Scone Recipe

Just because I know some of the #Perlgirls and other Twitter pals will ask, here ya go:
From the Cookbook From Celtic Hearths by Deborah Kranser

Basic recipe: Sweet Milk Scones
2 to 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Salt to taste
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 450 F.  Lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside.
Sift together the flour, soda, cream of tartar, and salt.  Using a pastry bender or you hands, cut in the butter (or pulse in the food processor) until the mixture looks grainy, like coarse crumbs.
(I use the pastry blender.  Food processor makes it too easy to make the dough tough.)
Pour the milk in a well in the center, and mix until a soft elastic dough is formed.
Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface until smooth, and press with the hands or roll the dough into a pad about 3/4 inch thick.  (If you roll it out too thin, the scones won't rise properly.
Cut inot 2 1/2 or 3 - inch rounds using a glass or a cookie cutter, and bake on prepared sheet for about 10 minutes, or until they rise and are golden.


Cream Scones:  Substitute 3/4 cup fresh heavy cream or sour cream for the milk in the basic recipe.  Add 2 eggs to the dough at the same time as the cream.  This rich scone tastes quite different from the basic recipe, and can be used as a base for individual strawberry shortcakes.

(To make my special variation:  Add about 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate morsels and about 1/12 Tablespoons lavender vanilla bean sugar to the dough before you add the cream and eggs. (Or after, if you make a partial batch of each type, as I did this evening.  Even the extra kneading to mix in the sugar and morsels did not make the scones tough.  I was amazed.)