Piping Hot!
Woke up to a gorgeous day; sun beaming through all the kitchen windows, and freezing cold! Perfect for keeping butter from dissolving into the flour mixture in scones. I had these with butter and strawberry jam, and a pot of hot Earl Grey tea, in a sunbeam that had migrated to the living room….much to the cat’s adamant and repeatedly voiced dismay. (You get up to go to the bathroom, you lose your sunbeam; even if you are a cat. She returned the favor when I got up to wash dishes.)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. granulated sugar
2 1⁄2 tsp. baking powder
1⁄4 tsp. salt
4 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 eggs
2⁄3 cup heavy cream
1⁄2 cup dried currants
1 heaping Tbs. raw or coarse sugar
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, (I use ceramic bowls – I found that metalware scratches my nice metal bowls…sigh.) stir together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and, using a pastry cutter cut in the butter until the mixture becomes coarse. Towards the end of this process, I channeled my mother and used my hands; hands crumble butter more finely than the pastry cutter.
In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and cream. Remove 2 Tbsp. of the egg mixture to another bowl to be used separately. Add the majority of the egg mixture to the flour mixture all at once and stir until a sticky dough forms. Quickly stir in the currants just until evenly distributed.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until the dough holds together. Divide into 2 equal portions and pat each portion into a round 1 inch thick and 6 inches in diameter. Cut each round into 4 equal wedges.
Arrange the wedges, 2 inches apart, on parchment/baking sheet. Brush the wedges with the reserved egg mixture and sprinkle with the raw sugar.
Bake until the scones are crusty and golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Mmmmmm....Jam.