Want to know the honest truth? I picked this recipe out because I only needed to buy one ingredient on the list. That’s bad economy frugality for you. And it’s a beautiful thing! Actually, we’ve been wanting to try out a scone recipe for a while, and there’s no time like the present. Scones seem to be a little like cookies in that there’s differing textures from one to the next. Some I’ve seen look more like our Southern, fluffy biscuits, while others are more crumbly in texture, almost like a cookie. These turned out to be the more crumbly kind, but we were pretty pleased with how they turned out. We’ll keep working on a fluffy scone next.

Know how we usually forget to leave something out of the ingredients shot? Something important? Can you guess what it was we forgot this time? Hahaha! We need to make a game out of this somehow. A drinking game comes to mind…

I think my pastry blender has been one of our most-used tools since we started food blogging. Work that butter in!

See that bowl full of wet stuff? Once you’re done cutting in the butter with the dry ingredients, dump that wet stuff in it and, you know, mix it all up.

It then requires a little kneading. It needs to be kneaded. Heehee. Sorry.

We might be a little picky because we decided we didn’t want no wedgie-shaped scones. We wanted round ones. The choice is yours. Do what feels right.

We made a double batch, by the way, and I altered the recipe amounts to reflect that. Honestly, who makes SIX scones, original recipe? You cray-zay.

Mmmm, who’s been smelling all good and making the little food bloggers hungry, hmmm? You’re in trouble now, little scones!

To get the best scone experience in this case, you really need to make some nice tea or coffee, and whip up some fresh, sweetened whipped cream or get out your favorite jam to spread over them. The only thing I might do differently next time is to go for raisins as opposed to currants. Currants are cute little things, and they are tasty, but I think I’d rather have tasted a plumper fruit in there.

Other than that, we were happy with how these came out. Not too sweet, they really make for a nice treat in the morning. Enjoy!

Cinnamon, Pecan, and Currant Cream Scones

adapted from Gourmet, December 1991

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook time: 15-18 minutes Level: Easy Makes: 12-16

• 1/2 cup heavy cream plus additional for brushing the scones
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons sugar plus additional for sprinkling the scones
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
• 2/3 cup pecans, chopped
• 1/2 cup dried currants

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl whisk together the 1/2 cup cream, the egg yolks, and the vanilla. Into a bowl sift together the flour, 6 tablespoons of the sugar, the salt, the baking powder, the baking soda, and the cinnamon, add the butter, and blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Stir in the pecans, the currants, add the cream mixture with a fork until the mixture forms a sticky but manageable dough. Knead the dough gently on a lightly floured surface for 30 seconds, pat it into a 3/4-inch-thick round, and cut it into wedges or use biscuit cutters to make circles. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush them with the additional cream, and sprinkle them with the additional sugar. Bake the scones in the middle of oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until they are golden.

Notes:

You may notice we didn’t use parchment paper, but I do recommend you use it to keep the bottoms of the scones from browning too much. It will also keep your pans clean - no need to wash them. I was unfortunately out of parchment paper. GRUMBLE. If you’re not keen on pecans, try almonds or whatever you prefer. Same for the currants/raisins. Any dried fruit will probably work just fine in these. I might add a tad bit more sugar to these next time. It’s kind of nice that they’re not very sweet, but sometimes I do like scones a little sweeter than these were. I shared these with a few folks at work, and everyone liked them as is, though. We got 16 scones total, with them being about two and a half inches wide. If you chose to cut them out, rework the dough back together, cut more and so on until you’ve used all the dough. The more you handle the dough, the more soft it will get. Just work as quickly as possible and dust your hands with flour to keep dough from sticking if necessary.

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