Some people call these tasty biscuits “scones,” to rhyme with “bones.” I prefer to call them scones to rhyme with “prawns.”
I found out today why they are called scones (my way). It must be because as soon as they are out of the oven, someone “absconds” with them.
They are very easy to make if you have a food processor to mix the butter with the flour. The old pastry blender method is just too much work.
I did a post about scones two years ago, which you can visit if you like: https://wordsfromanneli.com/2016/10/31/scones/
Since then I have made many batches of scones and have stopped looking at the recipe.
Some changes?
I only use the baking soda if I add a squeeze of lemon.
I use two eggs if I have them to spare, rather than only one. One time I completely forgot to put the eggs in and they still turned out okay. The biscuit is very forgiving that way.
You can add grated cheese instead of currants. Probably there are a lot of things you could add if you wanted (chopped nuts, dried cranberries, raisins), but preferably not all in one batch.
One thing you don’t want to do is handle the dough too much. It makes the biscuits tougher if you do.
I will repeat the recipe here, but you can substitute and change things without fear of doing too much damage. One change I like is to use a lot of sour cream and less milk, but it depends what’s in the fridge that day.
Scones
All the dry ingredients go into the food processor:
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda (if using a squeeze of lemon for flavour)
3 Tbsp. sugar (optional)
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, or use two eggs, but reserve some of the egg white to mix with a drop of milk for a wash on top of the batter before putting it in the oven. 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 whatever you’ve decided on), and pulse again. You don’t want to mash the dried fruit so this goes in last and is just barely mixed in.
Pat the dough together and flatten it on a buttered cookie sheet. More directions are given in my previous post (use the link given earlier in the post).
Today’s scones baked at 400 degrees for about 26 minutes.
But I still wonder … who absconded with that scone that is missing in the photo?