My husband loves scones. He comes from Australia and scones and tea are part of his heritage. So I try to make them for him as they are so much better fresh out of the oven than any you can buy at a store. They are simple and taste best served with whipped cream and jam, or even better, clotted cream.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup currants

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Distribute the butter over the flour mixture. With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. I like to you use my fingers at the end to make sure the butter is evenly distributed. In a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk, egg and vanilla. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour and stir to combine. Add in the currants.

Lightly flour the countertop. Put the dough onto the countertop and with your hands, pat out the dough into a circle about 1 inch thick. Using a circular cutter about 4″ in diameter, cut the scones into circles and place on a baking sheet. Bring up any extra dough and pat it out again and cut more circles. Continue until all the dough has been used. You may have to use the last of the dough to form a small scone at the end by hand.

Bake in the oven for about 18 minutes. Remove the scones from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack. Serve warm with cream and jam, and tea of course.