Scones

My wife has English parents and is a bit of an Anglophile. Pride and Prejudice (the original BBC / Colin Firth version) is on constant re-run at home. We spend more on tea than on coffee. She has a deep love affair with scones and jam. Hence her delicious creations below. It's a very quick recipe.

Sweet-Milk Scones

(from Cooks Illustrated)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1-2 tablespoons granulated sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup whole milk

1. Pre-heat oven to 450*F

2. Mix flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, table salt and granulated sugar in a food processor using the pulse setting.

3. Using the dough knife attachment, mix in the butter until only a few slightly larger butter lumps remain.

4. Pour milk into food processor and pulse until dough starts to gather into a rough ball. The dough is quite dry and crumbly at this point. Turn on a floured work surface.

5. Roll the dough to 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter (lightly greased; we used a 2-inch shape) cut scones out of the rolled dough. Gather and re-roll the dough scraps when you run out of surface area and cut more scones until there's no longer enough dough to roll into a 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick slab.

6. Place the cut-out scones onto a baking sheet. We buttered the tops of half of the scones at this point to see how they would turn out (good result - tops became more crust-like). Cook for 10 to 12 minutes in the oven (or until slightly brown). Serve with tea and jam.

Scone army.

Very delicious and crumbly. Ours ended up being quite small. Would recommend a larger shape (3-4 inch biscuit cutter vs. the 2 inch that we used).