Everybody Let's Get Sconed!

The perfect scone is flaky and creamy, just held together by butter and magic. If I could get my hands on some clotted cream in this here town, I would be eating scones by the dozen, topped with cream and jam.


As it happens I only have butter, but I do have some home-made plum jam from the summer. So scones are allowed. They take about 30 minutes from start to finish, so if you're feeling lazy/pressed for time but still want a treat, this here's your answer.

Today I made two kinds: a plain, cream scone which is nice with tea and jam, and a chive scone for M because he likes oniony things and has a very tiny and furtive sweet tooth.

RECIPE THE FIRST: CREAM SCONES


2 c all purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs sugar
1/4 c + 1 tbs chilled butter, diced
1 c heavy cream

First, mix the first four ingredients well. Then cut in your butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. To cut in butter, you can use two knives or a pastry cutter and just slice through the flour and dough until it's mixed up.

Make a well in the centre and pour in your cream. Here's where things get a little tricky. Not too tricky though - don't give up! Mix the cream into the flour and butter mixture only enough so that you have a shaggy kind of dough. It doesn't have to be perfect, and in fact, should not look perfect unless you want rock hard scones. TOUCH THE DOUGH AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.

Press the dough into a sort of rectangle shape, and cut it into evenly-sized triangles. Mine were about 3" by 4.5" by 5". I'm not sure if that's even possible... Pythagorus? Alternately, you can cut them into rounds with a glass or a biscuit cutter, but you'll lose some dough this way. Don't try to reform it - that falls into the category of too much touching.

Lay the scones out on a baking sheet, ungreased, and put them into an oven which has been preheated to 400ºF. They'll be done after about 10 minutes - very lightly golden on the edges, and milky everywhere else. Also, your kitchen will smell like heaven.


RECIPE THE SECOND: CHIVE SCONES!


Basically it's the same as the above, but with 1 tbs less sugar (so only 1 tbs) and you add in about 3 tbs finely snipped fresh chives with the flour and salt etc before you cut in the butter.

These are seriously amazing. The chive flavour is delicate but definitely present. They would be awesome with some sharp cheddar in there too.