Scones

Some of you asked for the recipe I used to make scones the other day. I'm happy to oblige! It all started last fall when friends of ours brought us two pots of Cornish clotted cream from England and a couple of boxes of scone mix.

Home made scones from December 2007.

I made scones from the mix and they were good, but we still had cream left over so I decided to try my hand at scones from scratch. It's pretty easy, and the results were, as expected, much tastier than the boxed mix. But if it hadn't been for that mix, I never would have tried! So here we go:

Preheat your oven to 190ºC (375ºF).

In a large bowl, thoroughly blend:

280 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
10 g (2 tsp) baking powder
one pinch (1/8 tsp) salt

Cut into small pieces and cut into the flour mixture:

75 g (1/3 cup) cold unsalted butter

This can be done in the food processor by pulsing the chunks of cold butter in the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Don't over process!

In a small bowl, combine:

120 ml (1/2 cup) heavy cream or milk (or a blend)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture and combine to form a rough dough. Do not over-mix it! If you like, you can also add:

currants or raisins or dried cranberries
at this point.

Knead the dough gently on a lightly floured surface so that it just comes together. Roll it into a circle relatively thick (about 2.5 cm or an inch). Cut the circle into 8 triangular sections and place them on a cookie sheet that's been lined with parchment paper or Silpat.

Glaze the tops of the scones with a mixture of:

1 egg, beaten
1 tblsp milk

Bake for about 15 to 18 minutes until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean. Remove to a rack and allow to cool.