Scones

An ancient Scottish dish, skons, were probably first cooked on flat stones near the fire. They are baked in modern ovens today and have achieved traditional status. Butter is cut into the flour and the dough is folded several times to make a flaky and layered biscuit. For breakfast or a late afternoon snack, scones are a wonderful choice. This recipe doubles well using 1 egg and 1/3 cup of butter. The recipe calls for cutting the dough into wedges but you can use a biscuit cutter for round or square scones. If you desire, brush each scone with a little bit of beaten egg just before baking for a nice glaze.

• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1½ to 2½ tablespoons milk

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg, beaten

1. Sift together the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder and salt - place in a medium bowl.
2. Keep butter cold! Add to th dry ingredients. Cut in butter using a fork or a pastry tool. Blend until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
3. Add egg and 1 ½ tablespoons milk and mix just until no flour is showing. Use the additional tablespoon of milk as needed. Don’t over mix the dough or the scones wont be flaky.
4. Turn out dough onto a well floured surface and knead 5 or 6 times. Flatten and fold over onto itself. Flatten and fold over 2 or 3 times more.
5. Divide dough in half. Form into two balls. Flatten each ball until it is a ½-inch thick disk. Cut each disk into 4 equal wedges. (I have seen scones made where all the dough is made into a large round and the slices marked out but left in place for baking. I have also had scones that are made in the traditional round biscuit shape. The choice is yours; they all are great.)
6. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet but don’t let the edges of the wedges quite touch. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven fo 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

   Serve warm with jam and, of course, a steaming pot of tea. British friends have told me that if I ever get to England, I will have to go to Devonshire for scones. There they have Devon clotted cream that is heavenly served with scones. They describe clotted cream as a slightly sweet “sour cream” with a hint of vanilla. If you mix 1/4 cup of soour cream with 1 tablespoon powdered sugar and 1/4-teaspoon of vanilla extract, you can make an ersatz clotted cream that hints of what the real thing is like. In England, strawberry jam is traditional with scones.