Sunday Scones

Some of my cooking is planned. But often, something comes on a whim.

This morning (maybe it was the time change?) I woke up in the mood for something good for breakfast.

I Googled "scones" and made the first recipe I found. They were sooooo good.


· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 1/3 cup sugar
· 1 teaspoon baking powder
· 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
· 1/2 cup raisins (or dried currants)
· 1/2 cup sour cream
· 1 large egg

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Grate butter into flour mixture on the large holes of a box grater; use your fingers to work in butter (mixture should resemble coarse meal), then stir in raisins.
3. In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and egg until smooth.
4. Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form. Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball. (The dough will be sticky in places, and there may not seem to be enough liquid at first, but as you press, the dough will come together.)
5. Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7- to 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp. of sugar. Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles; place on a cookie sheet (preferably lined with parchment paper), about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.
Cranberry-Orange Scones
Follow the recipe for Simple Scones, adding a generous teaspoon of finely grated orange rind (zest) to the dry ingredients and substituting dried cranberries for the raisins.

Of course, I can rarely stick to a recipe (probably explains why my baking is hit & miss... ), so here is how I changed this one:
I made the Cranberry-Orange scones, but instead of orange rind I added about a Tablespoon of orange marmalade, because that is what I had. I also added the faintest sprinkle of cinnamon.

Oh. my. goodness.
Some warm, buttery, holiday-ish goodness.
I was going to take a picture, but I forgot. And now they're all gone. :)
But you can see a picture here, where I got the recipe.

One great thing about them was they needed no butter or jelly/jam/honey. They were perfect just like they were, fresh & warm from the oven, or sitting out on the counter after church. (Who needs Sunday dinner when you can just have a leftover baked yummy?)

If I was going to make these for more than just us (say...a ladies brunch?) I might try dividing the dough into two lumps, so I would have 16 little scones instead of 8 bigger ones.
Mmm-mm-mm.... they were sooooo good!