Simply Delicious Scones!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 egg
  • ½ to ¾ cup heavy cream, more for brushing
  • Parchment paper

Instructions:

  1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the flour, salt, baking powder and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl and combine. Add the butter. I dont have a mixer and used a mixture of two knives and a wooden spoon to mix until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
  2. Add the egg and just enough cream to form a slightly sticky dough. Add a little more flour if its too sticky, but very little; it should still stick a little to your fingers.
  3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead once or twice, then press it into a 3/4-inch-thick circle and cut into 2-inch rounds with a fancy biscuit cutter if you have one but I only had a glass and that works perfectly. Put the rounds on parchment paper on a baking dish. Gently reshape all the leftover dough and cut again. Brush the top of each scone with a bit of cream and sprinkle with a little of the remaining sugar.
  4. Bake for 10-20 minutes, or until the scones are a beautiful golden brown. Serve immediately with clotted cream, I didn’t have any so I used whipped cream and lots of excellent jam.

    * Recipe adapted from Mark Bittman NYT