones, I've kept the name from the original recipe but put the "scones" in quotes to convey that they're not what we'd usually think of as scones. Whatever they're called, they're easy, delicious, and a good addition to the weekend breakfast rotation ... as long as you've got a bag of wheat (or oat) bran around to make them.
Irish Whole-Wheat “Scones”
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated (Jan & Feb 2026)
Time: ~55 minutes
235 grams (~1½ cups) whole-wheat flour
140 grams (~1 cup) all-purpose flour
50 grams (~¾ cup) wheat bran (substitute oat bran if you can’t find wheat bran)
20 grams (1½ tablespoons) granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus a pinch
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg (~57 grams still in the shell)
360 grams (1½ cups) cold buttermilk
85 grams (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled some
1. Place a rack in the upper-middle position of the oven; heat to 425 degrees. Line an 18-by-13-inch (half-sheet) baking pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, wheat bran, sugar, baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and baking soda.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and a pinch of salt until homogeneous (no streaks of white). Reserve 1 tablespoon for the egg wash in step 6. Add the buttermilk and whisk to combine. Add the melted butter and stir until the butter forms small clumps.
4. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the large bowl. Using a silicone spatula, stir until the dough forms a ragged mass and all of the flour is moistened.
5. Dump the mass out onto a floured counter. Knead the dough until it's smooth and mostly free of cracks, about 10 to 15 times. Pat gently into an 8-by-6-inch rectangle. Using a floured 2½-inch round cutter, cut out 6 scones, pressing straight down and twisting only at the end to release the scone. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Gather what’s left of the dough and knead gently until mostly crack-free again. Pat gently into a rectangle large enough to cut out 2 more scones. Repeat until you’ve used up just about all of the dough. The original recipe says you’ll get 9 good scones, then pitch the remaining dough, but I used all the dough and made 11 scones, even if the last one was a little wonky.
6. Brush the top of each scone with the reserved egg wash. Bake until the scones are deep golden brown, about 13 minutes, rotating the baking sheet from front to bake after 7 minutes. Transfer the scones to a wire rack and cool for at least 10 minutes before serving with butter and/or jam or whatever else you like.
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