Carrie's Scone Recipe
Makes 16-18 scones
3 1/3 cups flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons butter (I use salted Irish Kerrygold)
2 tablespoons natural cane sugar
1 1/3 cups milk*
1 egg, beaten with a little milk
1 teaspoon vanilla (for sweet scones only)
Additional ingredients to mix in (e.g. blueberries, cranberries and orange zest; chocolate chips and walnuts; cheddar cheese and Old Bay; cheddar jack cheese and green chiles)
1. Cut up the butter into cubes and place it in the freezer.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 450 F.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
4. Stir in the sugar.
5. Remove the butter from the freezer and rub it into the mixture, breaking it up with your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs. Be careful not to overwork the butter.
6. Make a well in the flour, pour in the milk (and vanilla, if using) and mix to a soft doughy texture. Add a little milk or flour if the mixture is too dry or too moist, and again be careful not to overwork the dough, particularly if you are mixing in other ingredients.
7. Mix in any additional ingredients. Continue loading in the ingredients until the dough is as full as possible.
8. Roll out dough on a floured surface and use a round cutter to cut out the scones, placing them on parchment paper on a baking tray.
9. Brush the scones with the egg and milk mixture so that they are covered.
10. Bake in the oven for 7-10 minutes until they rise and are slightly browned, then let them cool for 5-10 minutes on the tray, place them on a cooling rack.
*Cream whey (the leftover liquid from making clotted cream) can be substituted for the milk. Use 1 1/2 cups if doing this.
