Breakfast Breads: British Currant Scones

By SharonE

I love scones...whether it has heavy cream or milk, lots of butter or little, eggs or no eggs, cold butter or softened butter. Each tastes different. Here's a traditional British recipe that should be embellished with jam and clotted cream after it comes out of the oven. It has a slightly crispy top and bottom and light tender inside.

Ingredients

• 3 cups (15 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (2 1/3 ounces) sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and softened
• 3/4 cup dried currants
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs

Details

Adapted from cooksillustrated.com

Preparation

Step 1

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Pulse flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in food processor until combined, about 5 pulses. Add butter and pulse until fully incorporated and mixture looks like very fine crumbs with no visible butter, about 20 pulses. Transfer mixture to large bowl and stir in currants.

Whisk milk and eggs together in second bowl. Set aside 2 tablespoons milk mixture. Slowly add remaining milk mixture to flour mixture and, using rubber spatula, fold together until almost no dry bits of flour remain. It should be a sticky, wet dough.

Transfer dough to well-floured counter and gather into ball. With floured hands, knead gently until surface is smooth and free of cracks, 20-25 times. Press gently to form disk. Wrap and refrigerate overnight. This will enable a nice rise when you bake it.

Using floured rolling pin, roll disk into 9-inch round, about 1 inch thick. Using floured 2 1/2-inch round cutter, stamp out 8 rounds, recoating cutter with flour if it begins to stick. Arrange scones on prepared sheet. Gather dough scraps, form into ball, and briefly knead gently until surface is smooth. Roll dough to 1-inch thickness and stamp out 4 rounds. Discard remaining dough (it will be tough at this point).

Brush TOPS of scones with reserved milk mixture (getting sides wet will inhibit rise). Sprinkle granulated sugar on top, if desired. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake scones until risen and golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Transfer scones to wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes. You can sprinkle with powdered sugar if you did not add sugar on top before baking. Serve scones warm or at room temperature.

Store any leftovers in the freezer and reheat in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.