Some summers ago I had been on one of my first vacations with Mr F in the USA. Our base for exploring Manhattan and surroundings had been just food steps away from the famous Small World Coffee in Princeton, NJ. I still remember the first morning, we just arrived from Germany and I already figured out where I would get my cup of Joe or as I also would call it: the satisfaction for my caffeine addiction. By the way is there help? Not that I need it, I am more than happy with my manic coffee habits. But wouldn’t it be great if there would be a group like the AA like ACDC (Anonymous Coffee Dependents Club). We would meet for donuts and hot chocolate or tea and I would bring secretly my fix in one of those thermos travel mugs and I think I wouldn’t be the only one. Not nice… That would be like bringing lottery scratch tickets to a GAM (Gamblers Anonymous Meeting). I got the solution, it should be a CLC (Coffee Lovers Club) and no one would get hurt.
Back to the cardamon ginger scones and how we first met. So there is me awake in the very (very, very) early morning and jet lag don’t let me fall asleep again. As the Small World Coffee finally opened, I was so ready for a cup of hot coffee and Mr F went down the stair, crossed the Witherspoon street, bought coffee and scones and was back in a minute. He still knows how to calm me down and what I need in the morning and things like: don’t use complicated sentences and skip important topics I still should remember later. One of the basics in happy relationship don’t you think?
And you might have already assumed, Mr F came back with some of the great cardamon ginger scones. In the next weeks of our vacation, we returned regularly for coffee and scones to this place. We used to stop by on our way to the Jersey shore for a day at the beach or the railroad station to catch the train to New York. One of the barista used to welcome us with a friendly “guten Morgen”, no matter what time it was. I liked this coffee place a lot, it has a kind of charm with a brain. I think it’s because it is located just one block away from the Princeton University and you can find students, professors and business people sitting around, reading the NY times and enjoying coffee. The amount of active brain cells is higher than in any other average coffee shop.

cardamon ginger scones
yields 12 scones
Here you can find the original recipe for Small World Coffee’s cardamon ginger scones.

400 g / 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder (aluminum free)
1/2 teaspoon salt
65 g / 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon seeds
110 g / 1/2 cup unsalted cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
240 ml / 1 cup cold milk
1 large egg
55 g / 1/3 cup crystallized ginger, cut into small chunks

for the egg wash:
1 egg
4 tablespoons sugar

Preheat your oven to 200 C / 400 F, grease or line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl or in your food processor mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cardamon.
Add butter, milk, one egg and ginger and mix until just combined or pulse if you use the food processor. Don’t over mix, if you still see little pieces of butter, it’s fine.
Form about 1/3 cup balls or use a ice cream scoop or spread the dough over the baking sheet, sprinkle with some flour, form a rectangle and cut into 12 triangles.
In a small bowl whisk one egg and the sugar for the egg wash and glaze generously over every scone.
Bake 17-20 minutes. Do not over bake, they might dry out.