I love to have a scone with my tea or coffee. They are small enough to be a tidbit, but big enough to fill the gap when it’s a while before dinner. Having scones on hand makes life easier if someone drops in and you don’t know what to serve as a “little something” with your beverage. Keep them in a ziploc in the freezer, and thaw for a few seconds in the microwave, and you’re all set.

I have a book of many scone recipes. I don’t particularly like any of them so I took the best of each and made up my own version.

All the dry ingredients go into the food processor:

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

3 Tbsp. sugar (which I forgot to put into this batch, but it turned out fine just the same)

Then add about 3/4 cup of butter and pulse the food processor until the butter is cut into the flour mixture evenly.

In a measuring cup, stir an egg with a fork and then add enough milk to make a cup. (At this point I also add, as part of that one cup of liquid, whatever I have on hand – yogurt, sour cream, or a squeeze of lemon or lime – just to get the baking soda working well). You may have to add a drop more liquid if you use sour cream or yogurt.

Pour in the liquid and give it a few pulses, add a handful of currants (or raisins, if you prefer), and pulse again. You don’t want to mash the currants so these go in last and are just barely mixed in.

I dump out the dough onto a lightly floured board and smoosh it together into a rectangular lump. I fold the lump in half, press it down, fold it in half again and press it down, and maybe do it a third time. The main thing is not to knead or handle the dough too much.

Place the square of dough onto a buttered baking sheet and roll it to about 1/2 inch thickness with a rolling pin. Then cut it into about 24 pieces. Notice I use the word “about” a lot. If you want to make the scones come out with a nice glaze on top, this is a good time to brush egg on top. I’m usually too lazy.

The recipes all say 425 degrees for half an hour but I found that this is too hot for too long. “About” 400 for 22 minutes was plenty for this batch, but you have to do what suits your oven’s quirkiness, and watch the time.

Put the finished scones onto a cooling rack and then hurry to get the butter and the blackberry jam you made the other day. Try out your scones and then … try out another … and another. Enjoy.