Put the cream and four teabags into a saucepan and heat over medium low heat.
1 ½ cups Whipping Cream
Stir gently while the cream heats up until you start to see tiny bubbles forming on the surface. Remove from the heat and cover with plastic wrap do not remove the teabags, we're going to let them sit in the cream to get all that wonderful tea flavour out. Make sure the plastic is touching the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming
Once it has cooled place in the refrigerator until ready to use. I left mine overnight for maximum tea infusion - but it should be good to use after a few hours if you're in a rush.
Let come back to room temperature shortly before starting to make your scones.
Make the Scones
Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
3 cups Flour, ⅓ cup White Sugar, 1 tablespoon Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon Salt
Cut the butter into small cubes and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour. You can also do this in a food processor if you don't want to get messy. Keep incorporating the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs with some lumps of butter. Flatten the lumps of butter with your hands - this will help the texture of the scones!
1 ½ sticks Butter
Cut open the remaining 2 teabags and pour the dried tea in with the flour/butter. mixture.*
6 Earl Grey Teabags
Remove tea bags from the earl grey cream (or strain out leaves if using loose-leaf). Take 2-3 tablespoons of the earl grey infused cream and set it aside - this will be used to make our glaze later.
Mix the remaining cream with the eggs and vanilla extract.
2 Large Eggs, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix gently, just until everything is combined and a sticky dough forms.
Tip your dough out onto a floured surface and knead a little, just until the dough stops being too sticky to handle.
Form the dough into a circle shape with your hands. Don't make it too flat - we want these to be nice and thick! See images in post for guidance.
Use a bench scraper or knife to cut the circle into 8 even wedges. Place on your baking sheet with a little space between them to allow for slight spreading. Brush with a little eggwash.
Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the scones are lightly browned.
Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before glazing.
Make the Earl Grey Glaze
Melt the butter in the microwave in 30 second increments.
3 tablespoon Butter
Mix butter with icing sugar and vanilla until smooth, add 2 tablespoons of earl grey cream and mix together. Add more cream until the desired consistency is reached. It should be runny enough to dip the scones in, but thick enough to coat the back of a spoon so it won't just run off the sides of the scones. If you have used all the cream and it's still too thick, add a dash of milk.
Dip the scones into the glaze and place back on the baking sheet to set for about 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
*Only add the teabag contents to your dry ingredients if your teabags contain the very finely ground dried tea. If you have loose leaf tea or tea temples, you can either skip this step entirely or grind up the tea leaves in a food processor before adding.If you want the specks of vanilla in your glaze, make sure to use vanilla bean paste rather than vanilla extract.