Buttermilk Scones with Dried Currants

Buttermilk Scones with Dried Currants
Adapted from Once Upon a Tart

Prep time: 10 minutes
Baking time:25-30 minutes

Makes 10 scones

Ingredients:
4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 ½ sticks (20 tbsp) cold, unsalted butter, cut into ¼” pieces
2 large eggs
1 cup cold buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup dried currants

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F/ 200°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Put the dry ingredients in the bowl of the food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse a few of times to combine.

3. Add the chilled butter all at once and run the processor for 15 seconds or so. Switch to pulse and continue pulsing until there are no chunks of butter and the mixture looks like moist crumbs. Be careful not to over mix. Transfer to a large bowl.

4. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and then add the buttermilk and vanilla. Whisk a little more to blend and then add the currants.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and use a wooden spoon to mix it all together. It starts out dry but as the authors say…"don’t give up or add more liquid". It takes a little elbow grease, but it will form a dough. All the flour should be incorporated but it will still come together. They also say to stop as soon as the flour is no longer visible….too much working of the dough is not a good thing.

6. Use a ½ cup measure or your hands to scoop the batter and “plop” it onto the baking sheet (I did pat them together a bit first), leaving 2” between scones.

7. Bake in the center of your oven until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

8. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for a few minutes.

Multigrain Scones

Multigrain Scones
From The Healthy Kitchen

Hands-on time: 5 minutes
Baking time: 15-20 minutes

Makes 10 scones

Ingredients:
1 large egg
½ cup sugar
5 tbsp canola or grapeseed oil
¼ tsp lemon zest
½ cut oatmeal (not instant)
¼ cup wheat bran (I actually used oat bran)
1 ½ cups unbleached white flour (I used ¾ cup whole wheat, ¾ cup unbleached all purpose)
2 tbsp millet (I didn’t have any so I added 2 tbsp sunflower seeds instead)
2 tbsp poppy seeds
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional, but delicious)
½ cup dried blueberries (my addition)
½ cup milk
Zesty Lemon Topping: (I didn’t make any topping and they were very tasty plain)
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)

Directions:
1. Pre heat the oven to 375°F/190°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl whisk the egg, sugar and oil.

3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until a thick dough is formed (mine was crumbly and dry, but don’t worry about it). Add the milk and mix well. The dough will be very firm.

4. Scoop up large spoonfuls of the dough and drop onto the baking sheet leaving about 2” of space between them (10 scones).

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes. The scones should be barely golden and dry. Remove from the oven.

6. Cool on a cake rack for 10 minutes.

If you like sweet topping….mix the lemon juice and sugar with a for until the sugar is melted. Drizzle 1 tbsp over each scone.