My latest passion is tea and scones at local(and not so local) tea rooms. My friend Phyllis introduced me to Tea on the Tiber in Ellicott City and I have savored the Thursday afternoon tea at Black Market Bistro with my sister in law, Karen a couple of weeks ago. She is taking me to a great tea room at the Omni William Penn in Pittsburgh at the end of the month. I am practicing for the formal tea at the Savoy Hotel in London in the fall. I have gotten my tea from the Republic of Tea for the last decade, so I feel educated from that viewpoint. But I asked myself could I make scones to go with my tea at home?Here is the recipe I found that made it simple:
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons butter frozen
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
In a medium bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder and soda
Grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture on the large wholes of a box grater
using your hands to work the butter into the mixture until it resembles a coarse meal
In a small bowl, mix sour cream and egg until smooth
using a fork mix the egg and sour cream mixture into the flour/butter mixture
Mix the dough until it comes together into a ball(do not add additional liquid)
Place ball of dough onto a floured surface and form it into a circle about 8 inches in diameter
Cut dough into eight triangles (high school geometry comes into play here )Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper about 2 inches apart
Bake until golden brown about 15 minutes
You can dress these up by adding in lemon zest, raisins, dates or other dried fruits to the batter before the egg and sour cream
