Ari’s Pick: Ginger Scones from the Bakehouse

A luscious little bite of buttery baked goodness to brighten your day

Although we’ve been baking these beauties for many years now, they remain a bit of what we call a “Zecret.” Many long-time customers who are well versed in the world of Zingerman’s know them well and love them, but for a first-time visitor, they’re easily missed amidst the vast array of amazing breads and pastries the Bakehouse bakers craft so lovingly every day. They’re in my mind this week because I had a customer stop me the other day to tell me how incredible these are, and her comments reminded me not to take their ginger scone with one bite off to the side and a mug lusciousness for granted. Since we’ve been making the ginger scones for so long, they would be easy to overlook, but that would clearly be a big mistake! The scone dough itself is incredible (as Frank always says, “just enough flour to hold the butter and heavy cream together”)—spiked with spicy cubes of crystallized ginger from the South Pacific (which means they’re dipped into sugar syrup then dusted with coarse sugar crystals).

They’re a really fine pairing with some of the Costa Rica Coffee of the Month right now (more on that soon), or a cup of tea. One little “trick” I stumbled on a while back—slice the scone in half horizontally. Put a bit of butter in a skillet and spread a little on each cut side of the scone as well. When the butter is starting to softly bubble, add the scone and cook for a couple minutes until it gets lightly golden brown. The caramelization makes what is already amazing even more so.

No matter how you eat them, you’ll find they have a wonderful lightness that melts beautifully on your tongue. The ginger is lively but not dominant and the butter is rich but not over the top. Beautifully balanced, comfortably complex, and with a lovely long finish, the ginger scones are the epitome of how we think of “full flavor” here at Zingerman’s. A quick and easy way to add a bit of world-class eating to your day!

Hungry for More?

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Ari Weinzweig
Co-Founding Partner at Zingerman's | + posts

In 1982, Ari Weinzweig, along with his partner Paul Saginaw, founded Zingerman’s Delicatessen with a $20,000 bank loan, a Russian History degree from the University of Michigan, 4 years of experience washing dishes, cooking and managing in restaurant kitchens and chutzpah from his hometown of Chicago. They opened the doors with 2 employees and a small selection of specialty foods and exceptional sandwiches.

Today, Zingerman’s Delicatessen is a nationally renowned food icon and the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has grown to 10 businesses with over 750 employees and over $55 million in annual revenue. Aside from the Delicatessen, these businesses include Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Coffee Company, Creamery, Roadhouse, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Candy Manufactory, Cornman Farms and a Korean restaurant that is scheduled to open in 2016. No two businesses in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses are alike but they all share the same Vision and Guiding Principles and deliver “The Zingerman’s Experience” with passion and commitment.

Besides being the Co-Founding Partner and being actively engaged in some aspect of the day-to-day operations and governance of nearly every business in the Zingerman’s Community, Ari Weinzweig is also a prolific writer. His most recent publications are the first 4 of his 6 book series Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading Series: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business (Part 1), Being a Better Leader (Part 2), Managing Ourselves (Part 3) and the newly-released Part 4, The Power of Beliefs in Business. Earlier books include the Zingerman’s Guides to Giving Great Service, Better Bacon, Good Eating, Good Olive Oil, Good Vinegar and Good Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Ari regularly travels across the country (and world) on behalf of ZingTrain, teaching organizations and businesses about Zingerman’s approach to business. He is a sought-after Keynote speaker, having delivered keynotes for Inc. 500, Microsoft Expo Spring Conference, Great Game of Business Gathering of Games, Positive Business Conference at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the American Cheese Society. Most recently, Ari and Paul Saginaw were invited to address an audience of 50,000 for the University of Michigan 2015 Spring Commencement.

One of Zingerman’s Guiding Principles is being an active part of the community and in 1988, Zingerman’s was instrumental in the founding of Food Gatherers, a food rescue program that delivers over 5 million pounds of food each year to the hungry residents of Washtenaw county. Every year Zingerman’s donates 10% of its previous years profits to local community organizations and non-profits. Ari has served on the board of The Ark, the longest continuously operating folk music venue in America.

Over the decades, the Zingerman’s founding partners have consistently been the recipients of public recognition from a variety of diverse organizations. In April 1995, Ari and Paul were awarded the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County’s first Humanitarian Award. In 2006, Ari was recognized as one of the “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” by the James Beard Foundation. In 2007, Ari and Paul were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appetit magazine for their work in the food industry. Ari was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Cheese Society in 2014. And Ari’s book, Building a Great Business was on Inc. magazine’s list of Best Books for Business Leaders.

Notwithstanding the awards, being engaged on a daily basis in the work of 10 businesses and 21 partners, writing books on business and in-depth articles on food for the Zingerman’s newsletter, Ari finds time to be a voracious reader. He acquires and reads more books than he can find room for. Ari might soon find himself the owner of the largest collection of Anarchist books in Ann Arbor outside the Labadie collection at the University of Michigan library!

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Beverly
Beverly
9 months ago

I wish we had postings of the calorie count of the scones and other items.

Zingerman's Bakehouse Marketing
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Zingerman's Bakehouse Marketing
9 months ago
Reply to  Beverly

Hi Beverly! You can find all of our ingredients and nutritional information on our website.