Scones are something I always seem to forget about.  Except that I love ‘em.  I love ‘em plain… or with butter… or with cream… or jam.  I’m not sure why I forget about them.  They’re really pretty easy to throw together, and it only gets a couple of bowls dirty.  And the recipe is so easy to adapt to what you have on hand.  Some dried cranberries and orange zest – lovely!  A handful of cinnamon chips – delicious!  Heck, I didn’t even have enough cream when I made them today, and the recipe still came out heavenly having substituted some skim milk and a little bit of extra butter.  Scones are best served the day they are made, though you could easily freeze some of the wedges before they are baked, and just pull them out to bake as you like!

Cinnamon Chip Cream Scones
from America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook

10 ounces (about 2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup cinnamon chips
1 cup heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.

2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.

3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in cinnamon chips. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Transfer dough to large bowl. Add cinnamon chips.

4. Stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.

5. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to counter top and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form scones by pressing the dough into a floured 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cutting the dough into 8 wedges with either a knife or bench scraper.

6. Place wedges on an ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.