Scones: My Mother's Recipe

I learned to make scones from my English mother, who learned from her mother. These will not taste like the scones you buy at a coffee shop. They are not as sweet, and not as fatty. Think sweet biscuit, but with a denser consistency.

They are best eaten warm from the oven; they will keep and freeze well, but you definitely will want to warm them a little in a microwave or toaster because they get hard on cooling ("Stones" is what my sons called cold scones!). Like many old-time recipes, these were probably made to keep for longer periods of time without special storage like refrigeration (like fruitcake--made right and sealed in a tin, it can keep for at least a year).

We always made our scones with raisins, but you can vary the recipe with currants, cranberries, and whatever you think might work. Easy to make and delicious warm with real butter!

Scones
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 c. butter
2 c. raisins
enough milk to mix the above ingredients.

Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Add raisins. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender.

Add milk and mix into a dough to about the consistency of biscuit dough. Pat out to about 1" thick on a floured pastry board and cut into squares.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

(My mother rarely measured anything, so her recipes had a lot of "about" and "pinch" and "a bit" in them.)