Traditional Scones

These are scones in the eastern sense of the word--"a small unsweetened or lightly sweetened biscuitlike cake made from flour, fat, and milk, and sometimes having added fruit."

I have had lots of scones in my life and these are the best. Yep, sorry Mum, but they even beat yours. They are light and flakey and buttery. I got this recipe out of a book I have recently fallen in love with called A Taste of America. Ironically, it was written by some British women, but they did some serious homework. Anyway, here's the recipe for Traditional Sweet Scones.

1 1/2 c. flour

2 T. sugar

1 T. baking powder

pinch of salt

5 T. cold butter

1/2 c. milk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease and flour a baking sheet. (I baked mine on my stone and didn't grease or flour.)

2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.

3. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

4. Pour in the milk and stir with a fork to form a soft dough.

5. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. You can stamp out rounds or (what I did, 'cause this is what my mum does) cut into wedges. Place on the sheet, bake until golden, between 10 and 12 minutes. Serve hot or warm with butter, jam, etc. (I cut mine open, Mike doesn't. It doesn't really matter, just different methods.)

Here's a tip: handle the dough as little as possible to get light, flakey scones. I added raisins to mine, another favorite in my family is chopped dates. You can also try blueberries, raspberries, chocolate chips, or just about anything.